Attending Networks of Design
Attending the Design History Society NoD conference, 3rd-6th September 2008, was my first since completion of my PhD, and an opportunity to present my findings. It was a great conference, very stimulating, very international! The theme ‘Networks of Design’ worked really well, enabling a wide variety of topics to be presented and discussed. The keynote speakers were very well selected: Bruno Latour of Actor Network Theory fame; Jeremy Myerson; and Jan Konings of Droog Design in the Netherlands. Also, the venue, at University College Falmouth was a wonderful location, in the newly opened Tremough Campus.
This conference attracted individuals from many diverse backgrounds, presenting opportunities to make friendships with people from different disciplines. I luckily had the chance to meet Cheryl Buckley (Chair of the DHS) who is based at Northumbria University, Tracy Lannon from Huddersfield University, Valerie Swales previously from Plymouth University who is now living in France, also Sarah Kettley from Nottingham Trent University through whom I met Kate Church from RMIT in Melbourne in Australia. I feel that meeting these people with similar interests to my own helps to create further opportunities for networks in the future.
As Falmouth in Cornwall was so far away from Newcastle I decided to make the trip into a holiday as well attending NoD. It was great to be able to spend the week with my mam, my friend Louise and her mam Yvonne. The drive to Cornwall was a long one, but most definitely worth it. We stayed in an apartment in a fantastic location, on a hillside road overlooking the Penryn river. The wonderful view was over the river looked onto rows of moored yachts, with vistas over the commercial docks and in the distance the mouth of the Fal. In the days dedicated to holiday we had some really nice day trips: on a boat trip to the gardens at Trelissick, a rather long walk around Falmouth and a well deserved paddle in the sea and a sit on the beach; an enlightening visit to the Eden Project; a drive to Penzance, Newlyn, St Micheals Mound and Lizard Point; also a wonderfully sunny day at St Ives, at the beach and the fantastic Tate Modern.
Needless to say, it was a thoroughly enjoyable and worthwhile trip!