Remembering Prof. Nova
"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." - Marcel Proust
A few days ago, Fabien sent a heart breaking message. Our friend, Nicholas passed away.
Prof. Nova was an inspiring person. His kindness was beyond words. I met him through Fabien, although I have been following his work for a long time while I was a student at IIT Bombay. He had this innate capacity to observe and think about connections with various disciplines, practices, and events. His range of work is immense and varies from writing on Regge to Anthropocenes and extending to his recent work on Swiss Alps. He was working on a game about his preferred place and doing his preferred activity - hiking.
His photographs, which he regularly posted on his instagram (and earlier on his Flickr) showed us the world we lived in but never care to observe. He possessed an extraordinary gift for observation, which he shared through his book. Another book he wrote- Investigation/Design on design research is my most recommended book for designers who want to do research.
I was adopted by the NFL gang (grateful🙏🏽) to hang around and that is how I came to be in regular contact with Prof. Nova.
We only did meet once and he left a lasting impression on me.
It was during No school Nevers in 2021. He came in a train from Switzerland to give us a talk about his work. The time I saw him I was filled with joy and respect.
He had this magical ability to listen, observe, articulate, and present. Everyone received him with grace and fascination.
He was so humble and would listen to everyone and give great feedback and ideas on what we were doing.
After we met, he had a permanent space in my psyche. I would then send him a random interesting (Nicolas nova interesting) postcard which I collected during the year. This year I had planned to send him one from center of computing history. 😭
Whenever I would see something very Nicolas Nova, I would share it with him and discuss. He was so nice to always take time to give feedback. When I was struggling to evaluate a career change, he helped to reach out to his community, that helped me immensely. He was a gem of a person.
He will be greatly missed in this realm of our existence. It was, perhaps, some good karma from the past to have crossed paths with this wonderful and fascinating soul.
ॐ शांति 🙏🏽
सद्गति