The Corporation Game

The Corporation Game is to go online

2006-03-28T06:20:00.000+11:00

The Game is to go online. And needs volunteers from the game players for this to happen. If you would like to be involved say so here.

The Corporation Game: Learning and Teaching Evaluation

2006-03-28T06:19:00.000+11:00

Industrial Design, Semester 2, 2005

Background
The Corporation Game (CG) was a studio conducted in Semester 2 for first year Industrial Design students. The studio was different to usual studios in the program in that its learning objectives were not solely focused on developing technical skills and determining a design solution to a problem or design brief. The course was modelled like a professional training schedule with a structured set of goals and used specific teaching techniques to encourage the development of higher level thinking and conceptual skills of the students studying the course.

At the end of the semester, twenty-two students claimed the CG had changed their lives. This report presents the findings of a study by the DSC Academic Services Group which investigated why students made this claim about their learning experiences in the course.

What we did

2006-03-28T06:18:00.001+11:00

Overview
The Academic Services Group provides support to the portfolio’s academic and teaching staff in a variety of ways to improve learning and teaching practice in the classroom as well as extend the scholarship of teaching. In this instance, two members of the group were invited, as a neutral party, to investigate the learning experience of students in a design studio. We approached the study with the key objective of determining what the students believed had occurred in their learning experience of the course that had brought them to thinking their lives were changed. We contextualised the information we acquired from the students and teacher with our knowledge and expertise in the scholarship of teaching and the nature of good learning. This analysis then brought us to a scholarly understanding of what the students said they had experienced.

Methodology
Six students were invited to participate in a focus group. They were provided in advance with an outline of the issues that would be discussed. The preparatory questions were:
• what happened that was different to other studios you may have studied in,
• what you learnt (particularly now that you've had some time to reflect since you completed the studio),
• what you highly valued from the experience, and
• any suggestions for improvement?

Four students attended the focus group which was two hours in length. One student who was unable to attend provided some thoughtful responses around the issues in an email. The focus group discussions were semi-structured but generally followed the issues outlined above.

The teacher was informally interviewed twice, for one hour at a time. Each interview was structured around his narrative of his past and present experiences as a teacher and was interwoven with the influences and the beliefs he recognised underpinned his approach. We often asked him questions to clarify terminology, particularly as his language was grounded in ‘design’ speak, and ours in ‘teaching and learning’, to ensure we had the same understanding of meaning throughout the dialogue of the interview.

References

2006-03-28T06:18:00.000+11:00

Ballantyne, R., J. D. Bain & J. Packer (1999). ‘Researching university teaching in Australia: themes and issues in academics’ reflections’, Studies in Higher Education (24)2, pp 237-257.

Bolton, G. (2001). Reflective practice: writing and professional development. London: Paul Chapman, Sage.

Hager, P. (2005). ‘Philosophical accounts of learning’, Educational Philosophy and Theory, 37(5), pp649-666.

Hativa, N., R. Barak & E. Simhi (2001). ‘Exemplary university teachers: knowledge and beliefs regarding effective teaching dimensions and strategies’. Journal of Higher Education (72)6, p699-725.

Miley, W. M. & S. Gonsalves (2005). ‘What you don’t know can hurt you: students’ perceptions of professors’ annoying teaching habits’. College Student Journal’ (37)3, pp 447-455.

Ramsden, P. (1994) Using Research on Student Learning to Enhance Educational Quality. http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/deliberations/ocsld-publications/isltp-ramsden.cfm (Accessed 7th March, 2006) Reproduced with permission from Gibbs, G. (ed.) Improving Student Learning - Theory and Practice. Oxford: Oxford Centre for Staff Development (1994).

Conclusion

2006-03-28T06:17:00.001+11:00

The students believed that their lives had changed and there is strong evidence from the data collected in this study to support and understand this declaration. The key reasons for the students to have made the claim appear to rest in the fact that the CG was educationally designed to encourage learning that did not focus on acquiring content and skills, but on deep learning where students were encouraged to think creatively and to explore ideas that were challenging and brought about some shift in personal values and beliefs.

We congratulate the teacher for his careful crafting of the course as a deep learning experience and challenge for discovery for his students.

We congratulate the students who accepted the challenge to learn deeply and discover ideas and capabilities for themselves and as a result emerge from the experience with highly valued and personally meaningful gains.

What worked, what could be improved?

2006-03-28T06:17:00.000+11:00

From our investigation of the students’ thoughts and the teacher’s reflections about the CG, we believe it is extremely essential that the approaches to learning introduced to the first year students in this course are maintained throughout the program to ensure their personal and disciplinary growth and development can be encouraged and cultivated as they progress through their degree. If these approaches to learning are not explicit in other courses, then it is important that at least some program support and concern is available to students to ensure they can continue their own learning journeys in whatever ways are appropriate to them.

We also recommend that in future renditions of the course that in order to help ensure all students (or as close to this as possible) are engaged and committed to the new approach of learning for the duration of the course that the objectives and intent for learning in this way are clear from the outset of the course. This could be further assisted by defining how the approach differs to previous teaching methods that students may have experienced and by explicitly referring to the awkwardness and discomfort to learners that may result. These conditions could be incorporated into the ‘fine print’ of the learning contract.

We also recommend that some refinement in how the blogs are used as a learning tool is required. They were, by his own admission, time consuming for the teacher to manage. Given that they have such exciting potential as tools for learning, a more productive and efficient application of blogs may be required to ensure the repeated teaching of the course is sustainable.

To further assure the quality of his teaching, the teacher may also choose to adopt an explicit reflective practice methodology in his approach to his teaching to further ensure, for his own integrity and satisfaction that his approach to teaching continues to remain strongly aligned with his personal beliefs and values. This approach can also provide an internal dialogue for confidently examining and questioning new strategies and approaches, as well as creating opportunities for articulating and sharing good practice with colleagues (Bolton, 2001).

What we ascertained

2006-03-28T06:16:00.000+11:00

How does this align with the literature?
It was evident from the discussion with the students and the interviews with the teacher that a number of events and situations occurred in the course which enabled highly positive learning outcomes of a deep nature for the students. This conclusion is particularly strengthened when considering the views of Marton et al (1997) and Hager (2005) who pose that the highest level of good learning involves learners undergoing some change or development as a person and where learning is not just the development of “propositional understanding, but [also] cognitive, conative and affective capabilities” (Hager, 2005, p662). As well, Biggs (1999), in his analysis of deep learning includes the development of higher order thinking abilities such as analytical and conceptual capacities as desirable outcomes of good learning experiences.

In CG, the students demonstrated awareness of a number of significant personal changes and developments that they called ‘life changing’ and considered were a result of their experiences in the course. The changes they mentioned were cognitive and affective as well as having significant influence in reshaping values they held personally. Specifically, the changes they mentioned included their enhanced abilities to think creatively and confidently express ideas as well as recognising that they related with more respect and had more value for other students and their views. They also understood that they were developing a more sophisticated vocabulary for expressing their thoughts which increased their feelings of confidence.

Significantly, the students did not talk about knowing more, but talked about being challenged to consider issues from new perspectives. Ballanytne et al (1999) define this particular ability to know differently as a highly desirable learning outcome. Given that the objectives of the course were not to acquire content and skills, but to explore ideas and develop intellectual processes for thinking creatively, discovering and solving problems, these declarations of their learning outcomes are highly meaningful.

When talking about their experience of the CG, the students revealed many qualities of good teaching that they had experienced which resonate with the literature of good teaching. From their study, Miley & Gonsalves (2003) identify that students consider equality, respect, friendliness, accessibility and empathy to be highly desirable qualities of good teaching, each of which was mentioned by the students in CG. The students also alluded that their teacher was organised and enthusiastic, which are qualities considered by Miley & Gonsalves (2003) in their study to be positive indicators of good teaching.

In alignment with the national Course Experience Questionnaire indicators for good teaching, which is mentioned in this study because this survey is used to measure good teaching in the university, the teacher revealed that he paid particular attention to issues of ensuring appropriate workload, providing feedback and designing appropriate assessment for students. Also, in resonance with Ramsden’s (1994) qualities of good teaching, it was apparent the teacher was providing students with intellectual challenges, making them responsible for their learning, showing them respect and concern, understanding what students had learnt and what they needed learn, giving them feedback, monitoring the effects of his teaching and engaging in teaching as a conversation where students could learn and develop. The students’ positive comments about their experience of the learning contract model also suggest good learning outcomes that resulted from a direct intersection with a number of qualities of good teaching that specifically encouraged students to engage in independent learning and intellectual challenge as well as realise there was relevance and respect of their work.

In his narrative, the teacher also revealed qualities of good teaching that strongly resonated with the themes from narratives and insights of exemplary teachers from a study conducted by Ballantyne et al, (1999). These key themes included a love or enthusiasm for one’s discipline, valuing students and their perspectives and teaching to make learning possible (Ballantyne et al, 1999). In their discussion, the students particularly reinforced that they had experienced the qualities of feeling valued and respected and being in situations where they were able to learn.

The teacher designed the studio around the theme of a game and this in itself generated much fun and excitement for participants. The theme kept students intrigued and interested. They weren’t just being entertained in lectures but they were actively engaged in their own learning in the workshops and in the peripheral learning they undertook during the week. They recognised that the issues they were exploring in the CG were relevant and ones to which they could make connections to their own lives and experiences. Relevance and fun are also key qualities for good learning (Ballantyne et al, 1999; Marton et al, 1997).

What did the teacher say?

2006-03-28T06:15:00.000+11:00

At the outset, the teacher stated that there was no content in his course. In clarifying what he meant by this almost emphatic statement, we determined that there was curriculum (as we recognised it) but it was not prescriptive or rigidly fixed as is typically the situation with many industrial design courses which are designed for students to develop specific technical skills. From our understanding, ‘content’ existed in the CG in that there was a general framework of purpose and intent in this course, demonstrated by the overall objectives set by the teacher, but students had a wide range of choice about what they explored and how they explored and learnt., which, in the discipline of design education is not widely recognised as ‘content’.

Other key issues to emerge from the interviews with the teacher concerned his beliefs underpinning his teaching, his general strategies for teaching and his experience of teaching the CG. These issues are explored below.

Beliefs underpinning teaching
In his narrative of his teaching experiences, the teacher revealed beliefs framed on the notion of ‘shifting the learner’ where students are supported to develop to their full capacities. He related that for him the essence of learning is about learning to think in creative ways in order to solve problems. Importantly, learning, for him, is not based on acquiring content, but on developing process or intellectual capacity. Related to this belief is his approach that in addition to setting up deliberate opportunities for active learning, one aspect of learning is about ‘just being in a space’ and allowing students to be immersed or surrounded by the unfamiliar and strange sensations of what they are learning in order to gradually adjust and settle into layers of familiarity.

In revealing his beliefs he also described teaching as a process to facilitate learning that encourages students to discover and think about new ideas for themselves. He also implied that teaching involves encouraging students to move into uncomfortable spaces and to fully experience the awkwardness of being trained or built up in their learning, like athletes. This meant that for him, teaching is always an act of faith where he can only hope that students will take the challenge to be stimulated to learn.

In his personal teaching objectives for developing the learner, the teacher also knew that in order to be able to shift or ‘transport the learner’ he first needs to effectively reach them and this requires gaining their trust. He therefore grounds his teaching with core principles of building respect and maintaining the personal dignity of everyone involved.

He also expressed a commitment to the effectiveness of community activism and the lived experience of the advocacy, application and sharing of learning within a wider network. He expressed a strong commitment to Robert Chambers’ principles of respect building in social interactions and community engagement.

Strategies for teaching
The teacher talked about a range of strategies that he employed in his approach to teaching and learning.

He has learnt from his twenty years of teaching the importance of measuring student energy to understand their engagement with the courses he teaches. He is aware for instance, that in the early stages, he needs to engage and motivate his students. If he feels their engagement is cool, he is willing to use a ‘stock trick’ in order to get their attention and reveal to students that he believes he has screwed up and failed as a teacher and that as a community they need to renegotiate their approach to learning in the course.

