Looking for the Ian D. Tran who hails from the Great Lakes region of the United States? Ian Tran made a much better website here ( http://bit.ly/IanDTranWebsite ) and kindly encourages you to visit it!
Nonetheless, if you want to know about him while you’re here, here’s some of what you’d find at the above link (which also allows you to see his online portfolio) from 2012:
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| North Manitou Isle, MI circa June 2007 (Photo credit John Gudenburr) |
Ian Tran strives to do good things well through comprehensive sustainability, outreach and education, creative endeavors across communities and the arts.
Core to my endeavors: diversity of experience, vigorous education, and empowerment to elicit authentic appreciation for human and natural creativity.
I frequently muse over, attempt to identify, and seek to resolve legacy problems. What’s a legacy problem? Problems that you and I probably had no part in creating, but certainly live with whether we realize it or not.
I interpret sustainability as an existential ethos of three characteristics:
1. Continuity
Realize, create, and maintain conditions under which humans and everything we live with can exist in productive harmony.
2. Comprehensiveness
Strive to comprehensively fulfill needs with consideration for social, economic, and environmental dimensions of life.
3. Creativity
Life, our choices for living it, and the legacy of their consequences are dynamic; foster the integrity, stability, and beauty of the human, biotic, and abiotic community.
(The above is a synthesis of articulations between the US EPA & 1987 WCED Brundtland Commission definitions, the “Sustainability Triad”/”Triple Bottom Line”, Aldo Leopold’s Land Ethic, and life. Please know that there’s an element of discovery and dialogue to understanding a concept like sustainability, but the sources I’ve listed are a good place to start)
To enact sustainability, I hold an ethos of proactivity in high esteem. In essence it’s a spiraling cycle between education, empowerment, and engagement that I attempt to integrate into my presence at every event I attend or create. More specifically, I seek to inform, educate, empower myself and others to take relevant and significant action in the world and repeat with evaluation (which enters the next part of the spiral by informing and educating myself and others about what I’ve learned from the most recent action).
Science is the conscientious process for discerning Truth. Ethics are a qualitative science for discerning what is good. We seek to discern what is truly good, yet the process of discovery goes beyond understanding, it is also lived. When we do good, life can be beautiful. I strive to find beauty through experiencing, recognizing, and re-presenting reality in its truest forms.
Engaging experiences in the arts and amidst the built and natural environment can elicit a tremendous curiosity. “The sense of wonder”, a phrase coined by Rachel Carson, captures this phenomenal experience well. It awakens a timeless reverence inspiration for beauty that is simple and mysterious at the same time. To contextualize the significance of this phenomenon, I’ll refer to the wisdom of a quote from Baba Dioum: “In the end we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught.” We can surmise that we’ll best learn when our interests are ignited for discovery through exploratory inquiry. Discovering these facets of creativity and inquiry through the sense of wonder, I believe, is key to authentic learning and appreciation for the people and world we live with alike. As an educator, I champion pedagogical methods that foster deep learning through exploration, mutual inquiry, and re-integrating our connectivity for a better understanding of the world and one’s abilities.
http://umd-umich.academia.edu/IanTran
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/ian-tran/5/b90/68b
Ian Tran seeks to convey the brilliance and pathos of life in his compositions, performances, improvisation and presence. Hailing from Metro-Detroit, Tran brings folk, classical, sometimes funk, and music yet to be imagined to concert halls, open mics, parking structures, and streets wherever he goes.
In community context, Tran integrates the arts with substantive issues pertinent to understanding and resolving interconnected social, economic, and environmental challenges of sustainability. He elucidated communicative processes of music with guidance from Dr. Christopher Scheer using original compositions at the Meeting of the Minds undergraduate research conference at Oakland University in 2008. Tran also presented an informal lecture-recital on citizen empowerment, cultural preservation, and environmental justice at the University of Michigan-Dearborn’s 2011 Global Fest in collaboration with the Southeast Michigan Sierra Club office and Friends of the Rouge.
He also draws interdisciplinary insight and appreciation from his studies in the liberal arts and natural sciences as well. Tran studied performance under violinists Dr. Maria Sampen, and Dr. Mark Schuppener during their time in Ann Arbor. He performs as a soloist, chamber musician, and as a frequent member of the University of Michigan Life Sciences Orchestra in addition to the Detroit band Elemental Meaning.
In addition to violin/fiddle, he frequently plays viola, sometimes the alto saxophone, piano, and as he showers or drives may sing unabashedly. Ian Tran encourages everyone to enjoy live musicking with real people in whatever way they can at any age.
sapiens
Common names:
Ian, Mr. Tran
General morphological characteristics:
Ectomorphic with occasionally feral hair.
Behavioral observations:
Contemplative, observative, inquiring, sociable but sometimes reserved. Occasionally creative, generally appreciative and considerate toward living and non-living things.
Range:
Southeast Michigan with annual excursions beyond the temperate bioregion.
Territory and Nest:
Has been known to roost in domestic suburban settings–frequently in Michigan’s former Sweet Corn capital and occasionally among kin or with allies– also may be found in temporary shelters such as tents and quinzhees, or in extreme situations within an automobile.
Active period:
Mostly diurnal, though has been sighted working on papers and projects during early hours of the morning at various libraries within the University of Michigan system circa 2006-present.
Breeding habitat:
Unknown
Foraging Habits:
Diet:
Omnivorous though recently displayed part-time vegetarian tendencies, has been observed eating a veggie patty sub sandwich with bacon. Eats after and during ethical contemplation. Opportunistic feeder occasionally seen at promotional food stands for campus events and sampling stations in various grocers. Will forage and browse on wild rose hips, spearmint, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, feral garlic, garlic mustard, as well as domesticated mulberries, apples, pears, strawberries, and citrus fruits. Competent culinary skills enable Ian to prepare meals for himself and others resources permitting.
Drinking:
Frequently relies upon water gained from solid food, but will supplement hydration at public drinking fountains or via portable water vessels, particularly during periods of elevated aerobic respiration. Consumes large quantities of juice when available.
Favored beverages:
Varied tastes–fresh frozen young coconut juice, Hershey’s Cookies and Cream Milkshake, organic/Calder’s natural cow’s milk (greater than or equal to 2% milk fat please) or natural milk, chocolate milk, water from the Rouge River Watershed Municipal Tap, young coconut juice, fresh carrot juice, or Catawba grape juice.
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