2009 Objectspace Lectures

All Lectures: 6.15pm at AUT Lecture Theatre WS 114.

 S Block, St Paul Street. (Just along from St Paul St Gallery)

Tradition: why does it matter? – Wednesday 12 August – Scott Chamberlin

Scott Chamberlin will lead a ‘conversation’ on tradition and hybridity and discuss the value of tradition, changes in tradition and consider the questions “When is practicing a tradition an excuse for not thinking?” and ”What is the value of hybridized traditions?”. In discussing these questions he will reference topiary and his own sculptural practice.   

Scott Chamberlin is Professor of Ceramics at the respected Ceramics Program at the University of Colorado. He is currently an Artist in Residence at Unitec and the selector for the 2009 Portage Ceramics Award.

Defining design 1907-1967: inventing a political economy of design  – Wednesday  19 August – Christopher Thompson

This talk looks at the emergence of design as an economic and political issue and argues that the reason the discourse of design, and more specifically modernist design, emerged in the twentieth century was because of the way it was employed by the state as a mechanism to increase productivity and engender trade.

Dr Christopher Thompson is a design historian. His PhD (Brighton) explored the invention of industrial design councils in Great Britain and New Zealand. Earlier research has investigated the political economy of ceramic production in New Zealand. In 2008 he was contributor to Objectspace’s publication Clay Economies