He also understands that intense learning can create an environment of uncertainty and this in turn can generate nervous energy, lots of questions and arguments and requires constant affirmation and feedback to students to maintain their trust and sense of safety. He recognises that good learning is accompanied by high energy levels and he encourages students to generate lots of exuberance and excitement in their own connections with him and each other.

He spends a great deal of time planning and preparing lectures for his students with their interests and capabilities totally in mind. He sets high standards by aiming to produce unforgettable and provocative educational events that will unsettle his students to think differently and be shifted as learners. He prepares countless handouts and tries to reach students through a variety of mediums (eg film) to demonstrate concepts of design. He tries at all times to work with themes or points of reference that are relevant or of interest to students. He uses narrative and story to ‘open their minds’. He considers lectures and resources as tools to inspire the students’ own learning and investigations of intellectual discovery.
He is conscious of being respectful at all times with his students and introducing them to new concepts without being dismissive or patronising in order to be inclusive and earn their trust. To assist them in developing personal intellectual stamina, he adopts an approach of immersion where students are surrounded by the vocabulary and discourse of an issue and encouraged to just ‘be in the space’. He also views the semester as an opportunity to ‘slow things down and amplify the small’ and thus creates opportunities for students to engage in considered investigation and detailed examination of issues and processes.

Experience of teaching the CG
The teacher admitted he found the experience of teaching the CG personally consuming in the amount of preparation required and the commitment he made to being attentive to his students. This commitment meant he wrote notes about every student, reading and making comments about their blogs which the students used as reflective tools to support their learning. He also ensured that to continue building trust with the students that he was honest with them and answered all their questions about himself.

He reached agreement with the students that the lecture was his time with them and that they then had the freedom to conduct the weekly workshops. In his lectures he shared practical approaches and tools for thinking with his students as well as preparing what he hoped would be memorable events with extensive handouts and resources to inspire their learning. He also maintained his own blog which became another highly developed intellectual tool of communication with students in the course.

He established processes of peer review so students could comment on each other’s contribution in the course with an emphasis on personal development and risk taking behaviours without focusing on judgment and criticism. He also gave them individual feedback about their progress, being careful to not give too much and hence encourage potential cue-seeking behaviours.

He introduced the learning contract to remove the stresses associated with trying to achieve high marks. Each student agreed upon and their individual grade at the beginning of the semester and was then able to manage their own learning and life commitments accordingly. If students chose to aim for a Pass, they could expect to achieve ‘rite of passage’ outcomes without too much sacrifice, whereas if students chose an HD goal, they could expect to be learning and developing intensely but with little room for much else in their lives.

The teacher designed the course around the theme of a game and exploring ideas. Students were given ‘conditions’ to maintain each week which included a set dress code. Games and films were the key resources for inspiring learning. He provided guidelines for discussion groups based on principles of respect, value and dignity. His blog for the course was designed like a theatre with actors and personas taking roles to express various issues and reveal implicit dynamics within the course.

He modelled ways for the students to express themselves, helping them to discuss intellectual and creative ideas. He encouraged them to use their blogs as tools for self-talk and engaging in reflective processes.

The teacher was aware that not all students were passionate in the ways they embraced the opportunities to learn in the studio. He noted that those who chose not to engage so intensely or exuberantly in the discussions were often alienated or ostracized. Some students did not participate with blogs and on the basis of respecting difference he left them alone until about two thirds through the course and then attempted to draw them in by talking individually and gaining commitment to use the blogs.

He agreed that at the end of the course, he certainly did see many students transformed in their abilities to think and discuss ideas. These changes, even at mid-semester, were becoming obvious where he observed changes in the students’ abilities, evidenced by the depth of discussion they were able to have with staff at that time.

What did the students say?

2006-03-28T06:12:00.000+11:00

The key issues to emerge from the discussion with the students about their experiences of the CG were about their feelings of learning, their descriptions of the learning environment and their realisations of what they had learnt. These issues are elaborated upon below.

Feelings of learning
The students agreed that throughout the studio they felt valued and respected by their teacher. This support gave them the courage to try new unfamiliar activities and discover new things about themselves which ultimately led to their feelings of increased self-confidence. They also described the sensation of true learning as involving a sense of feeling uncomfortable and disoriented, but this was considered to be a positive aspect of learning because it would inevitably pass into a state of feeling energised and confident. Generally, they were highly satisfied and felt personally empowered by what they had achieved in the studio.

Learning environment
The students described the introductory experiences to the studio as disorienting and disarming. For the first few weeks they felt uncomfortable and anxious, as well as angry and annoyed that they were not receiving any clear guidance or direction. They spoke at length about one lecture, that is, the Paper Lantern lecture. This event appeared to serve as a catalyst within their experience of the CG because this particular lecture was where they were challenged about the ways they thought and approached learning and were subsequently invited to make a deliberate choice about how they would learn. Some took the challenge and ‘jumped in the pool’ to join their teacher ‘splashing about’, others ‘stayed on the edge’.

The students said they trusted their teacher, but only after an initial struggle to let go of their old patterns and familiar ways of learning. They indicated that their trust in him was reinforced by their teacher demonstrating he was being honest and ‘real’ with them which they recognised through him sharing his own frustrations in teaching the course. As a result, they started to feel safe in the studio and developed strong personal senses of belonging and being part of something unique.

The students described at length their use of personal blogs for reflecting on their learning. The adoption of blogs by students in the course was initially slow, but as the studio progressed, the tools gained momentum in their use and were considered by the students to be most useful for expressing in more thoughtful and considered ways the emotional issues they encountered in their learning in the CG. The students also agreed that when they realised that their teacher was making the time to read their individual blogs it increased their own sense of self-worth and commitment to engage with the tool for their own learning as well as their respect and trust of him as their teacher.

Each student negotiated a learning contract with their teacher and they agreed that this approach enabled them to be more comfortable, feel safe and unstressed in engaging with the objectives of the CG. The students concurred that the learning contract meant that their individual goals for ‘achieving’ were their own and were not solely driven by striving for good marks and having to be at university. They felt that the contract also implied acknowledgement by their teacher that the rest of their lives mattered and that their personal experiences were an important influence in their individual learning in the CG.

Realisations of learning
The students related a number of significant realisations about their learning. They were explicit in stating that learning was about exploring ideas and not just developing technical skills as their previous experiences in the program had purported. The emphasis in their learning had shifted away from developing skills (product) to learning how to think (process) as well as discovering self and ideas. They were confident that they were each developing a common language for expressing and exploring ideas which also reinforced by a strong personal sense of belonging to a community of their own.

They agreed that despite sometimes feeling anxious, angry and annoyed that these feelings were a positive aspect of their learning experience. They realised that these uncomfortable times ultimately preceded more energised and exciting states of new realisations and connections. They recognised that these patterns for experiencing learning were desirable and conditions they would seek and recognise as positive in the future.

They agreed that through the CG they had learnt to learn from each other, and not only depend on their teacher for directing their learning. His lectures and stories were inspiration or springboard for learning activities. They realised that in learning, there is no single right way or answer. They had also made connections with what they were learning in the CG with their personal lives and interests outside of university which reinforced further that they were exploring and learning for themselves.

The students implied that because of the CG they experienced new feelings of respect and value for others. They felt that they had improved their abilities to listen, to discuss ideas with others and to work in teams. They also had more confidence to question and explore ideas without becoming as personally and emotionally involved in discussions.

The students also revealed realisations that it was likely that what they had learnt in CG would become more obvious to them over time. They stated that even though some aspects of their experience didn’t make total sense now, they believed that the true value of what they had learnt would be more apparent in the future.

Looking back

2006-02-26T20:24:00.000+11:00

The Corporation Game came to an end. And a few things happened:

1. I wrote to the university to get an evaluation of the course done: Helen and Angela picked up on the assignment and had a round of conversation with the students and then met me. The process used was focus groups and interviews. The result of the evluation is to written up by them as a report. When I get this I will put it up on the blog and/or mail the game players a copy.

2. The Game Players made a book: The book is in the voice of the game players and tells the stody of an educational journey. Its very well written and put together. Give it a few years and when you loo back it will look good. I ahve spoken to colleagues about the CG by using the book.

3. I am writing a conference paper for Lisbon called the Corporation Game: In Lisbon I will meet all my old friends from Turkey, Israel and UK. This I will take to show them what I am up to.

Many of you keep coming up and saying 'I have heard things', and 'are you going to run the corporation game again'- my answer to that is:
1. I will probably never ever run the Corporation Game.
2. All my teaching is based upon the principles that the students saw in the Corporation Game.
3. I believe the content of the course is irrelevant, it is the method that is critical. And the method that characterised my work in the CG is what I will always do.
4. I work upon the students, and build their capability. This is what I have done for 20 years. Its my second decade as a teacher of design - and nothing has changed.

But for those of you who saw significance in our collaborarive realisation - thank you. You 'let go' - and it works every time.

Bloglines

2005-10-04T06:46:00.000+10:00

Follow this link to see where your new posts show up. Where every new post shows up!

http://www.bloglines.com/blog/soumitri

"So Feeds it is
By soumitri
Warren told me about this yesterday. Apparently this is what the "IT" content magangers do. A blog that captures all other blogs and 'feeds'. And is a way to revolutionise my life - for months I have been trawling through individual blogs and often the trawling has been unproductive - juts taking time - and now the new posts show up as numbers in this blog. Sounds good!!"

Fringe Tough Problem

2005-09-23T06:28:00.000+10:00

Went to the Fringe Party Yesterday. Not Impressed - in fact angry and irritated. Not happy Melbourne Museum, Not happy!!

Whats is the problem?
The paper lanterns were treated SHABBILY.
1. They were not lit.
2. They were under an escalator.
3. They were all clustered together. Likes waifs huddled together in the cold.
Not happy!

So here is the thing - what should we do?

Option 1: Business as usual - do nothing. Shrug.
Option 2: Get them to connect up the lights. Incremental Change.
Option 3: Ask for apology, Money back, and for repositioning of lanterns to be separate and more prominent individually.

Discuss Please.

Blog: And make my life productive

2005-09-16T09:19:00.000+10:00

Here is the thing:
1. I visit your blog every day. And I may not be seeing a post. And I may be visiting many blogs and not seeing any posts or seeing very few. This makes for a reasonably unproductive activity.
2. I visit your blog every day.
3. I have begun a conversation with you - individually. I have waited for 10 weeks to feel confident enough to do this. But having spoken to you I am expecting you to open yourself in your blog. I am waiting to see you talk about yourself - your reflexive study.
4. Why reflexive: For both capability development and more crucially for creativity development you need to go through an activity that is introspective. The dumbledore exercise of taking stuff out of your head.
5. What would I like: To make my blog cruising productive if you can put a post in every day till Oct 17 (end of sem) that would be good.

Note you may not yet have made the transition to:
1. Starting the Blog: Do so and let us talk about your initial experiences on Monday.
2. You have a blog but Posting to it is some distance away: What is the point you say? You mind is a strange thing. And as designers this is our primary resource. Blogging has been known to make tigers out of mice and other such miracles. So give it a shot. If it doesnt work? Doesn't mater - its only for another four weeks - you will be rid of this course soon enough.
3. You have a blog and you have posted but are not doign a lot on this now: This is the end of the season, the course. And it is here that the blog becomes crucial. So do it for your mag/ book, for your reflection, for a self assessment. And as a contribution to the newer bloggers.

I went on the net looking for 'reflexive study' and in a short span of time could only find this example. Which curiously enough is hugely relevant. Take a look.
Writing a reflective journal.

Charles's Blog

2005-09-14T09:45:00.000+10:00

Charles is a thrid year student and is in Purdue for the Semester. This is his Blog.

You probably have already encuntered him in the book they have put out.

