Episodes
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https://rawslearn.wordpress.com/2024/05/12/pure-design-and-abloh/
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For details look up - https://rawslearn.wordpress.com/2024/05/09/first-person-singular/
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Missing episodes?
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It is May 2024. I have mentioned the acronym i.e. ID. I have been asked to provide a voice note explaining this process.
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Description section and resources coming soon.
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Link: https://rawslearn.wordpress.com/2024/01/02/can-you-tell-me-about-a-masters-by-research-and-a-phd/
Site 'PhD with Soumitri': https://sites.google.com/view/phdwithsoumitri/home
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I had a conversation with a friend. About the creative period. As being in the 20s. That the Beatles and Keats both had their best works in that period.
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This is a podcast about project design. Or the typology of projects - aka what are the types of projects. Or what are the 5 types that all projects can be classified into.
See more here - https://rawslearn.wordpress.com/2023/08/06/the-smeis-typology/
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I have been reading Mariana Mazzucato. The Big Con is the book. Dont read it if you have a weak constitution or if you have a tendency to flame. I had to frequently put it down - it is that incendiary. LINK
The title for this podcast is borrowed from here: LINK
QUOTE "Cynicism around consulting is nothing new. That adage about a consultant “borrowing your watch to tell you the time” didn’t come from nowhere. But the problem is now stark. According to research by McKinsey, 70% of transformations fail."
If the things I suggest gets you hot under the collar (don't wear a collar?) - then maybe start with LINK - "The ‘Big Con’ is possible in today’s economies because of the unique power that consultancies wield through extensive contracts and networks – as advisors, legitimators and outsourcers – and the illusion that they are objective sources of expertise and capacity."
For John Maeda's Tech Reports: LINK - I have always found Maeda's comments useful. As a window into thinking about the US ecology of tech. In my world of tech - the crafts still exist, and not everything is about the top 1%. So amazing insights from Maeda? Yes. Increases my diversity map of potentialities? Absolutely.
Soumitri
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Names in this episode:
James Dyson: Best to buy the book I think. LINK Isambard Kingdom Brunel LINK Buckminister Fuller LINK Monika Mulder: http://monikamulder.com/ Guy Burgoyne: https://youtu.be/Jz0mKjwaBPQ Pernilla Johansson: Search in YouTube Ralph Gilles: Look up Abstract on Netflix.The binaries?
celebrity versus altruism
market versus ideé fixe
Ideé fixe: https://www.britannica.com/art/idee-fixe
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Maybe yes? Maybe no? Listen to hear about what I did.
I have undertaken a pilot project to learn French in 4 weeks. I have attended 40 hours of classes at Alliance Française Montpellier – learning in that way. I have also studied French using apps and flash cards. I now have a good grasp of the language. The pilot project is complete. Flipping my project – I also have a good understanding of what is involved in language training, especially when it comes to learning English, from a background in French speaking.
I now have a desire to implement a program to enable migrants to learn English.
The Program
I have visualized the program in three stages:
1. Making Sounds
2. Making Meaning
3. Getting it Right
This program follows on from the principles of learner centered education. So it is based upon the principles of strength based education.
Making Sounds
Using the metaphor of sport and dance we can imagine that language usage involves the body, aka the muscles of the mouth. So this first phase is about training the muscles of the mouth to get the sounds right. Initially I imagine seeking the help of voice coaches to understand how to set up and implement a voice coaching program. The focus will also be upon cadence, pitch and stress – but largely to understand speech as a form of spoken word performance. So the desire will be to see the beauty of the sound, and to produce beautiful sounds. The outcome is the emergence of a sensory motivation, to produce laughter and to produce admiration.
(4 weeks)
Making Meaning
Using the approach of strength based education, we can imagine that the adult has expert proficiency in one or more native languages. So this first phase is about using their native language to gradually add English into the mix. So for the francophone, this stage involves speaking French with more and more English words. Speaking in a form of pidgin English or a made-up argot will be encouraged. It is possible to imagine an emulation of a Parisienne speaking English. Beautiful? Yes. Useful, completely.
