Design Criticism: Alive and Kicking!
Wednesday 18 December
16.30–17.30, Designhuis

This lecture by Alice Twemlow dives into the notion that the venues for design criticism in the shape of newspaper and magazine columns are few and far between and most design critics are not paid enough to make a living solely as writers. There are instances, in the latter half of the twentieth century, when design criticism was valued economically and culturally, when publications gave space and salaries to design critics, and framed their work as such. But, for the most part, design criticism, has always been a dispersed and fugitive enterprise, inhabiting the interstices between the media’s subject silos, and, beyond publishing, shaping the approaches, activity and output of museums, institutions, professional associations, schools, publishing, research, and retail.
Although many consider design criticism’s dematerialization as a defined and largely textual entity as evidence of its identity crisis or demise, in fact, design criticism’s absorption into the fabric of cultural criticism broadly writ might be seen as an indicator of its maturation.

Reserve a seat at: designdebates.nl