Now is the time #4: Design

Lectures by Rick Poynor & Camiel van Winkel

27 Nov 2008

All is design. For several years now the primacy of design has generated intense discussion in the art world, now even more so as it has become the darling of a government that holds it as the standard for everyone in the art world. Design succeeds where art fails in the crossover with society at large. It is appreciated by a broad public. Yet one could claim that the degree of integration with the market also undermines its artistic autonomy. No wonder design is coming increasingly under fire, notably for its lack of true engagement with society.
How do we redefine the current relationship between design, art and mass culture? What different strategies do artists and designers apply to penetrate our social awareness?

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Now is the Time! -

Speakers

Rick Poynor (UK) is a writer and expert on graphic design, typography and visual culture and one of the founders of Eye magazine. Poynor’s publications include Obey the Giant: Life in the Image World (2001) and No More Rules (2003). In 2004 Poynor curated the exhibition Communication: Independent British Graphic Design at the Barbican Art Centre, London.
Camiel van Winkel (NL) is Lecturer in Visual Art at the Academy for Art and Design St. Joost in Den Bosch, and teaches art theory at Sint Lukas School of Arts in Brussels. He regularly contributes to art magazines and catalogues and published Moderne Leegte (1999) and The Regime of Visibility (2005).

Moderator

Peter Rijntjes (NL) is interim director of the Graphic Design Museum in Breda.


Now is the Time: Art and Theory in the 21st Century is a series of seven lecture evenings dedicated to seven themes that encircle the complex arena in which the arts of the new millennium are situated. Socially engaged themes like 9/11, globalisation and the turn to religion of our contemporary society are juxta­posed with subjects that are more directly related to art, such as the return of Romanticism, the primacy of design and the status of the artwork in what is referred to as ‘the postmedium condition’.

Now is the Time is a collaboration between:
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam,
University of Amsterdam, W139,
SMBA and METROPOLIS M

Location:
Oude Lutherse Kerk, Auditorium of the University of Amsterdam
Singel 411 (Corner Spui)
1012 WN Amsterdam

Lecture Hours:
8 p.m. – 10.30 p.m.
doors open at 7.30 p.m.

Go to the Now is the Time website for reservations