Our RISD

As students leisurely inspect the engaging body of work on view at the Graduate Thesis Exhibition, their musings are interrupted by a loud crack resounding throughout the custom-constructed galleries. The sound emanates from Shush, a wooden statement piece rooted in psychology. Its hammer slams down on a lever that pummels a bronze face.

“It’s a metaphor for the influences that silence us – whether they are subconscious or blatantly obvious to us, ” notes Quintin Rivera Toro MFA 13 SC, the creator of the piece.

After a few good whacks at the opening, the fulcrum snapped. The sculptor stood guard to protect the piece from further damage. “Sorry everyone. It’s out of commission for now,” he said. “But I’ll get it back in working order.”

Students were also drawn to Good Object 2, a large installation by Anna Huemmer MFA 13 SC made of orange traffic cones. “There’s so much to see,” said one student while making his way through the crowd. With almost 200 grad students showcasing work at the show, it’s a definite understatement.

The exhibition continues through June 1 in the Rhode Island Convention Center.

Billowy capes, structured jackets, sophisticated evening gowns – and even avant-garde bodysuits that take the shape of rhombuses – were some of the fantastical fashions modeled at Collection 2013. The annual runway show was held this Saturday at the Rhode Island Convention Center.

The popular show gives the public a taste of the trendsetting looks crafted by students in the Apparel Design department. In the moments leading up to the start of the show, Maybelline make-up artists were busy primping models as the designers made last-minute adjustments to their garments.

Tommy Hilfiger enjoyed the show from a front row seat. The founder of Tommy USA was one of the guest critics who gave students feedback on their work throughout the year.

Click through the photos to read up on the designers who made these fashion-forward works of art!

This past weekend’s This American Life was all about fresh takes on the hackneyed debate about climate change – and new ways to spur action. The segment that aired on National Public Radio featured this year’s honorary degree recipient Bill McKibben, whose 350.org is leading a grassroots movement on this critical issue.

Divest RISD, our own student-run environmental group, was included in the national media coverage. Senior Emma Beede 13 IA, its leader, was interviewed as part of the story. Also this weekend, at the RISD’s Board of Trustees meeting, an official Study Group was appointed to examine the Divestment issue.

Icy Exploration

Amanda Thackray MFA 12 PR will soon be spending her summer solstice suited up in a cold weather gear. The RISD alum is among a small crew of artists and scientists chosen to participate in a two-week residency program that takes place on Barquentine tall ship bound for the Arctic Circle.

“I am extremely excited to be a part of this voyage,” notes Thackray. “I’m intrigued by the Arctic’s landscape.”

While aboard the wooden vessel, the printmaker anticipates that the ship’s nautical line will deeply inspire her sketches. “I will learn to tie knots with traditional rope and my own paper rope. These structures will form the foundations of my still life drawings.”

To help fund the icy expedition that departs in June, the printmaker launched a Kickstarter campaign to partially fund her flight to Longyearbyen, Norway. Donors will receive tokens of Thackray’s appreciation in the form of graphite drawings inspired by the ship’s rigging.

“Your thoughtful contributions to this project will help to further my research and allow me explore the Arctic through collaborative artistic experimentation,” writes Thackray. “I can’t wait to embark on this journey.”

Intrigued by the connection between design and textiles, Rachel Rendely 13 FD spent her senior year crafting beautiful patterns she would later use to upholster her inventive furniture pieces. The exploration resulted in Tumbleweed, a flowered couch that is as comfy as it is pleasing to the eye.

The senior’s piece is included in an exhibition at Wood-Gerry that showcases the extraordinary work of seniors in Furniture Design. Angular metal framing, wonderful woodworking and unconventional seating devices are on display in the gallery through Tuesday, May 14.

During the exhibition’s opening reception held on Thursday, visitors also huddled around Frumpy Chairs, a pair of speckled seats made out of polyethylene. Jamie Wolfond 13 FD baked these pieces in an industrial strength plastic heater RISD students playfully refer to as “the pizza oven.” After they were fully “cooked,” he emptied out the bits of plastic that did not fully melt.

“The pieces are extremely light because they’re hollow,” notes Rendely.

Click through the pictures above to read about the students who made these fantastic pieces of furniture!

Good Dye Jobs

Standing upon sheets splattered with dots of multi-colored ink, Katie Buchanan 15 TX slowly lowered a white piece of cotton fabric into a vat filled with indigo. As she plunged the soft textile into the dye mixture, soapy bubbles popped to the surface – a visible indicator that the pigment was tinting the material a deep shade of blue.

“The color is so pretty,” said Buchanan. “I’m using this fabric for my silkscreen final.”

Pictured above: Katie Buchanan 15 TX dips pieces of cloth into a vat of indigo.

The dye job was a part of Indigo Girls, a performance piece orchestrated by Travis Boyer. Throughout Wednesday afternoon, students colored chunky sweaters, dish towels and even old band t-shirts. “I made the batch extra strong,” Boyer explained. “You never know when someone will come in with a load of clothes to dye.”