Inspirational

2005-09-14T08:40:00.000+10:00

How do you build Creativity

2005-09-13T09:31:00.000+10:00

(First you clear the land, then you squat on the land, you sleep there in tents, you make friend with the isects that live there, you cry for your shortsightedness in clearing the land and begin replanting trees and weeds. You then go looking for another place, on the way you wonder if you should live in trees, or just ourdoors, or underground. And as you do this you pull out your flute or digeridoo - and make some music. I have time you say - and tomorrow is another day. So you lie back and look at the sky.)

P: I see you have been reading Richard Florida – a bit late to be doing this now that his next book is out? And this one is not the hot new thing.
S: Its taken me this long to get to both Florida and Clive Hamilton. I do have a small problem with these texts that speak about the spirit of the times and usually end up reading this stuff not for insight but to use the phrases like ‘creative class’ and ‘affluenza’ in the way the authors meant them. I have changed my mind slightly about Hamilton - he is quite dangerous in his conservatism – he seems to be saying that the world we live in is okay, we just need to tweak it a bit so that it looks like the society of 30 years ago. And I do not have much space for this brand of conservatism - politicians are better if only because they are up front about their ideology. But that is something else again. Yes Florida is interesting – if only because he privileges the creative class – and in this it has a resonance with the studio course – creativity is the most important thing. Content? That can belong to someone else.

P: But you have chosen a slightly unorthodox way to get the creativity happening. What is this about films and going to talks and ‘reflexive study’?
S: My introduction to student culture here is just a year and a half old. In this period I have seen a lot of pragmatism and an awesome ability to do hard work. The pragmatism makes the headset of the design student privilege an approach that is better suited to product engineering – but that is another profession. Is design product engineering of domestic objects? Okay the engineers don't do this because they find it too lo-brow – but is this what industrial is all about? Don't think so. Re hard work: a lot of this is linear – and comes after – ‘you tell us what to do and we will show you how hard we can work’. But that is engineering kicking in again. So this was one thing.

P: And the other?
S: The other was that there was a sneering at cultural things. Films? Waste of time, but people watched ‘heroic’ Hollywood films in the main. Lots of TV watching. Art? No we are not arty types – that's not for us. Politics? Naw, sorry not for us. So what was their take on design going to be. Not a lot –a lot of skills privileged, things (usually things for homes to be bought by female socialites who subscribed to pretty picture design magazines) in portfolio privileged. And they were here to put this cultural stuff into material things. How can they if they don't value it. What they value is technical wizardry (‘awesome’), and the bizarre – though not the supreme virtuoso treat from the designer.

P: Easy there. You are drifting and careful - that is not it. We are talking about the way you constructed the course.
S: Okay. Last night I actually sat and looked at the proposal I had written up for Mick at the end of last semester. The focus was primarily upon problem solving methods – and the way to ‘sell’ the idea at balloting was to use the image of Blues Brothers (art) as an image of the ’corporation’ (privileging good thinking). I was also going to use the blank chart for individual student plans. And looking back that has been it.

P: What about the exercises? The paper lantern?
S: I planned out the sessions for July and built up a back-up plan for the other. And in time the students would help flesh out the content. They would take charge – and in this they would be empowered. Now the paper lantern was arbitrary – it was used for an illustration of the questioning technique. And then this was followed up with using the spider diagram for the same exercise.

P: Tell me more.
S: The first time the paper lantern (PL) was attempted the students said ‘we can do it’. And I said ok take 20 minutes, then come back and tell me what you are doing. When they came back I said – you did a lantern, but not the paper. At this point they were activating ‘their shared way of doing design’ – which is one way: a way that I am bracketing as the ‘way of the engineers’. And we needed to put this away and start the learning journey.

P: And was that it, just like that - the learning process started?
S: Aw no. In fact almost half of them are yet to start this journey. And I am hoping this will happen now, or has happened now. But it is hard for them to do things without thinking things through, sketching things and visualizing how it will be used. I am saying ‘get into paper’ – begin a romance with paper. It takes hours and hours and it is a different world on the other side. But they are saying- no we will only start work after we have visualized what we will end up with. We will not just ’waste’ time playing with paper. We will not do this – we have more important things to do. And so I said Okay – I will wait. And I have waited- and will wait out till the end of the semester.

P: Why are you doing this?
S: To make each one of them more creative.

P: But can’t you do that by explaining it to them?
S: Like I said to them – would you like to learn to swim by attending a lecture series, or by swallowing a pill. Would you like to learn to cycle by attending a lecture. What I am saying is – no I don't agree that you have realized what the creative state is – Until, Until I see evidence that you have spent all that time experimenting with paper. And so it goes ....

I spoke too much

2005-09-12T21:35:00.000+10:00

It must have been 1995 or so and I was a member of a discussion group - The Dead Teachers Society. And we all discussed our teaching practices. Freely and openly.

Louis Schmier (http://www.halcyon.com/arborhts/louis.html) said to me once that I should listen more. That I should shut up and let the students come through. I took his advice and practiced this - and it is always tough. I am always on the verge of stepping in and saying something. And then the magic would disappear.

I felt I spoke too much today. I have my 11.00AM slot. I will stick to it in the future.

On Design Education

2005-09-12T21:03:00.000+10:00

When Brandon said this looked a lot like Zen I immedialtely thought of Itten who taught at Bauhaus. Itten had a loyal following of students and they all (some certainly) followed with him his passion for Mazdaznan. See
http://www.designandfun.com/interview_with_carl_auboeck_jr_.htm

So design education in the 20th century came out an art school context. And the design school I went to - National Institute of Design in India - owed some of its roots to the design school in Ulm. That was the part that dealt with the intellect - the cynics (Tom Wolfe) referred to this as the 'ab initio' principle of design. That rationalistic scientific way in fashion in Europe in the 30s.

But the design school also had an ideological side to it - and this was to do with the role of design as an agency to solve genuine problems in society. We all were part of this anti-product brigade and imagined wewould all be working to make life for the less privileged better. Many of my contemporaries still do this (http://www.focusweb.org/index.php).

When I began teaching in 1986 I was part of a group of progressive educators (http://www.ashanet.org/library/articles/seekhna_sikhana.1997.html) who looked beyond the content of education and evaulated their performance based upon real learnings. Over the years I was to move on to be inspired by others, even 'patch adams'. But Louis Schmier was a strong influence too.

So when you set out today to look to redesign the course - how you would do it- two things came to the fore. One was the fact that you can - just like my workers in the recycling project would sit in a circle and define policy for the project, 'should we do this or that'. And their way was usually sympathetic and richer. So you can design your own learning experience. It would be the way of Kahane and complex problem solving.

Another was that you touched the fact that the content was arbitrary. You could swap the corp game for a book (?) or something else. Because it was not about the content at all. It was about the learning - and that was not about learning to design. That will come later - you are still in your first year. It was about you - it was about your becoming learners.

But you asked for more. And you had an opinion about many things that were not quite right. The anxiety, the lack of feedback, the confusion about purpose, the 'do it again', and so on. But these were precisley the things I needed out of you - the things you needed to overcome. And this was the place where the learning was located. So it was not negative so much as that boil - which needed to grow, fester, be painful, go on and on and then burst - which is seen by many as necessary.

You all felt this. Some of you went on to wait it out and then moved on, and some of you moved back.

Objectives of the Course

2005-09-12T20:30:00.000+10:00

This was the spider diagram about what you were setting out to accomplishin this semester. So what do three of these things accomplish?

1. Watching Films: Helps you in "Improving your cultural capital". Also going to art galleries, talks and such.
2. Talking about your feelings in your blog (Doing a reflexive study): Helps in your "Becoming confident: Learners, entrepreneurs, humans"
3. Making your paper lantern ( again and again): Helps in "Improving your creativity: From being able to go into creative states to being able to use creativity techniques on demand". Helps you get a sense of familiarity with the creative state.

Just three things we need to keep up. These were not stages to somewhere - but were proposed as things you could keep on doing, keep on doing, keep on doing, ... So I would be really happy to see you go into this, go back into this.

More paper lanterns after fringe? Yes more, maybe smaller ones. But keep at it. This time it is for yourself and not for a competition.

More blogging? Yes I would really like it if all of you got on to doing your blogs. And did a reflexive study - talked about your feelings. And lots of inconsequential things.

More Films? Yes lots more. But I would be really happy if you read articles about the directors and rewatched the films. This is one of the best ways to get accustomed to the domain of an art form that is easily accessible. Why not do one show in class for everyone? And then talk about the film.

New Handout

2005-09-07T06:32:00.000+10:00

I came in today with a handout. Yes I am in a small panic.
Why?

Because I needed to be sure the Missionary Mode has not kicked in - "we are converts and we will get the others in". This is the way that killed off those thousands of Aboriginals and stole the generation - "lets give them a life. They dont know whats good for them". And this is wrong - we need to move towards engagement and high energy levels.

The Missionary has pots of energy - and that is a good thing. The Missionary has attitude and that is not so good.

Better that it be 'lets talk' and the conversation is the 'mount fleur' experiment. People can listen as they speak.

I have many more copies sitting with me - I will leave them with Brian and you can pick up a copy.

6th September

2005-09-06T07:12:00.000+10:00

P: So what is this community mobilization?
S: Learning to solve tough problems. This is something the second years were introduced to and are very excited by; first they did the Walton group problem, and tried different methodologies. Then they were introduced to the difference between the paper lantern and the complex problem. In that year they have Carl who was looking to become a tough problem solver-and he is an active member of the anti-VSU campaign. I am assuming three in this group – Steve, Andrew and Clinton are sensitive to big problems. And would love to go into Adam Kahane.

P: But that isn’t all is it? What is the dressing up and strategies thing all about?
S: The route to Kahane is through the shell scenario thinking methodology. And is also through the failure of the ‘reductionist approach’.

P: So what happened yesterday – was it reductionist?
S: Incredibly yes. They went looking for problems – which is good. Maybe next time they will look for ‘drivers’, and energies. They are solving problems – but there are no problems – only a desire for a different tomorrow. They are forming a community, and are meeting for a barbecue. That is a social practice. And I will take Raph’s caution on board - this may fail, but again it may work. Either way this little group is now on its way to getting into a community of elite problem solvers.

P: Did everyone speak- were all the stakeholders involved?
S: Many were in, some were still in their heads. This is the challenge – we are not in Aceh, or New Orleans – and not everyone needs to make a gesture. They can still keep their chairs a little apart – I am special, I am different. It is the challenge the community has to rise to – will they turn and speak to the disengaged? This is confronting – but then if you have done it once you acquire the ability to do this. So will they? I do not know.

P: And the dress?
S: This was an old blog discussion –‘if we stop dressing as the corporation, what do we do? Do we dress like dissenters’. That was in the first class when we had three categories: Corp, dissenters, designers. But these days we have 8 or more categories. And there is a ‘problem solving’ reason for our dressing. There are three groups – will the groups use the phone tree to each wear a plastic rose in their button hole, or a hat (a la Thomas Crown Affair – yes I watch a lot of Hollywood films, and yes my criticism of H’wd was to get you to see the masters), or red socks? And make this a game – ring a ring a roses – and raise energy levels? We have to wait and see.

Do you want to be a MISSIONARY, Do you want to be Jack Nicholson in 'a few good men', Do you want to be Vito Corleone in the Godfather?

Last night I wished the John Cage Birthday celebration on ABC Classic FM at 10.30 PM could have been circulated thru the phone tree.

And so on Kahane and Solving compelx problems
ON Mount Fleur
From Scenraio Thinking to Strategic Action
The Whole Earth People

Why Competitions

2005-09-01T09:18:00.000+10:00

I am trying to get you all into the culture of competitions, and that was the purpose of the talk.

First about competitions and ID: The other programs in the school (architecture, landscape, interior and fashion) do not have access to so many competitions. ID has lots of competitions and which means industrial designers can participate in a lot of competitions. But to do so they have get into the spiritof this thing called the competition. And so I said 'what is a competition'. It looks altruistic, and seems to be about good ideas. But is it?

