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Show your stuff!!
Last week I visited Prof. Ken Horii’s exhibition at the Chazan Gallery here in Providence. There’s something interesting that happens when you see either a flyer or website that describes an exhibition, and compare that with the experience of actually being there. The show is open until October 12, 2008 so check it out. It mattered to my mind that I went. A space opened up in my head. Art does that.
Last week’s New York Times “Home” section included a piece on dormitory/student apartment living, called “Thinking Like a Student: Fearless DĂ©cor.” Not surprisingly, two RISD students — Katherine Carroll ‘10 TX (”who found a way to make her apartment upbeat and original”) and Michael Kolendowicz ‘09 PT (an “expert recycler” who created remote-control lighting) were featured among the students whose living spaces are daring, innovative and fun. Like RISD.
In the most recent issue of T, The New York Times‘ style magazine, Alice Rawshorn asks the interesting question Is Design Still a Boys’ Club? In the course of discussing whether or not this is still the case, she notes, “Some 64 percent of last year’s design undergraduates at the Rhode Island School of Design were female, and the only course where men were in the majority was architecture.” Professor of Furniture Design Rosanne Somerson ‘76 ID also discusses some of her professional experiences as a female designer.
This just in from Pierre St. Germain, Associate Director of Dining + Catering:
Harvest Season:
For those of you who are unaware, this past year at the end of school a student garden was built into one of the tiers of the 30 Waterman Quad. During the summer we gathered some produce as it became available and now it seems that since the students have returned they have been harvesting for themselves. This is wonderful since it is a student garden. I’m sure that there are many of you out there, myself included, who may take solace in the weekends or at night after work by spending time in their own garden.Â
So, in the finest sense of community I’m putting forth a request and suggestion: If, as you harvest the fruits of your own labor, you find yourself with overflowing abundance and are unable to use it, feel free to bring it by the Met. We pride ourselves on working with local vegetables and fruits when available. Last year our former President, Roger Mandle, who himself enjoys working in the large garden at his home in South Dartmouth, brought in 30 pounds of peaches. We turned those peaches into a spicy peach jam that was served at the Jolly Roger and with items in Catering.  This year I’m growing eggplant and it looks like the plants I still have flourishing in my garden will have their fruit brought here as well. So as you make the best of this harvest please think of us if your bushel is too full. It would be our pleasure and our honor to use your bounty to assist in feeding all who enter our doors.
Pax et Cibus,
Your Dining Team
Jamie Walker MFA ‘83 CR received a Distinguished Teaching Award this year from the University of Washington in Seattle, WA. where he has taught since 1989. Awardees are chosen based on a variety of criteria including but not limited to: mastery of the subject matter; enthusiasm and innovation in the learning/teaching process and the ability to inspire independent and original thinking. Jamie also received a 2005/2006 Award for Visual Artists from the Flintridge Foundation, which honors California, Oregon and Washington artists working in fine arts and crafts media whose work demonstrates high artistic merit and a distinctive voice for 20 or more years. Congratulations, Jamie!
This is a busy year in our world. And it’s now an even busier season. With elections coming up here in the US, it is clear that there is much at stake for our country’s reputation and future prosperity.
And then I pause and wonder. I think back to a random YouTube video I saw a few months ago on trying to facilitate more registration of voters here in the US. The actor/director of the homemade film deadpans the camera near the end and says, “And if you are under 18 you cannot vote … but you DO matter. Now because of the Internet, everyone’s voice can now be heard.” I recall feeling extremely optimistic when he said that. Everyone now matters. Because everyone can now be heard.
A similar thing happened to me today. I was Googling something and then for a moment I wondered to myself, “What if Google were to disappear for some reason? Would the Web vanish into thin air?” And then I quickly realized, no. Because the Web is not about a single entity. It is about a cooperative network of computers that are all connected across the globe. The computers have meaning because We, the people are now tightly connected together through these devices. We are a strong world today because we can now connect with each other in ways that were simply impossible before. Across time and space. With nothing more than a few presses of the button.
We, the people now hold our own destinies in our own hands. The hands you look at as they sit in front of you — left and right hands. They are not your only hands anymore. You now have the hands of millions of people out there that are indirectly connected to your mind through this new medium of communication you currently behold.
Twenty years ago I recall the monumental Hands Across America experiment. The intention was to show how we are all linked across the country in an important symbiotic way. Today, and every day, our hands, and minds, are all connected across the entire world in a cooperative fashion as a literal form of “Hands Across the World.”
