i. institutional support and commitment to continuous improvement

I. Institutional Support and Commitment to Continuous Improvement
Helen Maria Nugent, SAIC Professor and Director, Designed Objects
Jan Tichy, artist Carol Ehlers, Adjunct Professor, Columbia College Chicago
Sharing reflections on the experimental light work of László Moholy-Nagy, Nugent and
Tichy discussed their collaborative installation, Delineations. They were joined by Ehlers,
guest curator for “Moholy: An Education of the Senses.”
o “View-Master and the Art of Industrial Design”—October 19, 2009
Charles Harrison, designer and SAIC Senior Lecturer, Designed Objects
Martin Thaler, designer and Associate Professor, Institute of Design, IIT
Both speakers redesigned the View-Master: Harrison transforming earlier versions into
the object we recognize today; Thaler reimagining it on its 50th anniversary. While shar-
ing their experiences within the history of this iconic toy, they also provided insight into
the design process under the governance of industry.
o “Always After (The Glass House)”—October 26, 2009
Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, artist Lisa Dorin Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art, AIC
Manglano-Ovalle’s film, Always After (The Glass House), abstractly chronicled a recent
jarring moment in Mies van der Rohe’s architecture. Dorin and the artist discussed the
foundations of this work and its recent acquisition by the Art Institute.
o “Mind-Mapping Modernity”—November 2, 2009
Mika Hannula, Professor in Artistic Research, University of Göteborg, Sweden
This presentation—as much performance as academic lecture—traced connections be-
tween theories of modernity and their evolution over time in a mind-mapping exercise.
o “Bio-line”—November 9, 2009
Walter Hood, Professor, Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, UC Berkeley
Christy Matson, SAIC Assistant Professor, Fiber and Material Studies
Andrew Yang, SAIC Assistant Professor, Liberal Arts and Visual and Critical Studies
A landscape architect, a specialist in textile patterning, and a research biologist deployed
their collective expertise to analyze the issues of fabrication, aesthetics, and symbiosis that
are integral to the design and function of Bio-Line, an interior-systems prototype.
o “Knowledge Box Re-created”—November 16, 2009
Ken Isaacs, architect and designer
Victor Margolin, Professor Emeritus, Design History, University of Illinois, Chicago
Susan Snodgrass, project curator, SAIC Department of Sculpture and New Arts Journalism
This panel considered the history of Isaacs’s work and its current presentation: Knowl-
edge Box, an immersive learning environment originally constructed in 1962; and
populist-oriented design for “Living Structures,” reinterpreted here by a student team
from SAIC.
o “Modern Technologies”—November 23, 2009
Mark Anderson, artist; John Manning, SAIC Associate Professor, Art and Technology
Douglas Pancoast, SAIC Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director, AIADO
New technologies that are revolutionizing the capabilities and intersections of architec-
tural and artistic practice—hallmarks of the modern world—were discussed in relationship
to Infinite Sprawl, an installation allowing visitors to manipulate an ever-changing digital
cityscape.
o “EUREKA! What Was Going On In Mohol-Nagy’s Brain When He
Changed Strategies and Designed the Bauhaus Curriculum?”
—November 30, 2009
Ronald Jones, Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, Konstfack, University College of Art, Stockholm
Creative decision making nearly always produces an interdisciplinary mapping of ideas in the brain as
you come to a “breakthrough and creative” decision. This talk looked at Moholy-Nagy’s pedagogical
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SECTION I Institutional Support and Commitment to Continuous Improvement