Michael Golec
Associate Professor
Contact
Bio
Associate Professor. PhD in Art History and Theory, 2003, Northwestern University, Evanston; MA in Design History, 1997 and BFA with honors in Graphic Design, 1991, University of Illinois, Chicago. Publications – Books: Brillo Box Archive: Aesthetics, Design, and Art (2008); Relearning from Las Vegas (2008); Journals: Design Issues, Home Cultures, Design and Culture, Senses and Society, Visible Language, Journal of Design History, Journal of Visual Culture, American Quarterly. Awards: Graham Foundation Grant; Anschutz Distinguished Fellow in American Studies, Princeton University; Dartmouth College Humanities Institute, Postdoctoral Fellow.
Publications
Books
Brillo Box Archive: Aesthetics, Design, and Art (Hanover, New Hampshire: Dartmouth College Press, 2008)
Co-editor, Relearning from Las Vegas (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008)
Selected articles
“The Dematerialization of Complexity, Dynamic Iconography, and Iconic (Past) Futures,” in Bauhaus Futures, eds. Laura Forlano, Molly Wright Steenson, and Mike Ananny (MIT Press Forthcoming).
“Dissatisfaction and Restorative Design: Bruce Rogers, Allusive Typography, and the Grolier Club Champ Fleury (1927),” Journal of Design History 31:4 (2018), 328-345.
“Distributing Stresses: The Development and Use of the Eames Dining Chair Metal,” in Encountering Things, eds. Leslie Atzmon and Prasad Bordakar (Bloomsbury 2017).
“Facts Between Pictographs and Photographs,” Zeitschrift für Ästhetik und Allgemeine Kunstwissenschaft 60:1 (2015): 17-38.
“Heidegger’s ‘From the Dark Opening…’” in Heidegger and the Work of Art History, eds. Amanda Boetzkes and Aron Vinegar (Ashgate 2014).
“Poster Power: Rural Electrification, Visualization, and Legibility in the United States,” History and Technology 29:4 (2013): 399-410.
Michael J. Golec’s research and teaching focuses on theories and histories of graphic visualization, technical images, and typography. He was the Anschutz Distinguished Fellow of American Studies and Visiting Associate Professor of Art History at Princeton University. He has received numerous awards and grant, which include a Terra Foundation for American Art Grant, a Wolfsonian Research Fellowship, a Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts Research and Development Grant, a Dartmouth College Humanities Institute Post Doctoral Fellowship, and an Iowa State University Bio Ethics Program Grant.
Golec has participated in the MBL-ASU History of Biology Seminar, Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, MA.; the Visualization: A Critical Survey of the Subject Seminars at Humboldt University, Berlin; and the Visual Culture and the Life Sciences Seminars at Dartmouth College.
Golec is a current Editorial Board Member of Design and Culture and an Advisory Board Member of Visible Language. He is a former Editor of Design and Culture, and a former Reviews Editor of Design Issues. He was a member of the College Art Association, Task Force on the Use of Human and Animal Subjects in Art.
Recent lectures and talks include “Iconic Transmissions: William Morris and the Emergence of Modern Typography” (Tulane University); “A Page is a Space Where Histories Appear: Design and Richard Wright’s 12 Million Black Voices” (International Conference on Designerly Ways of Historiography, Museum of Modern Art); and “Chicago Schools, Gyorgy Kepes, and Function in Design” (Keynote Lecture for PhD in Architecture History Graduate Student Symposium, Illinois Institute of Technology).
Recent Thesis Advisees
- Tess Haratonik (2020), “Facing Trauma and Healing in the Anthropocene: Laure Prouvost's Deep See Blue Surrounding You / Vois Ce Bleu Profond Te Fondre (See This Blue Melt)”
- Bradlee Murch (2020), “Of Dusty Pages and Ornament: Hints of Permeability in Charles Locke Eastlake's Ideal Victorian Home”
- Yi (Nicky) Ni (2019), “Olympia: A Simulated Digital Decay”
- Celina Wu (2019), “Visualizing the Invisible: Learning to See Photography”