As I look back upon my six months here, I find one consistent thread in all of my conversations. People tell me, “Always stay true to the history of RISD.” No where is this more prevalent than in the voice of the students. Last night I sat with a few students in one of the dining halls here at RISD, and the first thing out of one of their mouths was how they wanted to preserve the ability to do chemically-based photography. Advancements in digital photography were of course acknowledged and considered pivotal to RISD’s future, yet at the same time there it was again — the voice — “honor the past.”

I told them of my friend Tyler Brûlé and his merry band of creatives at Monocle that are keeping many such traditions alive, and how its a philosophy that I’ve always believed is key to the future and exemplified in my own artwork. A simple one really. Honor the past.

One of my first works for the computer was entitled, The Reactive Square. It no longer runs on regular Mac computers so it’s the equivalent of digital dust. The backstory is that it was originally entitled, “Ode to Malevich” as a tribute to one of my favorite artists. The piece consisted of a sumptuously printed book with ten black squares together with a little floppy disk that itself contained ten black squares – the difference of course that the black squares on the computer screen could morph and hyperventilate as you spoke to them … whereas the squares on the pages sat still in print. Much of my work in this period was built upon themes inspired by EL Lissitzky, Karl Gerstner, and Marcel Duchamp because I realized long ago that you really can’t look forward, if you don’t take a really good look at the past.

The reason for looking back at the past is to realize one’s strength. Especially in the case of a place like RISD that has been around since 1877. RISD has weathered many difficult times in the past, and yet still stands strongly here today 131 years later. There is a typical American (among our international students as well) can-do spirit here at RISD that I am proud to represent and lead in this new century. As we edge towards the close of the year of 2008 and we are deep in the middle of end-of-term crits, the intoxicating creative energy (directly correlated with many tired faces) on campus reminds us how in 2009 and beyond we stand here strong at RISD not just by accident … but because it’s always been that way since 1877. We look back for strength, and we step forward to engage in our future. Thank you for being a part of our future here at RISD by coming and looking to see what’s up. Regards, JM