In high school, my art teacher used to make us write lists of 100 of our influences. I used to hate this assignment, I could barely get to 25. now, some years later, I love this assignment.

101 influences (in no particular order)

1. systems
2. sustainability
3. people who work hard
4. reading the newspaper in paper format not online
5. public transportation
6. the color orange
7. security as danger
8. security as protection
9. artificial
10. natural
11. being program director
12. social justice
13. choosing which stamps to buy based on what I’d want to receive on a letter
14. making jam
15. the imagination in Moomin books
16. Scandanavia
17. thinking about organic technology
18. places where your body hurts from sitting too long
19. grad school
20. having students go off to grad school and remembering my own
21. remembering house-sitting for professors and now being that professor
22. information visualization
23. color theory
24. getting a brand new box of art supplies
25. drawing again
26. doing things by hand
27. doing things by machine
28. flying
29. the balanced researcher
30. my ical
31. to do lists
32. thinking about the value of emotion in art
33. viewing devices
34. The Museum of Jurassic Technology
35. interactive media
36. what exactly interactivity means
37. design for the other 90%
38. Victor Papanek
39. William Morris
40. Agnes Martin
41. The Albers
42. Bruce Mau
43. Pat Fredick
44. Annet Couwenberg
45. Kyle Jennings
46. Alistair
47. knitting machines
48. structures
49. sewing machines
50. using plants
51. the Science Fair
52. being a board member
53. The Lab
54. having a studio
55. finding a pad of brown paper at the art store
56. the east bay
57. lunching with colleagues at the salad bar
58. that sounds incredibly 80’s.
59. code
60. sleep
61. learning new things
62. craft
63. anti-consumerism
64. Arts & Crafts movement
65. changing systems of behavior for the better
66. Edward Tufte
67. Mad Men
68. thinking about big changes
69. materials
70. Cut on the Bias workshop in Canada
71. the economy
72. WPA murals
73. education
74. noise
75. mundane actions
76. black pens
77. globes
78. maps
79. lunch boxes
80. new furniture
81. living in a high rise
82. trying to only buy clothes that are responsibly made
83. paying more for fair trade
84. summer fruits
85. logos
86. good
87. polka dots
88. grids
89. the car wash
90. re-upholstering chairs
91. learning to darn socks
92. back to school supplies
93. cross stitch as pixels
94. Allie
95. traveling (did I say that one yet?)
96. itch
97. wood
98. the daily recap
99. cozy
100. taking pictures as a means of framing
101. collections

updated August 2011