The need for design history in HCI (Carl DiSalvo )

Last summer I had the opportunity to visit the Triennalle di Milano, an Italian design museum. One of the exhibitions was “Italian Design Beyond the Crisis: Autarky, Austerity, Autonomy,” which proposed and examined the idea that economic crisis might generate creative designs. It included work from three decades: the 1930s, the 1970s, and the 2000s. The show was amazing, with an abundance of objects and material that helped make sense of the items individually and connected them in a stream of historical design practice inextricable from social and political context. It’s cliché to say, but I left the exhibition inspired. (acm.org)