Jan Kubasiewicz on Teaching Design as a System of Meaning

Our guest today is Jan Kubasiewicz, Professor of Design at Massachusetts College of Art and Design and one of the most influential figures in the development of dynamic media and motion design education. Born and educated in Poland, Jan has spent decades working at the intersection of visual language, time, information, and systems. He is the founder and long-time coordinator of the Dynamic Media Institute at MassArt, a programme that helped define how motion, interaction, and data could be taught as core design literacies rather than technical specialisms. Alongside his academic work, Jan’s practice spans exhibition making, research, and authorship, with his work exhibited internationally across Europe, the United States, and Asia.Beyond the classroom, Jan has played a crucial role in shaping design discourse through lectures, publications, and curatorial projects at institutions including Harvard University, where he serves as an affiliate of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies and curator of the Giedrojć Gallery. His writing on motion literacy, information design, and dynamic media pedagogy has become foundational reading for design educators worldwide. In this conversation, we explore how design functions as a language over time, why research is inseparable from practice, and what it means to educate designers for complexity, responsibility, and meaning in a world increasingly defined by motion and data.Since its inception in 2019, Design Education Talks podcast has served as a dynamic platform for the exchange of insights and ideas within the realm of art and design education. This initiative sprang from a culmination of nearly a decade of extensive research conducted by Lefteris Heretakis. His rich background, intertwining academia, industry, and student engagement, laid the foundation for a podcast that goes beyond the conventional boundaries of educational discourse.See all of our work on on https://linktr.ee/thenewartschoolFollow us on twitter at @newartschoolRead our latest articles at https://newartschool.education/and https://heretakis.medium.com/Equipment used to produce the podcast:Rodcaster pro IIRode NT1 5th generationElgato Low profile Microphone ArmMonster Prolink Studio Pro microphone cableThe rest of the equipment is here 👉https://kit.co/heretakis/podcasting