Formerly known as D-Crit

Applications accepted on a rolling basis. All successful candidates awarded a significant scholarship!

Events – SVA MA Design Research

Past Events

06/01/20

2020 Design Writing and Research Summer Intensive, June 1-12
- Summer Intensive
- Workshops & Readings
05/28/20

Statements from Isolation: The 2020 MA Design Research, Writing and Criticism Graduate Thesis Presentation
- Conferences
03/12/20

SPRING 2020 LECTURE SERIES POSTPONED
- Lectures
12/03/19

Milton Glaser and Walter Bernard with Anne Quito, ” Mag Men: Fifty Years of Making Magazines”
- Lectures
11/19/19

Steve Heller and Rev Dr. T.K Nakagaki, “The Swastika & Symbols of Hate”
- Lectures
11/13/19

David Reinfurt, “A *New* Program for Graphic Design”
- Lectures
10/15/19

Susan Yelavich, “Thinking Design Through Literature”
- Lectures
05/13/19

Precarious | The 2019 SVA D-Crit Graduate Thesis Symposium
- Conferences
04/23/19

Luis Ortega Govela and Olivia Erlanger, “Garage: American Delusion”
04/16/19

Amanda K. Hurley, “Radical Suburbs: Beyond the Nuclear Family”
04/09/19

4th Annual Phil Patton Lecture: Rob Walker on “The Art of Noticing”
- Lectures
03/26/19

Akiko Busch, “How to Disappear: Notes on Invisibility in a Time of Transparency”
- Lectures
02/26/19

Paul Makovsky, “On Florence Knoll Bassett & Writing Interior Design History”
02/19/19

Jere Hester, “(Re)making News: Saving Local Journalism in the Digital Age”
02/11/19

Screening of Van Alen Sessions Season Five: Fireproofing the Future in California
02/05/19

Avery Trufelman, “Abandon Your Plans”
12/11/18

Kimberlie Birks, “Design for Children: Play, Ride, Learn, Eat, Create, Sit, Sleep”
- Lectures
11/26/18

William Myers, “Biodesign and Bioart: From Inspiration to Integration”
- Lectures
11/20/18

Mark Lamster, “In Search of Philip Johnson”
- Lectures
11/13/18

V. Mitch McEwen, “Nostalgia for the Present: New Orleans, Detroit, Pittsburgh”
- Lectures
10/30/18

Nathan Adkisson, “Make Me Care!”
- Lectures
10/16/18

Anja Aronowsky Cronberg, “Thinking Critically about Fashion: An Introduction to Vestoj”
- Lectures
10/10/18

Vera Sacchetti, “Design as Learning, Learning as Design: Making the 4th Istanbul Design Biennial”
- Lectures
05/08/18

Refract, Rephrase, Reframe: The 2018 SVA MA Design Research Thesis Symposium and Party
- Conferences
04/24/18

Alexandra Lange, “The Design of Childhood”
- Lectures
04/17/18

Steve Heller and Greg D’Onofrio, “The Moderns”
- Lectures
03/28/18

3rd Annual Phil Patton Lecture: Natasha Jen and Khoi Vinh
- Lectures
03/13/18

A Critical Reader for Critical Times
- Workshops & Readings
02/20/18

Shannon Mattern, “Ether/Ore: An Atlas of Urban Media”
02/13/18

Noa Raviv, “Essential Mistakes”
01/30/18

Lewis Mumford Symposium: Cassim Shepard
- Lectures
12/12/17

Rob Giampietro, Design Lead, Google Research & Machine Intelligence
- Lectures
11/28/17

Andrea Lipps, “Joris Laarman Lab: Design in the Digital Age”
- Lectures
11/14/17

Mimi Zeiger, “Intersect, Instigate, Exchange”
- Lectures
11/01/17

Superpool, “Groundwork in Istanbul”
- Lectures
10/24/17

Dan Chen, “File > Save as > Intimacy”
- Lectures
10/17/17

Allan Wexler, “Absurd Thinking, Between Art and Design”
- Lectures
10/10/17

Ana Miljacki, “Bad Copies”
- Lectures
09/26/17

Mark Hansen, Brown Institute for Media Innovation
- Lectures
05/08/17

SIGHTLINES: SVA Design Research Thesis Symposium and Launch Party
04/25/17

Elizabeth Glickfield
Founder and Editor of Dirty Furniture
- Lectures
04/18/17

Alice Twemlow: Making Waste: Unearthing the Metaphors, Values, and Temporalities of Product Design and its Criticism
- Lectures
04/04/17

