TALK : Women, Writing, Design – Art & Design Salon

Under the magnificent ceiling of The Capitol, we celebrate Women, Writing, Design: the latest edition of the RMIT Design Archives Journal, the authors who contributed to it and the women lauded on the pages within.

^{Image Credit:  Kartell 4970-84 Round Modular Units, 1964-69, (detail), designer Anna Castelli Ferrieri,
Ann Castelli Ferrieri Archives ©Museo Kartell.}

RMIT Culture’s Art & Design Salon brings together journal contributors Hannah Lewi and Laurene Vaughan and co-editors Harriet Edquist and Sarah Teasley to speak about how creative practice crossed with historical inquiry can tell new stories about design, place and creativity, and also coax older, more hidden stories to appear from within the archives.

About the Speakers:

Harriet Edquist is an Australian curator, and Professor of Architectural History in the School of Architecture and Design at RMIT. She has both published widely on and created numerous exhibitions in the field of Australian (in particular, Victorian) architecture, art and design history. Edquist is also member of the Design Research Institute at RMIT University.

Hannah Lewi is Professor of Architecture at Melbourne School of Design (University of Melbourne), and is a Co-Director of the Australian Centre for Architectural History and Urban and Cultural Heritage (ACAHUCH). She is currently vice-chair of DOCOMOMO Australia, and a past President of the Society of Architectural Historians of Australia and New Zealand (SAHANZ). Her research and publications range across 19th and 20th century architecture, art. and cultural history, theoretical inquiries in heritage and conservation, and the innovative use of new media in the representation of our past.

Sarah Teasley is Professor of Design at RMIT. Her publications include Designing Modern Japan (Reaktion, 2022), Design and Society in Modern Japan (journal special issue, 2016) and Global Design History (Routledge, 2011) as well as numerous articles, book chapters, policy papers and creative project reports. She is co-editor of the RMIT Design Archives Journal, and a specialist in social history and design research, particularly concerning gender and Asia-Pacific.

Laurene Vaughan is Professor of Design at RMIT , where she currently serves as Dean in the School of Design. She was the Nierenberg Chair, Distinguished Professor of Design, at Carnegie Mellon University, 2012 – 2013. Internationally recognised as a leader in interdisciplinary and applied design research, her research, leadership and creative practice takes numerous forms. Laurene’s research investigates the interactive and situated nature of cultural production, place, care, and design methods and practices that enable this – both analogue and digital. Her most recent edited collections are Practice Based Design Research and Design as a Practice of Care (2017, 2019, Bloomsbury Academic).

Following the event, all are welcome to continue the discussion in The Capitol's salon