Audio Journaling on the Polytechnicast
The third and latest version of the album art for the Polytechnicast.
Writing about podcasts I'm part of.
Almost any creative tool I pick up starts from being a fan of other's work and getting excited about that form of expression. Charles Schulz's Snoopy is why I started drawing. Slash and Kirk Hammet are two musicians that sparked my interest in guitar. DOOM, Myst, and Y's Book I and II are big parts of why I wanted to learn to make video games.
That's how it worked for podcasting too. It started by being a fan of other's work, especially Jerzy Drozd, Mark Rudolph, and Kevin Cross. They were creating art journal podcasts, along with the show they made together: Art & Story.
I started with the Polytechnicast.
The Polytechnicast is my art journal. It's totally an audio version of this blog or this blog is the written version of the Polytechnicast. Though my first podcast started 11 years ago, pre-dating this blog by a lot. It was a behind the scenes journal for my web comic Art Geek Zoo.
Recording yourself investigating and wondering about what you make is a useful practice to add creating things. Talking about the process provides a chance to question and learn more from the experience. Helpful for you and others who share similar interests. That's how the Polytechnicast became something more than a behind the scenes journal. It's a personal and professional development practice where I talk about illustration, storytelling, making games, and user experience design.
Why not blog instead of record?
This blog could serve a similar purpose. Though the medium affects how I get through making and sharing the message. The process of spoken reflection feels more flexible. Talking through a topic is messier than writing for me while the process of reflecting brings out ideas and insights. I get stuck, fumble, notice things, and find a way through. I get to ideas that I didn't have when I started.
My blogging voice feels like how I sound after thinking something through. At least a bit. My audio journaling voice sounds more raw and a combination of when I'm first starting to explore idea and the eureka of discovering something useful.
Published occasionally, 255 so far.
I've made 255 Polytechnicasts and expect to do more. Last episode I posted was at the end of November though you never know when I will add more episodes to the feed. Not sure if posting a blog article every day in 2021 will get me to do more or fewer audio journals.
What I'm proud of with the Polytechnicast
This project is has lead me to other projects like this blog, finding friends and collaborators. It lead to me working with Jerzy Drozd to make Lean Into Art. And while some of that is old news, I do find the spoken journal form continues to be a useful practice in itself to develop ideas.
Here's a sampling of different Polytechnicast episodes to add to your RSS, podcatcher, or huffduffer
- When I knew I wanted to be an artist
- UX Mindset for software engineering
- Minimum Viable Product as jargon for learning
- See all 255 episodes on the Polytechnicast archive page
When I publish an episode, it's because I believe there's something helpful to share. Just like writing a journal, it's not perfect, it's not that polished though it is thoughtful.