Michael Sorkin in conversation with Alan Rapp
- Lectures
03/29/17

Jeremy Scahill
Co-founder, The Intercept and host, “Intercepted” podcast
- Lectures
03/28/17

Lizzie Widdicombe in conversation with Adam Harrison Levy
- Lectures
03/21/17

2017 Phil Patton Memorial Lecture
Deyan Sudjic
Director of the Design Museum, London
- Lectures
02/28/17

Cliff Kuang: The Untold Story of Design Thinking
- Lectures
02/14/17

A Critical Reader for Critical Times
02/07/17

Sam Lubell: The Making of Never Built
- Lectures
12/06/16

Leah Meisterlin: “Geographies of Difference”
- Lectures
11/29/16

Sean Anderson: Curator of “Insecurities: Tracing Displacement and Shelter” at MoMA
- Lectures
11/22/16

Daniel Perlin: Artist, Designer, and Director of UX at Droga5
- Lectures
11/01/16

Virginia Heffernan: Cultural critic and author of “MAGIC AND LOSS: The Internet as Art”
- Lectures
10/25/16

Matylda Krzykowski: Co-founder of Depot Basel and guest curator at Chamber Gallery, New York
- Lectures
10/18/16

Danielle Shapiro: Design historian and author of “John Vassos: Industrial Design for Modern Life”
- Lectures
10/11/16

Aileen Kwun & Bryn Smith: Authors of “Twenty Over Eighty: Conversations on a Lifetime in Design”
- Lectures
06/06/16

Apply! 2016 Design Writing and Research Summer Intensive
- Workshops & Readings
05/17/16

VITAL SIGNS: 2016 SVA MA Design Research Thesis Ideas Festival
- Conferences
- Lectures
04/19/16

Mark Wasiuta, “The Making of ‘Environmental Communications: Contact High'”
- Lectures
04/05/16

Ignacio G. Galán, “Architecture’s Occupations”
- Lectures
03/29/16

Benjamin Prosky, “Designing Culture”
- Lectures
03/22/16

2016 Phil Patton Memorial Lecture: Russell Flinchum, “Women and Cars”
- Lectures
03/15/16

Anne Guiney, “The City as Research Project”
- Lectures
03/03/16

Working Lunch with Nick Rappolt and Matt Basford: “Data and Creativity—Friends or Foes?”
- Lectures
03/01/16

Alex Gallafent, “Design Research through Three Lenses: Journalism, Prototyping, and Improv”
- Lectures
02/23/16

Sloane Crosley in Conversation with Adam Harrison Levy “Humor As A Writing Tool”
- Lectures
02/16/16

Allan Chochinov, “Permission Is a Material: Rethinking the Contemporary Materials of Design”
- Lectures
01/21/16

A Forum on Curating Beyond Fine Arts: Objects (Still) Matter
- Lectures
12/08/15

Michael Garofalo, “The Cut and Paste Narrative: A Disappearing Act”
- Lectures
12/01/15

Caroline Sinders, “Between Algorithm and Human Intervention”
- Lectures
11/17/15

Brooke Hodge, “The Curator’s Eye: From Idea to Exhibition”
- Lectures
11/03/15

Julia Kaganskiy, “Networks as Generators of Creativity”
- Lectures
10/27/15

Marco Ferrari, “Beyond Borders: the Potential of Visual Research”
- Lectures
10/20/15

Cas Holman, “Designing for Play”
- Lectures
10/13/15

Michael Kubo, “Working Across Platforms”
- Lectures
06/01/15

Design Writing and Research Summer Intensive
- Workshops & Readings
05/31/15

“Exploding Footnotes: Design Research in Action”
- Exhibitions
05/13/15

“Exploding Footnotes: Design Research in Action” Live Crit and Exhibition Opening
- Conferences
- Exhibitions
04/21/15

Gabriela Rendón, “Social Property and the Urgency of a New Urban Practice”
- Lectures
04/16/15

