September 2008
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“Ultimately, we are deluding ourselves if we think that the products that we...”
– Bill Buxton (via bjdawes)
“The online world exists to make the offline world more interesting, NOT vice...”
– Hugh MacLeod
13 tags
Inefficiency
It’s not so much that I dislike inefficiency, but that I abhor inefficiencies that are imposed on me. In fact, inefficiency is important to learning. It’s an important part of the messiness that produces creative leaps. But inefficiency should be a person’s choice. People should choose how to waste their own time, not have their time wasted by others. When someone wastes your time it is too often...
15 tags
When education is not compulsory
From the same interview with David Foster Wallace:
Teaching [at Pomona College] is different, I think, since the students are there voluntarily, and are by definition young and labile and pre-specialized.
The fact that the students at Pomona are there because they want to be makes so much difference. On the other hand we have primary and, primarily, secondary schools packed with students who...
8 tags
Another kind of translator
Related to the importance of generalists and cross-pollination, David Foster Wallace discusses the rare, but important skill of communicating expertise to those outside our disciplines:
It might be that one of the really significant problems of today’s culture involves finding ways for educated people to talk meaningfully with one another across the divides of radical specialization. That sounds...
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Branding and Authenticity and Schools
“A logo is less important than the product it signifies; what it represents is more important than what it looks like.” -Paul Rand
“This holds true not just for logo marks specifically, but also in the broader, more abstract sense of brands in general. No brand is better or stronger than the products and experiences it represents. A good brand is strong because it is true, not because it...
Watch“HALVING has been an experiment on everyday objects. By simply cutting an ordinary object in half and reconstructing it, a new understanding of the object is gained.” - Halving a Table
WatchTRANSWORLD “Skate and Create”
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WatchLandscape
The Mixed Nuts exhibit took place in May 2008 in Australia. The project involved interpreting a stuffed nut pattern that was shared with all participating artists including, among others, Lori Joy Smith, Sandra Monat, Jess Hutchinson, Elsa Mora, and Kirsty Campion (the curator). You can see all of the finished products at Kirsty’s blog.
Our contribution (which we’ve been...
7 tags
WatchAn unusually unbiased look at homeschooling from CBS News Sunday Morning aired today. They didn’t try the typical stereotyping that so much of the media attempts to pass off as the full story, however the associate admissions director at Johns Hopkins was given a chance to take that side and express the long-since debunked socialization concern. There is also a text version of the segment.
Watch“Neuroscientists in Wisconsin are helping blind patients see with their tongues. Find out how they’re juggling the senses and rewiring the brain.” (via Wired Science via gizmodo via neo-nomad)
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WatchSami’s Selection [video by Enzo]
WatchPlay-Doh as Interface on Vimeo
Watch“Drawing” = Drawing a line on paper and opening a window on the screen. See also “Erasing”. (via laimagendelmundo)
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Watch“Wind-up bird(s) is an installation of networked mechanical woodpeckers.
Each woodpecker consists of a woodblock and pushmagnet, a custom-made electronic circuit and a radio modem.”
wind-up bird(s). See also a more detailed description of the project.
