Michael Findlay

Professional Practice Fellow, Design History to Spatial Design

Curriculum vitae

Michael Findlay started with Design Studies in 2000 after fifteen years in the museum profession. He was Assistant Curator of Decorative Arts at Auckland Museum and collections curator at the Otago Settlers Museum in Dunedin where he developed social history and design related exhibitions. His exhibition and other projects included The Sound of Dunedin [1996] on Dunedin popular music, Southern Lights (1998) on Otago landscape art and Reel Gold [1999] on Otago film.

He has written and contributed many articles relating to arts and architecture in Otago including an essay in the Montana Book Award winning Art of Graeme Sydney (2000). He writes a regular column on modernism for the New Zealand Historic Places Trust magazine Heritage NZ and manages the Port Chalmers Museum. He has recently completed a degree in Film and Media and Visual Culture and has finished restoring an Alfa Romeo GTV, a twenty-year project.

Michael runs a third-year Special Topic in 3D modelling entitled Super-model which explores creative strategies in 3D representation. His interests include the relationship between visualisation and design history; British modernist architecture; Italian product design; modern decorative arts and New Zealand architectural and design history. He is available to discuss topics in 3D modelling and design history at his office on the ground floor of the AppSc Building.

Areas of expertise

• 3D representation
• Design History
• British modernist architecture

Membership

• Designers Institute of New Zealand (DINZ), associate member