Symposium The Design of History and the History of Design


London College of Communication
15 September, 2025



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SpeakerS and Abstracts:

Huda Almazroua
Alberto Atalla Filho
Russ Bestley
Kevin Biderman
Silvia Bombardini
David Cross
Dora Souza Dias
Sam Gathercole
Ian Horton and Ian Hague
Jennifer Hankin
Zarna Hart
John-Patrick Hartnett
Fenella Hitchcock
Abbie Vickress and Sakis Kyratzis
Christopher Lacy
Timothy Miller
Danah Nassief
Jesse O’Neill
Nina O’Reilly
Patrick O’Shea
David Preston
Cheryl Roberts
Rebecca Ross
Antoin Sharkey
Andrew Slatter
Kate Trant
Vanessa Vanden Berghe
Judy Willcocks
Christin Yu



A symposium for UAL’s Design History research community


The Design of History and the History of Design is a one-day symposium that maps research into, through or at the boundaries of design history at UAL. While design history may underpin our teaching across different disciplines, research in design history across UAL is somewhat hidden. This symposium aims to share and make visible the work of researchers (staff and students) at all career stages across all UAL colleges.

Exploring the intersections of historical narrative and design practice, it examines how history is constructed, represented, and mediated through design, and how the discipline of design itself is shaped by its evolving historiography.

The symposium will serve as the starting point for a Design History Network at UAL, bringing together researchers from across the university. It also lays the foundation for a welcoming research community in design history, with potential for ongoing events, collaboration, publications, and curriculum development.

If you have any questions or would like to be involved in future activities, please get in touch with the convenors:

Rujana Rebernjak
r.rebernjak@lcc.arts.ac.ukTai Cossich
t.cossich@lcc.arts.ac.uk
Please also sign up for the UAL Design Histories Newsletter



     
    Jesse O’Neill

    Reporting on the Malaya Pavilions: Colonial Press Narratives as Historical Sources for the British Empire Exhibitions


    Building on a long tradition of imperial expositions, in the early 20th century Britain hosted two British Empire Exhibitions, the first in Wembley in 1924/25, the second in Glasgow in 1938. The time between these exhibitions marked a popular shift into modern design, yet both fundamentally took a similar approach of representing the traditional qualities of individual colonial states to create their position within the British Empire. This paper focuses on the portrayals of the Malay states in these imperial exhibitions through the available public record of these events. The sources focus on imperialist narratives, both through visual records and the ways in which they were reported in Southeast Asia in the local press. The aim of the paper is to examine how such archival narratives skew understandings of these exhibitions.

    The research is conducted through an exploration of prominent records of the Malayan British Empire Exhibition pavilions, which primarily include visual and written accounts reported in the Malaya Tribune and the Straits Times newspapers. These accounts are read through postcolonial theory and discourse analysis methods to understand the limitations of such sources. A case study of the 1924 exhibition’s Malay craft village serves as a key example in the study. The result is a discussion of how imperial records shape our understanding of colonial historical displays, and how the deficit of alternative archives limits our access to different historical perspectives on past design events. The paper shows the way established media channels shape possible interpretations of historical events, and how these designed media forms cut off different interpretations, defining the possibilities of historical narrative.



    — Jesse O’Neill


    Jesse O’Neill is Senior Lecturer at the Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts London, teaching in the history and theory of interior design. Previously Jesse worked at the Glasgow School of Art, Middlesex University, and the University of Technology Sydney, and has held fellowships with the National Library Board, Singapore, and the State Library of New South Wales, Australia. His research broadly explores theories and patterns of transnational design movements, with a focus on the colonial and postcolonial contexts of the British Empire in Southeast Asia. Current projects include industrial policy and product promotion in Singapore (1950–1975), the design of Malayan exhibits in global expositions (1920–1980), and bathing landscapes in Singapore (1819–2020).