The more you know about competitions the more comfortable you will become with them. And it is a fact that people find competitions confronting, and avoid them. And some think it is a waste of time. Though some of my friends have made money from competitions. Some others have acquired status and prestige. So there are rewards.

Raph aksed if we talk more on this. So can we please?

Awaiting your post!!

Dear Nick

2005-09-01T08:23:00.000+10:00

I said ‘don't make the lamp, be good to yourself’. And I saw the color rise to your face. I had hurt you. And my first instinct was to sit down and write you a letter to say – that wasn’t what I meant. That wasn’t it at all. But as I had said come and see me Wednesday, I had to wait. Wednesday came and went and I didn’t see any of you from that table. So now I am feeling terrible. And so this letter.

But this isn’t the first time we have had a run in. Its happened once before in a similar fashion early in the semester. And there have been other small run ins. And it has just all added up. What is going on? So here goes - I will try and think through my hands.

You said early in the semester you will do the competitions – and I asked how. You said you had already started doing sea art and would continue in that vein. And you are right – anyone can do competitions. But the ‘way of work’ they deploy would be learned in different contexts. You can be an engineer, a CAD operator or an artist – and still be able to do the competition. You can also be a designer and do the competition. You can think, sketch, paint, model and make. And it would appear that these skills would allow you to do whatever you need to do. In your blog I have seen a display of awesome skills, especially your CAD – and have no doubt you can do anything you wish.

But on another side you opted to come into the Corporation Game. And at some stage came into design school too. Why, I ask myself, would someone so accomplished, wish to study design? There may be any number of reasons – but let me look at three: (a) to get accredited/ validated/ to get the certificate (but you are not one of those), (b) to learn about design to become a designer and (c) learn new ways of doing (thinking and solving problems). I think you may be right in your goal being (b). But this fraction of the 1st year studio was set up differently – it wasn’t about design or learning about design. That was the other fractions – restaurant and sports. This fraction has no content. This fraction is about ‘ways’ of doing. This fraction makes serious thinking a game. This fraction is about you – and your transformation, in eight different axes. This fraction is about RISK – it is about putting yourself out there and trying new things. This fraction is about letting go of your ways (just till the end of the semester, and then you can revert to old ways and say ‘this is not good enough’) just to try new ways.

But how do I say that to you? To any of you?

I am a teacher. I see you working – and I say try this. Years ago I saw a video on Navratilova training. She watched videos of herself playing – hour after hour. And worked with her coach to change her actions: her movements and strokes – constantly tweaking, improving, trying. And she was a champion. So are you. But you can do more – and you need to let me in.

The paper lantern is the supreme provocation. You cannot do it with your left brain. I have said this again and again. It is a project – and a pure one at that. It privileges experimentation. And the ability to do it again and again. It privileges the eye, the play of light, the texture, the technique. It privileges the development of technology: anara’s experimentation with layers, pieces – bens experimentation with stitching – and kellys waffle textures. And you need to do this – (and it is not too late) - to get your hands dirty, to get down and do – and silence your left brian. You need to set up the situation for magic to happen. And you need to court failure - you need to set up situations which will fail. You need to do so that you can destroy what you do. You need to forget aboutthe end - and slowly, slowly beging to enjoy the journey. 'Where are you going?' 'Nowhere'. Then why? Because it is the journey, the way, LIFE, living and not the end (that is the epitaph).

You can do a fantastic lantern in CAD. But that is not the point. And so I said to you – ‘just leave it, don't push yourself’. And that is what I was saying.

I was also saying ‘the learning is not in the object’ – it is in the process. And you have to let go of something – for a while – to be able to pick up the new.

Dumbledore in Harry Potter has a bowl into which he puts his thoughts. He has lived for many hundred years and needs to periodically empty his brain to make space for the new. I do not ask for you to empty anything. But I ask you to try another way. And look not at the end (that does not matter) but at the journey. This is the way of the backpacker: to privilege the journey and the long treks into the marginal and poorer areas. While the stereotypical Japanese/American tourist privileges the destination and the tourist hot spots, and the showing of videos and pics when hey get home.

Come and talk to me. And I am sorry. But it isn’t easy for me. I need all the help I can get.

Understanding 'good' students

2005-08-30T22:42:00.000+10:00

Something Liam said resonated with me as I was doing the Phaedrus chat. We had been talking about the Learner Centred Project and he said 'it is the traditional HD students who seem to be having the most trouble with grades at the beginning of the course'. There was something in what he was saying. Maybe some of you who are turned off by me have been HD students before this. If this possibility exists then I need to do some home work. And here is what I threw up.

I went looking for how can someone consistently get high grades through school and college. And if the net can help. It of course took me into schools - where you get high grades for doing what you are told. So here goes:

1. I found this web site: "One of the biggest challenges of getting good grades is how to make the large amount of schoolwork more manageable, and one of the longest sections of this guide explains in detail how to do that". So this was about work management. The paper lantern was the exact opposite - it said the more time you spend on this the more rewarding it will be. ummm.... "Getting good grades in college is a challenge that is best conquered using proven methods of studying and a particular framework of attitudes."

2. This site said " The goal of this course is to design champions". And what does being a champion learner in design school mean. I wonder!

3. This is a bit less strategy orientated - so maybe not as useful in the tricks department. "Times change. The definition of "student" once was "one who studies something". Today it can mean merely "one who attends a school, college or university"." And then what happens when you attend - you run into teachers who teach stuff the meaning of which is not clear or valuable?

No tips I can give you yet ...

4. "Time to Narrow Down Your Extracurricular Activities" Interesting

5. "what you will wish you had known"

6. "Good grades in high school have ‘halo effect’ that protects against smoking"

So the HD gives you a "Halo effect" in school. WOW!! Also in uni? Maybe.

But if people are not keen to get good grades - but are going for the pass, and not because they are not good but because they have chosen to "downshift" or consume less or do less or stress less or whatever, then does the "halo effect"(HE) disappear.

Does anyone seriously work to get the HE? And is this a way to make a statement or be noticed in the community?

What happnes if the teacher says all my students are equal - all are as good. It is just that some of them are preoccupied with relationships or have personality issues - and this is the place to go thru all these changes and so why should anyone be penalised for falling in love. Just be honest - no can do, am obsessing about someone. And that is fine. Privilege life over work. Good stuff - right ho!

My conundrum still is with the complexity of negotiating university. Can we get away with doing little? Yes. can we get good grades by doing a little,and a burst at the end? umm doubtful. Very little learning in this - very little dialogue. So good grades tough on this route. Can we get good grades by doing stuff our way and getting it approved by the teacher? Possible in exceptional cases.But again the learning is negotiated - and you may do but not learn - you will have an output, but without any significant substance. Good output - good manufacturable design. But that may not be the point of the studio at all. And you will be using stuff you have learned before - but not what is involved in the course.

So you see. Its complex tough and just like people - cussed.

Good night.

Oh This business of being a teacher!!

2005-08-30T15:10:00.000+10:00

P: It was warm yesterday, and the days are longer. How goes your season of discontent.
S: It rages. Yesterday was yet another session that ended with a not so good taste. I sat down and counted how many in class hate me.

P: And is that a majority? Like halfway through in Israel?
S: No nothing like that. This is mild stuff; its hate but mild and only as a sort of disengagement. I am ok, and you (S) are not ok. And for this reason of low intensity. Its an unwillingness to spare time. Israel was ‘show us where we are going’ and the anger was associated with that. Of 35 a cool 20 were angry, and they were the ones who got the most out of it. But that was an anger of engagement – not one of withdrawal. And the 15 who didn’t get angry passed through the course – just passing thru – and didn’t get much from it. Nice people, still friends with them- but they didn’t get a lot. Or didn't get it!

P: A bit like Pound’s heliodiplodocus story. And Prisig’s quality essay. And Koestler’s “ah!” is delayed in coming. But this is the way things have to be. If you got an enthusiastic student group that started working on themselves actively it would be catastrophic. It will seem like cynicism has died. And that would be fascism.
S: Thanks P. Letting me off the hook I see.

P: No privileging excellence and perfection. The Zen master will not stoop to mediocrity, neither will the poet – so why must you entertain it. But you are neither of those so it would be wrong for you to assume you have people in your class because they have come to get something from you, let alone transform themselves. I note that you gave out the ‘personal transformation’ stuff at the beginning – and have kept quiet about it. So let us say: ‘education’ is not about learning or capability development – as it ought to be – but about getting something extra. A little bit more- like a new shirt. You don't need to have surgery, or do meditation to wear a shirt. So why do you have to give up all that you have learnt – what you(s) refer to as bad thinking habits – just because some teacher thinks so. It should be possible to design a lantern by just doing up a sketch, and executing it. But you don't allow that – and so you cleave the class into those who can engage, and those who cannot. Have you spoken of Itten?
S: No, no I haven’t. As though the lantern is not bad enough. Anyway getting back to the hate climate, nay dislike, I am wondering how to reach out. To bring back into the fold the discontented – to talk to those who say ‘this is boring stuff’.

P: I have an idea. Rotate the peer evaluation and get a conversation going. The contented will speak to the discontented. Or better still ignore it. Just like a normal teacher – do your job and move on, play the game “I (s) am ok, you are not”. But you can’t and this is eating you up. Right, so look at it like this. You make four scenarios and choose from that. (a) You could have all the class feeling unhappy and hiding it from you. (b) You have a 50:50 split in happy versus unhappy. (c) You have a 30:70, or 40:60 split either way or both ways. (d) You have the whole class fully happy. Well you can’t have (d) because you are not teaching Karate and you don't have (a). So take your pick. Why don't you have a stakeholder session – participative democracy – get the class to engage and solve this problem. As problems go ‘soumitri’s unhappiness’ is a good one to work on. So what do you say?
S: Ummm. I will first blog this conversation. Then unload my anxieties – onto someone.

P: Tell me about your anxieties.
S: Nothing to tell. Just the usual. Am I doing a good job. Am I being effective. Am I setting up an effective learning context. Am I being too authoritative ( I am a bit authoritative, but over stepping the limits?). Am I alienating some because I am focused on other. Am I causing anxieties – and leading to disengagement of some from their work. Am I being too soft. Am I being too hard.

P: You will never know any of this. So why not step back.
S: Or stop wearing suits.

Okay Ben here it is

2005-08-26T11:39:00.000+10:00

Not been sleeping, not been sleeping at all. When does someone like me get the time to do a web site - not part of my job. So I steal time at night when the family sleeps.

All because some irate student (ben) got under my skin by moaning about my site being all crap.

So here it is all updated and extremely verbose.

A little bird said to me yesterday

2005-08-25T06:40:00.000+10:00

"This Corporation Game lot - you know we have begun to notice something about some of them. They are thinking aggressively - and are quite fearless in thinking aloud."

"Very interesting minds."

So what is happening? Let us say that you have focussed upon your processes of thinking. You have realised that it is all arbitrary anyway - one good idea can be replaced with another. You arrive at good ideas with games and play - and these ideas are even better than those arrived at thru hard linear thinking. This is one thing you may have realised. But then you may not have realised this - but may have changed yourself in unknown ways. And this is more magical. Your boundaries may have shifted. You may be incapable now of getting angry with other dogmatic people - because you can accommoldate their views too; you have 8 categories.