(4 weeks)
Getting it Right
Using the approach of contemporary language learning – the focus here will be on narratives and stories. Both telling and reading will be practiced. It is possible this stage can involve the participation of tutors involved in the Michel Thomas Method.
(10 weeks)
Performance and Review
At the end of this period – the participants will speak and function in English. The approach will be to limit the extent of the vocabulary. Plus the encouragement to drop into pidgin will be appreciated – for more animated expression of feeling.
Pilot Program
I am looking for a community setting to trial this project. The socialisation and the setting will involve the program being run from 6 to 9 (potentially).
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Recording from Montepellier, France.
Links
Learner Centered Design Education: https://rawslearn.wordpress.com/
Who is Soumitri: http://soumitri.com.au/
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I speak about my foray into doing Instagram for a trip. I then muse about the typology of ways that constitute what we see as the visual instagram. In my case I sketch a typology in 5 parts, which sometimes expands to 6 parts. For more have a listen.
For the Instagram account that I refer to, see: https://www.instagram.com/soumitri_varadarajan/
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I am doing a few stub episodes on The Library. This first recording is about the Library as Place.
The Library is a place. The library is a social space. The Library is a proposition open for coding as L4X. -
This is an episode about pedagogy. It is also a bit about how design is constructed in the contemporary in my local area.
Binaries
Consumer Side/ Producer Side Destination/ Journey aka Product/ Process Design as Art/ Design as a Job City Studio/ Factory R&D aka Studio/ Lab Retail/ Museum Thing/ Service Local/ Exotic Rich/ Poor (and the middle class?) Theory/ Manufacture Gadget/ Decorative ObjectLinks
Learner Centered Design Education: https://rawslearn.wordpress.com/
Who is Soumitri: http://soumitri.com.au/
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This is a live recording. I will be coming back to this episode, to ruminate and redo. That version is some weeks away.
This is an episode about Beauty. I have the book “On Beauty” by Umberto Eco sitting on my desk. Is that what triggered me to do this episode? Possibly.
Podcast structure:
Beauty in Three Parts
Outer Beauty Inner Beauty The beauty of machines Essential BeautyInsider language: The Chatter, the isms, the flipping
The preoccupation with thingness
The form of things
The essence within, the hidden
Links
Learner Centered Design Education: https://rawslearn.wordpress.com/
Who is Soumitri: http://soumitri.com.au/
Memphis: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2001/sep/06/artsfeatures.arts
Monobloc: https://www.design-museum.de/en/exhibitions/detailpages/monobloc-a-chair-for-the-world.html
Brutalism Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/protecting-modernist-architecture-for-generations-to/id1125550898?i=1000552674089
Lisa Krohn phone: https://www.mcad.edu/events/visiting-artist-lecture-lisa-krohn
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This is a live recording. I will be coming back to this episode, to ruminate and redo. That version is some weeks away.
This is an episode about Perfection. An instigation – aimed at students on their journey of becoming designers.
Links
Learner Centered Design Education: https://rawslearn.wordpress.com/
Who is Soumitri: http://soumitri.com.au/
CORRECTION: The Lexus car I mentioned as LFA is in fact the LC500. This is a link to an article - https://newsexplorer.net/one-of-the-best-sounding-v8s-in-production-is-from-the-lexus-lc-500-s922472.html
A Japanese Craftsman built me a shamisen: https://youtu.be/M0Ic64TPJVc
Busyman Bicycles: http://busymanbicycles.blogspot.com/
Takumi: https://global.toyota/en/newsroom/lexus/26907779.html
Temple Sculpture: https://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/22/arts/design/looking-into-the-divine-eyes-of-spiritual-sculptures.html
Birkin workshop: https://www.ignant.com/2019/11/05/an-exclusive-look-at-the-incredible-craftsmanship-behind-the-iconic-hermes-bags/
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This is a live recording. I will be coming back to this episode, to ruminate and redo. That version is some weeks away.
