#19: Panagiotis Michalatos — Slow Down From What?

Pan Michalatos is an architect, lecturer in architecture technology at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and a Principal Research Engineer at Autodesk. Between 2006 and 2010 he worked as a computational design researcher for the London-based structural engineering firm AKT. Along with colleague Sawako Kaijima, Pan provided consultancy, and designed computational solutions, for a range of high-profile projects. They have also developed a range of software applications for the intuitive and creative use of structural engineering methods in design.

Enjoy!

Favorite quotes

• "I don't think there is such a thing as a simple life."
• "You need to have the luxury to choose to simplify your life."
• "Everything [including art] has utility for the fact that it is being done."
• "There is a misconception: that our lives have accelerated. […] But for someone 10,000 years ago, [life] would be an equally constant state of stress."
• "Screens are constructed, by accident or intentionally, to be stared at. You don't have a problem focusing on the screen. The problem is looking away from it."
• "We are trying to create tools and workflows for designers that incorporate all the knowledge [existing in other disciplines] to be directly accessible and usable."
• "Software is seen as a way to package knowledge in a usable (and mobile) form, to distribute it."
• "The other people. That's the challenge."
• "We try to find drives to keep us distracted from the fact that we're all gonna die."

Episode links

• Adams Kara Taylor
• Commodore 64
• oramata (app)
• Monolith (app)
• Objet 3d printer from Stratasys
• Millipede (app)
• Application Programming Interface
• In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg (podcast)
• National Technical University of Athens
• Images of the artifacts used by the main hand by Alberto Frigo (project)
• WarioWare: Smooth Moves (videogame)
• Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich (book)
• Red Plenty by Francis Spufford (book)
• The Collapse of Complex Societies by Joseph Tainter (book)
• Google Ngram Viewer
• Holy Anorexia by Rudolph M. Bell (book)

People mentioned

• Cristina Caprioli
• Sawako Kaijima
• Andrew Payne
• Melvyn Bragg
• Dimitris Papalexopoulos
• Paul Valéry
• Alberto Frigo
• Slavoj Žižek

Episode notes

• Intro. [0:00]
• Pan Michalatos. [2:27]
• Intuitive. [12:02]
• The "opening" of making. [13:43]
• Specificity. [15:19]
• Simple interactions. [16:47]
• Developing intuition. [18:28]
• Who designs your software. [20:01]
• Rewarding interfaces. [22:56]
• Design automation. [24:33]
• Constrained interactions. [25:35]
• Programming languages - How do coding languages affect user interactions? [26:06]
• Three social contexts - Working with a team, teaching, and doing your own projects. [28:10]
• Side projects. [28:57]
• oramata. [31:01]
• Monolith - A response to the "big promise" of the digital manufacturing industry. [32:46]
• Millipede. [35:52]
• Open source. [38:16]
• Teaching. [39:26]
• Pan Michalatos. [41:26]
• Is your life simple? [42:00]
• Complexity vs Intensity. [42:31]
• Daily habits. [43:14]
• Commute. [43:25]
• Exercise. [43:47]
• Meditative moments. [44:18]
• Boredom. [44:44]
• Media recommendations. [45:06]
• Focus. [45:48]
• Email. [46:09]
• What makes you more creative? [47:25]
• Your best ideas. [47:52]
• Work in progress. [47:57]
• Deliberate practice. [48:32]
• Disconnection. [49:03]
• Restrictions. [49:45]
• Analog. [50:03]
• Social media. [50:52]
• Digital clutter. [52:48]
• Communicative software. [53:37]
• Success. [55:12]
• A person that influenced you. [56:33]
• A sentence to the world. [57:25]
• Anything you'd do differently? [57:42]
• Nature. [58:15]
• Money. [59:11]
• Clothing. [59:57]
• Objects. [1:00:33]
• Distaste towards clutter. [1:00:54]
• Travel. [1:02:06]
• Fun experiments. [1:02:52]
• What's art? [1:03:50]
• Slow down from what? [1:05:13]
• Slack vs Scarcity. [1:07:08]
• The exceptional and the regular. [1:10:06]
• Book recommendations. [1:15:20]
• News. [1:17:28]
• A creative hobby. [1:18:19]
• Regulating technologies. [1:19:10]
• Future work. [1:21:42]
• On Getting Simple. [1:22:53]

Thanks for listening!

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