Ever since the first World Expo “The Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations” (1851) held at the Crystal Palace (giant glass-and-iron exhibition hall in Hyde Park) in UK to the all-round transformation of industrial production, art and design education and even lifestyle triggered by the Bauhaus (school of design, architecture and applied arts that existed in Germany from 1919 to 1933), modern design has undergone vigorous development throughout the 20th century. It has gradually moved towards the intersection and new exploration of disciplines and professional fields in the 21st century. Kingston University in the United Kingdom began to formally explore the emerging field of curating contemporary design between Kingston School of Art and the Design Museum in 2001. This collaborative degree has grown into one of the world’s foremost programmes for design curators. Since 2018, the School of Design at the Central Academy of Fine Arts has taken the lead in offering courses of Curating Contemporary Design, and in 2020, it has turned to systematic programmes, this forward-looking degree was officially established.
As the name of “Curating Design and Narrative Environments” suggests, this major focuses on the developing trajectory of design practice. Through the integration of exhibition design, research on curating design, design criticism and other fields, students will learn to develop creative and practical skills to curating design exhibitions, public programmes, and further critically reflect on curatorial practice, work trans-disciplinary to become the fresh blood needed in the current design industry.
The emergence of Curating Design at CAFA fills the research gap in the Chinese design education and exhibition industry, and its significance may be slowly unfolded in the future—through the research and practice of design theory and contemporary issues, it responds to the actual needs of the society for the design industry, so as to tell the story of Chinese design itself.
CAFA ART INFO has invited Xue Tianchong, who has been engaged in teaching Curating Design and Narrative Environments at the School of Design, CAFA, to share his experience starting from what is curating design, its development status and prospects of related majors at home and abroad, his practical achievements in the past four years, as well as the challenges faced in the field.
Xue Tianchong, Curator and Designer, Teacher Responsible for Curating Design and Narrative Environments at the School of Design of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Member of the Academic Committee of the China Science and Technology Museum, and Researcher of the Olympic Art Research Center of Tsinghua University.
I. What is Curating Design?
CAFA ART INFO: From an international and historical perspective, what is the origin of curating design? How did it emerge and develop?
Xue Tianchong: To understand curating design, we first need to understand its boundaries and scopes. With the process of the industrial revolution, the transformation of production methods, the innovation of materials and technology, the intensification of globalization, the spread of the Bauhaus concept as a teaching method and many other factors at that time, the concept of modern design has been established, which is different from the traditional category of arts and crafts, and its production, practices, and concepts have gradually become a new whole. In 1977, the Society of Design History was founded in the United Kingdom, marking the emergence of design theory as an independent discipline, followed by a period of great development in design. At the same time, functional designs as well as computer technology and new materials were involved in the field of design, thus the influence of design expanded to the economic, technological, and even national developments. As a result, design as an independent discipline has expanded and spread in terms of theoretical research and professional practice.
Exhibition View of Machine Art at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1934.
In the history of modern design exhibitions, False Principles in Design (1852) is usually regarded as the first design exhibition, which presented content selected from the inferior industrial designs of the consumer market. Prior to this, design exhibitions had not really departed from the category of art history, and most of them were still dominated by arts or crafts. Since then, the construction of design museums spread around the world, such as the Design Museum in London (UK), the Vitra Design Museum (Germany), Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (USA) and so on. From the end of the 19th century to the mid-to-late 20th century, the function of design museums gradually expanded from displaying good design to exploring topics such as social trends and changes in social forms. In this way, curating design breaks through the mere display function and becomes a tool for theoretical research and speculation, referring to a wide range of politicized issues such as production and manufacturing, identity discourse, and so on.
Museums and galleries around the world that have conducted curating design.
The Vitra Design Museum (Germany)
The Design Museum (UK)
With the rapid development of design museums, design research has gradually become professional and disciplinary, and some design schools have responded to the needs and offered courses related to curating design. In 2001, Kingston University was the first to offer a master’s degree in Curating Contemporary Design, followed by other universities and design museums, such as the Royal College of Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). Nowadays, curating design thinking has penetrated into all aspects of the design industry, influencing the creative practice of designers, guiding them to explore new ideas, develop new materials, and innovate interactive methods. In addition, design museums and art schools jointly carry out a series of in-depth explorations, including design phenomenon research, design history and theory research, social and cultural research, formulation of design collection strategies, and collaborative college education and social aesthetic education.
