RISD students have a special affinity for zombies that in my first year I’ve begun to vaguely understand. At the recent senior receptions organized by Institutional Engagement VP Beth Garvin together with our Student Affairs Associate Provost Barbara Fienman, I had the chance to meet Mr. Andrew Fogel, one of our aspiring young film directors in the Class of 2009, who directed the above piece on zombies which I had the pleasure of watching on my ATV with the students from our Film, Animation, and Video department headed by Prof. Dennis Hlynski. Thanks to this opportunity, I don’t think I will ever take a zombie for granted. -JM

It was a privilege and a joy to participate in a new tradition just begun at RISD with graduating students: Senior Receptions at the President’s home.  Co-sponsored with Student Life, these events brought graduating seniors and grad students, department technicians and coordinators, staff, faculty, curators, and more together to reflect on the time they’ve spent at RISD, acknowledge relationships they have made here, and talk about their hopes and dreams.  It was a chance for me to remind them that there is an active network of alumni out there, ready and willing to provide encouragement and support, who now include them among their numbers!

As promised, my photos from commencement. Nothing like a front seat to capture all that happens here at RISD. Enjoy, -JM

I love this piece that I first caught on Twitter. It made me think of the recent story in the NYT about President Obama:

When it comes to dealing with the Middle East, the president noted, “There is a Kabuki dance going on constantly. That is what I would like to see broken down. I am going to be holding up a mirror and saying: ‘Here is the situation, and the U.S. is prepared to work with all of you to deal with these problems. But we can’t impose a solution. You are all going to have to make some tough decisions.’ Leaders have to lead, and, hopefully, they will get supported by their people.”

and how leaders today need to design mirrors with which society can see itself more clearly. Only by knowing and acknowledging how we act/behave can we have a chance to possibly modulate our own behavior. Artists create mirrors all the time, as is literally seen in the elegant piece above. -JM

A month ago I visited Mary Boone Gallery to see what was showing, but also to see RISD alumni Mary Boone herself. Mary’s career arc leaving RISD shows an incredible drive to be truthful to the core of her creative pursuits — which turned from making art, to the art of showing artworks. I find that RISD’s network of entrepreneurs is similar to that of MIT’s. Passion and creative thinking are the same raw materials – the difference I’m finding however, are that the resultant enterprises are distinctly unique.

When Scott Clark ’96 IL first did a Wintersession internship at Pixar his senior year, he had no clue that more than a decade later he’d be leading the world’s best animation crew and helping the company produce one extraordinary hit after another. Now, with an incredible line-up already behind him – A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, The Incredibles, Cars and that great Academy Award-winning short Geri’s Game – he’s excited to have played a pivotal role in Up!, which opened last week and has already started getting rave reviews.

As supervising animator on the film, Scott managed the efforts of three directing animators and a team of nearly 70 at the peak of production. As with other Pixar projects, he appreciated the challenges involved – in this case, making a film starring a curmudgeonly 78-year-old named Carl Frederickson (voiced by Ed Asner).

“As soon as we had Ed on board to do the voice, we had Carl,” Scott says. “You heard him and you had the character. It gave us something to hang the animation on.” But when co-writers and directors Pete Docter and Bob Peterson wanted their protagonist to look like an old man “who had literally shrunken in his suit and was swimming in this thing,” Scott explains, the animators came up with a guy who “didn’t look like he had any knees or elbows.” So he worked with his team to lengthen the old man’s limbs so that people could see a break in the cloth where his arms and legs bend.

“Carl is probably the most caricatured animation we’ve ever done,” Scott says. “But it’s a real testament to our animation crew that they could actually get complex emotions other than just cute or happy out of Carl and Russell [his 8-year-old cohort]. They do some pretty heavy scenes, with great acting.”

RISD’s Furniture Design Department’s Immaterialize exhibition (that’s a snapshot of the booth, above) at last month’s International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) continues to attract considerable attention in the blogosphere. According to Core 77, our students’ exploratory approach to materials distinguished the RISD ICFF entry, while Fast Company declared “the [RISD] kids are alright” in “strutting their stuff” at ICFF.

Visit Design Boom to see all nine RISD students pictured alongside their work and check out new alum Elisa Werbler’s “Pour” cup-and-saucer series on NotCot.org. You can see even more images from the show and listen to department head Rosanne Somerson ‘76 ID talk about ICFF, design and the economy on this Clear Magazine podcast.

Other alums exhibitng at ICFF included Daniel Michalik MFA ‘04 FD, Colgate Searle ‘02 FD, David Gaynor ‘04 FD, Lindsey Adelman ‘96 ID and Alissia Melka-Teichroew MID ‘04 - please let us know if we’ve missed anyone else by writing to our-suggests*AT*risd.edu. Congratulations to all!

Here are some photos from the Class of 2009 reception for the Fine Arts Division with Dean John Terry presiding. Note that Congressman Patrick Kennedy gave a personal address to the audience – seems only natural that at a place where real art happens all the time, that we should be graced with a real political leader!

In case you were unable to attend last weekend’s Commencement festivities, you won’t want to miss this opportunity to watch the thoughtful and entertaining address by honorary degree recipient Sir Ken Robinson, one of the world’s leading thinkers on creativity.

Just in time for John Maeda to preside over his first RISD Commencement this past Saturday, The Providence Phoenix featured our president on the cover and a two-page spread inside. The Phoenix interviewed faculty members and business leaders to compile an overview of how the new president is leading a “brave new RISD” by straddling the worlds of art, design and industry and running and harnessing new technology to help run an “open-source” administration grounded in transparency and committed to open communication.