Elin Manker

My present research investigates Craftmanship, Textile Design and Trade in Sweden, 1885–1915. The objective is to analyse textile design at that period as a pattern-making at the intersection between multiple ongoing movements: internationality and nationality; trade and artistic/craft practice; three dimension and two dimension pattern desgin; as well as the possibilityies/opportunities for women interaction in the field of design during this period, in the aftermath of the 19th century women's emancipation. The work and practice of Selma Giöbel (1843-1925) forms the example that is followed through the investigation.

During fall 2024 I will start a new, three-year research project funded by the Swedish Research Council: 'Blå blom' and the Alternative Modern. Heritagization in Design. The project investigates design during the 20th century that uses other design priciples than the modernist ones. I will discuss them in the light of critical heritage studies and as part of a history of intellectual property law.

I was awarded my PhD at Stockholm University 2019 on the project Förlagd Form. Designkritik och designpraktik i Sverige 1860–1890 (Serialized Form. Design Criticism and Design Practice in Sweden 1860–1890), Gidlunds förlag 2019, where I explored the interconnections between aesthetic theories, the production processes and the commercial market of early-industrialised design in Sweden. The investigation shows how 19th century eclecticism in design functioned as an element design acting through motif repertoires, how this was a practice based on guild crafts methods blended with the collective processes of production-lines in manufactories, and how this was simultaneously affected by the flourish of images in contemporary, modern society. A strong implication for the Swedish context was German aesthetics in its popularised form, here identified and described as a popular aesthetics.