IDES 322: Techniques Studio
January 22nd, 2009 by Alex 16 Comments“Creativity is as important as literacy.” – Sir Ken Robinson
Today marks the first day of a new project that all of us are very excited about. The five of us will be collaboratively teaching a course – IDES 322: Techniques Studio – in the Industrial Design department at The University of the Arts. This is a class where students learn the basics of creating a website and putting their work online. In the past, this has meant a primary focus on web design practices and tools: Photoshop, HTML, FTP. Given the opportunity to take the reins this semester, we have decided to let these topics take a back seat and move in a different direction.
“My contention is that all kids have tremendous talents and we squander them. Pretty ruthlessly” – Sir Ken Robinson
We will not be teaching this technology. We are interested in how to be web citizens, how to be fluent on the web to both promote your work, but also how best to stay connected to interesting and important developments in your field. We believe that Adobe Creative Suite and its ilk have been replaced by the likes of WordPress, Google, Flickr, Vimeo, Twitter and Tumblr as the tools to master before establishing your presence on the web. We will be exploring these tools’ potential in a practical sense as well as discussing how they are changing the industry. Part seminar and discussion, part hands on studio work, we are all very much looking forward to what we will be able to learn from this process.
In keeping with the new spirit of the course, we will be blogging all topics and assignments here, on the Window, and asking students to respond to readings and discussion in the comments.
Let’s begin.
Week 1
READ:
- Getting Real, Ch. 1 – 16
- What Should a Modern Library Be?
- What Should a Modern Library’s Website Be?
WATCH:
- Hillman Curtis’s Artist Series: Milton Glaser
- TED Talk: Sir Ken Robinson: Do Schools Kill Creativity?
- The Machine is Us/ing Us
CREATE:
- If you don’t have them already, create Flickr, Google Reader, Delicious, WordPress, Twitter and Vimeo or Viddler accounts.
COMMENT:
- Write your thoughts on the readings as a comment on our blog.
- Link to your other sites and to any documentation that you create on your blog, in your Flickr account, etc.
- Link to all relevant blogs and feeds you have in your Google Reader.
Our goal for this week is to get the tone set and the dialog started. The next class isn’t until February 5, so we want to have these lines of communication firmly established to stay in touch over the next two weeks.
January 22nd, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Will you be recording your lectures and posting them?
January 23rd, 2009 at 9:58 pm
+In response to the fund yourself chapter they mentioned about how you can have a quick dollar invention or new software but the more you become involved with your own product and learn from failures the end result will be something that the consumer will see. If you need to rethink your ideas your not pressured with paying back promised money to investors. I think its better to have that kind of local reliable, thorough design than something that could be easily replaced or mass-produced or sold by Billy Mayze.
The point made about how sometimes you have to skim over costumer request really interested me. I always wondered how software companies improved or downsized with was is requested. I feel strongly about that because too much influence can delude your idea. Even at my young industrial design career I notice that taking to much advice from your peers or professors can affect the end result of what you feal strongly about.
January 23rd, 2009 at 10:01 pm
also can someone tell me how to upload videos.As you can tell my first two post were unsuccessful.
January 24th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
Brian: Currently we have no plans to record the classes as they are not going to be lecture based. This may change if the demand arises, however.
Paul: Good old Billy Mays. The “fund yourself” mantra is definitely one of the core principles that has lead to the great success of companies like 37 Signals, but how well does this apply to an industry where creating a product can require up front capital and manufacturing costs? Are there ways industrial designers can make use of this principle?
Unfortunately, you can’t embed videos in comments. If there’s a video you would like to share you can upload it to either Vimeo, Viddler, or YouTube, and then link to it here by pasting its URL into your comment. Also, I think the link to your Coroflot portfolio is broken.
January 24th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
i’m signed up for all the accounts except for WordPress…I’ll be needing some help to make a seamless migration over to WordPress or just with modifying my blogger account. i’ve seen some new templates i’d like to try.
Paul makes a good point that at a certain point you just need to follow your own path and break free of the restrictive chains sometimes. At the same time it’s those outside influences that help to shape our own path.
January 25th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
click my name for a vid
enjoy
January 27th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
I have been hearing about everyone getting emails to the account they signed up for Basecamp with, but I was just letting you guys know that I haven’t been receiving them
Maybe the email I provided was entered incorrectly or not working, not sure
Wasn’t sure where to ask, but you can contact me here or at thomasw@uarts.edu
Also, I’ve been sort of confused with google reader.. every time I subscribe to a site my reader seems to sort of become flooded with content that I can’t keep up.. wasn’t sure if I am using it wrong or not, as I’m really new to things such as RSS feeds, blogs, and reader applications
Thanks
January 28th, 2009 at 10:04 pm
Geoff, I liked your thoughts on the evolution of libraries. I’m wondering if you knew that was a subject half of us are tackling in our human factors seminar?
I don’t believe library’s should be closed, but evolve with the need of the users. The new wing planned for the Free library is excellent because it does meet some of the new needs, i.e. the craft center and new computers. I wasn’t aware of the expansion and wonder if it’s available due to shutting down the branches in South Philly. I can’t agree with that, those communities need those spaces.
I also think your website suggestions are fairly spot on for the library to progress into the future. Every time I visit that branch I notice how many people are there anyway but not interacting. It would be great to rebuild and continue to educate the community through their site.
