F2021
WORTH: 25%
Design History Timeline Project
Template will be provided on D2L
Traditional academic design history courses and material can be quite limited in focus looking at history as a survey with a focus on key objects and movements and memorization of dates. History of design texts have been criticized for being too linear and for having a lack of depth. Considering who decides what is historically and culturally significant, texts tend to focus on aesthetic and monetary value, often overlooking the complexity of social, cultural and situational influences. Traditional design timelines often focus on European, American, and only select points of Asian and Scandinavian design history, overlooking parallel but also significant design histories in other countries. The only countries consistently on the traditional design timeline are England, France and the United States. Traditional timelines tend to focus on larger movements, leaving out smaller but just as impactful design movements.
Assignment
Students will choose a country that does not appear within traditional design research and also select a 100-year period to examine. You will choose a specific country, like Denmark, or an overall region if the design within this region has been consistent, like Scandinavia. The culture or region you choose should be one with a rich design history that may be overlooked in the traditional survey style timeline. You also want to verify that you can locate appropriate sources for this assignment.
You will then research the design history of that country within the 100-year period and identify 3 key moments or events that occurred within your chosen 100 years that changed design. Was there a war? A change in politics, a design movement, a natural disaster? Your events can overlap your 100-year period, but they need to have happened within it. Consider each event and how did it change design in general and specifically. For each impactful moment you should be addressing how design was changed overall from this event and give 1-2 specific examples to support this. For the assignment you are researching design history, not art history. You can look at art history from the region for guidance, but if you are looking at art history for research purposes it needs to be connected back to design. Be sure your discussion focuses on changes within design within that 100-year period. You cannot choose England, France, or the United States for your country as these countries regularly appear on the design timeline. If you choose a country that appears sporadically, be sure that you are not choosing a 100-year period that is regularly studied. For example, If I choose Greece, I will not choose the classical period and look at architecture and columns as this appears in every traditional design history. But I could choose Greece and look at the impact of World War 2 as one of my events within a 100-year period. This is a time in Greece’s design history that would be overlooked on the design timeline.
Assignment Process
Students will format the assignment using the provided template and the guiding questions to develop their research. Fill in the alternate timeline, identifying the beginning and the end of your 100 years, the name of your country or region and 3 major events or impactful moment that altered this timeline. For the written component students will
• Use the template and headings provided to format your work
• Introduce the alternate timeline- why do you think it was overlooked, why did you choose it, what in your opinion makes it a significant design timeline (1-3 paragraphs)
• identify the 3 impactful moments and how they altered design movements on this timeline. What happened? Why was it significant? How did it alter aesthetics and principles of design in your timeline? (minimum of 1 paragraph per event)
• Include a minimum of 2-3 academic sources
• Fill in the visual timeline identifying your 100-year period and 3 impactful moments
• References should be properly cited in MLA
• All research must be cited using in-text citations. Plagiarism will result in a zero. Your work will go through Turnitin for a plagiarism check. If your Turnitin score is close to 20% or above it, check your similarity report and fix your submission before the deadline.
• Plagiarism includes self- plagiarism, you cannot reuse research from assignments for other classes.
