jan michl : online articles on various design issues in ENGLISH
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The texts below were written
by Jan Michl
[To Michl's texts in Norwegian]
[To Michl's texts in Czech]
: online design texts in english
The modernist idea of architecture
or Please, do not disturb: busy producing art historically correct expressions of the modern epoch.
(A paper presented at the School of Architecture Conference "Fixed?",
at the Plymouth University, UK, in April 2011.)
Unpublished.
2011
E. H. Gombrich's adoption of the formula form follows function:
A case of mistaken identity?
Published in Human Affairs (Bratislava, Slovakia)
2009: 19 (274-288)
A case against the modernist regime in design education
(An expanded version of the the 2007 Cumulus Conference keynote speech below,
now with copious notes and an extensive bibliography.)
Unpublished.
2009
Am I just seeing things - or is the modernist apartheid regime still in place?
(A keynote speech, presented at the 2007 Cumulus Conference in Bratislava, Slovakia.)
Unpublished.
2007
Culinary history versus cookbook:
Does the discipline of art history function as an instruction manual?
(An extended summary of the keynote lecture
at the II. Congress of Czech Art Historians in Prague, Czech Republic, in 2006.)
Unpublished.
2006
Without a godlike designer no designerlike God
On a mistaken, creationist understanding of human artifacts in William Paley, the Intelligent Design proponents,
and their opponents among evolutionary biologists.
(A paper read at the 2006 Design History Society Conference in Delft, Holland.)
Unpublished.
2006
First things first - or OUR things first?
A polemical review of the Design Manifesto First things first 2000.
Published in TYPO (Prague)
2006 (21):7.
[Review of ]
Thomas Dickson,
Designforskning - en international oversigt
Aarhus: Arkitektskolens Forlag, 1992, 205 pages.
Published in Scandinavian Journal of Design History
2004 (14):82-88.
On Seeing Design as Redesign:
An Exploration of a Neglected Problem in Design Education
Published in Scandinavian Journal of Design History
2002 (12): 7-23.
Towards a Disciplinary Identity of the Making Professions:
An Introduction
[Co-written with Halina Dunin-Woyseth]
Published in Towards a Disciplinary Identity of the Making Professions:
The Oslo Millennium Reader"
Edited together with Halina Dunin-Woyseth.
Oslo School of Architecture, Oslo
2001: 1-20 [part of a 1.2 MB pdf file; takes some time to download.]
Institutional Framework Around Successful Art Forms in Communist Czechoslovakia
First part of a project financed by the RSS / Open Society Institute, Prague, Czech Republic,
written 1996, published online by Research Support Scheme E-Library (PDF format) in
1999.
[Review of ]
Marianne Aav and Nina Stritzler-Levine, eds.
Finnish Modern Design: Utopian Ideals and Everyday Realities, 1930-1997.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998, 411 pages.
Published in Scandinavian Journal of Design History
1999 (9):134-39.
[Review of ]
Gunilla Widengren, ed.
Tanken och handen: Konstfack 150 �r.
Stockholm: Page One Publishing, 1994
Published in Scandinavian Journal of Design History [K�benhavn]
1997 (7):149-54.
Norwegian design:
The institutional background
Published in Dictionnaire international des arts appliqu�s et du design de 1880 � nos jours,
edited by Arlette Barr�-Despond, Paris; Edition du Regard,
1996.
Form follows WHAT ?
The modernist notion of function as a carte blanche
Published in 1:50 - Magazine of the Faculty of Architecture & Town Planning
[Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa]
1995 (10/Winter): 31-20.
Taking Taste Seriously:
Peter Lloyd Jones on the Role of Appreciation in Consumerism and Design
[Review article]
Published in Scandinavian Journal of Design History [Copenhagen]
1993 (3): 113-17.
The crisis of the modernist pedagogy
and its (possibly) gratifying consequences for museums of applied art
Published in Scandinavian Journal of Design History [Copenhagen]
1992 (2): 119-22.
[Review of ]
Seppo V�kev�, ed.
Product Semantics '89.
Helsinki: Publications of the University of Industrial Arts UIAH A4, 1990;
Susann Vihma, ed.
Semantic Visions in Design.
Helsinki: Publications of the University of Industrial Arts UIAH A7, 1990
Published in Scandinavian Journal of Design History [Copenhagen]
1992 (2): 123-7.
Why design?
Published in Scandinavian Newsletter [Den Haag]
1991 (6): 3.
Savoy Vase, 1936
by Alvar Aalto
Published in Contemporary Masterworks, ed. C. Naylor.
Chicago and London: St. James Press
1991: 716-17.
On the Rumor of Functional Perfection
Published in Pro Forma [Oslo]
1990-1991 (2):67-81.
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The author's workplace: Arkitektur- og designh�gskolen i Oslo, NorwayLast updated / modified: February 2009