Katarina V. Posch

Essayist / Academic; Writer / United States / Pratt Institute, School of Art & Design

www.pratt.edu

Katarina V. Posch is Professor of Design History and Theory at the Pratt Institute in New York, specializing in intercultural design. Posch has taught and published extensively on the socio-historical context of Japanese, European and American design.

Initially educated in Vienna in Communication Design and Cultural Management, Posch received her Ph.D. in Design History for her thesis on Japanese design from the National University of Fine Arts and Music in Tokyo.

Her publications cover a wide range of design issues: a monograph of the design collection of the Pompidou Center in Paris (1995), exhibition catalogues, such as Isamu Noguchi: Sculptural Design (Vitra Design Museum 2001), and Isamu Kenmochi and Isamu Noguchi (Noguchi Museum, 2007), were major works for museums. She is responsible for all entries about Japanese design for the Dictionnaire Internationale des Arts Appliqués et du Design (1996), a widely consulted design encyclopedia in France. Numerous articles on cross-disciplinary aspects of design include feminist approaches, as in “False Friend (Long Hair)” for The Seen and the Hidden. [Dis]covering the Veil (Austrian Cultural Forum New York, 2009), and cross-cultural comparisons, the most recent in “Changing Worlds, Changing Design” for Made 4 You: Design für den Wandel/Design for Change (MAK, Vienna, 2012). For the television screen she presented insights about Frank Lloyd Wright for the PBS documentary “Picturing America on Screen” (Channel Thirteen, 2012).

Posch lectures widely on cross-cultural design issues all over the world: at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, and at conferences and academic institutions, such as the University of Osaka, the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, and the Kyoto University of Art and Design. In Austria she has opportunities to voice her design-historic thoughts at the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences on an annual basis, further at the Art University Linz, the Forum Alpbach, and at the MAK in Vienna. Katarina V. Posch is a frequent consultant to the Austrian Trade Commission in New York, and sought after as a jury member for design competitions, among them the Victor Papanek Competition and the James Dyson Award.

Her curatorial engagements have included museums in Vienna (Museum of Technology and Industry), Paris (Centre Georges Pompidou/CCI), Germany (Vitra Design Museum) and New York (The Noguchi Museum). She remains involved with the world of museums, being affiliated with the Museum of Arts and Design in New York as an active member of their Exhibition Development Committee.

Katarina V. Posch is committed to spreading the message about design as witness of cultures throughout history and across the globe.

Contributed Articles

Guest posts

Eva Zeisel: A Master of Survival

By Katarina V. Posch November 20, 2012

Design scholar Katarina V. Posch (New York)
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Product/industrial designer Eva Zeisel (New York)
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For this guest post, the daughter of the late Eva Zeisel, Jean Richards, asked design scholar and family friend Katarina V. Posch to write an appreciation of Zeisel, on the occasion of the release of the e-book Eva Zeisel: A Soviet Prison Memoir (2012). Compiled by Richards and Brent C. Brolin, the book presents details of the life of the remarkable designer, from whom Designers & Books had the pleasure of receiving a book list (a single book) in 2011. — SK

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