Learner Centered Design Education

Dubai is a special kind of place. Following on from that statement is another similar statement - every place is a special kind of place. To go as an ethnographer, as a researcher, as a theorist is a very particular way to look at places. Places in this vein of thinking hold secrets. They tell stories. What secrets does Dubai hold? What does Dubai broadcast, that we do not hear, because we have not tuned in? That is my way of saying that we rush to judge. In doing that, we miss the opportunity to develop a love for, an affection for a place, a people. Links coming soon.

The Provocation in this episode is: Some engineers view "design engineering" as redundant, believing that true engineering already includes design. If you want to go down the rabbit hole of design engineering is an oxymoron, industrial design engineer is an oxymoron - you will find a lot that is enjoyable. Check it out. Alec Issigonis - the person who visiualized and realized the Mini (Mr Bean Version) was an engineer. And a guru to James Dyson. This Episode is on D4X. As an opener into a series - of episodes that look at what happens when designers work inside manufacturing enterprises. The Author of this Podcast Series? https://soumitri.owlstown.net/ The Website where transcriptions can be found? https://rawslearn.wordpress.com/ NOTE: I dont upload transcripts of all episodes. I do upload transcripts if someone in the audience requests a transcript. These podcast episodes will become text one day. In a book or a paper. Or that is an aspiration I mull over.

Do check out the live transcription as you listen to this episode.

Do check out live transcriptions for this episode.

This is a letter to my fellow teachers. 6 of them. They have worked with me to teach in the first year - of an Industrial Design Program.

This is an episode that provides an entry point into the speculations about the future. It provides an entry into the world of investors, researchers and those that are constructing the future inside the labs. Here are some search terms for you to explore these areas: Precision fermentation Tony Seba Ray Kurzweil (Invention - A Life a book by James Dyson Apple in China the book by Patrick McGee You tube search terms and playlists: Tony Seba - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU7nrcTLINEQ_Lo0SPRRAGgaCg7kQ0LJy&si=RSGnKvIgWPPOc0pS Precision Fermentation Molecular Gastronomy ANT - Actor Network Theory SCOT - Social Construction of Technology The Social Object Book - https://www.intellectbooks.com/the-social-object

This a podcast episode for a project collaborator. A fellow teacher. A colleague. We are collaborating to teach a studio. How do you teach an Industrial Design Studio in 2025? Okay more questions: How do you teach studios in the contemporary? Would you use an LTP framing? Actually an LTS - Lecture-Tutorial_Studio? How would you teach a studio that enables students to enter a pathway towards a future in medicine related work? MedTech yes. But actually medical discovery work. This is my academic site: https://soumitri.owlstown.net/ This is the site for the Podcast: https://rawslearn.wordpress.com/

This is a short (18 minute) podcast about making a list of or a glossary of actors. I use gym work and muscle cars to illuminate, to throw light on the existence of a specific language. Of specific terms, which can be drafted to serve in an orchestra of actors.

Transcription link coming soon.

This was a walk. A long one. And I reflect upon three aspects of pedagogy - the PhD supervisions, the Capstone Project Supervision and the first year as a liminal space.

This is an episode about Placements and about my current project - "I am the Project" in Capstone Work. It is a pedagogy account. Or a musing about what I do in this space. Soumitri Varadarajan discusses the decline in campus placements in India, noting a lack of industry interest this year. He reflects on his experience coordinating placements at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and the cultural significance of campus recruitment. Varadarajan connects this trend to global layoffs and the impact of AI on job markets, particularly in the tech sector. He also explores the evolution of industrial design education and the shift of graduates into tech jobs. Varadarajan emphasizes the importance of self-initiative and global mobility for students, suggesting a need to reevaluate university curricula and the role of higher education in preparing students for diverse career paths.

This is an episode that relates to a studio within the territory of The Social Object. The Social Object is a book I have written. Why have I been offering prompts within a design studio setting?

The Social Object LINK The aim of the author has been to silence the voice of the designer to allow the accounts of objects to emerge as periodic irruptions that reveal a hidden maelstrom of passion, ideas and ailed projects. The book opens with the biography of a project dealing with waste, leading the reader to a very particular kind of object, the bads. This object is illicit, handled by criminals and in the writing by the author serves to invert the dominant discourse of objects as commodities. This book makes the case that the program of design is better seen as a democratic community, where the householders, the zietgiest, technology and all manner of hidden agents collide to allow unforseen periodic objects to emerge. The Social Life of Things LINK The meaning that people attribute to things necessarily derives from human transactions and motivations, particularly from how those things are used and circulated. The contributors to this volume examine how things are sold and traded in a variety of social and cultural settings, both present and past. Focusing on culturally defined aspects of exchange and socially regulated processes of circulation, the essays illuminate the ways in which people find value in things and things give value to social relations. By looking at things as if they lead social lives, the authors provide a new way to understand how value is externalized and sought after.

This is a 17 minute session. It is me musing about what Independent Study could be when located within a design context.

This is the third episode in a a mini series on - 2 kinds of innovation and the designer maker. As the definitive definition of Industrial Design? What is design when the post code is de-industrialised? Is it still okay to use this phrase?

This year I have reframed Industrial Design as being in 3 parts. Social Innovation + Technical Innovation + Designer Maker. That is it. In this way we lay to rest the practice of referring to Industrial Design bits with Product Names. Or category Names. Or transient names aka fashionable names.

This is the second episode in a three part series on Innovation - specifically as it pertains to Industrial Designers.

https://rawslearn.wordpress.com/2024/05/12/pure-design-and-abloh/

For details look up - https://rawslearn.wordpress.com/2024/05/09/first-person-singular/

It is May 2024. I have mentioned the acronym i.e. ID. I have been asked to provide a voice note explaining this process.