Dear Chris, Gavin, Paul, and others,
Some time ago on a visit to South-East Asia, someone shared a wonderful
saying with me, "When the winds of change come, some people build walls
while others build windmills."
It appears that some design design disciplines in academe are building
walls. Their leaders have a rather myopic view of the opportunities implicit
in designing and cannot see beyond the disciplinary walls that they have
created. It is evidenced by the curriculum in these programs as well as the
kind of projects being done. Yet, like the aforementioned windmills, there
seems to be very little realization that opportunities arise with change and
that designing is about change.
With their disciplinary blinders these same leaders cannot see that the
focus of designing has moved from defining and reinforcing the attributes of
these disciplinary silos to issues such healthcare, sustainability,
communication, transportation, etc. These and other issues do not exclude
designers but clearly forces them to leave their restrictive silos if they
wish to be effective.
A comment from the teacher astronaut (whose name I cannot remember at this
moment) who recently visited the international space station was on the mark
when she stated, ³Don¹t ask your students what they want to be; ask them
what they want to do.² I could not have said it better.²
Jacques Giard, PhD
Director and Professor
Cross-College Programs
BA/MSD/PhD
College of Design
Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ 85287-2105
P 480.965.1373
F 480.965.9656
The College of Design‹selected by BusinessWeek as one of the top 60 global
D-schools!
On 4/4/08 3:19 AM, "Chris Rust" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I think I've mentioned this before but it's relevant
>
> A longtitudinal study of the career of UK craft graduates over ten years
> revealed that, no they did not go on to become jewellers and potters,
> but they did have interesting, diverse and flexible careers doing
> professional work in the creative industries and elsewhere that
> benefited clearly from their education.
>
> So yes, let's stress the well-rounded designing graduate and not get
> trapped into meaningless numbers.
>
> One of the problems is that the majority of design teachers probably
> come from the group that has had some success in professional design.
> That's not bad in itself but it may make them blind to the broader
> possibilities for our graduates.
>
> Unfortunately the online copy of the project report (By Mike Press and
> Alison Cusworth) has disappeared thanks to enthusiastic re-organisation
> of our university website but I will try to find a copy that can be
> shared. It is quite widely cited but I'm not sure there is a journal or
> conference paper that describes it fully.
>
> regards
> Chris
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