The issues surrounding the qualification of design

Catherine Geel is a lecturer, critic and cura- tor and is in charge of the History and theory of design course at the Ecole nor- male supérieure in Cachan and the Ecole nationale supérieure d’art in Limoges. She is also curator for the international festival Design Parade, associate curator at the Villa Noailles, head of design at Archistorm (an architecture and design magazine, Bookstorming) and has published Pierre Paulin designer (Archibooks, Paris, 2008), An interview with Pierre Paulin (Archibooks, Paris, 2008), “L’objet de l’amour et l’amour des objets dans la société hyperindustrielle” (The object of love and the love of objects in a hyper-industrial society) (in Constituer l’Europe, Bernard Stiegler, Paris, Galilée, 2005) and “L’ordre sans qualité” (Order without quality) (in Fresh Théorie, Marc Allizard (dir.), Paris, Léo Scheer, 2005). In this interview, Catherine Geel covers the question of the qualification of design not so much to try to outline a definition, one among many, than to attempt to outline both the reality and the necessity of its non-definition.