Abstract
The paper develops from the study case of the I.L.E.A./Camberwell Collection. The I.L.E.A./Camberwell Collection comprises about 20,000 design and craft objects chosen by the London County Council and the Inner London Education Authority as examples of “good design”. It circulated in London schools between 1951 and 1976. The paper uses the Collection in order to discuss “handling” as a research methodology with particular relevance to expertise and connoisseurship in design history. It provides an overview of how expertise and connoisseurship diverge in their meaning and scope in the discipline of design history as compared to art history and adjacent disciplines, particularly material culture studies. The discussion also addresses two of my research objectives: one, to construct a history of the I.L.E.A./Camberwell Collection that situates the project of “good design” in its specific chronology and recognises its aesthetic limitations; secondly, to argue that the educational legacy of the I.L.E.A./Camberwell Collection lies in the implementation of “handling”. “Handling” is examined as a multi-faceted research tool: as an aspect of object analysis, as part of the Collection’s unique history, and as a desideratum for the Collection’s future use. Finally, the discussion enlists ontological approaches that aim to argue for the relevance of “handling” as a methodology that unlocks and significantly enhances expertise embedded in the artefact.
Keywords
design history; good design; handling; collection
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/eksig2013.108
Citation
Georgaki, M.(2013) Developing Expertise and Connoisseurship through Handling Objects of ‘Good Design’: the Example of the I.L.E.A./Camberwell Collection, in Nimkulrat, N., Niedderer, K., Evans, M. (eds.), EKSIG 2013: Knowing Inside Out – Experiential Knowledge, Expertise and Connoisseurship, 4–5 July 2013, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/eksig2013.108
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Developing Expertise and Connoisseurship through Handling Objects of ‘Good Design’: the Example of the I.L.E.A./Camberwell Collection
The paper develops from the study case of the I.L.E.A./Camberwell Collection. The I.L.E.A./Camberwell Collection comprises about 20,000 design and craft objects chosen by the London County Council and the Inner London Education Authority as examples of “good design”. It circulated in London schools between 1951 and 1976. The paper uses the Collection in order to discuss “handling” as a research methodology with particular relevance to expertise and connoisseurship in design history. It provides an overview of how expertise and connoisseurship diverge in their meaning and scope in the discipline of design history as compared to art history and adjacent disciplines, particularly material culture studies. The discussion also addresses two of my research objectives: one, to construct a history of the I.L.E.A./Camberwell Collection that situates the project of “good design” in its specific chronology and recognises its aesthetic limitations; secondly, to argue that the educational legacy of the I.L.E.A./Camberwell Collection lies in the implementation of “handling”. “Handling” is examined as a multi-faceted research tool: as an aspect of object analysis, as part of the Collection’s unique history, and as a desideratum for the Collection’s future use. Finally, the discussion enlists ontological approaches that aim to argue for the relevance of “handling” as a methodology that unlocks and significantly enhances expertise embedded in the artefact.