Michael Golec, “Champ Fleury in the Machine Age”
- Lectures
04/14/15

Francesca Granata, “Why Fashion Criticism Matters”
- Lectures
03/31/15

James Goggin, “Theory and Practise and Time and Place”
- Lectures
03/24/15

Kevin Delaney, “Redesigning Global News Production”
- Lectures
03/17/15

Craig Buckley, “Re-envisioning Assembly—Montage and Architecture in the Long 1960s”
- Lectures
02/24/15

Ian Frazier, “The End of Writing, and What to Do After”
- Lectures
02/10/15

Geoff Manaugh, “A Burglar’s Guide to the City”
- Lectures
02/03/15

Joanna Ebenstein, “The Morbid Anatomy Museum”
- Lectures
12/02/14

Beatrice Galilee, “Activating Architecture”
- Lectures
11/18/14

Kiosk, “The Things We Never Stop Thinking About”
- Lectures
11/10/14

Anab Jain, “Design for Anxious Times”
- Lectures
11/04/14

Jason Schupbach, “Design Federal”
- Lectures
10/28/14

Glenn Adamson, “Making it in NYC”
- Lectures
10/27/14

Working Lunch: Jon Sueda, “Wide Open Spaces”
- Lectures
10/14/14

Alexandra Jacobs, “Trending: How Fashion Has Gone From Class to Mass (and Maybe Mess)”
- Lectures
05/02/14

Lingua Franca: The 2014 D-Crit Conference
- Conferences
04/27/14

Ellen Lupton, “Design Fictions”
- Lectures
04/01/14

Peter Bil’ak, “Works That Work, Making Magazines Today”
- Lectures
03/18/14

Sharon Helgason Gallagher, “The Book and the Bicycle”
- Lectures
03/11/14

Phillip Tiongson, “Invention and Intention: Building Experiential Stories”
- Lectures
02/27/14

Rick Poynor, “Dom Sylvester Houédard: Letters in Space”
- Lectures
02/25/14

Robert Krulwich, “Hard Stories Told Easily”
- Lectures
01/28/14

Eva Franch, “Corporate Avant Garde and the Return of Disruption”
- Lectures
12/10/13

Amy Ogata, “Design, Creativity, and Postwar American Childhood”
- Lectures
11/19/13

Vishaan Chakrabarti, “A Country of Cities”
- Lectures
10/29/13

Akiko Busch, “Assorted Notes on Fit”
- Lectures
10/23/13

Karrie Jacobs, “The City Beautiful All Over Again”
- Lectures
10/15/13

John Warner, “It’s Funny Because It’s True. It’s True, Because It’s Funny”
- Lectures
10/08/13

Glen Cummings, “Negotiating Urban Nature”
- Lectures
10/01/13

Jane Nisselson, “Cinematics of Systems, Processes, and Beautiful Things”
- Lectures
09/17/13

Constance Rosenblum, “Private Lives in the Big City: Writing About New Yorkers and Their Distinctive Habitats”
- Lectures
05/11/13

counter/point: The 2013 D-Crit Conference
- Conferences
04/16/13

Kurt Andersen, “Why Spy”
- Lectures
04/09/13

Rick Poynor, “Writing with Pictures”
- Lectures
03/19/13

Virginia Postrel, “Meaning and Value in Commercial Culture”
- Lectures
03/12/13

Vince Aletti, “Face of Fashion: Fashion Photography, Art Direction, and Magazine Design”
- Lectures
02/26/13

Kati London, “New Forms of Engagement and Play in a Sensor- and Real-Time-Data-Dominated World”
- Lectures
02/18/13

Sandy Speicher, “Design for Learning”
- Lectures
02/12/13

Susannah Drake, “Resilient Urban Environments”
- Lectures
02/05/13

Markus Kayser, “Can There Be Union between Nature and Technology in Fabrication?”
- Lectures
01/29/13

Noah Rosenberg, “Slow. Down.”
- Lectures
01/09/13

Nicholas de Monchaux, “Fashioning Apollo”
- Lectures
12/04/12

Murray Moss, “Apples to Oranges: Dialogues between Art and Design in Commerce and Culture”
- Lectures
11/27/12

Steve Almond, “How to Make the Reader See It: The Book as a Visual Artifact”
- Lectures
11/20/12

Emilie Baltz, “Why Foreplay Makes the Food (AKA: There’s more to a steak than beef)”
- Lectures
10/20/12