CAFA ART INFO: What are the main directions of current development of curating design and its researching status in China?
Xue Tianchong: The development of curating design mainly follows two paths according to my observation: exhibition research led by design museums and related institutions that focuses on practices and issues related to the epoch; another research direction led by art schools that emphasizes academic rationality and curatorial methods. Moreover, the increasingly diversity of design biennale, design week, design festival and other activities also play a very important role in the development of curating design.
The orientation of a design museum is to focus on design archive collection or future research. As a research unit, a design museum takes “design collection” as its standard, which includes functional renewal, commercial value, emerging materials, identity speculation and future issues, and it promotes design works and design ideas with more social value. In terms of research and practice, although curating design in China has begun to take shape, it has not yet been systematized, and an in-depth exploration of local design culture has not been conducted. The construction of design museums plays an important role in promoting the development of design, and design collection constitutes an important way to establish design standards.
Massive Change premiered at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 2004.
Exhibition View of China Design Now at Victoria & Albert Museum in 2008.
Exhibition of Broken Nature: Design Takes on Human Survival at Triennale Milano in 2019.
In 2023, I was invited by the organizer Made in House to curate “Design Miami/ Podium × Shanghai”, which aimed to focus on innovation, functionality, humanistic value and discussion of contemporary issues for the purpose of “design worthy of collection”. Meanwhile, a platform was built with an international perspective to discover creators with more local cultural value. There are overlaps and differences between the design collection strategy led by a design museum and the collection-level design concept initiated by an exposition: the intersection lies in the design standards, humanistic thinking and trend goals for the public and industry practitioners; the difference is that collectible design is more focused on emerging innovative designs with original ideas and methods, new materials, and new disciplines.
Installation View of “Design Miami/ Podium × Shanghai”, Zhang Yuan, Shanghai, 2023.
CAFA ART INFO: What do you think that curating design might contribute to Chinese design?
Xue Tianchong: Especially in the past 15 years, China’s design has innovated and developed from “Made in China” to Chinese innovations, and the design industry has achieved rapid development. In this process there are two key challenges: how to improve design quality and strategic awareness.
Curating Design can play a key role in both of them. From 1950 to 1955, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York presented a series of exhibitions themed on “Good Design”, which not only popularized design aesthetic standards, but also proposed reference standards for design and manufacturing. This model also provided an important reference for China’s design industry. With curating design as the carrier of our research, we can explore new materials, new technologies, and new ideas, while proposing critical thinking about the problems among ecology, technology, social mechanisms, and human beings.
Installation view of Good Design, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York.
Besides, curating design also has the ability to “create new needs”, which is also an important mission of designers. Good design can not only meet the needs of existing markets, cope with future problems, but also stimulate new business potential such as iPhone has completely subverted the identity of the mobile phone in the form of large-screen interaction, leading the trend of intelligence. Similar innovative thinking also applies to the Chinese design industry.
In June 2024, I was invited to work as the curator of the College Student Design Exhibition, Nanjing, China, which focuses on the creative practice of students who major in art and design, and it aims to explore the main force of the future design industry. The exhibition showcased the students’ explorations in traditional culture, contemporary design concepts and technological applications, including experimental works created with AI technology, reflecting the sensitive capturing and rapid response ability of the new generation of art and design creators to the epochal elements.
Exhibition View of the Fifth College Student Design Exhibition, Nanjing, China (2024)
II. Curating Design at CAFA
CAFA ART INFO: In terms of discipline classification, what is the conceptual difference between curating design and curatorial categories such as art curation, cultural curation, and architecture curation?
Xue Tianchong: First of all, their focuses and research scope are different. Curating Design focuses on the field of design, with its research covering design history, theory and criticism, design phenomena and case studies. In recent years, the scope has gradually expanded to the study of cultural value, speculative value and design methodology, which also makes curating design present a broader vision.
