Abstract

In 2008, I published a paper an article with the aim of integrating the literature and practices of archives and archivists with discourse of the archive in art, at a time when the concept of the archive is at both more widely known and less fixed in its meaning. Reflecting on ways in which art history and practice have embraced the archive over the intervening years, the present article speculates on the place of the archive in design history today. What was the archive doing for art then, and what is its potential for designers and design historians today? Such work is presented as a contribution to, and an argument for, a truly interdisciplinary literature and practice of the design archive, that benefits from richer understandings of, and engagement with, critical archival studies alongside design history and practice. Finally, I share research at the University of Brighton Design Archives, Global Archival Cultures of Design, which puts some of these ideas into practice, investigating different contexts and imperatives that are producing archives of design around the world, and the questions that these raise when viewed with a critical archival studies lens.
Original languageEnglish
JournalZhuangshi, the Chinese Journal of Design
Issue number375
Publication statusPublished - 15 Jul 2024

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