About this event
For millennia, people have sought to control the seemingly uncontrollable forces that surround them and find significance, structure, and comfort through the rich seams of occultism and magic that permeate the landscapes, places, lives, art, and objects of the cultures they inhabit. From folk magic and fortune telling, via alchemy and ceremonial magic, to popular astrology and WitchTok, these ideas, beliefs, and practices have been intrinsically connected to the creation and consumption of designed objects, buildings and spaces. However, in spite of the development of interest in occult subjects amongst art historians in recent decades, the relationship between design and the occult has largely been overlooked.
In this in conversation Sally-Anne Huxtable discusses the work she is undertaking to address the lack of design histories of magic, occultism and esotericism with a particular focus on the content and ideas explored her recent special issue of Journal of Design History on ‘Design and the Occult’ (Oxford University Press, 2025) .
,Sally-Anne Huxtable is Associate Professor in Critical and Contextual Studies (Design). Her work focuses on spirituality, belief, visual and material culture, colonialism, and landscape. She was formerly Head Curator of the National Trust where she led the work on slavery and colonialism at NT properties, and was Principal Curator of Modern and Contemporary Design at National Museums Scotland.
Image: The Romany Fortune-Telling Cup’ A.J. Wilkinson, Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent circa 1935. Credit: Sally-Anne Huxtable
For internal use only: XX064 XX050 XX055 XX051XX005 XX081
