Hasta La Ideas

Even if his main line of work has suffered some ups and downs lately, Tim Gunn probably feels fairly fortunate that he left Parsons the New School of Design in exchange for a life of celebrity when he did. In case you missed it, news came out that a slew of faculty members at Parsons were told that they would no longer be teaching in the fine-arts department after the summer or let go entirely. This has created something of a firestorm, with the faculty upset, other schools like Columbia chiming in to call the decision things like “anti-artist” and “anti-culture,” and Parsons releasing a statement right away to quell some of the anger, saying the whole thing is about union contracts and the regular shifting of faculty between semesters. Of course, no matter how it all plays out, this is certainly not boding well for the school’s president, Bob Kerrey, who has been at odds with the faculty since he took over roughly eight years ago. Will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media

I wish we had trips like this back in school, Core77 just hung with 12 industrial design students from Georgia Tech as part of their ATLtoNYC non-stop tour of New York design studios. Check out where they’ve been and where they’re going here.

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Seemingly just-published on Design Observer–no comments yet–Jessica Helfand explores the ecosystem of Facebook, the ramifications for privacy and self, and the particular terrain of posting images (yes, of you) on the social network. How’s this:

For anyone under the age of, say thirty or so, the whole notion of open-source thinking is a native habitat that can be applied to everything from group-table seating in restaurants to sharing playlists to data clouds (I tag, you tag, we all tag) — in short, there’s nothing proprietary because people in this particular demographic group don’t perceive space as anything you can own. They see it as infinite real estate, to be grazed but not commandeered, shared but not colonized. The beauty of this thinking, besides the fact that it is inherently democratic and gracious, is that it lends itself to a kind of progressive evolution in which everyone wins. It’s commendable, really, and speaks well for us all.

On the other hand (and I’m not the first, nor will I be the last to mention it) there are implicit pitfalls in this rapidly growing virtual arena, particularly for those for whom social skills have not caught up with, say, their computational skills. On Facebook, this leads to huge numbers of pictures by kids of kids at parties acting stupid — yes, stupid — with cigarettes and sunglasses and cans of beer and face paint. It’s kind of sweet and sort of sad and probably meaningless (or so way too many parents of teenagers tell me) and lighten up, I’m told, because they’re just posturing, showing the world just how radical they can be. It’s safe, because after all, they’re not drinking and driving. They’re just on screen.

Or are they?

Read the whole thing here.

And in the same breath, don’t forget about Steve Portigal’s piece on Core77 last week, Where does Twitter go from here?

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…but I suppose that’s in keeping with the subject. (D.O. even gets slapped in the comments for twittering!)

Read the piece here.

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Worldstudio has just launched their new project, Design Ignites Change, aimed at bringing design thinking to and from high school and college students. Teaming up with with the Adobe Foundation’s Adobe Youth Voices, Design Ignites Change “encourages talented high school and college students to use the power of design to address social issues in their local communities through substantive public projects.” There are already 15 colleges and universities signed up, who are targeting issues such as racism, economic inequality and climate change. Here’s more:

Students are working to develop actual, visible projects aimed to stimulate thought, dialog, action, and ultimately, change. A major component of the initiative is a mentoring program through which college and university students, educators and creative professionals, work with underserved high school students to develop projects that will benefit their own communities, while giving them a voice around important social issues.

Learn more about the initiative here.
Join your school up here.
Check out mentoring here.
Get in on the HotButtons here

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