Mistakenly underrated, as comedy usually is, design that relies on its wits liberates us from the tyranny of the status quo. Its “function” is to disrupt our complacency. This talk looks at design that uses tactics such as incongruity, absurdity, and exaggeration as means of therapy and critique. It explores the values smuggled in under the subterfuge of humor, drawing on historical examples such as twelfth-century puzzle jugs and eighteenth-century giochi d’acqua, the work of contemporary designers such as Anna Barbara, Constantin Boym, and Elio Caccavale, as well as anonymous pranksters who make us think while we’re laughing.

This event, to be presented on Zoom, is free and open to the public.

Susan Yelavich is professor emerita of design studies at the New School’s Parsons School of Design. A fellow of the Bogliasco Foundation, she is also a member of the Scientific Committee for Design at the Politecnico di Milano and the Program Committee for Design Theory and Criticism FAIR DESIGN conferences, Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Her articles have appeared in Journal of Design History, Italian Design History Journal, Forms Design Journal, and elsewhere. Her books include Thinking Design through Literature, Design as Future-Making, Contemporary World Interiors, and The Edge of the Millennium.