D-Crit Open House Fall 2012: Milton Glaser
- Lectures
10/16/12

Project Projects, “As of 10.15.12″
- Lectures
10/09/12

Lucy Collins, “From the Ivory Tower to the Tents: Thinking Critically about Fashion”
- Lectures
10/02/12

Pedro Gadanho, “Is Curating the New Criticism?”
- Lectures
09/25/12

Zoe Coombes, “Dirt from Glass Cages”
- Lectures
05/02/12

Eventually Everything: The 2012 D-Crit Conference
- Conferences
04/17/12

Damon Rich, “Working the System”
- Lectures
04/10/12

Michael Meredith, “Playful Experimentation and Criticism”
- Lectures
04/03/12

Cintra Wilson, “Fear and Clothing”
- Lectures
03/27/12

Witold Rybczynski, “The Biography of a Building”
- Lectures
02/28/12

Jimenez Lai, “Cartoonish Architecture”
- Lectures
02/21/12

Starlee Kine, “How to Capture the Culture Zeitgeist: What Phil Collins and Zombies Have in Common”
- Lectures
02/14/12

Lunchtime Q&A with Michael Kimmelman
- Lectures
02/07/12

Jonathan Olivares, “Working with Jonathan Olivares”
- Lectures
01/31/12

Aaron Betsky, “Architecture Beyond Building”
- Lectures
12/13/11

Mark Dery, “The Politics of Style”
- Lectures
12/06/11

Peter Hall, “Infoviz: Where’s the Critique?”
- Lectures
11/15/11

Eye to Eye: Q & A with Lewis Lapham and Adam Harrison Levy
- Lectures
11/03/11

åbäke, “Seriously Forks XI”
- Lectures
05/04/11

Present Tense: The 2011 D-Crit Conference
- Conferences
04/30/10

Crossing the Line: The 2010 D-Crit Conference
- Conferences
02/23/09

David Reinfurt, “The First Rule is Always Production, Never Documentation. The Second Rule is There Are No Rules”
- Lectures
12/16/08

Cathleen McGuigan, “The Role of Design Criticism in the National Press”
- Lectures
11/04/08

Elyssa Dimant, “‘In Rogue’: Crafting Fashion Criticism”
- Lectures
10/28/08

Rob Giampietro, “On Design, Distribution, and Circulation”
- Lectures
10/07/08

Jenni Sorkin, “The Pottery Seminar at Black Mountain College”
- Lectures

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Past Events

2020 Design Writing and Research Summer Intensive, June 1-12

Statements from Isolation: The 2020 MA Design Research, Writing and Criticism Graduate Thesis Presentation

SPRING 2020 LECTURE SERIES POSTPONED

Milton Glaser and Walter Bernard with Anne Quito, ” Mag Men: Fifty Years of Making Magazines”

Steve Heller and Rev Dr. T.K Nakagaki, “The Swastika & Symbols of Hate”

David Reinfurt, “A *New* Program for Graphic Design”

Susan Yelavich, “Thinking Design Through Literature”

Precarious | The 2019 SVA D-Crit Graduate Thesis Symposium

Luis Ortega Govela and Olivia Erlanger, “Garage: American Delusion”

Amanda K. Hurley, “Radical Suburbs: Beyond the Nuclear Family”

4th Annual Phil Patton Lecture: Rob Walker on “The Art of Noticing”

Akiko Busch, “How to Disappear: Notes on Invisibility in a Time of Transparency”

Paul Makovsky, “On Florence Knoll Bassett & Writing Interior Design History”

Jere Hester, “(Re)making News: Saving Local Journalism in the Digital Age”

Screening of Van Alen Sessions Season Five: Fireproofing the Future in California

Avery Trufelman, “Abandon Your Plans”

Kimberlie Birks, “Design for Children: Play, Ride, Learn, Eat, Create, Sit, Sleep”

William Myers, “Biodesign and Bioart: From Inspiration to Integration”

Mark Lamster, “In Search of Philip Johnson”

V. Mitch McEwen, “Nostalgia for the Present: New Orleans, Detroit, Pittsburgh”

Nathan Adkisson, “Make Me Care!”

