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Occupy Reimagining Design
Globalization is one of several very real practical forces underpinning the reimagining of design. Don’t miss that train. Don’t get run over by it. Q5 Wycliffe Radum: Thank you Garry. Two last questions: some initiative has been taken in establishing collaboration between Aalto, Pace, and Parsons. What do you believe Aalto can gain from establishing a presence in New York? Garry K. VanPatter: The short answer is that New York remains an amazing city of great complexity in a society of even greater complexities. Manhattan is always a work in progress, a giant experiment. With the population of the city being greater than that of most Nordic countries, including Finland, you are going to find a lot of differences. The scale of challenges encountered here is rather different and the US certainly has its fair share at the moment. Our culture is extremely diverse and with that diversity comes the magic along with the stresses and strains of this place.
New York remains an amazing city of great complexity in a society of even greater complexities.
Much can be gained by any school or organization by simply having a presence here where so much is going on, however imperfect all of that might be. There are always tremendous incoming and outgoing energies. You become part of that stream, adding to it, taking something away. New York also remains a media capital so it can help with exposure and attention, which seems to be important to your program leaders. Keep in mind that graduate design schools here are not free. They tend to be rather expensive, so the cost of attending is another dynamic present here that is not in the mix in most Nordic countries. Apart from that I cannot comment on specific local schools. In general what we see with New York City based graduate design schools is considerably less inspiring than the city itself. Over the course of the last 10 years as well as today, what we have seen and still see, is slow adaptation to change already underway in leading practices. In part this can be explained by the not often talked about Catch-22 student avalanche phenomenon. Mainstream graduate design schools here benefit from having a never-ending avalanche of young applicants who want to come to the city to study. From a change making perspective it’s not difficult to see that such an avalanche translates into important drivers of change being absent
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In general, what we see with New York City based graduate design schools is considerably less inspiring than the city itself.
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