If you are lucky enough to find yourself in Dutchess County, NY in mid-August (or feel like taking a ride to the end of the line on Metro-North’s Harlem branch) make sure to check out the Wassaic Project Summer Festival, described by The New York Times yesterday as a “well-mannered art happening” inside and on the grounds of a former grain and feed elevator. The Times in particular noted the installation of The Empire bounce house - which Colin Williams MFA ‘10 DM designed and produced as a suburban twist on the carnival standby. (Check out Colin’s original drawing and the fully inflated, bounce-ready version, above.)

[Ed: This just in - two of the festival’s organizers are also RISD alums: Bowie Zunino MFA ‘09 SC and Jeffrey Barnett-Winsby MFA ‘06 PH. Please keep the additions to all our posts coming to our-suggests@risd.edu.]

More just in from Kayong Lee: Nelson Chan ‘06 PH is also at the festival. Thanks!

It was nice to hear from RISD alum Emily Albinski to learn how she won first place in the LG design competition hosted on crowdspring.com. Online communities-for-hire like crowdspring have been in the making for many years called collectively as crowdsourcing — the Web has enabled such a phenomena to happen. And it’s great to see that RISD grads are way on top (Emily let me know that there are many other RISD alums on the winner list).

The online art world is also evolving in interesting ways, but is definitely still “under construction.” Saatchi online has always puzzled me, but it definitely gets much attention. So many things happening today. It’s all quite an amazing time to be alive and to experience it all. -JM

Stefanie Haining ‘05 FD recently installed a flowing river of orange wooden sticks at Anthropolgie store on Long Island. The installation is dazzling - and already catching the eye of art bloggers (the image above is from monkeydogz’ artblog). Stefanie is an employee of Anthropologie and her work is bright reminder of why the company is known for its unique store designs. Congratulations, Stefanie!

Congratulations to Anna McCraney ‘00 AP, who last night was voted the winner of Bravo’s reality hit The Fashion Show. For some of Anna’s observations about her experience, check out this video - and see if you, too, can see how her RISD education helps her successes: “I’ve seen reality TV shows before [and] this is a craft - you are making things and if you focus on that more than anything else, then you’re going to go far.” Way to go - far - Anna!

Tucked away in our Edna Lawrence Nature Lab are a series of models from the Loeb Collection in Foundation Studies. These shapes are not from nature … but they really are. The Loeb Collection speaks to the mathematical essence of the efficient forms of nature. As you can see by the way they naturally transform and change, they represent the elegance of our universe – always in flux and always adaptive to our surrounding environment. -JM

PS If you like the above, I recommend that you visit the infamous Soda Constructor system.

PS2 RISD Trustee Stephen Metcalf kindly informed me that Loeb 3 above is called “jitterbug” by Dennis Dreher and was made in the 70s. Metcalf writes to me, “The hinges are very elegant allowing the octahedron to transform smoothly through a cuboctahdron and back to an octahedron.”

Architecture Professor Enrique Martinez has an interesting set of blogs on objects and form. You can visit his vintage one www.muchieastobjects.com, or try out the brand new one where he’s looking for co-conspirators that wish to look into the idiosyncracies and joys of the science of form at www.muchieastform.com.

I just received the above Dell video from my former 6AM buddy, RISD 2009 Printmaking graduate Korakrit Arunanondchai (aka “Krit”). Reason why I say “6AM” is because I remember jogging around campus and often seeing Krit taking a break from one of his intense work sessions. Krit’s work is scintillating, flowing, and serious. We’re rooting for you, Krit! -JM

Take a tour of RISD’s amazing Nature Lab in this video - the latest in “There’s No Place Like Here,” the series featured on Etsy, the popular online retailer of handmade and vintage items. RISD students, alumni and faculty already know how inspiring the Nature Lab is and - thanks to Etsy’s Matt Stinchcomb and Eric Beug, who produced the piece - we can now show the rest of the world’s artists and designers what makes our RISD resource unique.

Our sources in Hollywood tell us that the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced yesterday that alum [’95 FAV] Seth MacFarlane’s Family Guy is the first animated series since The Flintstones (in 1961) to be nominated for an Emmy as Outstanding Comedy Series. Family Guy will be up against Entourage, Flight of the Conchords, How I Met Your Mother, The Office, 30 Rock and Weeds when the awards show airs on CBS September 20 from the NOKIA Theatre in LA. Congratulations, again - and good luck - to Seth!

Postscript: Seth was also nominated for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for voicing “Peter Griffin” in the Family Guy’s “I Dream of Jesus” episode.

NYC-based apparel designer Anna McCraney ‘00 AP has made it to the final four on Bravo’s new hit, The Fashion Show, but could use our help to win the lucrative grand prize. The final episode airs tonight (July 16th) at 10pm ET and the competition among the finalists is fierce. So please click on this link right after the show to cast your vote. Anna launched her first line, Annabelle NYC, just after RISD and is now hoping that a big win tonight will help her go further faster in the world of fashion.