Design Education Talks Ep. 71 – Prof. Taha Duri

Lefteris Heretakis

Paul Blackburn on Design Education, Studio Culture and the Loss of Depth – Design Education Talks

In this episode of Design Education Talks, I speak with Paul Blackburn, founder of Studio Blackburn, about what really forms a designer beneath the surface of projects, portfolios and professional success. This is a conversation about studio culture, typography, process, boredom, business, AI, educational character and the slow formation of creative judgement. Paul takes us through his own journey from Barnsley College of Art and Design to Ravensbourne, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and Central Saint Martins, each institution offering him a different philosophy of what design could be: disciplined, rhetorical, cultural, experimental, commercial and human. Through these experiences, and through his later work with major clients and young designers, he reflects on what design education once gave students through time, proximity, osmosis and studio life, and what may now be disappearing through modularisation, standardisation and the reduction of education to service delivery. At the heart of the conversation is a powerful question: how do we prepare students for professional reality without reducing them to employable operators? Paul reminds us that the studio is not a timetable, a room booking or a sequence of modules. It is an ecology of attention, conversation, discipline, making, repetition, frustration, discovery and becoming. In an age of AI, where the so-called boring junior work may disappear, this question becomes even more urgent, because hidden inside that repetitive work was apprenticeship, observation, patience and the development of judgement. This episode is not a nostalgic look backwards, but a serious invitation to rethink the future of art and design education around depth, character, human intelligence and the conditions in which young people can truly become designers. Support the showSince its inception in 2019, Design Education Talks podcast has served as a dynamic platform for the exchange of insights and ideas within the realm of art and design education. This initiative sprang from a culmination of nearly a decade of extensive research conducted by Lefteris Heretakis. His rich background, intertwining academia, industry, and student engagement, laid the foundation for a podcast that goes beyond the conventional boundaries of educational discourse.See all of our work on on https://linktr.ee/thenewartschoolFollow us on twitter at @newartschoolRead our latest articles at https://newartschool.education/and https://heretakis.medium.com/Equipment used to produce the podcast:Rodcaster pro IIRode NT1 5th generationElgato Low profile Microphone ArmMonster Prolink Studio Pro microphone cableThe rest of the equipment is here 👉https://kit.co/heretakis/podcasting
  1. Paul Blackburn on Design Education, Studio Culture and the Loss of Depth
  2. Lauren Alexander – Designing with Care, Complexity, and Responsibility
  3. Design as Experience: Ksenija Miļča on Interiors, Branding and Education
  4. The Education of Attention: Esen Karol on Design, Publishing and Joy Teaching Designers to See: A Conversation with Esen Karol
  5. Simon Collins – What Design Schools Get Wrong About the Real World

Prof Taha Duri is a published author, translator, artist, and educator, having taught in Architecture, Interior Design, Health Sciences and the Built Environment and History and Theory of Art and Architecture for twenty years.

Prof. Duri practiced architecture and interior design for a decate in New York City with specialization in the design and construction of health facilities and hospitals before being appointed overseas (UAE) to start up programs in Architectural Engineering and Interior Design (University of Sharjah and the New York Institute of Technology). His appointment at NYIT was as Associate Professor and Assistant Dean at the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) in Abu Dhabi, and Strategic Advisor for the Middle East, while also teaching conducting administrative duties, and pursuing his research interests. As of 2016, Duri is at the academic rank of Full Professor.

Many of his articles were published in architecture and design journals through international conferences on architecture, humanities, and the arts. Professor Duri also provided editorial contributions to several newspapers and periodicals such as the New York Times, Herald Tribune, Architectural Digest, and the National in the UAE.

As an artist, Professor Duri had his own art exhibitions and participated in others in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, New York City, and London, in addition to the acquisition of some of his paintings in the permanent collection of the Fischer Fine Arts Library at the University of Pennsylvania. Private collections acquiring his paintings include the Ruling Family of the United Arab Emirates.

Prof. Duri has received several academic awards on consecutive years by the International Institute for Advanced Studies in Systems Research and Cybernetics (IIAS) in Germany and is Member of the Board of Directors. Presently, Professor Duri is the Dean of the College of Design at the American University in the Emirates in addition to his honorary appointment as Visiting Research Professor at the IIAS working on several research projects and works of art.

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Published by Lefteris Heretakis

Navigating you through the disruption in #art, #design and #designeducation.

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