I am an Interaction Designer, Creative Coder, and Teacher
Teaching is Important
You Can’t Teach (all) the Skills Students Will Need
Good Lessons Add, Better Lessons Multiply
Practice is the Most Important Thing
The Best Teachers Practice and Learn Along with Their Students
Design Education Should Stress Higher-Order Design
Interaction Designer
I studied sculpture, interactive media, and a bit of print making at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. I studied design and installation art in the 2D Design department at the Cranbrook Academy of Art.
After earning my MFA, I moved to NYC and started The Studio for Interactive Media, with my long-time friend Eric Ishii-Eckhardt. We were soon joined by Greg Schomburg.
Now I work at Brand New School as Director of Interactive.
Creative Coder
I design and build machines and games and toys and tools—all things that can be used and experienced by others. Computer programming is a primary media in much of my work.
B You Can’t Teach (all) the Skills Students Will Need
E The Best Teachers Practice and Learn Along with Their Students
And Teacher
My teaching topics focus on the intersection of technology, art, and design, including courses on creative coding, physical computing, data visualization, and computational methods of design.
Creative Computing (Fall 2015)
Multiple Students - Assignment One
F Design Education Should Stress Higher-Order Design
C Good Lessons Add, Better Lessons Multiply
Data, Design, Code (Sprint 2014)
Laurie Waxman
Louise Hyde
Sarah Page
Vanshika Swaika
Computational Form (Spring 2016)
Adomas Bruzga
D Practice is the Most Important Thing
Brinna Thomsen
Margaux Salgado
Mischa Abakumova
Peter Toh
Teaching Philosophy
Teaching is Important
Only when one person is willing to share their knowledge with another, can society be advanced.
You Can’t Teach (all) the Skills Students Will Need
Technologies change. The culture changes. The context in which artists and designers communicate changes constantly. Many skills are universal and timeless, many more are not. Perhaps the most important, long-lasting skills are those that allow a designer to recognize, understand, and adapt to these changes.
Good Lessons Add, Better Lessons Multiply
The value in learning a new concept or skill is magnified by drawing connections to existing concepts and skills.
Practice is the Most Important Thing
It is absolutely important for a student of design to make things. You can learn a lot about design theory, art history, culture, technologies and methods by looking at other people’s work, or listening to other people talk. But truly understanding how those things connect with and inform your own work absolutely requires making things.
The Best Teachers Practice and Learn Along with Their Students
I believe that teaching is most effective when teachers focus on subjects that they have an eager interest in, and that the best teachers continue to practice and learn along with their students. It may go without saying, but just in case, teachers must also have an eager interest in teaching.
Design Education Should Stress Higher-Order Design
Designers need to be able to create good design. Designers must also be able to create systems that can themselves create good design. Identity designers have long needed to create systems that consider not just immediate needs, but future needs as well. As more communication design moves to digital media, and as digital media becomes more powerful and flexible, design systems thinking becomes more important.
