Kurt Andersen

I’ve just finished my first month at Art Center, and I couldn’t be more delighted. The ambition — in the best sense, on the part of both students and faculty — is palpable.

I’m most deeply involved as a guest teacher in two courses. In one, senior graphic design students are each charged with proposing a solution to one urban problem in Los Angeles, and also designing the graphics around a public event later this spring — GOOD Design LA, in association with GOOD magazine — at which those problems and solutions will be presented.

The other class consists of a dozen illustrators and graphic designers who will create a biannual Art Center publication called Wrap around a theme I’ve given them — “History Rhymes.” For this edition of Wrap I’m serving as a sort of editorial director and co-author.

I’ve also helped “curate” the weekly all-college lecture series called The Big Picture. The speakers include my brilliant pals Steven Johnson, Jonah Lehrer and Arden Reed. And me: I delivered the inaugural talk in the series, called (I only have so many ideas) “History Doesn’t Repeat, But It Rhymes.” You can see videos of all the lectures through the Art Center web site; just click on the “Guest Access” button and fire up your iTunes player.

Art Center is famous for its automobile design program, and next week I’m moderating the college’s 2009 Summit on Sustainable Mobility, which looks to be an amazing gathering of experts discussion a critical issue at a very critical moment.