During the Salone del Mobile, I was asked to participate in the Design Academy Eindhoven's Milan talks. As a veteran of the discussion series, now in its fourth year, it was wonderful to join the tea talk on "Mastering the Art of Design Writing and Curating" with Jan Boelen, Rianne Makkink, and Justin McGuirk in anticipation of DAE's new master's course in the very same subject.


I always feel somewhat conflicted about the field of design writing since I came into it in a rather organic (even happenstance) way. Now that the subject is becoming codified by the Design Academy as a master's degree in its own right, I found this an important opportunity to raise some questions about how the course will develop.

While design journalism grows every year, the question of the quality of criticism increases in relevance: will the writers of the future be trained with any regard to a classic pedagogy of critique, or will they be tasked with creating their own tactics at the same time as they develop an individual perspective on material culture? In this respect, it was very interesting to hear how Justin's career has developed from a traditional art history education, in contrast to my more ad-hoc assembly of influences and references.


As the moderator, Tracy Metz did an admirable job of involving members of the audience, such as my former mentor Jan Konings (who curated the Self Unself show on display in Lambretto Art Project), in the discussion, creating a dynamic flow between the main speakers and other contributors.

Read a recap of the event by Danielle Arets for the Design Academy here.