I dropped by the Landscape Architecture department presentation entitled, “Design Foundations/Field Ecology” at the BEB. There I saw a great set of work performed over the summer as led by some of the faculty in Landscape Architecture. Lead TA George Harvey gave a rousing closing speech to the students, “Thank you for being open and responsive to criticism, and for putting your egos besides yourselves. Through the experience, all of you learned how to reflect and give criticism to each other as true peers.” Well said, Mr. Harvey. -JM

Congratulations to Shine Studios, where Michael Riley ‘91 GD is creative director, for their Emmy nomination in the category “Outstanding Main Title Sequence” for Taking Chance, the exquisite HBO movie that chronicles the final journey of Lance Corporal Chance Phelps, whose remains were escorted home from Iraq to Colorado by Lieutenant Colonel Michael Strobl (played by Kevin Bacon). Taking Chance is also nominated for an Emmy for “Best Movie.” It’s a true story.

…more on our RISD alumni Emmy nominations here and here.

If you are in the Northwest this summer make sure to check out the 2009 East | West Emerging Artist Exchange at Seattle’s Center on Contemporary Art (CoCA). The exhibition features new work by recent RISD MFAs Gwen Oulman-Brennan, Esteban del Valle, Nicholas Dertien, Gigi Gatewood, Yong Joo Kim, Caleb Larsen, Rosalind Murray, Noel O’Connell, Maurie Polak, Gabriela Salazar, Nora Salzman and current grad student Issac Wingfield. The show is up through September 12 and was co-curated by HAVC adjunct faculty member Christina Connett.

Last week I spoke at the yearly Adventures of the Mind conference for 150 of our nation’s brightest 15 to 18 year old students that gathered at Princeton’s renowned Institute for Advanced Studies. There I was happy to bump into RISD FAV undergrad Julian Marshall and the CEO of Mozilla (makers of my favorite web browser, Firefox) John Lilly. It’s always nice to speak about the importance of art and design as the critical IDEA needed in our nation’s advancement, and to ask high school students to consider the importance of creativity in their own futures.

As I sat for lunch there with a couple of high school students from my native city of Seattle, I was asked the following, “My parents don’t want me to go into the arts, and instead want me to become a doctor. How do I convince them otherwise?” First of all, many of my good friends are doctors so there’s nothing wrong with that. However I let them know that over this last year I’ve come in contact with RISD grads that have become great artists, designers, entrepreneurs, cakemakers, realtors, financiers, lawyers, gallerists, restauranteurs, dentists, and yes, I found a doctor as well. Thus an arts and design education is a wonderful foundation for many possible futures. I suggested that she have her parents watch our recent commencement speaker Sir Ken Robinson as a start, as well as his talk on TED. Watching Sir Ken is a true adventure of the mind. -JM

STEM is an acronym you can see and hear all around the world as the intellectual ad campaign for “Science, Technology, Engineering, Math.” Indeed STEM is an important factor in achieving innovations today, but it’s only half of the puzzle — there needs to be a humanizing force to any invention for it to become relevant and important. What’s missing is the raison d’etre of a STEM outcome. That could only come from an IDEA-based approach — “Intuition, Design, Emotion, Art.” In this new century, whole-innovation will emerge naturally from the marriage of STEM together with IDEA. -JM

In a front page article in Monday’s Boston Globe, Roo Trimble talks about the skeletal aluminum Roopod he built to compete in today’s One Gallon Challenge, part of the second Boston GreenFest. Trimble, who studied ID at RISD in the late ’80s and was making experimental bikes at the time, is taking to the road with six other drivers of homemade cars designed to get at least 100 mpg. The posse of three-wheelers and other clever little designs is being put to the test in today’s 100-mile drive from Greenfield, MA to Boston’s City Hall Plaza. “These days we need to think about taking the snail shells off our cars - not dragging [a 2-ton] house with us everywhere we go,” Roo told the Globe in explaining his interest in exploring lighter, fuel-efficient alternatives.

My afternoon pang of hunger was sated by a quick visit to Haven Bros. For RISD students it’s an important late night trek to make as it’s not just a diner — it’s an institution unto itself. It was profiled last year by Today Show hosts Meredith Vieira and Matt Lauer. I personally recommend the “classic hot dog” — chopped onions and mustard. True simplicity. -JM

Anywhere you walk in Providence, you’re bound to have a RISD-connected moment. Just outside of my office building at the golden hour, I bumped into professional photographer Bill Murphy who is a proud graduate of our CE Advertising and Print Design Certificate program. You can easily get hungry by perusing Bill’s gallery of delicious photos, and be sure to check out his impressive sports photos. -JM

The cover story of this Sunday’s NYT Magazine is on the pending release (September 9) of “The Beatles: Rock Band,” the interactive video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, where Ryan Lesser ‘93 IL (sporting red beard, above) is art director. Ryan’s work at Harmonics - he also directed Guitar Hero and Rock Band - famously changed the way fans relate to music and “The Beatles” will take that even further, shifting from depictions of the Fab Four in their Apple Records recording studio to painterly “dreamscapes” that accompany the songs. Check out a slideshow of the design evolution here.

This Sunday The New York Times celebrated the 5th anniversary of T, the style magazine, by commissioning five artists to reimagine the iconic “T” logo on five different cover designs. We were were pleased to open our paper and see the luminous Wave T  - a projection on water by Jenny Holzer MFA ‘77 PT - gracing the cover. (The other featured artists and designers are just as well respected: Jeff Koons, Karl Lagerfeld, Doug and Mike Starn and [RISD parent] Frank Gehry.)