Introduction: Reframing Australian Design History

Abstract

Australian design and its history, popularly perceived from both within and without as marginal, are little known beyond Australia. The following virtual special issue of Journal of Design History comprises a compilation of nine articles from the journal focused on Australian design, as well as a consideration of alternative frameworks and approaches for rethinking design history in an Australian context. This introduction begins with a brief overview of developments in Australian and global historiography in order to situate Australian design history within broader historical research, particularly problematizing the issue of national histories. Following this, a review of scholarship on Australian design over the past twenty–five years will help situate the prominent areas of inquiry and methods employed in the articles on Australian design featured in this virtual issue of the Journal of Design History. However, rather than conceive Australian design history as singular and separate, a final section comprising related scholarship—derived from art history, social history, history of technology, labour and manufacturing history, migrant history and histories of material culture—is intended to identify main threads that could constitute what I have termed Australian design history’s ‘expanded field’. Finally, a brief conclusion suggests future possibilities and themes.

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