Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Let the fun (and pain) begin

It's time for the fun to begin because summer vacation is officially over. I know this sounds counterintuitive, for most of my life I dreaded the end of vacation. This year, however, the end of summer coincides with the beginning of my studies at the Interactive Telecommunications Program.

This new beginning is an important culmination of my efforts to forge a new, and more creative, professional path, and my desire to play an active role in guiding the evolution and design of technology to a more human place.

On a practical level, I will be spending my days building prototypes and tinkering with code rather than strategizing on how to create desire in order to generate sales of products people don't need (my jaded marketing professional background coming out in full force). Of equal importance, I will have the opportunity to collaborate with a bunch of intelligent people who share a passion for technology, creativity, and exploration. The highlight of this first week has been to meet all of this diverse group of individuals. Here is brief overview of the background of the first year students at ITP:

Country of Origin:

  • Brazil
  • Canada
  • Chile
  • China
  • Denmark
  • England
  • Germany
  • Greece
  • Indonesia
  • Israel
  • Japan
  • South Korea
  • Malaysia
  • Mexico
  • Taiwan
  • Turkey
  • USA

Professional and academic backgrounds include:

  • Architecture
  • Dance
  • Illustration
  • Music
  • New media
  • Sculpture
  • Video
  • Animation
  • Math
  • Fashion Design
  • Business
  • Non-Profit work
  • Theatre
  • Industrial Design
  • Interior design
  • Communications
  • Film
  • journalism
  • Writing
  • Engineering
  • Photography
  • Calligraphy
  • Creative writing

As far as this journal is concerned I will be posting more frequently than ever. This will continue to be the place where I will share my experiences, ideas and projects related to the intersection of technology, design, and culture. To facilitate access to relevant content/topics I will organize my posts using course and topic tags. Here is a list of the course tags for the Fall 2009 semester:

  • Introduction to Physical Computing: ITP-IntroPhysicalComp
  • Introduction to Computational Media: ITP- IntroCompMedia
  • Comm Lab: ITP-CommLab
  • Applications of Interactive Telecommunications Technologies: ITP-ApplicationsITT

No comments: