LECTURE – Design and Computation Arts Department (Concordia U.) – "Grace McQuilten (Melbourne): Mis-Design"

Announcement:

“Mis-Design: Grace McQuilten

On Wednesday, October 30, the Department of Design and Computation Arts of Concordia University welcomes Grace McQuilten of the School of Culture and Communications at the University of Melbourne, Australia. This lecture is presented in collaboration with the Department of Art History.

Time and Place: October 30, at 5:45PM in Engineering, Computer Science and Visual Arts Integrated Complex (1515 Ste-Catherine St. W.), Room EV 6.720, Sir George Williams Campus.

“Questioning the aesthetic collusion of ‘art’ and ‘design’ is a means by which to investigate the possibilities of critical artistic practices in a planned and commercially conceptualised cultural landscape”

Grace McQuilten is an art historian and curator interested in contemporary art and design and community development. Her book Mis-Design: Art in Consumer Culture (2011, Ashgate) looks at the interconnections between art, design and consumer culture through the practices of Takashi Murakami, Andrea Zittel, Adam Kalkin and Vito Acconci, four contemporary artists who claim to be working in the field of design rather than the traditional art world. McQuilten argues that Zittel, Acconci and Kalkin engage with ‘design’ only to reactivate the critical practice of art and conceives of and affirms a future for art, outside of the art world, as a parasite in the complex beast of late capitalism. In parallel to her academic research, Grace is also the founder and CEO of The Social Studio, a creative social enterprise working with fashion and design to create employment and educational opportunities for young people from refugee backgrounds. In 2011 she curated an exhibition at the Ian Potter Museum of Art entitled Mis-Design. Grace is an Honourary Fellow in the School of Culture and Communications, the University of Melbourne.

For more information on the Concordia University Department of Design and Computation Arts lecture series

(Source: Carmela Cucuzzella, PhD, Assistant Professor, Design and Computation Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts, Concordia University, EV- Engineering, Computer Science – Visual Arts Integrated Complex)