Are there Starker IxD's? Who are they? My guess is that due to our youth we aren't there yet. BTW, this brings up an interesting comparison if we want to stick w/ the music metaphor (I usually go to dance), but I often ask the question ... Are we the Bernstein or are we the Pearlman?
While Bernstein is an accomplished musician, his role and fame is around composition & orchestration which are very different skills (noted in an earlier thread). I think I said in that thread that people like Mozart and Chopin were masters of many instruments but seldom the best of their time and might not even chair in many of the instruments they took up, but they did take them up and to a level that would be far superior than the "wedding" musicians of their time (I love that as a metric level). But what they did even better, was compose and orchestrate and direct true masters towards performances that could bring you to weep. Are we Bernstien (in our highest aspiration of composer/orchestrator) or are we Yo-Yo Ma (musician and master crafts person)? Any American Idol fans out there? For the last 2 years (the time frame that I've been following) I realized that I am attracted to those people that can do both well. David Cook, this year's idol in the US took a Lionel Richie song and catapulted from the 80's into this milennium. He reconceived it expressing his creativity and and sang it beautifully expressing his craft of manipulating his voice and other aspects of his performance. So moving away from Bernstein & Yo-Yo Ma for a moment, are the best of us Prince? An amazing master of many instruments who can conceive of musical narratives, melodies, and poetics (arguably according to your taste). This speaks to what I think is at the crux here. We argue this point all the time ... Do you have to be an expert in the craft of the media we work in (web, desktop, embedded, voice, NUI, spatial, etc.) or is just having an understanding of its intricacies and how those who are expert/masters need to work leading to a requirement of partnerships like Rogers & Hammerstein or Elton & Bernie. Maybe there is no answer here, but it provokes a lot in me personally when I think about my future and the types of people I want to surround myself with as mentors, students, and peers. -- dave On Thu, Aug 28, 2008 at 11:23 AM, Michael Micheletti <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I've been thinking about this conversation quite a bit overnight. My > perspective as a life-long musician: > > Many musicians learn Bach pieces on their instruments. At any one moment, > there may be thousands of musicians practicing Bach pieces on our planet. > For all I know, you're reading this on your iPhone in an elevator where Bach > is playing over the speaker. The music is well-known, playable, practically > a commodity. So how was I to know that Janos Starker in recital, playing > Bach unaccompanied on a cello, would carve a permanent wound in my soul? I > had no idea that anyone could push through the resistance in that familiar > material to reach such a place. > > We, as interaction designers, don't often push through our material > resistance. Our performances are more like musicians at weddings: show up on > time, wear nice clothes, don't play too loud, play what the bride requests. > The wedding party isn't looking for any more emotion - they've got plenty. > They want Wedding Bach, not Starker Bach. Or perhaps we're more like the > road-builders of our design world: not too many potholes? nice and smooth? > good clear signage? won't wear out too soon? Ship It! That's a usable road! > > Right now, at this stage of our evolution, our materials resist us > powerfully. Think quickly of how many rich web applications work well in all > different browsers and mobile devices, are powerful enough to grow into but > instinctive enough to grasp without reading instructions, and are accessible > to disabled users? I'm sorry, but somewhere there will be a compromise to > technical capabilities, schedule, finance, usability, beauty. > > There are levels that we can aspire to, but we will need to build our craft > and advance our materials. Because right now our materials are crude, > brittle, and frustrating compared to what musicians have to work with. Or > even road-builders, who every so often create a bridge of such great beauty > that you want to do a U-turn and cross it again a couple more times. > > I for one am very pleased that we have this community that celebrates the > good roads and pushes through the materials, little by little, as we can. It > may be a while before we reach that happy place on the far side. But I > follow these conversations, hoping for glimpses, and am happy to celebrate > small steps in the right direction. > > Michael Micheletti > > On Wed, Aug 27, 2008 at 12:25 PM, David Malouf <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >> ... >> But back to "resistance". >> >> I think people have been speaking of great examples in other areas, >> but I think at the crux of the issue (as Matt sorta alludes to) is >> what is our Craft? Are we even craft people, or are we simply the >> directors of craft people? (oh and not we in the sense of "my job", >> but as interaction design -- ers in the pure sense. Many of us wear >> multiple hats and do a ton of craft. > > -- David Malouf http://synapticburn.com/ http://ixda.org/ http://motorola.com/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... 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