Design In and Out of the Vitrine: Museums and Exhibitions in Nineteenth Century Vienna
by
Eric Anderson
Associate Professor of Art History, Rhode Island School of Design and Fulbright-Freud Visiting Scholar, Vienna
Tuesday 4 April 2017, 19:00
Lecture Room 301, Department of Architecture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Abstract:
Viennese design culture around 1870 was transformed by new modes of display. Focusing on the city’s pioneering Museum for Art and Industry and touching as well on concurrent fairs, parades, and other venues, this talk considers multiple exhibition strategies, from the systematic rigor of vitrines and taxonomies to the performative scenography of model interiors and other types of staged display. To fully understand the origins of the design museum, the talk argues, we must recognize an interplay between curators’ scientific reform strategies and consumers’ experiences of leisure, fantasy, and desire.
CV
Eric Anderson is an associate professor of art history at Rhode Island School of Design, where he teaches courses on history of modern design. He is based presently in Vienna, undertaking research at the Sigmund Freud museum on the psychology of interiors and exhibitions, and teaching at the University of Applied Arts.
