Nordic Design in Translation
The Circulation of Objects, Ideas and Practices
Summary
(Professor Juliette MacDonald, Chair of Craft History and Theory, Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh)
«With the ambition to go underneath the veneer of "Scandinavian Design", this volume offers original perspectives on artistic and cultural transfer. Case studies spanning the twentieth century challenge canonical trajectories of unidirectional influence and demonstrate how design and its ideas translate across nations. It is a vital contribution to contemporary scholarship and an inspiring read for everyone interested in design history in the Nordic region and beyond.»
(Christina Pech, Senior Lecturer, History of Art, University of Oslo)
«Scandinavian Design» as a myth, a brand and a shorthand for a range of design ideas has proved an enduring and adaptable construct. Its export around the world has ensured that it has touched and transformed design cultures from Europe to Australia. At the same time, the Nordic design it draws on has been shaped and reshaped by influences from beyond the Nordic countries and by reflection on its own global success. This collection of essays considers Nordic design from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day within transnational dynamics of cultural interaction, circulations and cross-border flows that highlight exchange and reciprocity. Engaging with a range of Nordic and Nordic-inspired material objects, techniques, practices and concepts, the essays assess both the impact they have had on new cultural contexts and the ways they themselves have been fashioned and refashioned in response to foreign influences.
Excerpt
Table Of Contents
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- About the author
- About the book
- This eBook can be cited
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction (Charlotte Ashby and Shona Kallestrup)
- Part I The Transnational Formation of National Design Cultures at the Turn of the Century
- 1 Through Time and Place: Norwegian Norman (Bente Aass Solbakken)
- 2 Nordic-Romanian Connections: A Case Study of the Transnational Dimensions of ‘National’ Art (Shona Kallestrup)
- 3 Circumpolar Circulations: Sámi Duodji in Gold Rush Alaska (Bart Pushaw)
- 4 Exporting Dragons: Stave Churches as National Icons and Transnational Commodities in Nineteenth-Century Europe (Tonje Haugland Sørensen)
- 5 Nobel Designs … on Fire-Worship: East-Oriented Original Nordic Designwash (Jeremy Howard)
- Part II The Translation and Export of Scandinavian Design in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
- 6 The Myth of the Little Red Cottage: The Circulation of Vernacular Romanticism in Scandinavian Architecture in the Twentieth Century (Mia Åkerfelt)
- 7 Josep Puig i Cadafalch in the Nordic Countries: Transferring Art Historical Knowledge between North and South in the Interwar Period (Lucila Mallart)
- 8 Nordic Design Down Under: ‘Swedish Modern’ and Scandinavian Design in Mid-Twentieth-Century Australia (Mark Ian Jones)
- 9 From Baltic Dreams to Reality: The Significance of Nordic Architecture and Design in Lithuania and Estonia from the late 1950s until the 1970s (Karolina Jakaitė and Triin Jerlei)
- 10 Nordic by Noma: Relocating Critical Regionalism to Gastronomic Innovation and Design (Malene Breunig)
- Afterword: Lost and Found – Translational Thinking in the History of Nordic Design (Kjetil Fallan)
- Notes on Contributors
- Index
Acknowledgements
This book owes its gestation to a session held at the NORDIK XII conference in Copenhagen 2018, organized by the Nordic Association for Art Historians. We would like to thank the organizers of that conference and the other speakers and participants in that session who helped refine the ideas that made their way into this volume. The inclusion of illustrations is generously supported by a research publication grant from the Design History Society, UK.
Charlotte Ashby and Shona Kallestrup
Introduction1
On her long thin legs she wore a pair of long stockings, one brown and the other black, and she had on a pair of black shoes that were exactly twice as long as her feet. These shoes her father had bought for her in South America so that Pippi would have something to grow into, and she never wanted to wear any others.
– Astrid Lindgren, 1945
The moominpappa carried the wireless set out into the garden and tuned in to dance music from America, and in no time the Valley was filled with dancing, jumping, stamping, twisting, and turning.
– Tove Jansson, 1948
Pippi Longstocking had a pet monkey and wore South American shoes. The Moomins listened to American dance music. Both these series of children’s stories have been translated into many different languages and subject to multiple adaptations, with the characters and worlds they portray touching children around the world for over half a century. Contributing to the image of their respective nations abroad, their international success has been based on multiple processes of translation and adaptation.
Details
- Pages
- XVI, 318
- Year
- 2023
- ISBN (PDF)
- 9781800792906
- ISBN (ePUB)
- 9781800792913
- ISBN (MOBI)
- 9781800792920
- ISBN (Hardcover)
- 9781800792890
- DOI
- 10.3726/b21025
- Language
- English
- Publication date
- 2023 (December)
- Keywords
- cultural exchange transnational circulations Scandinavian design Nordic design Charlotte Ashby Shona Kallestrup Nordic Design in Translation
- Published
- Oxford, Berlin, Bruxelles, Chennai, Lausanne, New York, 2023. XVI, 318 pp., 20 fig. col., 33 fig. b/w.
