Back in August 2022, I was interviewed by Edit Undo: “a podcast about all things creative [where] co-hosts Alfi, and Stephanie chat to some fascinating people [like me] in the creative world about their learnings, adventures and their creative craft.”
We chatted for about an hour and a half about practice and discipline in Design, about information architecture (IA), addiction, Nietzsche, and sense- and meaning-making in IA, Design and in life. I’ve got to commend Stephanie de Beer and Alfi Oloo for being so casually good at what they do.
Some highlights:
04:12 – How Terence Fenn got me (back) into academia in 2009
29:54 – Information Architecture as Meaning-Making
40:29 – How socio-cultural meanings are sustained or transformed in and by design
48:38 – How meaning-in-life is eroded in addiction
A few thoughts on Edit Undo:
I like that although Edit Undo covers the creative arts in general, their individual points of departure appear to be digital design. Both have worked as UX designers. Steph still so, and Alfi started out in UX. But beyond the obvious, I struggle to put my finger on exactly what it was about that, that resonated with me…
Perhaps it was their modest charm in demonstrating an authentic curiosity towards the things said by someone from the same industry but a fair bit older. Or maybe it was their openness to new and alternative takes on things which the industry so frequently is disinterested in. For certain, the depth at which they wanted to understand things, over arriving at a hasty judgement of whether or not to agree, was remarkable. The two are great.
Credits:
Edit Undo came to hear about me while interviewing Terence Fenn a few weeks earlier for their show. Their discussion about the evolution of design from artistry to ethnography is really good.