Design Studies: Tasks and Challenges

ABSTRACT

Useful parallels can be drawn between the way an art world has accepted and legitimized new forms of art and the situation where new forms of design are appearing as rapidly as art movements did in the 1960s. But we still do not have within the broad domain of design the sense of a design world. While design's discursive properties may be recognized, it is still expected to achieve an outcome. There is every reason to expect that unprecedented forms of design will continue to emerge as responses to new conditions. Therefore, design studies as it emerges as an interdisciplinary site for design reflection faces numerous challenges. First and foremost, it must find its own subject matter, topics of investigation and methods. Second, it must persuade accomplished scholars in traditional disciplines to participate in building the field; third, it must put forth research that can help clear up the chaos that currently exists in the design domain; and fourth, it must take a lead in shaping design's future in a world of increasing complexity and turbulence.

KEYWORDS:

• design studies
• design world
• art world
• design discourse

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Victor Margolin

Biography

Victor Margolin is Emeritus professor of Design History at the University of Illinois, Chicago. He has published widely on a range of design topics and has lectured in many parts of the world. Books that he has written, edited or co-edited include Design Discourse, Discovering Design, The Idea of Design, The Designed World, The Struggle for Utopia and The Politics of the Artificial. He is currently working on a three-volume World History of Design to be published by Bloomsbury in London.