A group of RISD textile majors took advantage of the available resources to dye non-conventional materials: pieces of their own hair. “Some of the girls dipped the end of their pigtails in the vat,” said Boyer with a laugh. “It was a fun time.”

Indigo Girls was sponsored by the Textiles department and the Queer Student Alliance.

President John Maeda took part in the second annual New York Ideas forum this morning at the New York Historical Society. Hosted by The Atlantic magazine, the conference gathered together hundreds of national thought leaders to discuss the innovations and technologies driving business today and to share their take on what matters most and what trends and reversals are coming down the pike.

President Maeda participated in a panel along with MoMA curator Paola Antonelli, Darhil Crooks of The Atlantic and Jen Doll of The Atlantic Wire. He and Antonelli went back and forth about the expanded definition of design in the world, positing that “Design has nothing to do with what’s cool – it’s about constructing an ecosystem to make choices” (Maeda) and “It’s up to us to make sure design becomes a real tool for all of us” (Antonelli).

He also used the opportunity to introduce the audience to RISD’s STEM to STEAM initiative, championing it as an answer to the prevailing question: How do we bring innovation back to America?

TEDMED Talk Now Live!

President John Maeda’s talk at last month’s TEDMED2013 conference in Washington, DC just went live today. It’s called How can design principles lead to more discovery and better treatment? and you can watch it right here.

For more on RISD’s involvement with the national conference, check out Illustrating for TEDMED on risd.edu.

During the RISD Spring Alumni + Student Art Sale, Benefit Street was the site of a bustling marketplace filled with shoppers eager to take home beautiful prints, textured knitwear and intricate baubles.

Some of the greatest sellers of the day: geometric prints by Estella Ng 14 PT. “The brightest pieces seem to be really popular,” noted Ng at the sale held this Saturday. “Maybe it’s because of the sunshine.”

Onlookers also stopped to peruse paintings by Claudia Bitran MFA 13 PT. The artist created the large-scale acrylics in the likeness of clay figures. “I originally used the ceramic pieces in some of my stop motion videos,” Bitran explained.

Becky Zub 08 IL and Marin Brennan 08 IL, a RISD admissions officer, shared a table to showcase their fine illustrations inspired by the animal kingdom. “The sales are always a great opportunity to see what alumni and students are up to,” noted Brennan. “There’s always excellent work to see.”

Pushing the Boundaries of Virtual Art

In a panel discussion held on Thursday night, RISD students examined the lightning speed evolution of video game art and the unique challenges curators face as the medium transitions into the museum environment.

Jian Shen 14 FD, Lauren Martin 14 PT, Koji Yamamoto 14 FAV, David Tompkins 14 PT and Brown student Zachary Salmon were speakers on the engaging panel. Chris Romero – a writer from New York City who researches the history of video games – served as the panel’s moderator.

“The average player accepts video games as art,” explains Romero. “But not everyone involved in the art world has the same feeling.”

Pictured above: The developer of Killing Buddha challenges players to ponder the meaning of existence.

However, Romano argues that there are plenty of examples of great video games that should be placed in the pantheons of art and design. Some programs, he says, could be considered conceptual art as existentialism, personal identity and gender studies – topics often discussed in philosophy classes – are inspiring some of today’s most inventive developers.

For instance, the action game Killing Buddha encourages its players to virtually destroy large statues of the religious leader with automatic weapons. The player reaches “nirvana” (the final level) once all the Buddhas are blown up. According to the panelists, the game challenges players to ponder the meaning of their own existence.

“The definition of a ‘game’ is blurred as people continue to experiment with the medium,” notes Romero.

Martin also decided to push the boundaries of virtual art by creating her own character in The Sims, a life simulation video game that allows users to create their own avatars. “I wanted to mirror my own life as much as possible so my avatar paints as much as possible,” Martin explains. “I wanted to see what I could discover about my own artistic process through this virtual reality.”

The panel discussion was sponsored by the Painting department.

On Friday night, RISD and Brown students set aside work and let loose at Take a Break, an electric outdoor concert held in Market Square. Popular acts including The Men, Le1f and Deerhoof rocked out on a stage decorated with neon lights and white blow up dolls as fans shook out their end-of-semester stress.

As soon as Deerhoof started their set, the energetic crowd rushed the stage to get a closer look at the noise band from San Francisco. Eager concert-goers were hoisted into the air by their friends to crowd surf their way to the front.

“I really hope this doesn’t end badly!” shouted one student right before diving into a sea of hands waiting to catch him.

Other students came out to the show just to see Le1f, a punchy hip hop artist with a flamboyant flair. “I’m losing my mind!” yelled out another student. “I can’t believe this is happening right in our backyard.”

E’Ship Fosters Entrepreneurial Spirit

On Sunday night, more 70 students packed into the top floor of RISD’s Ewing Multicultural House to socialize, eat pizza and discuss their visions of entrepreneurial grandeur. The lively mixer was hosted by members of Brown’s Entrepreneurship Program and E’Ship, a new student club founded by Winston Cuevas 15 ID, Amrit Mazumder 15 GD and Ryan Murphy 15 ID.

