In Transit
2016 was my first real step outside academia, and it taught me what I was drawn to and what I could not stand.
It began with an invitation from Abhiyan Humane to work with Art in Transit. I learned to pitch ideas to collaborators, to support artists and students building creative technological installations, and to carry the administrative load underneath all of it. The surprise was how much I liked the teaching and mentoring part. Working alongside students, I found something I wanted more of.
I also found the edges of my own tolerance. Watching technology meet art and design up close, I grew surer about what I wanted from students, a deep and honest and rigorous engagement with their subject, and more frustrated when I saw the opposite. And the professional world itself was a harder fit than I expected. Administrative inefficiency, clashing working styles, and a layer of unspoken rules I was supposed to already know. I work best with clear, direct instruction, and there was little of it.
By the end of the year I left Art in Transit, without a plan for what came next. What I carried out of it was clear enough, though: I wanted to teach, and I wanted students to take their subjects seriously.