Aftertaste 2014 Ambiguity and Sensibility Symposium

February 28, 2014 to March 1, 2014

It is the view of the conveners that diversity is formed through the ambiguous nature of interior space. It is this condition that promotes a particular type of sensibility with which to comprehend and then create interiors. 

Until recently, the interior design discipline has primarily been viewed through a limited lens of history and vocational techniques. The stage is set to reassess the interior to reveal the dynamic discipline it has become.

 

A TASTER: AMBIGUITY & SENSIBILITY
The Handbook of Interior Architecture + Design

Friday 28 February 2014;  Kellen Auditorium, Sheila Johnson Design Center, 66 Fifth Ave, NYC
6:00 – 8:00 pm

LOIS WEINTHAL and GRAEME BROOKER, two pioneers exploring the expanding discourse of interior design at the intersection of theory and practice, share their insight and introduce their newest book The Handbook of Interior Architecture + Design.

The Handbook, edited by Brooker and Weinthal, is a collection of original essays which examine the complex role of the interior and its design. Subjects range from human behavior and anthropology to cultural geography and the future of technology. Author, and Parsons faculty member, ALEXA GRIFFITH WINTON will contribute her perspective included in the book.

 

A TASTER a_published_interior

A TASTER: THE PUBLISHED INTERIOR
ORGANIZED BY ALUMNI OF MFA INTERIOR DESIGN

Saturday 1 March 2014; Glass Corner, 25 east 13th street, 2nd floor, NYC
10am - 12:30pm

Inspired by the biennial AFTERTASTE symposium, the alumni and students of the MFA Interior Design program come together to generate new conversations as they bridge the gap between student and practitioner.  This first discussion explores the curation and presentation of interior spaces for publication, bringing together the perspectives of editors, photographers, and design critics.  How do these specialists determine what to publish and what to reject, and what do they believe makes a project most successful?  Ultimately, how do the decisions made by editors influence the public understanding of interior design as a discipline?

Individual stories will be shared from the points of view of photographer FRANCOIS DISCHINGER , New York editor of World of Interiors, CAROL PRISANT, design journalist and deputy editor of Home at The New York Times, JULIE LASKY, co-founder of Sight Unseen, JILL SINGER, art director/ design editor MELISSA FELDMAN and design blogger, JOHN HILL.  A panel discussion, moderated by recent alumni, will follow.


Schedule

February 28, 2014, Location: Kellen Auditorium

6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

+ Graeme Brooker

Location: Kellen Auditorium

6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

+ Lois Weinthal

Location: Kellen Auditorium

6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

+ Alexa Griffith Winton

March 1, 2014, Location: Glass Corner

10:00 am - 12:30 pm

+ Nadia Elrokhsy

Location: Glass Corner

10:00 am - 12:30 pm

+ Francois Dischinger

Location: Glass Corner

10:00 am - 12:30 pm

+ Melissa Feldman

Location: Glass Corner

10:00 am - 12:30 pm

+ John Hill

Location: Glass Corner

10:00 am - 12:30 pm

+ Carol Prisant

Location: Glass Corner

10:00 am - 12:30 pm

+ Jill Singer


Participants

Graeme Brooker

Graeme Brookeris an academic, writer and designer based in the UK. He is the head of the department of Fashion and Interiors and the convener of I:F (Interiors: Fashion) at Middlesex University, London. He has held numerous senior positions in institutions in the UK, most notably at the Universities of Cardiff, Manchester and Brighton, where he taught both studio and theory in interior architecture and design. He has written numerous books on the design of interior space and in particular on the implications of reusing existing buildings, including co-authoring the highly acclaimed Rereadings (RIBA Enterprises 2004). Other co-authored publications include Form and Structure (AVA 2007), Context and Environment (AVA 2008), The Visual Dictionary of Interior Architecture (AVA 2008), Objects and Elements (AVA 2009), and What is Interior Design? (Rotovision 2010). He is the founder and Director of the charity Interior Educators (IE), His latest books are From Organisation to Decoration (with Sally Stone: Routledge 2013), The Handbook of Interior Architecture and Design (with Lois Weinthal: BERG 2013) and Key Interiors Since 1900 (Laurence King 2013).


Lois Weinthal

Lois Weinthal is Chair of the School of Interior Design at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. Her research and practice investigates the relationship between architecture, interiors, clothing and objects, resulting in works that take on an experimental nature. Her teaching explores these topics where theoretical discussions in seminars are put into practice in the design studio. She is the editor of Toward a New Interior: An Anthology of Interior Design Theory, and co-editor of After Taste: Expanded Practice in Interior Design with Kent Kleinman and Joanna Merwood-Salisbury, both published by Princeton Architectural Press, and most recently, co-editor with Graeme Brooker on the Handbook of Interior Architecture and Design published by Berg Publishers. She has received grants from the Graham Foundation, Fulbright, and DAAD and has exhibited and lectured nationally and internationally. Previously she was Director of the Interior Design Program at Parsons School of Design and Graduate Advisor for the Master of Interior Design Program at The University of Texas at Austin. She studied architecture at Cranbrook Academy of Art and the Rhode Island School of Design.