The trio of enterprising sophomores founded E’Ship to help RISD students find resources – financial and social – to support their own ambitious business ventures. “We want people to bounce ideas off each other,” Murphy explains. “With some encouragement, I think students will be able to get their plans off the ground.”

Special guest Bill Foulkes, a RISD faculty member who teaches Design and Entrepreneurial Thinking, presented at the event. Brown students also took part in the intellectual exchange.

According to Murphy, cross-campus collaborations have been set in motion thanks to the informal mixer. “Brown students are looking at design as a vehicle to drive entrepreneurship instead of seeing it as a way to make something pretty,” Murphy notes. “The projects that will come out of these collaborations are really exciting.”

Hoping to make some pro-business connections on campus? The next E’Ship meeting will be held on the second floor of 204 Westminster Street in Providence this Sunday, May 5 at 4 pm. And you can sign up for updates from the new RISD org!

A Message on Divestment Discussions at RISD

As some may be aware, there has been activity on campus to support the Divest RISD movement, including a rally and a sit-in. Decisions regarding RISD’s endowment investments are made by the Board of Trustees, upon recommendation of the Investment Committee of the Board, and are not within the purview of the President or the Administration.

Members of the administration and I met at length with a group of passionate students about the issue and would like to share that broadly for anyone interested. We talked with students about how to best bring their message forward to the Board with the sense of urgency the students believe is necessary.

Divestment is a rich and complex issue, one that I know the Board takes seriously and wants to explore thoughtfully and deliberately. Last week, Michael Spalter, RISD’s Board chair, put out the following statement sharing where they are at in this process:

“We recognize the passion of certain members of our community about divestment, and expect no less from the globally-minded citizens that fill the RISD campus and global community. Ours is a vibrant and diverse community of more than 28,000 students, faculty, staff and alumni whose creativity has made an impact across the world, in traditional art and design fields and beyond. We celebrate everyone’s right to pursue causes they believe in and we are just beginning to explore this complex issue. As a first step, the Board is in the initial phases of forming a Study Group on Divestment to explore different approaches in the context of our fiduciary responsibility. We look forward to the process yielding insight and to becoming more informed about this issue and its implications for RISD.”

On behalf of the administration, we applaud the students’ activism and recognize their desire for RISD to be at the forefront of action on climate change. Indeed, we all share the belief that artists and designers are powerful innovators who can make a true impact on the issues of the day. We will be working with the students closely between now and the May Board meeting to make sure these issues are brought to the attention of the appropriate parties for consideration and will keep the community apprised.

Jean Eddy
SVP Students & Enrollment

Cynthia Poon 13 ID pulled back a sheet of fabric, crouched down low and entered a cocoon of warm colors and soft light. The industrial designer had followed her friend into Book of Leaves, a beautiful tent-like structure made by Stephanie Chung 13 PR. The piece was constructed out of plexiglas rods and painted fabric.

“When you’re inside, the fabric looks illuminated,” Poon noted while running her hand through the interior cloth lining the structure. “You have to become a part of the piece to appreciate it to the fullest.”

The veiled framework was just one of the interactive pieces on view at the Printmaking Senior Exhibition opening reception held at Woods-Gerry on Thursday. The show runs through April 30.

Others flocked to Dancin’ With Myself, a live performance by Kathleen Villari 13 PR. The printmaker danced on a stage decorated with pink fabric pieces in the shape of limbs.

Students also couldn’t help but notice Corpuscule, a large mixed media piece by Andrew Kensett 13 PR that hangs from the foyer in Woods-Gerry.

To read more about the wonderful pieces on view at the Printmaking Senior Exhibition, click on the photos above!

Disruptive Innovators Celebrate at TFF

As President John Maeda noted in his post this morning, he’s at the Tribeca Film Festival today to accept what has got to be one of the best-named accolades out there: a 2013 Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Award (TDIA).

The TDIA is an outgrowth of Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen’s Disruptive Innovation Theory, which explains how simpler, cheaper technologies, products and services end up decimating industry leaders. Now in its fourth year, the annual award showcases applications of disruptive innovation that have spread beyond the realms of business and technology to the fields of healthcare, education, international development, politics and advocacy, media, the arts and entertainment.

President Maeda is in color company today, sharing the limelight with such creative business forces and pop cultural figures as Psy, Twyla Tharp, Norma Komali, Quirky founder Ben Kaufman, Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya (“the Steve Jobs of yogurt” :) and many more.

President Maeda speaking with Perri Peltz, who presented the TDIA award today.

The award is in appreciation for RISD’s STEM to STEAM initiative to add art and design to the national education agenda rather than just placing increased emphasis on STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, math). After all, as RISD people already know, it’s the critical thinking that goes on in art and design studios that will lead to the breakthrough innovations needed in the 21st century.

Posts tagged risd