This is an episode about Learning. An instigation – aimed at students on their journey of becoming designers. An Australian lens specially crafted to see a very particular kind of territory and landscape of education? Maybe.
Links
Learner Centered Design Education: https://rawslearn.wordpress.com/
Who is Soumitri: http://soumitri.com.au/
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This is a live recording. I will be coming back to this episode, to ruminate and redo. That version is some weeks away.
This is an episode about China. A designer’s China. A Designer’s lens specially crafted to see a very particular China.
I can open a door to China. A very peculiar door. My door. My China.
Do you have a China of your own? Can you name 10 designers in China? 5 Architects? One fashion Designer?
Do you love China?
Links
Learner Centered Design Education: https://rawslearn.wordpress.com/
Who is Soumitri: http://soumitri.com.au/
La Chinoise (by Goddard) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts7HBWQXWfA
Women of the Long March: LINK
The last rose of Shanghai LINK
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress: Book LINKMovie LINK
China in Africa Podcast LINK
Sinica Podcast LINK
Keywords to follow up: Nanfeng Kiln, Lights out factories, Soho China
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This is a live recording. I will be coming back to this episode, to ruminate and redo. That version is some weeks away.
This is an episode about freedom. Freedom was the title of a book I read over the holiday period. Link below.
9.38 The Article I read out from: https://culturacolectiva.com/books/on-the-road-jack-kerouac/“Without this book we might have never had Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, or films such as Thelma and Louise, Paris, Texas, or Easy Rider. Kerouac’s influence is such that in the biographical Light My Fire: My Life With The Doors, the band’s keyboard player, Ray Manzarek, claimed that without that book, the band might not have existed.”
12.17 Lines from the Ghost Song, by the Doors.
Links
Learner Centered Design Education: https://rawslearn.wordpress.com/
Who is Soumitri: http://soumitri.com.au/
On the Road by Jack Kerouac: LINK
“With his barbaric yawp of a book, Kerouac commands attention as a kind of literary James Dean,” the reviewer noted.
The Free World by Louis Menand: Book Review LINK
Menand is truly one of the great explainers. He quotes approvingly a lesson taken by Lionel Trilling from his editor Elliot Cohen: “No idea was so difficult and complex but that it could be expressed in a way that would make it understood by anyone to whom it might conceivably be of interest.” Menand puts his own practice to the test. He is accurate, he is insightful, and he is not a dumber-downer. It is notoriously hard to summarize Martin Heidegger’s Being and Time, structural linguistics, serial composition in music, or the formation of Great Power rivalries in the period of decolonization. Menand’s account of each is an abbreviated tour de force. His explanations work at all levels: interpretation for scholars, review for general readers, introductions for neophytes. Where another writer would take 20 pages to tell us why someone or something mattered historically, Menand does it in two.
Howl by Ginsberg: Review LINK
Ginsberg's poem was an incantatory epic – emotionally and sexually explicit and intent on exploding the anxieties of the atomic age.
Podcasts
John Cage: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/strong-songs/id1443417194?i=1000484979414
How Not Podcast, John Cage: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/how-not/id1562586787?i=1000525410531
The Reason Interview, Louis Menand Interview: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-reason-interview-with-nick-gillespie/id1485021241?i=1000529629177
Legacy, Jack Kerouac: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/legacy-the-artists-behind-the-legends/id1232652684?i=1000427749693
Witness Archive, Jackson Pollock: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/witness-history-archive-2012/id1003007466?i=1000377912938
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This is a live recording. I will be coming back to this episode, to ruminate and redo. That version is some weeks away.
This is an episode about temperament.
The links are – further reading on this subject.
Links
Learner Centered Design Education: https://rawslearn.wordpress.com/
Who is Soumitri: http://soumitri.com.au/
Blog Post on Embodiement: https://rawslearn.wordpress.com/2021/09/24/temperament-and-embodiement/
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