Scratching the Surface

Lesley-Ann Noel is a designer, researcher, and educator. She’s the author of Design Social Change and a co-editor of The Black Experience in Design. Earlier this year, Lesley-Ann was appointed the dean of design at OCAD University and she previously taught at North Carolina State University, Tulane University, Stanford University, and the University of the West Indies. In this conversation, Jarrett and Lesley-Ann talk about the role of design in social change, the value of utopian and abolitionist thinking, and the relationship between designed objects and cultural transformation. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/257-lesley-ann-noel. 
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Taylor Levy and Che-Wei Wang are the founders of the art and design studio CW&T. Founded in 2009, CW&T has produced human-scaled objects like pens, clocks, and tape dispensers engineered to last multiple generations as well interactive software, art installations, and more. In 2022, they were the recipients of the 2022 National Design Award for product design from Cooper Hewitt. In this conversation, Jarrett talks with Taylor and Che-Wei about the role of experimentation in their design process, the overlap of physical and digital design, and the challenges with staying independent. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/256-taylor-levy-che-wei-wang. 
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John Ochsendorf is an engineer, educator, and designer. He’s the founding director of the MIT Morningside Academy for Design and has faculty appointments in the departments of architecture and civil engineering at MIT. From 2017-2020, he served as the director of the American Academy in Rome. In this conversation, Jarrett and John talk about Morningside’s goals and how they are spreading design across MIT’s campus, the relationship between design and engineering, and why it’s a good thing that it is so hard to define design.Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/255-john-ochsendorf.
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Christoph Lindner is the President and Vice-Chancellor of the Royal College of Art. An interdisciplinary scholar of cities and visual culture, he’s authored or edited over fifteen books across art, architecture, media, cultural studies, and urban geography. Prior to this role at the RCA, he served as Dean of the Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment at University College London and Dean of the College of Design at University of Oregon. In this conversation, Jarrett and Christoph talk about the changing nature of art and design education, the role of higher education in this current moment, and why the RCA blends artistic practice with scholarly research. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/254-christoph-lindner.
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We're taking the summer off and will be republishing some of our favorite episodes from the archives through August. This episode originally aired April 13, 2022. — Robert A.M. Stern is an architect, teacher, and writer. He is the founder of Robert A.M. Stern Architects, served as dean of the Yale School of Architecture from 1998 to 2016, hosted the PBS series Pride of Place in 1986, and served on the board of directors for the Walt Disney Corporation from 1992 to 2003. He’s the author, most recently, of Between Memory and Invention: My Life in Architecture. In this conversation, Mr. Stern talks about his early interest in architecture history and the possibilities of an alternate career as a historian or curator, how leading Yale changed how he thought about architecture, and why the architecture discourse isn’t as interesting to him anymore. (Oh, and we also talk about martinis!) — Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/212-robert-a-m-stern. 
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We're taking the summer off and will be republishing some of our favorite episodes from the archives through August. This episode originally aired October 13, 2021. — Esther Choi is a multidisciplinary artist and architectural historian. In 2019, she published Le Corbuffet, a Fluxus-inspired artist's book that adopts the form of a cookbook and in 2020, she started Office Hours, a socially-engaged initiative that cultivates the sharing of knowledge among practitioners who identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. In this episode, Esther and Jarrett talk about working between photography and architectural theory, genres of writing, and building a body of work that’s hard to define. — Links from this episode can be found at https://scratchingthesurface.fm/199-esther-choi. 
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We're taking the summer off and will be republishing some of our favorite episodes from the archives through August. This episode originally aired March 16, 2022. — Chris Rudd is a designer, community organizer, and youth worker. He’s currently a professor of community-driven design at IIT Institute of Design and founder of ChiByDesign, a black-owned and people-of-color led human-centered design firm. In this conversation, Jarrett and Chris talk about the intersection of community organizing and design, the limits of co-design, and what anti-racist and post-capitalist design looks like in practice. — Since this conversation, Chris left his position at IIT and is focusing on building ChiByDesign. Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/210-chris-rudd. 
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We're taking the summer off and will be republishing some of our favorite episodes from the archives through August. This episode originally aired October 28, 2020. — Alicia Cheng is a founding partner of the New York design studio MGMT and the author of the book This Is What Democracy Looked Like: A Visual History of the Printed Ballot. She previously worked as a designer for Method, was a co-design director at the Cooper Hewitt, and is currently an external critic for the MFA program at RISD. In this episode, Jarrett and Alicia talk about how the design of ballots can teach us about the United States’s uneasy relationship with voting, mixing design history with American history, and how research feeds her design practice. Alicia is currently the design director at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. — Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/165-alicia-cheng. 
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James Bridle, a writer and technologist, dives into thought-provoking discussions about artificial intelligence and human-centered design. They critique conventional definitions of intelligence, arguing for a more inclusive understanding that embraces non-human perspectives. Bridle also explores the potential pitfalls of design focusing on corporate rather than genuine user needs. Additionally, he shares insights on a modular approach to construction and the role of speculative fiction in sparking creativity. The conversation is an intriguing blend of art, technology, and ecology.

We're taking the summer off and will be republishing some of our favorite episodes from the archives through August. This episode originally aired December 22, 2021. — Lorraine Wild is a designer who teaches and writes. A graduate of Cranbrook Academy of Art and Yale School of Art, Lorraine runs Green Dragon Office in Los Angeles and is on the faculty of the graphic design program at California Institute of Arts. She’s written extensively about graphic design for a variety of publications. In this wide-ranging conversation, Jarrett and Lorraine talk about the early years at Cranbrook, working for the Vignellis, rethinking design history, and what it means to be a graphic designer today. — Links from this episode can be found at scratchingthesurface.fm/204-lorraine-wild. 
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