Design Critics

Code:

CD211

Acronym:

CD

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
CNAEF	Arts

Instance: 2022/2023 - 1S

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Design
Course/CS Responsible:	Communication Design

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
DC	49	Plano Oficial do ano letivo 2017	3	-	3	30	81

Teaching language

Portuguese

Objectives

At the end of this UC students should know:
- The theoretical, practical and institutional framework of design criticism.
- Current trends in design criticism.
- The history of design criticism.
- Produce, analyze and evaluate design criticism.

 

Learning outcomes and competences

 It is expected that the student knows fluently trends and the history of criticism of the design as well as their methodologies, managing to apply this knowledge in a dynamic way as a designer, researcher, editor or commissioner.

Working method

Presencial

Program

The program is defined by three parts ordered in order to highlight the present moment and its context.

1. The State of the Art:

- Introduction: the design discourse – truth and misinformation.
- The institutionalization of design criticism; design criticism and curatorship.
- The New Underground Modernism (Dot Dot Dot, F.R. David, Bulletins of the Serving Library; editing and writing on design).
- Critical design, design fiction (Modes of Criticism).
- Decolonize Design, identity politics, #metoo, LGBT + , queer and feminist criticism.

2. The history and functions of criticism

- The role of critical discourse.
- Brief history of modern criticism (art, literature).
- The beginnings. Design as criticism: John Ruskin (Seven Lamps, William Morris, Walter Crane).
- Modern criticism. Adolf Loos, (Ornament and Crime), functionalism (Louis H. Sullivan), the Bauhaus.
- Formalism and design (the Swiss, Ulm and basel, Paul Rand).
- Pop criticism.
- Postmodern criticism.
- The Designer as an Author.

3. Critical group essay (accompanied by tutoring).

Mandatory literature

Houston Kerr; An Introduction to Art Criticism, Pearson Education, 2012. ISBN: 9780205835942
Johanna Drucker, Emily McVarish; Graphic Design: a Critical Guide, Pearson Prentice hall, 2009. ISBN: 9780132410755
Frankfurt Harry K. ; On Bullshit, Princeton University Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780691122946
Said Edward W; Representations of the Intellectual, Random House, 1996. ISBN: 9780679761273
Gramsci Antonio; Prison Notebooks, Columbia University Press, 2011. ISBN: 9780231157551
Eagleton; The Function of Criticism, Verso Books, 2006. ISBN: 9781844670550
AA VV; Looking Closer: Bk. 4 : Critical Writings on Graphic Design, Allworth Press,U.S., 2002. ISBN: 9781581152357
Alice Twemlow; Sifting the Trash A History of Design Criticism, Mit Press, 2017. ISBN: 9780262035989

Teaching methods and learning activities

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation with final exam

Assessment Components

Designation	Weight (%)
Exame	50,00
Trabalho escrito	50,00
Total:	100,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

Designation	Time (hours)
Estudo autónomo	49,00
Frequência das aulas	30,00
Trabalho escrito	2,00
Total:	81,00

Eligibility for exams

Calculation formula of final grade

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

Exam

Classification improvement

Exam

Observations