The Graphic Design Program in the School of Art is marking its 50th anniversary with a symposium exploring what the future holds for the field.
The event -- titled "Then: What?" -- will take place Friday-Sunday, May 4-6, in the New Theater in Holcombe Green Jr. Hall, 1156 Chapel St., the School of Art's new home. It is open only to the School of Art community.
In the brochure for the event, the organizers write: "All design, in one way or another, imagines a future. But how can we create coherent design practice or useful pedagogy if our notions of the future are repeatedly upended by profound shifts in technology, culture and narrative structure? Do we really have any idea of what to expect next? Did we ever? ... Will the new cultural and technological environment, in which design seems to have such an unexpectedly vaunted position, end up enriching and empowering our profession or splintering it beyond recognition?"
The symposium will open on Friday with welcoming remarks by Richard Benson, dean of the School of Art and professor of photography; Sheila Levrant de Bretteville '64 M.F.A., professor and director of studies in graphic design; and David Gibson '80 M.F.A., chair of the symposium.
A panel on the theme "That Was Then; This Is Now," featuring Yale M.F.A. alumni from the last five decades, will follow. The evening will conclude with "Computers, Brains and Visual Designers," a keynote address by Steven Zucker, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Yale, who will discuss how people's hard-wired biological circuitry determines how they see and what they make.
The theme for Saturday's program will be "The Expanding Design Experience." The day will begin with a panel titled "On a Clear Day ... How Current Conditions and Technologies Shape Yale Design Education," featuring members of the graphic design faculty.
This will be followed by a series of presentations on the theme "Ways of Saying, New Narrative Structures: Film Literature Internet." Irwin Chen '64 B.A. will present introductory remarks. The topics and presenters will be: "Circles and Squares: Narrative Geometry in French Cinema" by Dudley Andrew, professor of comparative literature and cochair of the Film Studies Program; "What Do Stories Tell?" by Peter Brooks, Sterling Professor of French and Comparative Literature and director of the Whitney Humanities Center; and "Stories on a Rail: Videogames and the New Narrative" by Steven Johnson, editor-in-chief of FEED magazine and author of "Interface Culture: How New Technology Transforms the Way We Create and Communicate."
Saturday afternoon's program will begin with a panel of M.F.A. alumni discussing the theme "There's a First Time for Everything. What Is a Design Practice?" This will be followed by an audience participation session. The program will conclude with the keynote address, "Visual Designers, Brains and Computers," by Kyle Cooper '88 M.F.A. and Karin Fong '93 B.A. of Imaginary Forces in Los Angeles.
There will be a dinner Saturday evening featuring talks by Richard Benson and Alvin Eisenman, professor emeritus of painting and design.
On Sunday, participants will be invited to gather informally to share ideas and impressions.
Throughout the anniversary celebration, there will be two exhibits on display. The "Class of 2001 Graphic Design Thesis Show" will be on view in the main gallery, while "Sharing Our Work," featuring creations by faculty and alumni, will be presented in classrooms off the atrium.
For further information about "Then: What?" visit the website at www.yale.edu/ art/then:what/.
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