Anja Aronowsky Cronberg, “Thinking Critically about Fashion: An Introduction to Vestoj”

Vera Sacchetti, “Design as Learning, Learning as Design: Making the 4th Istanbul Design Biennial”

Refract, Rephrase, Reframe: The 2018 SVA MA Design Research Thesis Symposium and Party

Alexandra Lange, “The Design of Childhood”

Steve Heller and Greg D’Onofrio, “The Moderns”

3rd Annual Phil Patton Lecture: Natasha Jen and Khoi Vinh

A Critical Reader for Critical Times

Shannon Mattern, “Ether/Ore: An Atlas of Urban Media”

Noa Raviv, “Essential Mistakes”

Lewis Mumford Symposium: Cassim Shepard

Rob Giampietro, Design Lead, Google Research & Machine Intelligence

Andrea Lipps, “Joris Laarman Lab: Design in the Digital Age”

Mimi Zeiger, “Intersect, Instigate, Exchange”

Superpool, “Groundwork in Istanbul”

Dan Chen, “File > Save as > Intimacy”

Allan Wexler, “Absurd Thinking, Between Art and Design”

Ana Miljacki, “Bad Copies”

Mark Hansen, Brown Institute for Media Innovation

SIGHTLINES: SVA Design Research Thesis Symposium and Launch Party

Elizabeth GlickfieldFounder and Editor of Dirty Furniture

Alice Twemlow: Making Waste: Unearthing the Metaphors, Values, and Temporalities of Product Design and its Criticism

Michael Sorkin in conversation with Alan Rapp

Jeremy ScahillCo-founder, The Intercept and host, “Intercepted” podcast

Lizzie Widdicombe in conversation with Adam Harrison Levy

2017 Phil Patton Memorial LectureDeyan SudjicDirector of the Design Museum, London

Cliff Kuang: The Untold Story of Design Thinking

A Critical Reader for Critical Times

Sam Lubell: The Making of Never Built

Leah Meisterlin: “Geographies of Difference”

Sean Anderson: Curator of “Insecurities: Tracing Displacement and Shelter” at MoMA

Daniel Perlin: Artist, Designer, and Director of UX at Droga5

Virginia Heffernan: Cultural critic and author of “MAGIC AND LOSS: The Internet as Art”

Matylda Krzykowski: Co-founder of Depot Basel and guest curator at Chamber Gallery, New York

Danielle Shapiro: Design historian and author of “John Vassos: Industrial Design for Modern Life”

Aileen Kwun & Bryn Smith: Authors of “Twenty Over Eighty: Conversations on a Lifetime in Design”

Apply! 2016 Design Writing and Research Summer Intensive

VITAL SIGNS: 2016 SVA MA Design Research Thesis Ideas Festival

Mark Wasiuta, “The Making of ‘Environmental Communications: Contact High'”

Ignacio G. Galán, “Architecture’s Occupations”

Benjamin Prosky, “Designing Culture”

2016 Phil Patton Memorial Lecture: Russell Flinchum, “Women and Cars”

Anne Guiney, “The City as Research Project”

Working Lunch with Nick Rappolt and Matt Basford: “Data and Creativity—Friends or Foes?”

Alex Gallafent, “Design Research through Three Lenses: Journalism, Prototyping, and Improv”

Sloane Crosley in Conversation with Adam Harrison Levy “Humor As A Writing Tool”

Allan Chochinov, “Permission Is a Material: Rethinking the Contemporary Materials of Design”

A Forum on Curating Beyond Fine Arts: Objects (Still) Matter

Michael Garofalo, “The Cut and Paste Narrative: A Disappearing Act”

Caroline Sinders, “Between Algorithm and Human Intervention”

Brooke Hodge, “The Curator’s Eye: From Idea to Exhibition”

Julia Kaganskiy, “Networks as Generators of Creativity”

Marco Ferrari, “Beyond Borders: the Potential of Visual Research”

Cas Holman, “Designing for Play”

Michael Kubo, “Working Across Platforms”

Design Writing and Research Summer Intensive

David Reinfurt, “A New Program for Graphic Design”

Elizabeth Glickfield
Founder and Editor of Dirty Furniture

Jeremy Scahill
Co-founder, The Intercept and host, “Intercepted” podcast

2017 Phil Patton Memorial Lecture
Deyan Sudjic
Director of the Design Museum, London