Design Conversation: Eva Diaz

The publication of Eva Díaz’s new book The Experimenters: Chance and Design at Black Mountain College (University of Chicago Press, 2015), and her residency with BURNAWAY Atlanta, provide the occasion for a talk and a series of films about the risks and possibilities of using the concept of the “test” as a lens to produce, teach, and understand art. In the years immediately following World War II, Black Mountain College, an unaccredited school in rural Appalachia, became a vital hub of cultural innovation. Practically every major artistic figure of the mid-twentieth century spent some time there: Merce Cunningham, Ray Johnson, Franz Kline, Willem and Elaine de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, Robert Rauschenberg, Dorothea Rockburne, Aaron Siskind, Cy Twombly—the list goes on and on. Yet scholars have tended to view these artists’ time at the College as little more than prologue, a step on their way to greatness. With The Experimenters, Eva Díaz reveals the importance of Black Mountain College—and design—they helped redefine what artistic practice was, and could be, for future generations. More information about the artist and talk can be found at http://www.museumofdesign.org/design-conversations/ This is FREE lecture that requires advance registration.