I visited a gallery at Brown with radio host Christopher Lydon a few weeks back before the recent election. Lydon wanted to connect the Russian poster imagery being exhibited there with RISD alum Shephard Fairey’s popular graphical image of Obama. Lydon’s podcast is audible here.

I had a nice chat yesterday with RISD Museum Director Hope Alswang about the nature of museums. The RISD Museum is an incredible resource for our students here at RISD, and in addition serves the local community of Providence and practically all of Rhode Island.

Prof. Mairead Byrne wrote a poem for our recent Convocation ceremony just a few weeks back. Entitled “How to Write a Commissioned Poem” (commissioned by Provost Shefrin), Prof. Byrne’s lyrical voice was a great welcome to the new academic year. I recorded her voice last week in my office, and have posted it in unpackaged form here.

On the theme of poetry, I believe we are one of the few institutions out there with an Executive Vice-President of Finance and Administration, Arnie Yasinski, that is a published poet and scholar of poetry. Mr. Yasinksi recently pointed many of us to this elegant poem by Robert Hass entitled “Time and Materials” as a poet’s interpretation of the work of artist Gerhard Richter. The written word is such an incredibly sophisticated implement of expression. I urge everyone anywhere to awaken and read or write a poem today.

I had an alum visitor suggested to me by Colonel Dean Esserman of the Providence Police. JR Songwe collaborated with the Providence Police department on an innovative approach to vehicle design that he developed while a student in Industrial Design. Here is a 15-minute excerpt of our conversation.

Today I met with Prof. Leslie Fontana, head of the Industrial Design (ID) Department, and recent ID graduate Mr. Mark Drew to talk about his winning entry in the 2008 Rhode Island Business Plan Competition. A 15-minute podcast of an interview I did with them is available here.

For this podcast (8Mb) I had the chance to watch Prof. Henry Ferreira (Printmaking) talk about the “ultimate screen,” Prof. Susan Doyle (Illustration) teaching us about life in the RISD fast lane, Claudia Ford on a vision for RISD’s international interactions, and the head of the RISD Student Alliance talking about leadership.

This podcast (4Mb) includes a quick interview with Prof. Larry Bush (Ceramics), a couple of students talking about what makes for great teaching and also the Silk Road collaboration, and closes with an interview with a wandering grad student at the recent RISD Grad show.

Today I walked around RISD campus and just now quickly edited together a little podcast (9 mins). I hope you enjoy the walk around RISD campus within your own mind. All that came to my mouth really was the word “amazing.” RISD is truly amazing as I hope you will discover yourself on this little e-journey.

Catch this bonus clip of the students blowing glass at RISD today.