School of Visual Arts MFA Design Criticism Lecture Series

The School of Visual Arts announced its Spring 2009 Design Criticism Lecture Series. All lectures are free and open to the public.

The new MFA in Design Criticism at the School of Visual Arts is also accepting applications for Fall 2009. This innovative two-year program trains students to research, analyze, and evaluate design and its social and environmental implications. Study with some of the best design writers and thinkers of our time, including: "Studio 360" host and author Kurt Andersen; MoMA's design curator Paola Antonelli; Pentagram partner and co-founder of Design Observer, Michael Bierut; former editor of I.D. Magazine Ralph Caplan; Metropolis contributing editor Karrie Jacobs; and architecture critic Philip Nobel.

February 24
David Reinfurt
The First Rule is Always Production, Never Documentation. The Second Rule is There Are No Rules.
David Reinfurt is an independent graphic designer, writer and critic. Founder of the flexible graphic design practice O-R-G inc., Reinfurt edits and designs the publication Dot Dot Dot with graphic designer Stuart Bailey. Together they run Dexter Sinister, a "just-in-time workshop & occasional bookstore" located in a basement on New York's Lower East Side, which also publishes and distributes other printed works on design, art and theory.

March 17
Chandler Burr
Invisible Design: The Structure of Scents
Chandler Burr is The New York Times' perfume critic. He is the author of The Perfect Scent: A Year Inside the Perfume Industry in Paris & New York (2008) and The Emperor of Scent (2003). Burr has also written for Fortune, The New York Times Magazine, Gourmet, Food & Wine, Conde Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure, and US News & World Report, where he was a contributing editor.

March 24
Laura Kurgan
Mapping Justice
Laura Kurgan teaches architecture at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, where she is director of Visual Studies and the director of the Spatial Information Design Lab (SIDL). Her work blends academic architectural research with design, information, communication, advocacy and public work.
*Please note that this lecture starts at 6:30 p.m.

March 31
Andrew Rumbach
Only by the Grace of God: The Political Ecology of Urban Disasters
Andrew Rumbach is a PhD candidate in City and Regional Planning at Cornell University. His research interests include urban flood vulnerability, the use of satellite imagery in hazards research, and the role that urban planners might play in the mitigation of natural disasters. Recently, he has worked on neighborhood recovery plans for the Ninth and Lower Ninth Wards of New Orleans following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

April 3
Natalie Jeremijenko
Critical Engagment: Re-Imagining our Relationship to Natural Systems and Material Culture
Natalie Jeremijenko is an artist and experimenter who uses contemporary scientific knowledge and technical resources to redesign socio-ecological systems. She is currently the New York Prize Fellow at Van Alen Institutes, and directs a network of Environmental Health Clinics. She is an associate professor in Visual Art at NYU, and affiliated faculty in Computer Science and Environmental Studies. Her work has been exhibited widely, from the Whitney and the Cooper-Hewitt to MASS MoCA.
*Please note that this lecture takes place on a Friday

April 7
Michael Rock
Superficiality: Dematerialization and Branded Surfaces
Michael Rock is a partner in 2x4, Inc. in New York, director of the Graphic Architecture Project at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, and adjunct professor of Design at the Yale School of Art. Working from offices in New York and Beijing, 2x4 projects range from collaborations with architects, artists and writers to branding for cultural and commercial organizations from Harvard to Prada.

April 14
Geoff Manaugh
Designing the Post-Terrestrial
Geoff Manaugh is the author of BLDGBLOG, a blog that speculates on architecture, urbanism and landscape, and senior editor of Dwell magazine. He has been called "the world's greatest living practitioner of 'architecture fiction'" by Bruce Sterling and one of the 50 "most influential architects, designers and thinkers" in the field today by Icon magazine. The BLDGBLOG Book is forthcoming in summer 2009 from Chronicle Books.

April 28
Spyros Papapetros
Figure and Frame in German Architecture and Film: From Mies to Murnau
Spyros Papapetros is an assistant professor in the School of Architecture and member of the Program in Media and Modernity at Princeton University where he teaches architectural history, theory, and criticism, as well as the relationship between architecture and the visual arts. He has published articles in Grey Room, The Oxford Art Journal and JSAH, among others.

May 5
Julie V. Iovine
The Difference between Newsworthy and New: Reporting and Criticism in the Architectural Press
Julie V. Iovine is executive editor of Architect's Newspaper, a fortnightly newspaper serving the architecture and design community. With over a decade of experience as an architecture and design reporter, editor and critic at The New York Times and New York Times Magazine, Iovine also writes for a wide range of publications including Architectural Digest (Germany), Art Review (UK), Art & Auction, Architectural Record, ID, Interior Design, Elle Decor and Town & Country.

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