PAST IMPERFECT: DESIGN HISTORY IN IRELAND

In assessing Design History in Ireland, it is necessary to trace its origins. As a specific area of study, it is relatively new. It grew mainly out of the changes in British Art and Design education in the 1960s, particularly the upheavals of 1968, with attendant demands for ‘relevant' instruction leading to a belief in the right of designers to study the history of their own studio specialism. As such, in its early years, History of Design tended to be evaluative and inspirational.

This teaching of the subject in art colleges was succeeded by the establishment of undergraduate courses in Design History, pioneered by the department of Art History in the Faculty of Art and Design in Brighton Polytechnic and Middlesex Polytechnic, where the first postgraduate course in the subject was established. It is currently studied at many levels in Britain: within secondary education, as an element of the education of designers, and at BA and postgraduate level [1].

It was from Middlesex that the influential journal BLOCK (1979-1989) was published. In the BLOCK reader in visual culture, the authors explain that part of their original intention was to counter prevailing versions of design writing, which, they felt, had "adopted untransformed art historical notions of univocal authorship, inherent meaning and received hierarchies of value" [2].

If design historians were concerned with production, individual designers and aesthetic significance at one time, their focus now has largely shifted to material culture (generally mass-produced objects) in a broader sense, the value and significance of which is produced by dominant codes of consumption.

While self-defined as a specific field of academic enquiry, with the attendant apparatus of associations (the Design History Society), conferences and journals (such as the Design History Journal and Things), design historians have made fruitful use of many other academic areas, such as Anthropology (particularly Material Culture Studies), Economic and Technological History, and Media and Cultural Studies.

In Ireland, where Art Education has tended to follow a British model, the subject has mostly been studied and taught in art colleges. The National College of Art and Design was the first to introduce it, and is still the only institution in Ireland where it is possible to study Design History in depth. This is in the joint-honours course, where students may elect to study for a BA which is 50% studio practice, and 50% History of Art and Design. NCAD is also where the majority of students carrying out postgraduate work in History of Design are registered. While there are plans to introduce a taught MA course, run jointly by NCAD and UCD in general, the only opportunity for studying History of Design at undergraduate level is if a student is also studying Design practice. The final-year thesis, typical of most Design degrees in Ireland, is the only vehicle for students to carry out in-depth design-historical research [3].

While it is undoubtedly essential for Design students to be able to place their own practice within an historically and critically informed context, this aspect of their education is completely ignored in a recent major report: Opportunities in Design: Strategies for Growth in the Irish Design Sector, published by Enterprise Ireland and launched in June of this year. It notes that, as reported by those educating future designers, one of the major weaknesses which exists in Irish design education is that Design is not included on either primary- or secondary-level curricula [4].

The new proposed Leaving Certificate Art Course has just two elements related to design: one practice-based (a Visual Communications option in the second year of their course), the other within Section D, "the History of Art." This is divided into two units. Unit 7, Visual Perception and Technical Language, exhibits the bias towards Fine Art which runs throughout the curriculum [5].

Unit 8, Three Study Areas, is divided into three categories, students choosing one subject from each. Twentieth-century design is one of five options in Category Three. This is rather oddly defined as "design issues (including architecture) as they were formulated at the time of the Bauhaus." It also states that consideration will be given to what is termed "traditions" such as art nouveau, gothic revival, etc., that preceded this era, and the impact of modernist design following World War II.

While it is not made explicit what is meant by "design issues as formulated at the time of the Bauhaus," this may be due to the awkward way it is expressed. It most probably relates to modernism, in contrast to the option on twentieth-century art, which includes contemporary practices. This concept of twentieth century design seems exceptionally narrow, and based on a canon which has largely been superseded [6].

As more students study Design rather than Fine Art at third level, the excessive emphasis on art rather than design at this level must be questioned. The low level of engagement with design history in Irish education can be placed within the context of the media, museums and, generally, perceptions of what constitutes Irish culture [7].

It has been noted many times that Irish cultural historians rarely explore visual culture. In the case of design, this is even more extreme. What Irish writing exists on design seems primarily based on ideas of canonicity, with past Irish design deemed significant to the degree that it relates to a paradigmatic lineage of design ‘movements'. While at least this literature exists, it has tended to be evaluative of the aesthetic significance of Irish design, and so has not fully addressed the extent to which material culture has actually had a role in everyday life, and the way it both communicates and constitutes meaning at a fundamental level.

There are, of course, exceptions to this, for example Jeanne Sheehy's broad and inclusive The Rediscovery of Ireland's Past: the Celtic Revival 1830-1930 (Thames and Hudson, 1980). In general, studies have tended to focus on self-consciously political uses of material culture, such as work done on Northern Ireland. A good recent example of this type of work is Neil Jarman's Material Conflicts: Parades and Visual Displays in Northern Ireland (Berg, 1997), in which the author writes from an anthropological perspective, and directly addresses the role of material culture in the performance of identity.

A fundamental part of the problem with trying to establish a definite field of Irish design history is difficulties with access to archival material in institutions such as the National Museum; or semi-state bodies such as Aer Lingus, about which there have been particular worries raised in the Dáil, as they are not covered under the National Archives Act.

One resource which is fully accessible, and may be a useful starting point for researchers, is the National Visual Arts Library housed in the National College of Art and Design, formally established in 1997. In addition to material on fine art, it has a craft and a design section. This includes material relating to design awards and exhibitions, associations and groups, and various fields such as typography, fashion and industrial design. It has a good collection of material from An Bord Trachtála, some material relating to specific individuals, such as the Dutch graphic designer Jean de Fouw, and a small collection of posters (such as early Aer Lingus publicity material).

The problems outlined earlier can obviously be related to the way culture has traditionally been narrowly defined in Ireland, and the way scholarship, as Declan Kiberd has pointed out, has tended to be structured around "an extraordinarily insulated set of disciplinary activities" [8]. Thankfully, recent years have seen scholars more alert to popular culture and the potential of inter-disciplinary study. This has tended to be within literature, but has included film, television and visual culture.

A general account of everyday, demotic Irish material culture has yet to be written. Without this, it is difficult for those who do get to study Design History to do so within their own terms of reference. With Irish literary historians looking to eclectic, more popular sources in their study of the writing of the past, hopefully the field of Irish cultural studies will be extended to include the history of our material culture.

[1] This is either singularly, or as a component of inter-disciplinary courses.
[2] J. Bird et al (eds.), The BLOCK reader in Visual Culture, London: Routledge, 1996, p. 131
[3] Examples of NCAD students' work on History of Art and Design can be found in the Thoughtlines series of anthologies of student research published by NCAD.
[4] Enterprise Ireland, Opportunities in Design: Strategies for Growth in the Irish Design Sector, Dublin, 1999, p. 92
[5] It stipulates that students should study original works of art, understand technical terms and experience different approaches to art encountered in the various historical periods.
[6] Obviously the opening of the National Museum's branch at Collins Barracks, Dublin, is to be welcomed.
[7] See, for example, Jonathan Woodham, Twentieth-Century Design, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 29-33
[8] Declan Kiberd, Inventing Ireland: the Literature of the Modern Nation, London: Jonathan Cape, 1995, p. 646

Lisa Godson graduated from the Victoria and Albert Museum/Royal College of Art with an MA in History of Design in 1998; she currently lectures in the History of Art and Design at the Dublin Institute of Technology.