I will be speaking at the upcoming Art Center Conference in May of 2008. In preparation I began to read up on the conference from two years prior. My takeaway was a comment by an old friend and renowned provocateur, Jan Abrams:

Could a design conference truly galvanize, challenge its audience, provoke us into action, spurred rather than dazed by the stunning variety of its speakers’ agendas and accomplishments?

Jan is so right. How does an event not only just inspire you, but inspire you into achieving tangible actions and outcomes? The same can be said with any activity we might engage. How can a class, or a meeting, or even a random encounter have such significance as to spur you to action?

A friend told me once that he stopped smoking after seeing how his father’s lungs were ravaged by the daily practice of lighting up. He told me, “Dad’s lungs were so abnormally small and unnaturally blackened.” In this case it was fear that drove my friend to move to action — to stop smoking. We can’t say he was inspired to change; more appropriately he was motivated to change through fear of a possibly devastating future.

Inspiration is an intoxicatingly powerful form of motivation. As children we are taught to believe that things can be made better in the future; whereas by the time we become adults it’s hard to not become jaded. Life always gets better when you meet inspiring people. The question is what you will do with those encounters. Do you let the feeling of inspiration pass? Or do you do something with the energy you’ve received? I think the answer is quite clear to me now thanks to Jan.

I go to Korea at least once a year, and everytime I visit there is someone that will gift me with yet another unique sample of the Korean craft of pojagi. While browsing the RISD website I was happy to learn more about this ancient art of what is essentially the hand-knitting together of polygonal swatches of fabric.

This week I visited Hope Alswang, Director of the RISD Museum of Art, and learned that a recent show curated by Joanne Ingersoll, RISD Museum Curator of Costume and Textiles is featured on the cover of American Craft Magazine. The article entitled, “The Hand Meets High Tech,” by Marc Kristal discusses the impact of technology as a means to let the featured artists, designers, and architects manipulate textiles and their resulting works with “greater ownership of the production process, and incorporate ideas about sustainability, community, and human right into industry.” I find this perspective quite refreshingly positive.

Also recently opening to fanfare at the RISD Museum of Art is the “Styrofoam” exhibition by Judith Tannenbaum, RISD Museum Curator of Contemporary Art. Providence Journal arts writer Bill Van Siclen asks the question, “… [will] styrofoam join the pantheon of artistic materials, alongside wood, stone and canvas?”

Many people have commented to me about their love for the RISD Museum — I’m talking about completely random people like relatives of my neighbors in Massachusetts, my own doctor and my friends’ doctors, and not to mention scads of Brown University alums (RISD is geographically adjacent to Brown in Providence). The RISD Museum is much like a “teaching hospital” in the sense that it is a convenient place for RISD students to hang out and breathe the literal air of the past and excellence of the present in a hands-on way, as a means to figure out where they want to head into the future. Why Google a greek urn when it’s right down the street from your dorm? Or come within centimeters of El Lissitzky’s Dlia Golosa instead of look at a fuzzy JPG. I plan to spend more than a few hours at the RISD Museum in the coming years.

Today I attended an oral examination here at MIT for PhD candidate Leo Bonanni. Leo started his presentation with a discussion about “the original plastic” — which was apparently ivory. According to Leo, ivory was a material in popular demand for its extremely versatile construction properties (much like plastic today) and it wasn’t until the end of the 19th century when ivory became particularly expensive that people began to wonder, “Where does ivory come from?” The prevailing belief was that it came from bones abundantly lying around the jungle in Africa until the ivory shortage revealed that elephants had been hunted into near extinction for their ivory tusks. Leo believes the same thing is happening with modern plastics today — we’re all asking why they are getting more expensive, and now wonder “Where does plastic come from?”

Leo’s thesis is that systems as championed by renowned architect William McDonough’s MBDC firm can be further democratized by open, WIKI-like systems that allow designers to share information about the origin and environmental impact of a product’s Bill Of Materials. A rough sketch of his work on determining the impact of his Thinkpad is here. My friend Natalie Jeremijenko has taken a more narrative approach with her How Stuff Is Made project. I can imagine that many creative fields can benefit from this inherently open technique of knowledge sharing which RISD students have begun in part with their efforts on RISDpedia. Central to much of McDonough’s premise is that re-use is more important than recycling and the RISD 2nd Life project does just that.

Today I had an interesting visit from Greg Cook who is writing an article on “digital media” for a future issue of the Providence Phoenix. Greg comes from a background of writing about education, the arts, and many other themes I didn’t expect from a classical “arts” writer. During the interview he asked me about what I think is the future of digital media. My response was quite simple: “Greg, I have no idea.”

Let me explain. If Greg asked me ten years ago what the future would look like I would have said with affirmation that it is something to do with computers as being a more pervasive participant in our daily lives. That increased relevance to technology as a medium for expression in the arts and design would naturally follow, and that we’d somehow find a way to graft what is good about the new (digital technology) onto what is good about the good (highly evolved and pre-digital approaches to art/design). I’ve thought a lot about what this “somehow” might be and on this topic have written a few books, lectured all over the place, and, more close to my heart, simply thought out loud on the Web.

But in the last few years I’ve been awakened to advances in how digital media seems to be evolving off of the machinery that sits on our desk, and now is poised to enter directly into our body and brain as was feted at an event hosted at the MIT Media Lab last year. I began to wonder where we humans are really headed. Is there a future where we will never have to think again, because computers will think for us? Or is there a future where we will never have to get up and go somewhere by walking as a robot will simply pick us up and take us there? We already delegate much unnecessary thinking-horsepower to the computer (think Excel) and also many of us get into a robot every morning and go to work (the automobile). It’s already happening.

