Priscila Lena Farias / Anna Calvera Marcos da Costa ... - Blucher

Antipodean Design Science: applied home
WAITE, Noel / PhD / University of Otago / New Zealand
Design history / education / applied sciences / design studies /
home science
This paper examines the history of design education at the
University of Otago, 1911-2011. Design in Home Science was
pedagogically radical in New Zealand because it was part of an
interdisciplinary applied sciences programme developed for
women and centred on the domestic environment. This paper
also explains the influence of Design Studies in contributing to
a human-centred interdisciplinary applied science at the University
of Otago by 2011.
The 2003 Design Issues 19.1 cover offers an effective piece
of communication design that maps the relationship of history,
theory and criticism to design practice and its place in the
wider natural and artificial environment. In line with the brief of
that particular journal, it identifies the centrality of history and
theory to a critical understanding of design’s role in society. If
we were to imagine the model three-dimensionally, the planes
might become volumes within the sphere of design, theory perhaps
embedded in the centre, criticism jutting out either end
providing a platform to reflect back on both the design process
and outcome, and finally history, intertwined with theory, but
extending above to provide the long view with its hindsight advantage.
It is from this last vantage point that I wish to address
the question of what we understand by the term Design Studies,
and to provide some historical explanation of how it has evolved,
both at the University of Otago in New Zealand and, internationally,
in response to design developments in the 20th and 21st
centuries.
1. American origins
The history of Home Science at Otago begins not, as one might
expect, in the colonial centre of Britain, but in America, where it
was referred to as Home Economics. The foundation of coursework
in domestic science at secondary schools and universities
came about as a direct result of the Morrill Land Grant Act of
1862. This government program provided land for state universities
that agreed to begin a program to train students for practical
fields relating to agriculture and the mechanical arts. The
State College of Iowa was the first to offer a course in Domestic
Science in 1871 and Home Economics soon became one of the
basic offerings of land-grant schools. The Federal Government
hoped that these subjects would help Americans rebuild with a
population of trained professionals. Ellen Henrietta Richards, the
first woman student at MIT, was a key figure in integrating many
diverse fields into what was to become the Home Economics
field of the 20th century. In her words, ‘Home Economics stands
for: Ideal home life of today unhampered by tradition of the past;
The resources of modern science to improve home life; Freedom
of the home from the dominance of things and their due subordination
to ideals; That simplicity in material surroundings that will
free the spirit for the more important and permanent interests
of home and societyʺ (qtd in Leavitt 2002: 45). As cultural historian
Sarah Leavitt concluded in 2002, ‘Home Economics leaders
took familiar ideas such as simplicity and freedom from extravagance,
quantified them, taught them to students across the
country, and made them important on a national scale,’ (2002:
45) and, in New Zealand’s case, on an international scale.
The profession of Home Economics provided job opportunities
for many women. To make sure the field was respected as an
academic endeavor, home economists began a yearly meeting
at Lake Placid, New York, in 1899, named their professional organisation
the American Home Economics Association and began
publishing a journal. The 11 women and one man who attended
the pioneering Lake Placid conference are not incidental
to New Zealand, as one of the women was later invited to play a
key role at Otago. The Conference sought a fuller acknowledgement
of the economic and ethical challenges faced in the home.
Ellen Richards defined their field thus: Home ‘meaning the place
for the shelter and nurture of children or for the development
of self-sacrificing qualities and of strengths to meet the world’;
Economics meaning ‘the management of this home on economic
lines as to time and energy, as well as to money’ (qtd in Shapiro
2009: 167)
However for Ellen Richards, scientific knowledge and academic
rigour were not enough. In presenting a public talk entitled
‘Chemistry in relation to household Economy’ she was asked by
a member of the audience how what she was saying related to
the questioner’s everyday life. Rather than holding to her theories,
Richards accepted this as a personal challenge, and worked
to ensure that the practical application of scientific knowledge
to everyday life was a central tenet of Home Economics. Richards
would later argue, ‘We must awaken a spirit of investigation
… show to the girls who are studying science in our schools that
it has a very close relation to our every-day life. We must train
them by it to judge for themselves … to think, to reason, from the
known facts to the unknown results’ (qtd in Hunt 1912: 181).
This was especially important as nineteenth-century industrial
development and advances in mechanical methods were only
just beginning to be applied in the home.
In New Zealand, this innovative educational movement attracted
the attention of Canterbury farmer and former soldier Lieutenant
Colonel John Studholme during a trip to the United States. Described
as a ―practical idealist― (Strong 1936: 3), he took a great
Design Frontiers: Territiories, Concepts, Technologies / Proceedings of the 8th Conference of the International Committee for
Design History & Design Studies - ICDHS 2012 / São Paulo, Brazil / © 2012 Blucher / ISBN 978-85-212-0692-7