Chain Letters: Zachary Lieberman
How much emphasis do you place on “real life” project-based learning as compared to theoretical design study?
In terms of study, I think the most important thing is history. It's important to absorb and engage with the past and find a way to recreate the past using modern voice. For a student, I think that is both a gift and an obligation. That said, I am more of a maker than a thinker, and I often find I learn more about what a work is in the process of making it—and even after the fact.
In November, AIGA is publishing “Designer 2025,” the culmination of research led by Meredith Davis and other leaders across multiple sectors, which will identify seven emerging trends with long arcs of influence and describe key competencies necessary to compete in the coming decade. All this begs the question: How can teachers prepare their students for jobs that don’t exist yet?
Tools and jobs will always change but the fundamentals stay the same. I think the best thing teachers can do is to engage with key qualities that make students good students: curiosity and openness.
Tools and jobs will always change but the fundamentals stay the same.
Curiosity is about asking questions. On the first day of a new class at the School for Poetic Computation, which I co-founded, we ask the students to take out a piece of paper and write down all the questions they have that brought them into the room. These questions include very practical ones, like how do I do X or Y, but also unanswerable questions that get to the heart of what we are doing. When they leave the program, I'd like them to have a new set of questions that can become almost like rocket fuel for their creative practice.
As a trait, curiosity is also about being an obsessive collector and documenter. I try to model curiosity in the classroom by showing students that it's ok to be obsessed and collect. Those obsessions can inform your practice.
Openness is about working openly and sharing. I think classrooms should foster open source, collaborative ethos—together we know more. It's hard to know everything (especially in the tech world, with its layers and layers of abstractions). Learning is really about conversation and collaboration.
It’s important for a teacher to express a fundamental truth to students: the world is hungry for new ideas, new tools, and new institutions, and there is tremendous space in which to create them.