The second is that Curating Design focuses on new areas sparked by emerging technologies. With changing concepts, technologies and application scenarios happen a lot today, emerging majors and fields triggered by multidisciplinary collaboration have emerged, and these fields have also become an important direction for curating design. For example, many international design schools have abolished the traditional way of setting up majors, and the Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art has taken the combination of design and engineering as its core major, which further reflects the importance of inter-disciplinary development in design research.
Installation View of Asian Digital Art Exhibition that Xue served as a co-curator, 2019.
The third is that Curating Design provides more new methods and new paths for the curatorial mode, emphasizing the diversity, flexibility and innovation of exhibition forms. On the premise of intellectual production and reading experience, Curating Design tries to integrate the exhibition content and experience form by a variety of means, which is not limited to the traditional white box space, but also includes the interactive form of virtual and real scenes. In general, Curating Design pays more attention to the diversity of research objects and the relationship between objects and society, production and philosophy.
On the whole, compared with other curatorial disciplines, the research content and methods of Curating Design are more open and diverse, and the research fields cover both the traditional functional discussion and speculative thinking, even the presentation of more diverse visions, reflecting the characteristics of the integration and development of design and society, culture and technology.
Installation View of the 9th Shenzhen &Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture, 2022
CAFA ART INFO: So, what were the considerations and opportunities for CAFA to set up the research direction of Curating Contemporary Design and Spatial Narrative?
Xue Tianchong: On the one hand, it was based on the overall research and judgment of the changes in the international situation; on the other hand, it responds to the needs of social development. However, design education in Chinese universities lags behind the market demand. Inspired by many international design schools and design museums, CAFA introduced curating design research and related practice methods into China, providing a new vision and path for design research and design education.
Since 2018, CAFA has launched the first series of courses on Curating Design, and by 2020, they have been improved to a systematic curriculum, taking the lead in establishing a discipline of Curating Design and Narrative Environments in China, filling the gap in the domestic disciplines, and also responding to the actual demands of the society for the cultural value of design and academic research.
Exhibition View of “751 International Design Festival” that Xue served as a co-curator, 2023.
Exhibition View of Time Medium that Xue served as a co-curator, 2023.
CAFA ART INFO: What courses are offered in this program? What are the ideas, characteristics and objectives of the curriculum?
Xue Tianchong: Our major is divided into two directions: curating design research and exhibition design research. On the basis of teaching the history of curation and the development of theories, the course of curating design research combines thematic discussion and project practice to study the existing curatorial models, and at the same time explore different curatorial behaviors, so as to expand the potential and possibilities of curating contemporary design from different perspectives by introducing the wide application of interdisciplinary research methods in the field of curation.
Teaching Lectured Organized by the School of Design at CAFA
Our research direction of exhibition design explores how to concretize the curatorial observations and reflections. As a medium bridging the creator and the viewer, the exhibition design presents a shared and dynamic structure, which is a multidisciplinary process that explores how to use concrete and intrinsic modes of presentation to build a space for the viewer to experience the narrative environment.
The integration of the two directions into a whole is also a feature of the School of Design, which cultivates students to not only master design ability, but also attach importance to theoretical learning and method learning in research.
The curriculum structure of Curating Design and Narrative Environments conducted by the School of Design, CAFA.
Teaching Scenes
A Study Tour Organized by the School of Design at ginza graphic gallery, Tokyo
A Study Tour Organized by the School of Design at Yokohama Triennale
A Study Tour Organized by the School of Design at China International Design Museum
Teaching and Exchange at Song Art Museum
We¹Human² on ³Mars⁴, a virtual curatorial project, by He Yanchao, Huang Xiaoqian, Ren Qingqi, Qin Man, Zhang Qianyi, 2020.
Installation view of “Root, Intelligence, Web of Life: Plants, Technology and Other Lives”, CAFA Art Museum, 2023.
“Imaginal Sculpture: Stefano Poda’s Healing Theater” curating design plan by Zhang Jingwen, Chen Zhiying, Wu Jingqian, which won the special prize of Curating Virtual Exhibitions: Global College Student Competition.
“The Studio Is Still Working”, a curatorial plan by Qu Meilin, Wang Ziyu and Zhao Xinxin, which won the first prize in Curating Virtual Exhibitions: Global College Student Competition.
In the past few years of teaching, I have been working with colleagues Wang Naiyi, Li Beike, Ji Yujie, Pan Jingru, Liao Liujun and so on to summarize our experience and further develop teaching methods. All of us are usually impressed by the keen sense and learning ability of our students, as they can quickly gain insight into new things and transform them into learning practice in the Internet era. Meanwhile we always remind ourselves to maintain a state of continuous learning and acceptance of new things, grasp the cutting-edge information in the design field, while linking the latest trends and development tendencies.
Curatorial Practices in the Context of Art Museums, Final Achievement Exhibition of Cross-media Creative Curatorial Course, at School of Design, Central Academy of Fine Arts.
III. Curating Design as a Way to Write the History of Chinese Design
CAFA ART INFO: What is the cultural value of Curating Design in your opinion?
Xue Tianchong: From a socio-cultural perspective, Curating Design has important cultural value and foresight of development, and it plays an important role in disseminating Chinese culture and guiding design trends. Curating Design can promote regional cultural research, offer assistance in the excavation and development of national cultural resources, promote the construction and improvement of museology, construct design standards, provide new ideas for China’s intelligent manufacturing and so on. In addition, Curating Design also plays a key role in social aesthetic education. Curating Design also gets at current hot issues, including how to coexist with machines, how to coexist with ecology, how to reconcile with self, etc., and it encourages multidisciplinary collaborative research methods, which have gradually become an important bridge connecting scientific and technological progress and humanistic philosophy in terms of new technology research and development, AI design and application, and top-level strategic planning.
In 2021, Zhou Bo, Ji Yujie, Wang Naiyi and I co-curated the exhibition “Material Tales: The Life of Things”, the first dedicated touring exhibition developed by the Design Museum in London. Featuring iconic exhibits from the Design Museum collection as well as innovative materials in development today, the exhibition charts the journey of the materials that have defined modern life through their origins, uses and evolution to current environmental and industrial consequences.
Exhibition View of Material Tales: The Life of Things at CAFA Art Museum.
CAFA ART INFO: What do you think are the future goals and positioning of Curating Design? In what ways can it promote the development of Chinese design?
Xue Tianchong: Curating Design, as a way to write the history of Chinese design, is both a direction and a responsibility. Curating Design is often misunderstood as display design, and people usually lack a deep understanding of it as a research method. We hope that, through our work, we can guide the public and industry colleagues to have a more comprehensive understanding of Curating Design, and pay attention to its ability to link multiple disciplines as an emerging field. Curating Design is a research field that adapts to the epochal changes, and it can meet the epochal needs, reflect the vicissitudes and even predict future trends.
From the perspective of practitioners engaged in the teaching and practice of Curating Design, we start from the research methods of Curating Design, and continue to promote in-depth discussions on design issues in the Chinese environment, supplement content for Chinese design research through exhibitions, articles or research reports, and gradually improve and enrich the construction of Chinese design discourse and the writing direction of Chinese design history. From an objective point of view, there is still room for improvement in the construction of Chinese Design Museum/Art Museum if compared with the internationally acclaimed design museums, and the current design exhibitions in China are still dominated by themed research. The future improvement in the construction of the design museums does not only involve theoretical research and mechanism, but more importantly, the innovative exploration of curatorial models, methods and paths should be covered. Therefore, this construction process can also open up more in-depth and relatively blank fields for teachers and researchers in colleges. We hope that the targeted methods for Chinese design to cultivate and export talent can be found if we try more possibilities.
In the future, we plan to build a platform with China’s design archives and literature as the core to record and preserve relevant design results. It is hoped that a standardized system of good design can be formed, and the past and future of Chinese design can be connected through the diversity of archival editing, academic research and exhibition practice.
Text (CN) by Mengxi, trans. and ed. by Sue/CAFA ART INFO
Image Courtesy of Xue Tianchong.
