“Become an expert of something subtle”
This week, Daniel Hewett, research professor from RISD, came in for a discussion and critique of the Dojees first outlines for their semester long innovation projects. Ranging from a proposal to create better pockets for women to the need for more candid communication, every Dojee, the 5 mentors, and Hewett discussed every project at length and gave pointers. This discussion questioned pre conceived notions and the inclination to design a product prior to knowing your topic inside out. For 2.5 hours, every person was thoroughly engaged and committed to the creativity of every member in Dojo.
“Be willing to make a fool of yourself as you become obsessed with your subject.”
Following this discussion we took a break to eat and analyzed the workshop with Hewitt, as we do with everything speaker that comes to Dojo. Every Dojee agreed that he helped them dig deeper into their ideas and made them excited for all the work and research they would do in this semester. Job well done Hewett! Furthermore, we made each Dojo write down three “actionables” that they each would perform to make progress on their semester long project.
by Eve Grassfield