January 29th, 2009 at 9:40 pm
I do agree that libraries are in need of a change. I don’t know many people who go to the library for other reasons then research for school. The library in my town is not much different then the library in Uarts, the information is different but its still the same drab setting. I really enjoy the thought of a “modern library” where you don’t have to just sit quietly and read, you can have peer lead discussions and even a craft center.
In the video, Do schools kill creativity? I agree strongly with the fact that kids today are being led away from creative expression. Even though he does it in a humorous way, I feel everything he said was absolutely right especially how we are frightened to be wrong, if your not prepared to be wrong you will never come up with anything original. A lot more teachers and parents should listen to him.
January 30th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
I agree with what kiki brought up about closing down other branches in the city to build a larger one and how that might effect those communities. But if all the plans go through and there is a larger more inviting library it will definitely boost that areas views on their community and open up some new job opportunities.
In response to the tedtalks video, the message that the speaker is trying to get across is a valid one, and an important one. But we are not a socialist country by any means, so for a radical change to occur in out school systems i think that is very unlikely.
February 4th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
When I think of the word library, nothing but dark thoughts and bad experiences come to mind. Why is this? Why isn’t a library more appealing when it’s time to get work done? For starters, I think the library should be referred to differently. Everyone hated the library as a child so now that we are older we would like nothing more than to never have to experience that again. Calling it something else, such as resource lounge… or knowledge center… or anything that puts a happier thought in our head rather than the current dismal one, would completely change the cold, dark, dusty feeling that is associated with the library. With a new name, there would be no preconceived negativity towards it. Everyone would at least want to check out what this new place is all about and would most likely visit it at least once. Once they have entered the doors, you want them to feel welcome and more than anything else comfortable. When I think library, I want comfort to be the first thing that pops into my head. Before we start redesigning the building itself, adding cafe’s and walls and what not, why not simply make it a little more like your home? Everyone has that one couch or chair or some spot in their home where they love to just relax and read a book. So why not create this good feeling where we work and do research? Creating a place that people would visit even when they don’t have work to do is, in my mind, what a modern library should be.
February 5th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
I think that the question of what is a “modern library” is a good one. My view of a library is a quiet place where an individual should be able to go to get some work done and find the information that they need. These days libraries aren’t as “popular” as they used to be. Personally I don’t use the library at all unless its for a project, but even then its not that often. As the years go by, more and more information is becoming accessible online, and the need to go to the library is diminishing. I feel that this can change though. If the public library were to be re-designed to meet the needs of a modern day student, that would be great. It would definitely bring a new feel to the idea of a library and it may even bring the community together, creating a new center for learning.
February 5th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
[...] the last class, we laid out the spirit of this course. This week our section overlaps with the Junto, so [...]
February 5th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
I really enjoyed the video we watched from the TED talks. I sent it to my mother right after class because she is a middle school art teacher and I felt that she would really enjoy it. In her field being able to inspire creativity in her students is an important idea for her, as well as education in general. I’ve been the victim of many a dinner table rant about the education system and how standardized testing is one of the worst ways to rate an education department.
February 12th, 2009 at 4:09 am
In the TED video, I don’t think we get educated out of creativity exactly, I think we get trained out of a pure, free thinking mindset that allows creativity to happen easily and spontaneously. This doesn’t happen through lack of education alone, it is also the environments the children are raised in. I feel that parents are responsible for being aware of and supporting their child’s talents just as much, if not more than their school. I love his ideas on academic inflation, I feel that this is a very true subject that is particularly effecting our generation and after. If we choose to see the values of the arts in all it’s forms I think the arts would bring back a richness to society that pure knowledge and technology lack. It would be a way for everyone to slow down and reflect, which are things especially important to do in the times we live in.
February 21st, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Sir Ken Robinson hit the nail on the head when he said that the modern educational system is a result of the rise of industrialism. That’s a powerful statement and a fact that we never take enough time to reflect on. This is probably because for nearly all of us, especially anyone currently in a western university or even online, have industrialism programmed into us to the point where it’s practically part of our genetic code. I am by no means opposed to industrialism or capitalism since I feel the positive effects far exceed the negative. However, there presently is not enough balance to maintain our current behaviors as a whole on this planet. I’ll digress from that thought for now since it opens a very complex line of discussion.
Back to the points about education and fostering creativity. Even before I decided to pursue an artistic path in life, I always found it curious that schools did not put more emphasis on the arts. It seems that they feel there are not enough high-paying jobs in those fields or as if they are less intellectual than math, science and humanities. This is especially curious since historically, in all societies it was the artisans, poets, actors and musicians that were highly regarded and often treated like royalty, not to mention they were usually very in-tune with the academia. For public educational systems, and even parents, not to nurture a child’s creativity is potentially dangerous. Who knows how many missed opportunities there has been simply because someone was not encouraged to meet their potential?
The need to create and stimulate one’s mind and express ideas is a basic human desire. To systematically repress this is proving to be counter-productive. Sir Robinson points this out by saying there has been a lot of emphasis on predicting the future and preparing students for the future as if anybody truly knows. I partially agree with this. While it is true that we cannot predict the future I feel that it is somewhat possible to shape the future. In that, the issue arises on how shape the future with any certainty or, if that should be done at all?