Error: SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 1030 Got error 28 from storage engineError: SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 1030 Got error 28 from storage engineError: SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 1030 Got error 28 from storage engineError: SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 1030 Got error 28 from storage engine The Observatory Episode 32: High Maintenance: Design Observer

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04.20.16

Michael Bierut + Jessica Helfand | Audio

High Maintenance

More than a decade after Michael wrote Innovation Is the New Black, innovation is still the new black, from design studios to classrooms to President Obama celebrating innovators at the White House.

But what about the people who keep things going?

On this episode, Michael and Jessica talk about why we need to value maintainers, inspired by a conference that celebrated Maintainers from engineers who kept the Erie Canal open to Mary Poppins.

Also mentioned:

Maintainers manifesto essay by conference organizers Lee Vinsel and Andrew Russell;
Parag Khanna, A New Map for America
Kashmir Hill, How an internet mapping glitch turned a random Kansas farm into a digital hell
The Next Rembrandt
Tim’s Vermeer
Algorithmic Mondrian and Hans Hofmann

Thanks to the Porto Design Summer School for sponsoring this episode.

Subscribe to The Observatory on iTunes or your favorite podcast app, or follow Design Observer on Soundcloud.

More from Michael Bierut + Jessica Helfand

Episode 127: Fear and Longing
Fiona Apple’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters; Hrishi Hirway and Mike Errico; The Quiz Broadcast; Shakespeare and Co. Project

Episode 126: Screens and Dreams
Take Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration; Unorthodox; My Brilliant Friend; The Affair; Anil Dash on the dangers of social media; Anna Wiener on Silicon Valley; quarantine dreams

Episode 125: Zoom Aesthetics
Zoom aesthetics and COVID-19; Kyle Chayka on minimalism; Deborah Berke on shared spaces; Jessica Salfia’s poem “The First Lines of Emails I’ve Received While Quarantining”; Megan O’Grady on artistic recluses

Episode 124: That Thing You Do
Making art and design during the COVID-19 pandemic; Christoph Niemann and Daniella Zalcman; Adam Schlesinger; spec scripts for Larry David

Episode 123: Closing Doors, Opening Doors
Looking at COVID=19: Flattening the curve, Washington Post designers Harry Stevens on visualizing social distancing, Alissa Walker on how dots are people, Stephen Sondheim at 90

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