Jennifer Hom ‘09 IL, a web designer/illustrator at Google, is responsible for today’s Google Doodle of Mahatma Ghandi - it’s Jen’s first doodle for Google. Nice work, Jen!

Thanks to the efforts of Rafael Attias ‘91 GD, a musician and adjunct faculty member, “Indie darlings” Dean & Britta will present 13 Most Beautiful…Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests at the RISD Auditorium this Saturday, October 3 at 8 pm. The Warhol Museum turned to the husband-and-wife duo to create live music for Warhol’s short, silent b&w screen tests of ’60s art celebrities. And the formula works. Their multimedia performances have been getting great responses at venues like Lincoln Center, the ICA in Boston, MassMoCA and The Walker Art Center. Part of FirstWorks’ Pixilerations [V.6] series (Rafael is on the steering committee), the super-cool concert/screening promises to mesmerize and move you. Tickets are $18 and available through ART TIX.

In Monday’s edition of The Washington Post, columnist John Kelly focused his attention on a public art project in the making by Landscape Architecture Professor Mikyoung Kim. Backed by the D.C. Commission on the Arts & Humanities and slated for completion later this fall, her Kaleidoscope Project will provide a “unique artistic enhancement” to the 14th Street Bridge - a well-traveled gateway into the capital city. The idea is to transform the derelict hexagonal tower where the keeper of the draw-bridge once sat into a massive kaleidoscope emanating colorful light.

“The challenge was to create something of interest to drivers” as they’re crossing into Washington, DC, Mikyoung says in the article. “It was to create something that visually you could take in at 20-40 mph, which is a very particular challenge. It’s not like being in a museum.” Too true. But therein lies the beauty of public art - it offers refreshing surprises in unexpected places.

It’s not too late to register for or volunteer at this weekend’s A Better World by Design conference in Providence, which promises to be even better than the first (held last fall). A small group of Brown and RISD students - including Seungkyun Lee ‘10 ID, Joyce Tu MID ‘10 and Willem Van Lancker ‘10 GD - have been working around the clock to pull this three-day event together. Thanks to their efforts, A Better World by Design ’09 will bring 18 inspiring speakers and workshop presenters together with hundreds of enthusiastic, motivated young people who believe in the power of design and critical, art-school thinking to address our most pressing problems - from climate change, to affordable housing, to our dependence on fossil fuels. The conference takes place at RISD, Brown and in downtown Providence and you can register here or sign up to volunteer by e-mailing volunteer@abetterworldbydesign.com.

This week Google launched Google Sidewiki, which appears as a browser sidebar, allowing users to find – and add – helpful information related to the search topic along the side of the page. President Maeda was involved in the launch and RISD’s own homepage appears in the Sidewiki YouTube demo video (above).

It’s just another example of how the web is an ever-changing tool and how, by sharing our combined knowledge, we can help provide perspective, context and insights to others as they explore information – and vice versa.

CVS/pharmacy commissioned four RISD students to give new life to a faded, graffiti-riden wall of the Thayer Street (Providence) store. The result? A colorful mural brightening the well-traveled street and a $10,000 donation from CVS to the RISD Painting Department scholarship fund! Above, James Szurek (right), store manager, presents the check to (from left) Painting Department head Dennis Congdon and students Annabeth Marks, Alison Kizu-Blair, Michael Kolendowiz and Christina Graham. Thank you, CVS!

The stove was hot with pizza and so were the conversations when RISD alumni, along with their families, got together with  Alumni Association President Nat Hesse ‘76 SC at his Sculpture Ranch in New Mexico recently for a Pizza Cook Off. Michael Wright ‘85 ID was the pie maker,a specialty he developed during his student days at RISD. Mike made the pizzas and everyone brought the ingredients, including green chile - a New Mexico favorite. Alumni at this years Cook Off was the most varied it’s ever been at this annual event, ranging  from Jane Crittenden ‘49 PT to Sean DiIanni ‘07 SC. When RISD Alumni get together, good food abounds!

Within weeks of arriving on campus last year, I was asked whether I was going to change the name of the “Jolly Roger.” I thought, “The ‘Jolly Roger’? Isn’t that a pirate thing? What does it have to do with RISD?” Turns out that the Jolly Roger is a RISD Dining venture from the magical mind of our Director of Dining and Retail Ginnie Dunleavy that is named after President Roger Mandle — it’s on the southern tip of the RISD campus and right near our architecture studios. The sandwiches are delicious and sitting in the company of RISD students will make you at least ten times more creative. And rest assured that it will remain the “Jolly Roger” — the “Jolly John” doesn’t make it into the official pirate dictionary (smile). -JM

This semester RISD and Pawtucket, RI-based toy manufacturer Hasbro are teaming up to “leaven the seriousness of design education with a curricular initiative centered around structured play” in a studio called Multidisciplinary Reinterpretation of Play for Games in the Spirit of Cranium.

ID Magazine is already taking notes. As the course title suggests, the studio is built around Cranium, the board game that blends language, art, memory and performance and meshes perfectly with RISD’s core values of “critical thinking and making.” The interdisciplinary studio is led by Susan Doyle (Illustration),  Khipra Nichols (Industrial Design) and Lalya Gaye (Digitial + Media). As Khipra - who worked for Hasbro for 20 years before coming to RISD - observes, “play is a natural part of the design process […] any creative person is really trying to play. If they can be given permission to play at work I think they’ll discover that they get more done.” The studio is also offering RISD students and faculty the opportunity, says President John Maeda, “to collaborate with an enlightened industrial partner” and combine rigorous learning with a big dose of fun. In other words - the perfect RISD education.

Today I had the opportunity to share the sunshine and delicious food from RISD Dining with the undergrads and grads at our beautiful Tillinghast farm. Many bicycled to Barrington from RISD. i cheated and drove my car. Thanks to the undergrads that pulled me into their frisbee game. -JM