The only new section is UNDER the dashed rule, titled “That Can’t Be Done. Can It?”
INTERDISCIPLINARY METHOD
We live in a compartmentalized mind frame. Home is different from office, fun is separated from work, science lives apart from art. We’ve been trained to specialize in one thing and call that our profession, pushing our other interests down to lesser importance. Many of us, however, have several seemingly unrelated passions simmering within us, waiting to be manifested with the right method.
Interdisciplinary thinking turns compartmentalization on its head by encouraging the coming together of disparate interests. As designers, we are schooled to develop techniques and apply them to content in order to make form. What if techniques and content stem from radically different fields? In her map painting series, designer Paula Scher, partner in the eminent studio, Pentagram, combined her passion for lettering, maps and painting to create a series cross-disciplinary works. Similarly, designer Andrew Byrom merged his love of typography and furniture to create typographic furniture, while the ceramicist Stephanie Dearmond cast letterforms in porcelain to make new and unexpected form. These are but a few examples of what can happen when we choose to combine our interests instead of segregating them.
Passions are fluid. They change shape and intensity. Introduce yourself to a new subject matter. Prod into a new discipline in order to give yourself a new perspective. Conversations fuel passions and can lead to new ways of thinking. This is precisely why designer James Victore holds The Dinner Series, an annual week-long workshop where each day culminates in a lavish dinner party, meant to stimulate creative conversation. (Get Victore quote here).
Give another example of stimulating conversation here.
Conversations can lead to striking collaborations between experts from different fields. Longtime collaborators Michael Amzalag and Mathias Augustyniak of MM/Paris and photographers Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin have produced hybrid photo/text works. (Show alphabet here). Likewise, designer Stephen Farrell has worked closely with writer Steve Tomasula to publish novels that bestow equal value on the design and the text. (Need example of designer working with a no-artistic collaborator).
Add a paragraph on working with community — larger, social issues
How does this work get done? In this chapter, we give you some leads. We attempt here to break down the method of interdsiciplinary design into useful tools—charts and diagrams, tips on inter-personal relations, and tips for testing the work as you go along.
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That Can’t Be Done. Can It?
Most of us have pulled the cord to flip venetian blinds open or closed hundreds of times, without giving it a second thought. But to designer Andrew Byrom, this commonplace instance led to a burst of inspiration, as he envisioned letterforms made of blinds, switching from bold to regular to light with the pull of the cord. This notion has led him to build a series of letters out of venetian blinds, and further, to draw a striking flat typeface based on the idea of the window blind. (show images)
Byrom thinks in an unrestricted way, seeing the magical in the mundane by asking “what if?” His thoughts move fluidly from paper to screen, to metal work, kite construction and neon signage. In doing so, he constantly subverts existing parameters and pushes his way into other disciplines to nourish his creative needs. Byrom’s thinking is effective only because it is backed up by his eagerness to learn, to renounce the comfort of his mastery to for the thorny work of the beginner, failing again and again until a new skill has been learned.
Fluid thinking allows us to see old things in a new way. Find inspiration and possibilities by combining existing knowledge in unexpected ways. Apply an old process to a new material, or inversely, a new process to a well-known material. And when you move from thinking to making, expect obstacles and find ways to overcome them. Experts will insist that it cannot be done, but if you trust your idea and show both your passion and persistence, they may eventually move over to your side and share skills with you. When the level of investment is high, interdisciplinary work comes alive.
