OPEN CALL:Design Trust/RCA Fellowship in Design Curation 2020

Applications are invited for the Design Trust / RCA Fellowship in Design Curation. Extensively supported by the Design Trust, this is a six-month to one-year opportunity for research, learning and engagement at the Royal College of Art.

The deadline for applications is May 2, 2020, 11:59pm GMT.

Based at the Royal College of Art in London, the Fellow(s) will undertake advanced research into curatorial practice in relation to contemporary design and recent design history. Areas of focus might include: strategies for exhibition-making, display, interpretation and collections; design archives; design curating in the public sphere; design theory and method as curatorial practice; curating emergent technologies; and history and current practice in design curating.

Starting in September 2020, the Fellow(s) will undertake research and study, embedded within the RCA’s vibrant interdisciplinary environment and supported by Design Trust. The programme of studies is designed to broaden the Fellow’s knowledge and skills in curatorial practice, theory and understanding of design, to enable self-reflection on the Fellow’s practice to date, and to support their specific research direction. Each Fellow follows a bespoke programme tailored to their needs and interests; components vary across seminars and workshops in design and curatorial history, theory and practice, interdisciplinary workshops and projects and a placement with one of the RCA’s external partners.

Additionally, the Fellow(s) will devise and pursue an original, independent research project related to curating and design in Asia and its global contexts. The project is supported by engagement with subject specialists at the RCA and guided through regular 1:1 tutorials with a named project supervisor. The project will take the form of written work (ordinarily a body of writing comprising c. 10,000 words) and a public event in London, potentially but not exclusively an exhibition. The Fellow(s) will have access to technical resources and training facilities at the RCA, appropriate to their research.

Research may explore curatorial practice and theory in relation to existing and emergent design disciplines (such as product design, service design, wearable technologies, transport, performance or the digital). It might reflect on or generate curatorial approaches to design’s social, political or cultural contexts past, present and future (for example users/social practices, the public sphere, architectural practice or urbanism). A focus on Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area region is preferred. The research should result in an original curatorial proposal, demonstrate advanced understanding of curatorial contexts and approaches, inform the Fellow(s)’s future practice and show clear potential to inform curatorial practice in Hong Kong/the Greater Bay Area region more widely.

Sharing knowledge and experience generated is an important element of the Fellowship. Fellows’ written work may be disseminated digitally through the RCA/Design Trust platforms, and/or submitted for publication in an appropriate platform. The Fellow(s) will prepare at least one public presentation at the end of their research to be delivered in Hong Kong and/or London. The Fellow(s) will also present a final report on their research findings (including work placement activity) for the RCA/Design Trust and communicate the research process and experience of the Fellowship in an agreed social media programme.

The Fellowship is designed to address the burgeoning field of design curating in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area region in a global context, and its place within the interdisciplinary curatorial field (such as the growth of new institutions devoted to design, the presence of design in art museums, biennales and cultural festivals and other new platforms for public engagement with/through design, including urban development and archives).

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