Yann is a musician, composer and artist as well as many other things. His project list is vast and varied, to say the least, but seems to be rooted in performance.
11 years ago Yann ended up in Scotland. After graduating from his masters he ended up taking a role in the Dundee Rep’s Christmas production of Jack and the Beanstalk. Being from North America the concept of ‘Panto’ wasn’t exactly something he was familiar with.
I suppose I would compare Yann to a sort of Doc Brown type mad inventor character working on loads of weird and wonderful ideas with an array of technical knowledge. His studio environment also seems to reflect this with controllers, wires, electronics and other random things lining the space. The amount of projects he has featured on his website is ridiculous and we didn’t really get the chance to go into any of them but I think the chat is brilliantly representative of Yann’s mind. We weave in and out of many different subjects finding fascinating nuance in apparently mundane subjects like competitive race walking.
He’s also a prolific Pecha Kucha’er jointly holding the record for the most in Dundee with 3. He’s talked about Lothian buses, Edinburgh trams and most recently race walking. Lyall Bruce has also done 3 although his most recent was standing in for a no-show!
We get into a project Yann worked on around prayer requests on YouTube. A really intense and solemn subject but Yann seems to be able to find joy and interest in these strange areas. He talks about a common theme of finding friction or creating restraints in the way that he works. Almost making his own life more difficult to answer a brief in a more interesting way.
One of the most fascinating things to come out of our chat was Yann’s view on education. He believes that we should not be worried about preparing students for industry as it is so difficult to live up to the expectations of employers. We should be giving students the ability to create their own ideas and help them to learn new skills on their own. From a design point of view, I’d love to see students come out with much better overall creative skills. Understanding the difference between a good idea and a mediocre one is absolutely key. Also as I say in the podcast I also feel that students should be encouraged to try to plug their skill gaps and help them become a much more rounded creative.
Yann’s website – http://www.yannseznec.com/
Yann’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/yannseznec
Candle Superfight game – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QEpU2M8wJQ