But have you let go - of your old ways? A little bit - but you may have a long way to go. Your old ways require you to fit - to conform, and get into the groove, be cool, be awesome, be hot, - and these are the words all social collectives (communities of people, clans, tribes and basically all groups even in cities) use to make categories. These categories are boxes into which you must fit or else you will be hounded, ridiculed (oh so tasteless, or so gauche, oh so kitsch), and stones (with sneers). But that is not good for the radical is it? So what do we do?? Let us become the object beyond ridicule - let us be ridiculous. Let us wear a suit to class - and let everyone shake their head and say ' they are crazy'. What they mean is they do not have a box, category to put you in, and so you are free. Free to think beyond the frontier - designer sans frontiers!! (but if you do not wear a suit? Will we ridicule, maybe not but .... )

Welcome to the corporation game. This is Tarkovsky's Zone in the Stalker. Here we are all pure minds. We are all free and fearless. We will hunt and pin down ways of thinking. And in this way we will value the thinking that minds can do - and in this we are thinking just like people in corporations. ( and so will use blogs like Dumbledore in Harry Potter - to pull things out of our heads, to empty our minds so that we can be free to move on, uncluttered)

And let go then atop the hot air ballon to the table that has been set out for us to have a cup of tea (and biscuits?) and gaze at the city below.

let us spare a moment and read Gertrude Stein. It may be time. We may be able to read that.

but again you may be ready to watch a bollywood film - and a deep texture - not as kitsch but as an arbitrary context. That is not trrying to be realistic, much less show you heroes. Or shall we start with a mixican soap.

Till next time then.

Dear Laura

2005-08-22T09:26:00.000+10:00

You asked about the three categories: The Corporation, The Dissenters and the Designers. And you asked if you were still to be in these categories. You asked - what is the game.

And here is the answer:
1. On 11th July (seems like such a long time ago) we did a little thinking about these categories. Soumitri needed to demonstrate the existence of these categories - which is one more category than the conventional us (designer) and them (client). He also needed you to keep three categories. By the end of july the class was comfortable keeping up to 8 categories in their heads. Meaning was becoming complex. And complexity was becoming something to enjoy.

2. On 18th July the idea of the 'enlightened corporation' was proposed. This was done by frontally attacking the design Consultancy as a poor location for intellectual activity. This was also to show you that there exist 'rogue corporations' but these kinds of firms do not tend to make products. They usually are oil firms or arms manufacturers, or of course are in the food business. Maybe the corporations designers work with are truly 'enlightened'.

3. Also in such corporations the designer is expected to have a real robust and resilient problem solving head. So how do you take a bunch of 20 first year studentsa nd make their heads 'resilient'. Maybe by giving them techniques and tools for thinking. Maybe by opening their eyes (like clockwork orange by holding their eyes open with match sticks),a dn thei minds. Byt taking them away from mind numbing cinema (to thinking cinema). And so on. But basically by making them capable of handling 'tough problems'. And this began to happen. We are into August now.

I apologise for not setting up one project that you could do through the semester. But then you may not have learnet anything in that way that would have been of value in the Corporation setting. But do remember I am HR and I have a stake in developing your capability, your abilities and your intellectual equipment, and that is my job. And if I goof up on that I will get sacked. And in this the Kinglake West Adventure Camp come alive.

And that is the game. The game is also in the SUITS! Because you need to play - to be a lateral thinker. And to be a good lateral thinker you need to give up your prejudices and your 'ways' which may not really be all that useful in the context of pure thinking.

The game also comes alive in the 'games'. And in all this it is a bit like the swimming pool: do not walk on the pool side looking in. You have to jump in to learn.

See Ben's Blog (he agonises about 'what is going on' and is a fantastic bit of rpose), and also see Carl's blog (Carl is in Problem Kya Hai - and has written some beautiful stuff in recent days). And these are in your 'your speak' - and may be better ways of saying the same thing.

But again I am the last person who will insist you need to get a 110% out of the course. For the university is a place to grow up and we can all take it in our own ways. If you have other things on your mind, if you have other things to do - its okay. And in fact - so be it!!

Looking back from the Halfway Mark

2005-08-18T05:34:00.000+10:00

Phaedrus: Its been a while. And I see you have been attacked and mauled. But that is another story I guess. So tell me how will you respond to Ben's impassioned prose.
S: I guess that is my reward - the pain, the angst, and the proof of the engagement. Its taken 6 weeks for the cry to emerge - but when it did it came from the heart. Anger, denial, bargaining, acceptance and wisdom ( this is that quote from 'all that jazz' - with the last word changed from Death). I guess we are still only getting past denial here. But let me tell you something that is interesting about B's post.
P: Tell me?
S: B mentions the class as equally trying to understand Soumitri's mind. So that makes two of us - because I am trying to understand the students' mind - though not as a collective. And it has been so hard - more so than in many occasions in the past. Maybe I am growing old fast and have less and less stamina for the questioning process. I saw some of them, covertly watched their faces, on sunday and the engrossment was reward itself. 4 o'clock came too swiftly, too quickly. And I had to hold bcak from saying - see wasn't it fun? This my dear friends is the joy of design. But I cant say that - because they would have said 'what' - and that would have destroyed the magic. The value of that experience has to stay like that hard lump of sorrow and has to be recreated each time - 'let me get into a sorrowful state' - and more importantly has to be felt like a longing. 'I want to get into that state'. And it will take years for each of them to make space for that kind of meditative practice - and most will probably put it away as that sunday!

But B does say that it is about process and not product. So the mind does understand. But does it have faith that this is the 'right way'? Can beautiful things emerge from the often trivial and jocular game? Or does it have to be a 'rational and varbal sequence of events'. Years ago - in the Denon design studios in Shirakawa in central japan - I had a music sysstem mockup readied for presentation. I stood in front of the design team and got ready to present. Kitagawa-san motioned for me to sit down. And the team spent the next ten minutes studying the mockup - what can be seen need not be explained. It was astounding. Never again I was to tell myself will I use my mouth when the eyes will do the job better.

And so it was lst sunday - quiet absorption, and that inner joy like that of an engrossed child making a sand castle. And like the sand castle what we make must be swept away, broken, set aside, and touvhed but not spoken about.

P: Is it time to talk about the paper lamps?
S: It may be. The paper lamp is a trick exercise. It is simple - just paper and wire. But it is a craft object, and an object which makes significant the play of light on paper important. It is to be feast for the eyes - and so has to be subtle and refined. But the trick is in the realisation that you cannot design this by using the 'way' the students have adopted - that of thinking through and executing. It demands exploration, trials and a realisation of the value of light as an actor in the final result. Then there is paper which demands exploration. This is an exercise that rewards one who can keep doing this again and again. It is a project that hurts if the student cannot spare time. This cannot be rushed. And through this the realization of the true nature of design dawns. Sunday saw the students spending 6 hours on this. And at the end all they had was a feel for the paper and a knowledge of possibilities - so how many more six hours are needed before a lamp can be made? But let me put it another way - the more six hour slots that are deployed the more awesome the result will be. And in that will be a mature practice of design that will blow away the opposition. And there are no short cuts possible.

We have come a long way from that fateful day when I said; 'so ready to start work on the paper lamp' and they said they knew how to do it and were going to go away, I said for 20 minutes, to make something. And I said then - that is not it my friends, that is not it at all. (TS Eliot)

"In the room the women come and go talking of Michaelangelo' (TSE again)

P: So you want to talk about the journey? Are you hurting less?
S: I could. Yes early in july the mouths used to curl wryly, and it was awful to go into class. Just me alone and 20 strangers - each with an expressions saying 'yeah whatever'. It was hard and it is at this point that the authritarian teacher is created - for you want to wipe that awful slouch and negativity off their face. And what better way to do it that to slam into them with a nasty assignment with a harsh deadline. But having never done that - I can only say, yes I understand. Also having walked into classrooms filled with strangers in different parts of the world it should'ne matter. But it does - because I am human, and because it is also so un-necessary. Why do they fight learning, why do they fight in letting go of their ways which may be quite unsuitable for practicing design. In 99 in Jerusalem they were angry but couldn't walk away. In 87 in Delhi I said I was going home and did not want to continue teaching - and we stepped out for a basketball game to sort the energies out.

Here they dont do that - they just go into the shell. But to be fair Brandon smiled from the first day, and so did Ben. They were eager for the journey. But it only takes one curly lip to suck your energies out. I then count till ten to calm down, but more importantly become impasssioned again.

Minds are incredibly resilient things, but amazingly tough too. But that was then,july and the start of the course.

Things are different now. I am now getting waves of affcetion floating my way. Some of the students are accepting that they are changing - they are usually easy to spot - like they wear the suit, or tie, or just office clothes. And ridiculous though it may seem it is a gesture of support. They have started doing little things - small signs that on a one to one basis I have their trust. But they still will not come out openly, still the distancing. 'I then want to say - A its okay to belong to a group - let go of your identity, dont sit apart'. 'just become learners'. But I dont- I have to say very little as Schmier used to say to me. Let them speak - they will learn by that. He also used to say - what they learn does not matter - what is important is they take charge of their learning.

And this they are beginning to do. I will volunteer to do and thru this I will learn.

P: Is it over then?
S: Pretty much. Some have reached the top of the hill, the others will look at them and follow. Now its the 'down hill run' (CSNY), and they can do this unaided. They have produced some amazing stuff - that should rightfully be patented. But they will take time realizing the value of it. Some have come through as leaders - and have contributed to peer learning.

The magic is over. We may be getting past the denial stage. And time for me to sit back and watch things unfold.

Jai hind (Stafford Beer)

12 Things that need to be taken seriously

2005-08-17T14:11:00.000+10:00

Its the half way mark and we have 12 things:
1. Paper Lantern
2. Three Games
3. The glove thing
4. The 4 Game 1 outcomes; sushi tanto etc
5. Three game 3 outcomes: The Wok and so forth.

Its 48 hrs since the recalcitrance thing. Its also two days since the projects rose up in relief. So what do we have:

1. We have twelve left of centre things that can be made.
2. But you do not value them because you came to them thru games.
3. BUT that is fantastic because you let yourself be creative and think left of centre. You have learnt to be creative in a particular way.

HR (me) in the corporation is very happy with the results. Because in this - the playing of games - is in the spirit of how things are done in the corporation. We value ideas more than anything else. We think it is losers who do not take themselves seriously - and are practical, and are short sighted, and are bothered by technical constraints. Those kind of people are better of outside corporations. In little firms, that have to be short sighted.

But we think it is not enough to have a good idea. It is important to give these ideas form - to shape them, and to make them - so that they can be an inspiration to others who will come upon these creations. So I am hoping you can make them.

I have spent two days going around telling people what an absolute awesome set of ideas have come out of what an absolutely awesome buch of games. I am not sure if the games are better ar the products. BUT - as I said to people - I have a problem. What is the problem they said!

The problem, I said, is that the students do not value the outcomes. They think what came out of a game, a frivolous exercise, cannot be taken seriously. (The truth if spoken by a liar will be difficult to take seriously? - as Herzog brilliantly protrayed in his film Casper Hauser). So what will you do? As usual I will wait for the penny to drop. Maybe they will come around and privilege creativity - AT LAST!!!!!!!!!!

There is a lesson in this: what comes out of serious exercises is just that serious (read boring). But what comes out of creative encounters can be quite thrilling.

Dear Ben

2005-08-16T09:36:00.000+10:00

So the reluctance and recalcitrance yesterday got to me. Because:

For one you, YOU, have opted for the grade and then you are obliged to perform and put yourself out to that extent. If you cant then I think you are to be allowed to renegotiate the grade. Please reconsider Ben , if you feel life is getting tough, exhausting. I understand.

BUT LISTEN, PSSSSSSSSST! I will let you in on a secret.

The Studio is a 24 Credit course. So what?
1. You are doing only three courses this semester: Comm, Studies and studio.
2. The other two courses are 12 credits each!!!!!!!!!!!
3. So What??
4. Basically the studio is worth the combined weight of the two other courses.
5. Which means that is the amount of effort you need to be putting into it.
6. But its only one day, jusst 5 hrs. Ah! Wecome to learner centred eduCATION.

Are you performing at a D level for a 24 cr course? Ummmmm ...

Think about it.

( all of you)

Comments?

Games packaging: 3 Games

2005-08-16T09:35:00.000+10:00

Ummmm.......
1. Make a box. Japanned?
2. Make the cards beautifully. And pl laminate them.
3. Make the dice in silicone.
4. Wow the other game players on Monday.
All this is for Monday next week.

