The Routledge Companion to Criticality in Art, Architecture, and Design presents an in-depth exploration of criticism and criticality in theory and practice across the disciplines of art, architecture, and design. Professional criticism is a vital part of understanding the cultural significance of designed objects and environments that we engage with on a daily basis, yet there is evidence to show that this practice is changing. This edited volume investigates how practitioners, researchers, educators, and professionals engage with, think about, and value the practice of critique. With contributions from a multi-disciplinary authorship from nine countries - the UK, USA, Australia, India, Netherlands, Switzerland, South Africa, Belgium, and Denmark - this companion provides a wide range of leading perspectives evaluating the landscape of criticality and how it is being shaped by technological and social advances. Illustrated with over 60 black and white images and structured into five sections, The Routledge Companion to Criticality in Art, Architecture, and Design is a comprehensive volume for researchers, educators, and students exploring the changing role of criticism through interdisciplinary perspectives.

About the Author

Chris Brisbin is a Senior Lecturer in Architecture History, Theory, and Design at the University of South Australia and is Program Director of undergraduate and postgraduate coursework studies in Architecture in the School of Art, Architecture and Design. He holds a PhD from The University of Queensland, Australia. His research interests focus on the critical functioning of vernacular and contemporary architecture across the Australasian region.

Myra Thiessen is a Lecturer in Communication Design at the University of South Australia and is Program Director of Honours studies across the School of Art, Architecture and Design. She has a PhD in Typography and Graphic Communication from the University of Reading, UK. Her research interests focus on design for reading and how theory and research can inform and improve design practice.

Reviews

"This is an exceptionally carefully assembled book. Its editors have a well-defined purpose: they want to show how design can look to architecture and fine art for models of critical practice, and how architects and artists can see how they might learn from the ways design is socially contextualized. Criticism inhabits this book in Protean fashion: as a profession, an historical artifact, a philosophic position, a hope, a form of experimental writing, a family of theories, a material practice, and above all as conversation and a sense of community."

James Elkins, School of the Art Institute, Chicago, USA

"'Like,' Facebook's ubiquitous and reflexive sign of thumbs up affirmation, is as close as many people get to a critical discourse in the age of the Internet. So, it is timely, and critical (in all meanings of the word), that The Routledge Companion to Criticality in Art, Architecture, and Design offers readers a compelling array of essays on its topic. The book's organizing principle - considering criticality 'of,' 'through,' and 'in' - considers the roles of artifacts, the creative process, disciplinarity, media, historical precedent, theoretical basis and social, economic and political contexts. Informed, thoughtful criticism of the built environment and its implications, and of the interwoven systems it resides in, is necessary now more than ever. The Routledge Companion to Criticality in Art, Architecture, and Design will help scholars, faculty and students learn about criticality, and more importantly, to develop their own critical voices."

Steven McCarthy, University of Minnesota, USA

Book Information
ISBN 9780367659813
Author Chris Brisbin
Format Paperback
Page Count 464
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 860g