So there is the reality of where our world is already heading which we can project forward and imagine what may come and give a straight answer on the future. “Greg, we’re all going to become cyborgs and communicate with machines with just a thought but in general won’t have to think very much as that will be ‘taken care of’ anyways.” On the other hand there is the open question of where we as humans really want to go and take ourselves … instead of letting technology take us there without our own input. The answer to the future is different for everybody: “We need more technology.” Or, “We need less.” Is there a right answer to the question? Should the question be instead, “Where do we want the future of digital media to go?” I know the answer from where I stand now at MIT (tiny hint: more). But I’m now most curious about the RISD answer to this question. I have no personal set answer right now, and I thus find myself entirely open to discovering an appropriate answer over the next few years at my new upcoming home of RISD.

It’s been a busy month, with gatherings in Atlanta, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Turnout at these events has been greater than expected, and it’s been a wonderful opportunity for me, as the new Director of Alumni Relations, to meet alumni of all ages and backgrounds. Regardless of the career paths that these alumni have chosen - or happened upon - they are unanimous in their gratitude for the skills they acquired and honed while at RISD.

Many thanks to Catherine and trustee Dick Haining, past RISD parents, who graciously hosted our gathering in Atlanta. While there, we stopped in to visit Andrew Crawford ‘93 SC in his studio. It was my first visit to an iron works and he showed me some of the “toys” he uses in production. Here he is with one of them! For a look at some of Andrew’s work, go to his website.

The Northern California Biennial at the Oakland Art Gallery was the location of a tribute event for President Roger Mandle, and a chance to show the diversity of work of RISD alumni in the area. There is an energized group of alumni there who are making plans for some interesting events. In the pipeline are plans for a “Show for a Day,” an “invasion” of an upcoming Pecha Kucha event in San Francisco and a revival of the traditional clambake. If you are interested in becoming involved in these or in other events in the Northern California area, drop me a line at chartley@risd.edu.

Thanks goes also to Marion Wesson ‘93 PT for hosting President Mandle and area alumni in her home last month. Again, the response was greater than expected and provided the opportunity for thanks and best wishes to President Mandle, and an opportunity to network with other alumni. Click here to view photos of the event.

Next stops: Chicago and Maine!

Christina Hartley ‘74 IL
Director of Alumni Relations

You asked for it! RISD is now offering an e-mail forwarding service to all alumni registered in the online directory. We’ve had lots of requests over the last 6 months for this service, and I’m happy to be able to say that it is now available.

For those of you who haven’t registered, you may do so now by clicking this link. In addition to allowing you to register for an alumni.risd.edu address, the directory allows you to search for classmates, update your contact information and access RISD’ career services resources.

Christina M. Hartley ’74 IL
Director of Alumni Relations

The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a monumental work by illustrator, author, bookmaker, and RISD grad Brian Selznick. The book had been hanging around my house for the last few months as a gift from a friend and just last week I learned of its RISD origins. It’s unique for how the book mixes the novel format with full-page illustrations and full-page texts. It’s beautifully designed, illustrated, and written in the imaginative style of someone who has lived a curious life that is thus expressed in this work, in his words, as, “twenty-six thousand one hundred and fifty-nine words” and “one hundred and fifty-eight different pictures.”

In the US we assert our definitive power in leadership of the creative fields. Yet nationwide we see a constant erosion of programs devoted to artistic development and creative expression. Ironically our economy is driven by innovation and creativity of the likes led by companies that embody art- and design-led approaches such as Apple, Google, and Pixar. It follows that the right-half of the brain drives the US’ ability to lead in the creative economy, and that it is of utmost national importance to consciously support arts and design education. Affluent neighborhoods manage to retain some creative education for their students but certainly not enough; meanwhile in low-income urban areas as exemplified by the city of Providence, survival economics often completely drives away the opportunity to think creatively in institutions that can barely stay apace. The “creative divide” inside the US will continue to grow unless programs like the RISD Project Open Door project are activated around more universities and arts institutions around the world.

Merrill Sherman is the Chair of the Board of Trustees here at RISD. She gives six traits important to her own success that I use today to reflect on my future at RISD.

• First, set a goal or objective for yourself. My objective is to activate RISD’s ability to lead in the future of art and design by building upon the foundations for a strong community.
• Second, absolutely believe in what you do, because that conviction will lead to effectiveness. When I was younger I had stronger beliefs about design-related issues. Later on I became an artist and administrator amongst other things and my passions broadened. Today if there’s one thing I believe in strongly, it’s that technology connects people but it’s people that matter the most.
• Third, plan on working incredibly hard at whatever you do. Thanks to my mother and father who taught me the value of hard work while growing up in a family business, I never forget the lessons they taught me as living examples of tireless devotion to their craft and family.
• Fourth, make sure you enjoy what you do, because that enjoyment will provide you with passion and commitment to work hard and an ability to enjoy life. This tenet is an important one. I came to it later on in life. I used to confuse enjoyment with sheer intensity of task. Later I learned that enjoyment is not just the ability to pursue #3 hard work, but also to find what makes the best sense for your own ideals and passions. Doing what feels right to you lies at the heart of what you enjoy.
• Fifth, be willing to take risks and be open to change. By coming to RISD I think I’m living Merrill’s #5.
• And last, but not least, recognize your weaknesses — and hire around them. Luckily by working directly with the NE Businesswoman of the Year I think I’m covered on having the right partner for this big upcoming step into the future.