When people dont talk about something that you expect them to have a response to, it always makes me wonder whats stopping them or what their malfunction is. Mine is that I’ve been too busy and generally reluctant to dwell on any sort of failure and have been trooping on!
Heres me ranting about two recent failures (or moves towards success depending how you look at it.)
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It was nice to be interviewed for Amusement Magazines’ glossy inaugural first issue, which I will cherish in my Glitch related bit of the bookshelf until the pages whither away. Its a whole jam packed magazine full of interesting articles, of interest to french speakers out there, sadly I dont speak french, but I liked the pretty pictures.
http://www.amusement.fr/
old test I wanted to do. The painting was being thrown away, close to where I work.
Wales’ theories of failure: fail faster — if a project is doomed, shut it down quickly; don’t tie your ego to any one project — if it stumbles, you’ll be unable to move forward; real entrepreneurs fail; fail a lot but enjoy yourself along the way; if you handle these things well, ‘you will succeed.’”
Jimmy Wales speaking at TED-X in Tampa 2010
I’ve been thinking about my personal optimal mode of operation lately.
I like presentation, I like conceptualising things, I like making connections, and outlining things.
I occasionally really enjoy dabbling in making things, and giving direction. When I was teaching, I was doing several of those things. With that comes a disappointment that you don’t make some of the things yourself.
But also an opportunity or mode which is more about observation critiquing and learning or remaking things, or even curation!
I think being able to do a PhD has a lot to do with being in the right frame of mind and being able to afford to do it (time and money). If you can satisfy both criteria then superb, you’re on track. Miss one of those and its basically a no go.
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as my PhD hangs precariously in the balance… heres something nice.
Going to Iran was actually quite amazing. not only did I get on with some essential research but I also got a chance to show my partner round Tehran and of course see my relatives. The last time I visited there was over 5 years ago which is a very long time indeed, in terms of how far things change over there. Going there made me question some of the things I value in life, and since I came back I’ve had a renewed interest and vigour in altering my normal trajectory and take on things.
Sadly as my students could potentially read this I cant be as candid about my current predicament as I’d like to. But a couple of fairly large changes are on the horizon for me, and they’re all fantastically good.
I think I’m still on schedule for publishing the ideas I’ve been working on. before I leave for Iran.
On the 16th of March, I went to see Nicola Perren in the Textiles department to discuss carpet making. Nicola was incredibly generous with her time and showed me round a few places in the workshop building. I had a look at hand tufting and the Jacquard Loom.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacquard_loom we had a really good discussion about computation / glitch aesthetics. It turns out she’s a fan of Maedas work! I think we might be able to work on something together.
a lot of good things are happening, and everyone in my network is being incredibly supportive as ever.
But I’m actually in a weird situation where I can’t exactly say whats going to happen next year. I love my teaching and I love my PhD. Im looking at options so I can focus more on my PhD and related work with a remission in my teaching responsibilities, in particular the parts which require lots of redesign , rethinking and planning each year, as well as awkward documentation. So far this year, I havent in any way permitted myself to let the PhD take precedence over my teaching responsibilities.
In my experience so far, I think doing a PhD to the standard that I want requires a rethink on how much teaching I can have in a given year. As a priority I certainly dont want to jeopardize the quality of teaching, or be in a situation were I’m doing a PhD just at the weekends.
Anyhow, Im being as positive and constructive as I can. I enjoyed redesigning the Glitch Designing Imperfection site at the weekend. I’ll post it when its up.