Executors:
Game 1: Steve
Game 2: Haley
Game 3: Sarah

You can also do an A3 Presentation board. This is needed for - Follow up and copyrighting, which will be discussed in week 9 or so. Please keep the game concepts under wraps.

Comments?

Game III: Spinach

2005-08-16T09:34:00.000+10:00

1. A3 Presentation board. First stage. This is for Monday next week.
This has to be followed by:
2. Product detailing and development.
3. Prototyping
4. CAD modelling
5. Submission of entries to competitions and awards.
6. Filing for Copyright.

Executors:
Wok: Julian and Andrew
Street Lamps: Steve/ Alan
Light: Sarah/ Sofia

Comments?

Game II: Mushroom

2005-08-16T09:33:00.000+10:00

Brown/ Green Tooth glove thingummy.

Executor Team: Raphael/ Braden

What you need to do may be:
1. Documentation of what happened/ and what was said in the game yesterday.
2. A3 Concept presentation board. This is for Monday!
3. Development of the Design.
4. Making a CAD model and animating it. And or making a video of the glove thing in use.
5. Making presentation boards for a set of design competitions and awards.
6. Copyrighting the design in the name of the executors.

“The game players do not have right to the design copyright. And the copyright will be registered only in the names of the people who took the design ahead.” This is open to discussion.

Keep the project secret!!

Comments?

Game I: Mesquite

2005-08-16T09:31:00.000+10:00

You need to document and make a presentation of the outcomes of the first Game. This was run by Steve and Nick. And has been named Mesquite ( a controversial plant in some circles) by Soumitri for now. Can you please make a presentation board – size A3.

This presentation will give you temporary ownership of the project – and possibly permanent ownership if you team mates agree to relinquish control and let you take it forward to prototyping and refinement. Prototyping is the next stage – and this will go along with submission of an entry to a competition – and also for a design award.

Every design project will potentially be submitted to REECE.

1. Apron/bag: Brandon
2. Sushi Tanto: Ben
3. Video: Steve
4. Performance: Sarah

Comments?

Taking the Paper Lamps Ahead

2005-08-16T09:30:00.000+10:00

Here is the list of things for this:
1. You can consider going into the workshop on Thursday Mornings – and also look for other open workshop times.
2. You need to figure out the structure. This needs to be 6’ high.
a. This you can make out of wire – and speak to John in the workshop about what you are planning. Say 6 or 8 mm wire for vertical members and 3mm for the webbing all over. (wire)
b. You can cut the lengths and weld them with John’s help. (Cut and Make)
c. But to speak to John you can need a sketch of the structure. (Sketch)
d. And a list of materials with quantities. (list of materials)
3. You first structure can be a primitive form – say a circle extruded upwards to make a cylinder, or a triangle extruded upwards to make a prism or a square extruded upwards to make a cuboid. This can be your first trial. And you will get a chance to make more shapes as you get more experience.
4. You need to work out the details, the joinery and the treatment of the paper.
5. So make an A3 sketch design with all details and bring it in for Monday next.
6. Remember you may need to consider putting a bulb in the lantern – or make shelves for lots of candles, or just a place for a FAT and BIG candle. For it to light 6 ft of lantern.
7. Kelly/ Brandon can you get the pics across to Olivia in 2nd year – for her to send it to Fringe. (I can do this – but you need to get on with things too).
Please discuss the points above in the comments section!!!!

Soumitri's lecture for monday

2005-08-10T06:26:00.000+10:00

What do you want?

I can do part two of what I did re movies. It would be called Appreciating Design and I would use the matrix: author, genre, context, work - to give you a way to look at design, and design projects.

But do comment and let me know what I should prepare.

On Japanese Rice Paper

2005-08-09T10:37:00.000+10:00

Rice Paper Roll
Unryu fiber rice paper for all your crafts, sumi art and home decorating ideas. Measuring 11" in width by 60 feet long, made in Japan.

Also see:
1. Japanese Papers
2. Shoji Techniques
3. More Shoji
4. Japanese Lanterns
5. Sumi
6. The Japanese Paper Place

Burden of Dreams

2005-08-04T09:08:00.000+10:00

Goddard

2005-08-04T09:04:00.000+10:00

Prepare for next class

2005-08-04T08:55:00.000+10:00

You asked me to do FILMS - Brandon. I am now in the thick of rereading my dog eared books. And preparing my notes. Its lots of work - but I am enjoying myself. I will have a small talk ready for you next week. But ..

I would like something from you in return. Some movie watching so that when I speak of movies or particular scenes you can think of them in your head. Particularly Herzog. So here is his Fitzcarraldo:

"Few movies have as troubled a production history as Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo. Principal photography was 40 percent complete when one of the movie's main actors, Jason Robards, became so seriously ill that he was forced to quit the production. After many production delays, the movie's other main actor, Mick Jagger, had to leave for a prior commitment (a Rolling Stones' concert tour). Virtually all of the film footage shot by this point was now unusable. After a year of filmmaking, director Herzog had to start over from scratch.

Converting the two lead characters into a single character, Herzog turned to his frequent collaborator, actor Klaus Kinski. According to Herzog, he didn't cast Kinski initially because he thought Kinski would go "totally bonkers" if trapped on location in the Amazon during the production's lengthy shooting schedule. Herzog's fears were well founded. Once shooting resumed with Kinski in the lead role, Kinski flew into daily rages. Much of Herzog's time was devoted to holding Kinski together. Kinski became so difficult to work with that an Indian chief (who had a small role in the movie) went to Herzog and offered to murder Kinski. The Indians hated him. They weren't used to people ranting and raving at the slightest provocation. "Kinski was a real problem," says Herzog on the audio commentary track for Anchor Bay Entertainment's new DVD release of Fitzcarraldo. "Sometimes I wish they had murdered him."

But problems with actors were only part of the many complications faced by Herzog. While they were filming near the border of Peru and Ecuador, a border war broke out between the two countries, and soon afterwards, soldiers burned the movie's production camp to the ground. But Herzog's biggest enemy may have been the weather: he found himself working during the largest drought in 65 years. River levels plunged to depths of two feet or less. As a result, the movie's steamship became stranded for months on a sand bar while waiting for rains to return. However, when rains came, Herzog found himself working during the wildest rainy season in history

During the DVD's audio commentary, Herzog tries to dispel the notion that he's a daredevil and that he invited risks. He says, "Things never got out of hand." But then he follows this statement with stories of plane crashes and Indian attacks. One crew member was bitten by a snake with venom so poisonous that cardiac arrest typically followed within seconds. Realizing what had happened, the crew member picked up a chain saw and cut off his own foot. Another man was paralyzed. Another man drowned. When Herzog talks about the movie's climactic scene, which involves a steamboat drifting down a river, he tells us how they had to lash down one of the actors to the helm for fear he would fly through the windows when the ship crashed against rocks."

Your Blogs Please

2005-08-04T06:30:00.000+10:00

I have just 10 of your Blogs linked here.

Can you pl post here your blog address for me to upload as a link. URGENT!!!!!

More on Paper

2005-08-02T10:02:00.000+10:00

I did a quick set of keywords searches and this is what I found - again this is not hyperlinked - I am using a mac and have to do this on a pC.

Paper Resources
Paper Models
Paper Magic

So re my last post. Can you tell me here - what are you going to do, what can you do, what are ways to do the paper lantern, what are ways to do things with paper?
(Please post your comments - in a prolific fashion - and I will come in on the conversation with my comments)

The Paper Lantern

2005-08-02T09:35:00.000+10:00

Some weeks ago I said would you like to do a paper lantern, and you all said yes. Its three weeks since that day. And I am feeling let down. You have singly and collectively let me down. It was important that you take off, fly, go off into the unknown. But you didn't. For my part I helped you use the questioning technique in week two, and when you did the 'low road' - the rational 'design' I stopped you. I said 'that is not it at all'. And got you to re think to re do the exercise - and gave you a hint - "think not about the funtion, the lamp, think about the 'paper', and you will surprise yourself". You did a bit- but then you lost it - and the energy levels ran out. So I said never mind. Go off and try it on your own. But did you?

NO!

Then for two weeks I said - get into the bath with the paper - and did you pick up the hint? Again it doesn't look like it. So what am I to do? Have I failed? I certainly cannot go on till you have demonstrated for yourself that on the other side of all this is a world that is better than the linear rational process of problem solving you have been used to. Btter in that it constantly surprises you and then goes on to surprise everyone else too.

The question in this exercise of the 'paper lantern' has been - "What can I make with paper that is 6 ft tall - yet exhibits and exploits the attributes of paper?"

So here are more hints:
1. When making japanese rice paper screens - you have to wet the paper a bit - and then stick it on. When it dries it becomes taut, like a drum. And this is amazing.
2. There is industrial paper and there is hand made paper - some papers are more refined than others.
3. There are many ways to give texture to paper - like crumpling or scrunching them. Texture looks good and adds a certain dimension to paper.
4. Paper has a natural color - and in this it the most ethereal - why not exploit this natural look. Or be careful with color.
5. Some paper disintegerates and some dont - this can hold some interesting possibilities.
6. The truly wonderful result will come when you silence your mind and give time to the act of doing things with paper. Planning and achieving a result or effect is the way of the charlatan - which I am sure you do not wish to be.
7. A lamp exercise typically has to last for hours and hours - and go on and on. It gets better as you spend more time.
8. A true creative act is done for yourself and not for others. So do not look to impress - but strive to discover.
9. This is not an ego trip - so do not trivialize it by 'making statements', or looking for making an impact.
10. If you go onto the net you will discover a world. A fascinating world. Ask googlle for 'paper magic', then ask for 'paper lantern', then paper art, then paper constructions, then paper garmets, then paper screens, and keep doing this till you get an enlarged perception of the possibilities in paper.

And do remember this is one exercise which will improve your ability to produce better design for the next exercise or competition. If you do not give it your all, or try to take short cuts - you will be short changing yourself. And that will not help you at all will it?

You are not changing your way of thinking - for I have said do not think - DO! What you are changing is the way you work - this way you have acquired over years of schooling and/or professional work. It may be time to change the way you work - and what you think is the right way. For your way it appears is not helping you make truly amazing paper lanterns.

Your way! Think about it.

Is it time?

2005-07-26T15:30:00.000+10:00

"Trust In Me" Ka in Jungle Book

2005-07-26T14:05:00.000+10:00

26th July 2005. Its been some time since we spoke. This conversation meanders. But sputters too. And as often becomes a ghost. Welcome P.

Phaedrus: Tell me. What was yesterday like.
S: Nice. Better. I may have broken through. We are a long way from a robust radicalism – and an even longer way away from robust resilient thinking. There are too many bad habits; too many things that have been privileged; years and years of going down pathways that promised safety – the safe options road.

P: But surely you don't object to that. I do remember your being very interested in following a step behind thought processes.
S: Ummm. You are right. I am not making value judgements. Though I admit it sounds like that. I am a student of patterns and ways. The aboriginal way of categorizing components of life is very different and as significant as any other. I am not a missionary being deprecating about the practices and ways of the other. That would be incorrect. However with the 17 students I have not had much time to sit down and comprehend their vocabulary, their universe of discourse – which states what is important and what is not. Given how rushed I am these days I sometimes wish I could just proscribe all that they consider important – hoping in some way to turn a switch which makes them all open to a wide variety of options. But alas that cannot be done. Education is about a slow and delicate process – which has to be done in a sisyphusian fashion – one step at a time. And each step has to be taken by the child herself – I cant give information, for that would put all of them into wheel chairs for the rest of their lives. At any step they could turn around and cut me out – we don't trust you. So yesterday was a turning point – and it was visible. The bodies did not slouch as much, the deprecatory look was confined to a few, chests were forward, eyes were open wider – you could begin to see a different form of engagement. The drawl in the voice and the fear of commitment is still there – but there is a little bit of trust – a flicker of faith. We may pull it off. But still they are mildly nasty.

