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Journal of Design History 1998 11(3):191-199; doi:10.1093/jdh/11.3.191
© 1998 by Design History Society
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Material Virtues: On the Ideal and the Real in Design History

JEFFREY L. MEIKLE

The University of Texas at Austin USA


  Abstract

On the twentieth anniversary of the Design History Society, the author reflects on DHS's influence, on design history's slow development in the United States, and on his own difficult shift from a literary perspective towards greater awareness of design's materiality After noting that the production side of design is relatively easy to research, the author discusses some of the difficulties involved in the historical investigation of the reception of design by consumers, most notably the danger of projecting one's own interpretations into the past In conclusion Nicholson Baker's novel The Mezzanine is presented as a stimulus to pondering how to think about the meanings of material things in everyday life

Key Words: Baker • Nicholson • consumption design education • design history • Design History Society • product design


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