Abstract
How can design museums be disentangled from systems like patriarchy, so that they become able to support change towards more justice? To explore this question, we use our standpoint as design researchers in combination with a feminist perspective. Historically, most design museums supported a path of progress which supposedly leads straight from the past into the future. Even though today attempts to change design museums can be observed, criteria for good design and methods for collecting and exhibiting mainly stay unchanged. However, when questioning them, it becomes clear that they were shaped by a white, male, imperialist perspective. Through shifting focus and leaving the well-trodden path, we identify three possible paths toward envisioning what we call alternative design museums that might contribute to the bigger struggle for changing the design discipline, and shaping a more just world.
Keywords
design justice, feminism, design museums, systems
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2022.212
Citation
Neidhardt, A., Wiltse, H., and Croon, A. (2022) Beyond progress: Exploring alternative trajectories for design museums, in Lockton, D., Lenzi, S., Hekkert, P., Oak, A., Sádaba, J., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2022: Bilbao, 25 June - 3 July, Bilbao, Spain. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2022.212
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Conference Track
Research Paper
Included in
Beyond progress: Exploring alternative trajectories for design museums
How can design museums be disentangled from systems like patriarchy, so that they become able to support change towards more justice? To explore this question, we use our standpoint as design researchers in combination with a feminist perspective. Historically, most design museums supported a path of progress which supposedly leads straight from the past into the future. Even though today attempts to change design museums can be observed, criteria for good design and methods for collecting and exhibiting mainly stay unchanged. However, when questioning them, it becomes clear that they were shaped by a white, male, imperialist perspective. Through shifting focus and leaving the well-trodden path, we identify three possible paths toward envisioning what we call alternative design museums that might contribute to the bigger struggle for changing the design discipline, and shaping a more just world.