P: Tell me about the ‘eager restless student’ again. Been a while since I heard that.
S: It has been, hasn’t it. 1987 – School of Architecture, New Delhi, and then again TVB 1991. Okay. I took this group of students to the basketball court and pushed the ball away from me. A minute later I found myself watching an enthusiastic soccer match in progress. There must have been 25 of them there that day. Years later – I was standing similarly with Randhir – and watching the furious kicking of the ball. Many of them had never played soccer. But had thrown themselves into the kicking. But it wasn't about the ball was it? It was the first thing – I didn't have to say anything – they just took off. But it was a class – and they had changed it into a game. But more importantly they were not standing around asking to be instructed – tell us what to do. Now imagine you walk into a class and there is a buzz. They are eager – as though you are what they have been waiting for – and cannot get enough of what you have to offer. They snatch, they push, they are open and give themselves totally. Ah but how strange is that. What is more likely is a group of students crouched – defensively – silent, watchful for tricks, deprecatory and dismissive of the teacher just to get a few laughs from the other students, always fearful lest they look ridiculous. But one day I had a class in Jerusalem. 35 students like open-mouthed vacuum cleaners – snapping up everything I had to offer, sucking up everything. Throwing themselves into the discussion, running, running, here there and in the end they were exhausted. Totally drained. They would ask what is going on, why are we SO tired – this has never happened to us even when we have trekked huge distances in the army. Ah! that is your mind – you use it and it tires. Can we build up the stamina of our mind? – of course you can. I will help – it will take time. But you have to use it – not a little – you have to strain it, push it, and keep doing that; till your brain is strong and grows in all directions – and is hungry for the limit experience. And so it was that I encountered the eager restless student.

P: Will these students go that way?
S: That would be wonderful to speculate. We are still building confidence – “no don't be scared, say it aloud, I am here to strike down the judgemental, good on you”. And so on – again and again – pushing, pushing always. Its happening, I amplified one or two things that the fearful do – stand away, hands cupped under face, crossed arms – classic, classic. Leaning back to speak – always conscious of themselves; till they look around and see the others – you cannot play soccer this way, you have to throw yourself at the ball, the question, the idea. But like I started saying at the beginning – its slow, its taken two weeks, I have been gentle (this is not Israel), and they are responding. They are beginning to trust me. Or in their words ‘ now they get it’ or have begun to see “what is going on”.

(But then - Why cant they just speak English – and be done with.)

25th July

2005-07-26T12:40:00.000+10:00

What did we do ...

11.45 AM – 12.45 AM
What is Design?
Spider Diagram: Understanding Categories (5 minutes)
2.00 PM Lets fill out the chart (1)
2.30 PM Paper lamps – Fringe Festival entries, ways of thinking(2)
3.00 PM On Blogs
3.30 PM On Games: War Games, Policy Games, Stock Market
4.00 PM Design the Corporation game(3)

What is Design

2005-07-26T12:12:00.000+10:00

These were the notes of the lecture I was doing in Class. My job is to bring the points alive and make you attain the concepts. We have done 1 to 3. 4 onwards next week.

1. Design is what designers do!
a. Categorize the population of designers on this planet
b. Categorize work places
c. Categorize works
d. Categorize pathways, staff inclinations
2. How do they design
a. Understanding design process,
b. Paradigms,
c. Communities of practice – and therefore construction of meaning.
d. Nature of Industry differs and so also
e. The role of the designer.
3. There are many Technological discourses in design
a. Formalistic: Cars, Consumer Electronics
b. Formalistic/ problem solving: Medical Equipment, Capital Equipment
c. Formalistic/ production thinking: Chairs, Homewares
d. Art Practice: Objects orientated to one offs and museums.
e. Sustainability: …
4. There are many ways to categorize design
a. Linear/dialectical opposition: Engineering vs Aesthetics:
b. 2D Cartography: Mapping Tendencies
c. 3 D lattice: Function (analytical) to Form(intuitive); simple/clear to complex/fuzzy; reductionist to complex constructions
5. The Propositions designers make are like everything else Arbitrary and completely contextual:
a. 10 Principles of good design: Rams and Braun
b. Neo Primitivism: Branzi
c. Form follows function: Sullivan
d. Form follows fun: ?
6. Design communities may agree on certain shared Key concepts:
a. Design Process
b. Simulations
c. Concepts
d. Mockups
e. Prototypes
7. Designer often talk about Good Design? But what is really challenging is to talk about bad design or Anti Design.
a. Broaden the range of possible
b. Visually Challenging
c. Invent a way
d. Ah – Ha ha – Aha
8. The Spider Diagram - 8 dimensions. Problems in categorizations

My FRINGE Entry Will be?

2005-07-26T11:20:00.000+10:00

1st August Preview
Quickly followed by submission
(but what about the walk down Swanston at Midnight? The boat ride down the Yarra? The Vigil? )

Lets fill out the Chart

2005-07-26T10:57:00.000+10:00

Have Spider Diagram - Will fill our learning Contract

The Matrix Filled Out and the Grade aspirations finalised. Let us think about where we want to get – and ask Soumitri to do these kinds of lectures, and these kinds of things in the studio. Let us help him get a life – by diving into work and doing it all ourselves – so that he can do other things he needs doing, rather than neglect it all.
a. Lectures List
b. Studio tasks

Capability Development thru self motivated action:
c. Talks by Visitor: Start with Trades Hall, make a list of all the possibilities and then work your way through that. Do not ask yourself – will that be something I will like. It’s not about linking – ask if it will provoke your somnambulant brain.
d. Films: Make a list of films; take care to make a list of films from Eastern Europe. Stay away from English language programming if you can help it. The stay away from Western Europe for a bit. Give your brain a chance.
e. Visits/ Field Trips: Lets go somewhere, can we go to the Lonely Planet Offices and to the Ford Museum. Just two trips which we do together. Can you set it up pl?
f. Term Paper: Lets write up this thing. Let us see if we can construct something in English – not that sort of strange dialectish thing you speak with that strange accent and English words in incorrect places in the sentence.
g. Assignment: Lets do CSI, or this journalistic assignment, or an expose or an investigation. Like the design profession is a racket – a charade – ‘blue’, or slaves to the ‘blue’. In fact the categories may all be things to do ‘tear the mask off’ investigations into. Wont that be exciting.
h. Case Studies: Lets do a story – a good news story. Like the children’s parliament. Lets find people who are doing amazing things in their lives. Lets find people who are people orientated.

Check list of the learning contract:
i. It should be what you like doing. Like watching films.
j. It should then change the way you do this thing. You become an avid Tarkovsky fan.
k. It should inform your ability to work with the idea of the corporation. You get a totally different take on society.
l. It should develop capability. Your thinking is improved.

Educating Soumitri aka Understanding Categories

2005-07-26T10:45:00.000+10:00

Tool Kit: Spider Diagram

Some years ago Soumitri got air dropped into a curious and arcane community of people who lived on this island. They were vibrant, enthusiastic and very physically accomplished. Many in this country – he was to discover – had travelled very little. They had a phrase ‘comfort zone’ that described their cultural practices – and of this there were many. So while they shared a common culture, and many didn’t realise how strange this culture was to foreigners, and assumed that their culture was an international western culture. Which it wasn’t and Europeans and Americans found the local culture equally arcane and strange. One day a group of people got together to catalogue their ways and this is how they went about it. How? Read on….

1. The Look: Extreme Makeover Issues
Its been 20 months since Soumitri came to Australia. His shoes have given out. His clothes are getting frayed – and he is having problems rotating items in his wardrobe. He could have gone out and bought clothes – but seems paralysed and unable to figure out, in terms of the look, what he should buy and from where. He is aware that there is right way – and clothes in this country are the crucial and fundamental way to comprehend a person. Unlike other countries where it is possible to wear traditional clothes – here it seems to be the norm to be ‘with in’, or it is required to be careful in dressing and people have to do it “the right way”. What you wear defines who you are - like the look of the real estate salesman being specific to them.

So in short Soumitri NEEDS to buy clothes, but cannot until the different possible ways for him to dress are explained to him. He has asked you to make 8 categories of ways people dress in Melbourne and explain the options to him.

2. Ways of Speaking: Chill Factor Issues
Last year he got tired of people treating him like an inarticulate foreigner. People would speak slowly – and one day Simon used the word Déjà vu, and proceeded to explain what it meant. Soumitri stopped him and said; ‘has it ever occurred to you that I am twice your age and may have a vocabulary twice as large as yours. And anyway déjà vu is a French expression’. On Saturday this girl began to explain that ‘my fair lady’ was this English play – and my think bubble said ‘and when I first saw it you probably were not even born’.

It is true that by now he can understand and be understood quite clearly. He still has to watch for his v’s sounding like W - which is a common Indian pronunciation problem. He can hear an Oye and know that what is meant is an I. He knows that there are many languages that are spoken in this city – and each language marks out the speaker as a particular cultural category of person.

Soumitri needs to understand the languages spoken in this country. He would like you make 8 categories of the ‘ways people speak english’.

But first let us learn to pronounce his name properly- Sow-mi (ttens) – three Vu(h) –ru(h)-du(h)—raa-jun.

3. Cultural capital: Cool Factor Issues
Two students in class had seen Tarkovsky, and a majority of the students consumed mainstream Hollywood fare. With its repeated construction of modern day fairy tales: typically the idea of the movie was to stick to the notions of feel good, heroic exploits and technological wizardry. Emotional explorations were to be kept out or if allowed in were to be extremely shallow and only the visible spectrum was allowed. It may be possible that what cinema meant for people who conflated film with Hollywood was only one of many genres of cinema. Which then makes significant genres in all aspects of cultural practice in the city. Either way, for his sanity and to maintain the spirit of the student group, Soumitri needs to understand the cultural dimension of the students.

But that's one thing. Another is that the expression ’way cool’ is a mark of appreciation handed out by all people. And so there must exist un-cool ways too. Soumitri finds these value judgements and classifications of people based upon their manifest cultures quite confusing. He asks that you make 8 categories of culture – 8 dimensions denoting subcultures of the way people living in Melbourne may be classified.

4. Ways of Eating: Issues about Dogma
People in Melbourne tend to consume copious quantities of red meats and an even greater proportion of processed foods. All of this means their total intake of chemicals and factory machine oil must be quite high. They seem to keep coming together for food events – barbies, eating out. And even other events, like sitting in a park or at a meeting or sitting in class, are converted into food events. Chomp, crunch, crackle, slurp – is the constant refrain all over the country. Can they not eat at specific times and in specific places? Do we all have to impersonate cud chewing mammals 24/7? But that is the zone of Soumitri finding things irritating about Melbourne culture. We are not even talking about crumbs all over and foody breath all the time everywhere – onions, garlic, cheese.

But lets talk in a charitable vein. Soumitri needs to understand food practices. Lets make 8 categories of ‘ways of eating’ so that Soumitri is prepared to face strage practices as normal.

On 25th July you all did the exercise: Some well some not so well.
You are coming in on Monday next week with an AV in PDF of your two categories.
Soumitri will recombine these into the four big areas we were looking at.

But you will also have to be specific – a la extreme makeover – with costs, shops where he will buy things, places where he should eat, ways he can learn the new accent. Because – strange but true – he actually wishes to understand all this.

And once the male part of this is done we will take Soumitri out from the text and put Anara in there and do it all over again with a feminine take on the areas. Okay?

How to do a lecture (Presentation?)

2005-07-26T10:31:00.000+10:00

Soumitri Does Lectures. Each lecture is an undertaking. It takes days and hours ( and the development lasts for a few weeks if not longer) – I usually work from 3 AM till 7 , when my household needs me – to develop the lecture. And then I am often unhappy, so like a good surfer I throw away the draft and start all over again. I am not a perfectionist – because the end result is seldom perfect.