Alexa Griffith Winton

Alexa Griffith Winton is an independent scholar and writer specializing in the visual and material culture of the last century.  Her research engages issues of craft in the industrial and computer ages, the role of technology in modern domestic design, and the theorization of the domestic interior. Winton’s work has been published in numerous scholarly and popular publications, including the Journal of Design History, Dwell, Journal of the Archives of American Art, and the Journal of Modern Craft.  She has received research grants from the Graham Foundation, the New York State Council for the Arts, Center for Craft, Creativity and Research, and the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation. Winton is part-time faculty at the School of Constructed Environments, where she teaches in the MFA Interior Design and MFA Lighting Design programs.


Nadia Elrokhsy

Nadia Elrokhsy is Assistant Professor of Sustainable Interior Design and an associate member of the Parsons DESIS Lab within the School of Design Strategies, Parsons The New School for Design. She is a licensed architect, LEED Accredited Professional and principal of a creative practice firm that specializes in environmental design and sustainable design strategies. Her built works include full and partial structures, and a diverse range of project interiors. An original trainee in Al Gore’s The Climate Project, Nadia Elrokhsy gives presentations that continue to raise awareness about climate change. Her academic research goes beyond environmental design, uncovering connections between the social, economic and environmental, and leverages broadly integrative tools and methods in the design for more sustainable ways of being.


Francois Dischinger

Francois Dischinger is a self-taught photographer. An adventurous childhood beginning in South Africa and Canada played an important part in shaping his imagination. The family travelled extensively and the exposure to various cultures soon led him to his father’s camera and darkroom. The thrill of taking photographs and the subsequent alchemy in the darkroom created an obsessive curious boy who upon arriving in Montreal attempted to document the locations mentioned in the lyrics of a Leonard Cohen song! A regrettable impatience with academic life and the pressures of success soon led Dischinger to abandon his university studies to begin assisting and starving all in pursuit of his dream to be a photographer. Currently based in New York City, Dischinger works extensively for magazines and advertising clients, waking each day and trying to stay curious and engaged constantly feeling the pressure to update his instagram page.


Melissa Feldman

Melissa Feldman is a design writer and style editor who lives and works in New York City. Feldman worked as a graphic designer and art director for magazines, corporations and art institutions including The Museum of Modern Art and The New York City Transit Authority before becoming a product editor at Interiors and then Senior Style Editor at House & Garden where she worked from 2001-2006. In 2007 Feldman launched Stroll Productions while editing and producing a special issue for Harpers Bazaar devoted to home and fashion. She writes, reports, styles and produces stories and presentations on interiors, architecture, products, trends and design for a variety of publishing clients including Architectural Digest, AD France, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, New York Magazine, WSJ, Coastal Living Magazine, Interior Design, and Glamour Magazine. Feldman is presently editing and writing a series of books for the International Interior Design Association called What Clients Want.


John Hill

John Hill is an architect, blogger, and author living in New York City. He is Editor in Chief of the World-Architects eMagazine, a contributing writer at Houzz, and an adjunct professor at NYIT. He received a Bachelor of Architecture in 1996 from Kansas State University, where he worked as an editor of Oz Journal. After working for DeStefano + Partners in Chicago for ten years, he moved east to attend the City College of New York, receiving a Master of Urban Planning in 2007. In between he started the web pages A Weekly Dose of Architecture, A Daily Dose of Architecture, and The Archi-Tourist. Hill has written articles for Architect Magazine, The Architect’s Newspaper, eVolo, and other journals. In 2011 his first book, Guide to Contemporary New York City Architecture, was published by W. W. Norton.


Carol Prisant

Carol Prisant is an alumna of Barnard College and spent the early part of her career as an antiques dealer and appraiser.  Currently, she is the American editor of the British publication The World of Interiors, an affiliation of the past twenty-five years. She also writes, or has written for: The New York Times, New York Magazine, Town and Country, House Beautiful and Martha Stewart Living, among others.  She is the author of the Antiques Roadshow’s two encyclopedias of antiques: the Antiques Roadshow Primer and Antiques Roadshow Collectibles.  Her latest books are Good, Better, Best, an illustrated tutorial on selecting the best antiques, and Dog House, a furry memoir.  She is currently working on a novel.


Jill Singer

Jill Singer is the co-founder of Sight Unseen, an online magazine that takes readers inside the worlds of design, art, fashion, photography, and other creative disciplines. She is also the co-founder and co-curator of Sight Unseen Off/Site (formerly the Noho Design District), a major satellite exhibition that runs each May during New York Design Week. A graduate of Stanford University, she is the former managing editor of I.D. Magazine and an adjunct faculty member in the Products of Design MFA program at SVA. Her writing has appeared in T: The New York Times Style Magazine, PIN-UP, V Magazine, W, and New York, among others.


Student Designed Reception

Ambiguity and Sensibility