The amount of information we have at our fingertips is endless, as soon as you are up-to-date with the publications of one website or blog you find another which blows away your expectations of the web. Not only is it endless but it is also available 24-7. It may not replace tertiary study, but it does supplement it and it does open up new opportunities for students and practitioners alike. All information is available to you if you are connected. And this information can be incorporated into and inspire your life and work ... taking it to a whole other level. It has the potential to elevate individuals' plane of thought, almost making them super-human.
To keep your finger on the pulse you must to watching TV, listening to the radio, reading blogs, subscribing to websites, keeping informed/connected/sharing by/through Facebook/Twitter, visiting exhibitions at galleries and museums, reading the newspaper, reading magazines, reading books and of course talking with people face-to-face as well as texting, emailing, phoning and Skype-ing. Not to mention taking photos and recording videos. You constantly and seamlessly move through all mediums, sometimes favouring certain mediums but never completely neglecting them. And this is just in your free time, it doesn't include what happens during working hours.
Not only do we become excellent researchers and absorbers of information but we become excellent filters. Firstly there is a lot of crap out there, and secondly, there is too much to consume so we must use discretion as to what is most relevant and interesting at a given point in time. If we were not able to filter then this saturation may completely numb our minds. Perhaps the best and most natural way is to let the information almost come to us as we stumble upon links and references to information during our daily travels. For example, there might be an article in a magazine as we take time out to have a cup of tea at a cafe that grabs our attention and invites further investigation. Or we walk past a clothes shop we wish to know more about, we see an exhibition advertised on a billboard, a new friend gives us a web link ... the ways in which information is gathered and exchanged is more dynamic than ever.
TED TALKS
http://www.ted.com/
MONOCLE
Films: http://www.monocle.com/sections/design/
Monocolumn: http://www.monocle.com/monocolumn/
Programmes:http://www.monocle.com/monocle-on-bloomberg/
COOPER HEWITT
http://video.cooperhewitt.org/?utm_source=Link&utm_medium=Web%2Bsite&utm_campaign=Global%2BBottom%2BLinks
FYI
Netherlands Architecture Institute, Rotterdam
http://en.nai.nl/visit
ARCAM, Amsterdam
http://www.arcam.nl/index_uk.html
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