In doing these lectures I aim to make a whopping big difference to the listener. I believe that the lecture is something they will never ever forget. And I have been doing this for years – 19 to be precise. I have hundreds of students who still remember things I said, or so they claim, in some lecture. Years ago I was in a community of university teachers in Delhi, ah that haven of the intellect how I miss it, who all put in as much if not more into their every interaction with the student. Sheena used to do these awesome lectures which involved her building propositions upon propositions like building – and then saying at the end ‘viola’ or more her style ‘ there’. I learnt from her how to prepare, how to respect the student, and how to respect the window of interaction that is given to us – the class.

As I speaker I obsess about who you are, what you need to hear and how I can help. I often start by developing a provocative line of thought. I then start embroidering it and go on and on till often the line of argument has to be abandoned – because I begin to feel that the way the argument was developing was another lecture – and not the one I wanted to do now. So start again. How many starts, how many unfinished projects? Will give yo a peek into my folders.

On Friday like many of you I landed up at 10.10.01. But it was 12.12.01 – you have asked yesterday if I can do a repeat performance. I can – and I would be honoured to redo for you "Understanding the sustainability movement". Thank you for asking. I live for encores. You asked if I could re-do the ‘different histories’ lecture – again I would be honoured. Like all those academies of higher learning where minds gather – I would like to propose a post dinner lecture on a day that works for both of us.

I also have a lecture I did for ‘politics of Space in the age of terror’ conference in June. The question session after my presentation was violent, fractious and deeply polarised the audience. I felt disturbed after that. Some thing similar happened on Friday. I must admit I set out to disturb the smug morality of the greens – and the result was not pleasant.

Usually after the lecture I am spent. Phew! Time to move on.

(For inspiration read Magister Ludi or The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse.

Quick links to stuff that came up in class

2005-07-25T21:48:00.000+10:00

The Beats
C Wright Mills
Gertrude Stein
SDS Port Huron Statement
See Bergman's Seventh Seal for the plague childrens game.
Awesome B/W cinema

Aqua Lute

2005-07-25T21:44:00.000+10:00

The Japanese water feature that produces sound. Click here to hear the sound.

"We don't know what's going on"

2005-07-20T06:31:00.000+10:00

P: How are you going to respond to the statement that the students dont know what's going on?
S: Thats a tough one. But it comes from a position where: one, I am supposed to know what is going on; and two, there is something goin on which is mysterious. First one 'one': The students have a chart where they will say what they are going to do in the semester. And they haven't done so. But I am not pushing them - though I am encouraging them - to fill out the chart so that I can discuss their 'fillings' of the chart with them. This would be the place where I would be able to explain what may be useful for them to do. But they have'nt come to the table (so how can we talk) - so as I wait I will do exercises with them in the way 'Scott KWAC' at camp would do it for corporate executives. Hey lets do a session on 'creative thinking' - ummm say by making a paper lamp. But hang on there are many ways to do paper lamps - some ways are conventional ways and some are unconventional ways. "So go of for 20 minutes and do it your way. Ah! but thats a conventional way. Here - come and try freeing yourslef of your 'boxed in' ways of thinking. Use the questioning technique and break free. Propose the ridiculous and take it seriously. (The conventional is reactionary - look up this r word in wiki paedia - the mac interface for the blog does not have links -I will do this later today from the office). You are not supposed to be reactionary; people who want to go back to the older ways and want to keep things the way they are. You are supposed to challenge existing ways of seeing things." And so I talked to them after the first time they did the exericse - and they laughed and thought it all a big joke. And I wasn't very charitable in my feedback. But how do you say - what you have done is bad thinking. Remember this - and don't ever think in this fashion in this class. You cant say it. Not without being confronting. So you say - here have another go. But first limber up - get out of your comfort zones. Now sit down try and think again. What is it: so much paper, an enclosure, something that is outside of you - ah you are getting somewhere. Why is it that way - to save the flame from wind (great), so that it can be carried on a dark night for statanic rituals (fanstastic), so that it doesn't burn you (ummm interesting S&M possibilities here)... What else can it be - 20 meters of paper ( imagine what you can do with it), all around you, ... What should it be - "Let us go then you and I, when the evening is spread out against the sky - thru certain half deserted streets, the muttering retreats -- with a procession of lamps", .... Simple isnt it? And Kate then said 'hey lets enter it for fringe', good on you kate I say - 'go on blow the competition away with your ideas'. But no they say they do not know what is goin on. Right - are they schooled in a particular way of extreme conservative thinking. I dont think so. They are wonderful people - who may be trying too hard to guess what I want. When in fact I want them to guess what they want.

Now for 'two': The questioning technique (from ILO) and many others like these are the stuff that 'scott kwac' knows about. They are problem solving or creativity techniques. What I am doing is brining them into the class room. This is conventional stuff - and the web is replete with hundreds, nay thousands, of such ways or methods. The library in the 'management' section is full of books on creativity. And this is what people who work in companies get taught. And go to camps like Kinglake for their training sessions. And this is where the Corporation comes alive. Corporations privilege thinking. And radical thinking. They put a huge premium on creativity anf innovation.

P: Are you goin to link this back to the 'corporation game' to explian it to them?
S: No I should'nt. I will destroy their initiative and their ability to learn. They have to come up with the "Game".

P: What if they forget about the game? They forget about it in one week.
S: I will step in and give them a huge set of links on "Simulation Games" And rob them of initiative, and destroy their motivation. And say the Learner Centerd Project is a failure. I will go off into the wilderness and look for radical thinkers. I will give up on the conservative mind of the urban aspirational people on this planet. But no I will keep waiting - and as I wait for them to come through I will say: " I am HR, I am Scott KWAC, I am a trainer, I am your supervisor - and I am goin to train you in techniques of thinking". And maybe many weeks go by - but somehow I doubt it. There may be a spark that may coe alive.

The First Phaedrus chat

2005-07-19T10:03:00.000+10:00

P: So how was the session?
S: Too much negative vibes. And to add to that I kept them late, I delayed them, in the evening. And they probably cursed me for it.
P: So what are you going to do?
S: Should I give up? And do a 'project' where they can sefely go ahead not tampering with their minds. Just doing some work and I will promise not to look at how they think - but will look away from them and look only at what they produce. I will accept that Education is not about their learning to learn - but is the cafe model of production and consumption. Dont go into the kitchen! Just come in, eat what we serve and value us only for what we serve. Judge us. Focus, Focus, Focus - only on outputs. Dont go into the process. Dont discuss creativity. Discuss solutions. Like it is some bizarre mathematical game. UGH!
P: You were doing quite well till the end there. So you cant go on in the way you portray. Would it help if you laid it all out. Like you have done for the films - just give them the menu - and let them chose what they want to eat. But I see your point - you dont think there is any point in the eating. Or the decor. It is about the food - and what is food. Like you say - is snake also food? And your students are saying no - we dont want to go there. Only lolly is food. Hmmm. But you have time.

(to be continued)

Phaedrus was this character in Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Where he speaks of the real university. And it has these interesting parallels with us: In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, is not about orthodox Zen Buddhism. Neither is it much about motorcycle maintenance. In this (obviously) autobiographical first novel, Pirsigs struggles with (amongst other things) the origins of Quality (Yes, he spells it with a capital Q). Is Quality merely relative? Is it just a matter of opinion? Personal prejudice? If it is, then is the Mona Lisa merely an over rated piece of doodling? Pirsig thinks not. Quality is absolute and has its origins at the highest primary level. And it does not go unnoticed that many of Pirsig's sentences will retain their meaning if the word 'Quality' was exchanged for 'God'. From Silverfish books.

You surprised me

2005-07-19T09:42:00.000+10:00

First Steve: That was a good contribution - how we switch perspectives/ paradigms - when we move through the door of a hospital. Thanks for coming in so swiftly - you could have shrugged - and said 'I dont know what you mean' but you didn't. Good on you Steve. So here is your reward - Actor Network Theory research has a treasure trove of studies looking at this shift and it is an interesting take on 'ways of thinking'. Happy reading.

Than Anara: You came in quite razor sharp - and cleared the air of what I was trying to say. I am often aware that I do not communicate effectively with people - 'why is he so difficult to understand'. But you gave this an interesting twist - by understanding the two categories (high road and low road), the two ways of thinking (the functional/lamp and the formal/paper)- because it was clear to you. But in the break you had said you found it difficult to follow what I was saying. So what is going on? May I venture a guess: What I say may be clear, but unacceptable so the students are forced to say 'we dont get it'. I seem to be throwing content away. I say Paper Lamp - and when they think of how it will work I say "no, that is not it at all". So thanks. Am also intrigued that you are familiar with Tarkovsky. Also Bondarchuk? Eisenstien? So here is your gift: Bakunin is one of those russians who changed things Permanently! Like Tarkovsky and Eisenstien. And he is the text you need to navigate your way through dissent.

As Vonnegut says ... po wee tweet ...

Cinema Resources

2005-07-19T08:29:00.000+10:00

Andrei Tarkovsky

These are some of my favourite Film makers/ Great Directors. I am old and these are directors of yesteryear. But they changed my way of thinking. I acquired many more categories - I became open to many new things. Hope this is a thrilling journey for you too. But again you may find much to ridicule in this - will you. Somehow I doubt it - you have the instinct for self preservation true, but you may be willing to give yourself the chance to move on. And be open. This is astounding stuff. Happy Viewing.

Andrei Tarkovsky
Sergei Bondarchuk
Eisenstien
Luis Bunuel
Jean Luc Goddard
Fassbinder
Werner Herzog
Andrej Wajda
Costa Gavras
Jacques Tati
Roman Polanski
Ozu
Akira Kurosawa
Ingmar Bergman
Satyajit Ray

And here are some web sites on Cinema:
Senses of Cinema
Zeroland
Bittercinema
Masters of Cinema

That is one thing:But that is not it at all ----
Another is how many films - you said 13 films in 13 weeks. It was so surprising that you did not say 130. Can you not have a feast? Do you not have the ability ( you creature straight out of clockwork orange)to watch more. Do you not have the ability to be joyful? Is education really supposed to be the most boring thing you can ever encounter on this planet? Come on give your self a chance - get a life. The question will remain - hopw many films can you put into the next three months we are going to be together?

What films is another thing altogether: You want to stick close to the script - you bird whose cage has been opened refusing to fly away. Go I say and nyet, nada, nash, nein you say. ANY FILM - anyhting at all. So long as it is not english. Check out our own Moffat.

Either way and what ever. Do surprise me with your sheer enthusiasm.

So What Happened on 18th

2005-07-19T06:45:00.000+10:00

The general feeling I carried away with me as I left the class was one of negativity. More on this:
1. I will create a Phaedrus like dialogue.
2. I will put resources for each category in the contract. What the heck I say - I give up.

On conventional Education

2005-07-15T14:12:00.000+10:00

Copyright © Louis Schmier and Atwood Publishing.
Date: Sat, 9 Mar 1996 08:11:30 -0500 (EST)

Subject: Random Thought: The Classroom Is Not A Factory

Excuse me? What do too many of us think our job is? Maybe, part of the issue is that too many of us think of the classroom or allow others--"The System" or "The Institution"--to forces us, like submissive hirelings, to treat the classroom as that not-so-serious-I've-got-to-put-food-on-the-table job. If not, if we feel truly have our finger on the pulse of students' need and are in command of our own destiny, why, then, are we surprised when we hear students say, as I recently have heard students, who have contacted me on the interent, say: "survival is to play the damn game"; "must tailor ourselves to the distant professors"; "need to give their egos a wide berth"; "groveling to them--when I see them"; "'yes, maam'ing' and 'yes, sir'ing' has become almost second nature"; "to complete my schooling has to come before my education"; and "few care and back it up." Maybe our surprise that so many students don't believe so many of us teachers care about them supports their indictment. But, what do students know.

Excuse me? Students are a source of "distraction" and "inefficiency?" Well, let me tell you, as I told him, about a "distraction" and "inefficiency" who I think explains that our MISSION as educators is not to move students along an assembly line in a factory-school setting; that our interest in the students should be beyond both the confines of the subject and the classroom; that teaching is not just something to be conveyed, but some emerging one to behold; and that our interest in being in the classroom should be to be with the students.