Overview

This seminar unit will address the history of industrial design activity in Australia. The unit starts with an overview of Australian designers’ participation at recent world expos beginning with 'Shanghai 2010', before investigating the field’s historical antecedents in the Industrial Revolution. The suburban home is selected as a site to explore industrial design practice, the consumption of designed products and their contribution to notions of home, family and gender roles. The learning objectives of the unit provide students with a deep understanding of the practice of industrial design across time and space, and as a form of cultural production.

Requisites

Teaching Periods
Location
Start and end dates
Last self-enrolment date
Census date
Last withdraw without fail date
Results released date
Semester 1
Location
Hawthorn
Start and end dates
26-February-2024
26-May-2024
Last self-enrolment date
10-March-2024
Census date
31-March-2024
Last withdraw without fail date
12-April-2024
Results released date
02-July-2024

Learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:

  • Articulate design history as a field between academic history and design practice
  • Trace the development and evolution of design history in Australia and selected international sources
  • Explore the historical responsibilities of designing for and with people and the environment
  • Understand a material culture approach to design history based on archival research and critical analysis of artefacts

Teaching methods

Hawthorn Online

Type Hours per week Number of weeks Total (number of hours)
Online Contact (Phasing out)
Online Class
1.00 12 weeks 12
Online Contact (Phasing out)
Online Class
2.00 12 weeks 24
Specified Learning Activities (Phasing out)
Various
4.58 12 weeks 55
Unspecified Learning Activities (Phasing out)
Independent Learning
4.92 12 weeks 59
TOTAL150

Assessment

Type Task Weighting ULO's
Exhibition ReviewIndividual 40% 1,2,3,4 
Research ProjectIndividual 40% 1,2,3,4 
Weekly written online responsesIndividual 20% 1,2,3,4 

Content

  • The suburban home as a site to explore industrial design practice and consumption
  • Australian design at world expos from 2010 Shanghai back to 1851 London and the Industrial Revolution
  • The evolution of design history in Australia and its responses to other national and world design histories

Study resources

Reading materials

A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.