Today I ask you to think about the many people “around” you that are there at their computer or mobile phone connecting to the ideas that surround us constantly. And how everyone knows how everyone else is no longer a lonely individual when they can opt-in to connecting with the landscape of thought available for free and 24/7 over the Web. That we are all tied together and stronger for it. That we will not let each other down, nor will we let down the world, because we *together* are the indomitable strength of our world.
This last weekend we had the first RISD Board of Trustee Meeting of the academic year. General business items were discussed with representatives of the student, faculty, and staff community, and there was a special presentation by Prof. Nancy Skolos of the Graphic Design Department to great fanfare and applause. In a slight change of the usual program of events of a Board Meeting, Dean Chris Rose designed a special set of activities for all Trustees to engage in an authentic “RISD Thinking Experience” in five different contexts around campus. Prof. Lothar Windels engaged them in a Furniture Design activity, Prof. Mark Milloff in a Basic Design and Critique activity, Prof. Anais Missakian and Curators Kate Irvin and Laurie Brewer in a Designer-meets-Curator activity in the context of an exhibition, Graduate Student Esteban del Valle in an ongoing exhibition of paintings, and Prof. Doug Scott in Graphic Design. As many interactions as possible with Students and Faculty together with the Trustees was my overall goal going into the meeting, and the Trustees were tickled pink with the opportunity to engage our unparalleled intellectual community.
So, through the experience of connecting with many audiences I’m slowly getting a hang of articulating “what makes RISD tick” … and if I were asked to point it out what the “tick” is, I would respond that it sounds like a heartbeat. I often refer to the fact that the excellence of our art and design programs are grounded in foundational studies during the first year and a liberal arts education that pervades all four years. At the heart of it all is a heartbeat — something that is insanely human at the core of everything. It dawned upon me yesterday that RISD teaches what might be best called “the life arts” — how to survive, live, and prosper as a human being in this world.
Survival depends upon knowing what matters most; living depends upon truly feeling what it means to be alive; and prospering means knowing how to give the gifts of humanity to others around us. It is why I have always felt that, The arts are the science of enjoying life.
This week was quite an exciting whirlwind of celebratory events for the opening of RISD’s much-anticipated Chace Center, designed by award-winning architect Jose Rafael Moneo. Robert Campbell’s Boston Globe piece said it best with:
Good-looking as the outside is, the real success of Chace is the way it pulls the campus together… Chace becomes the common ground of a multifarious campus. It builds physical connections with everything around it.
It all kicked-off on Wednesday with a day-long open house for RISD faculty, students and staff on Wednesday. Celebrations continued through the weekend, with the official public opening on Saturday morning. The brass band and blazing tubas echoed the jubilant feelings of the RISD community, Providence, and the Board of Trustees, who were in town to mark the occasion. Despite the rain, the Museum got the most visitors its ever had in a single day.
The Chace Center is the one place on campus where everything we do at RISD comes together. In addition to offering our city and state a fine example of world-class architecture-thinking, the Chace Center will do remarkable things for RISD and our community. We’ll come together to enjoy lectures, performances and other programming in the Metcalf Auditorium; we’ll appreciate the many outcomes of a RISD education while browsing at risd|works; students will share their work with each other and the public in the beautiful new Gelman and Student Media galleries; the Museum will feature special exhibitions in its spacious new gallery; the entire community will take advantage of the amazing resources in the Minskoff Center for Prints, Drawings, and Photographs; and finally, several sections of lucky freshmen will explore two-dimensional design in the Foundation Studies studios on the top floor, with some of the best views in town.
Thanks again to all of the donors, staff, and everyone who poured their heart and soul into this project for the past 10 years. It shows.
"Last summer I was at a pool party where a friend was bobbing around in the water with his kids. He studies genes in Drosophila flies. I noticed that Bob had a tattoo of DNA on his shoulder. At first I thought it was a generic snippet of the molecule, but then Bob told me that it actually represents, in the genetic code, his wife's initials: EEE. Geek love in its noblest forms."
Brilliant.
Trying something out here and we'll see how they work, but it's been on the cards for some time. Welcome to a new obscurely named category - The Natural World. I'm hoping to make it a regular occurrence. Starting from my own flickr and moving on to other people, but each instance will look at museum displays, dioramas, panoramas and the like.Â
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’m struck today by the speed of the world.
This week’s quite a busy one for us here at RISD. Upcoming this weekend is my first Board meeting. And everywhere I walk on campus there are students that look “steeley cheery” as they are taking on major mental (and thus physical) challenges on the road to mastering their creative disciplines.
Earlier today I stopped by the architecture building to say hi to Prof. Lynnette Widder who heads the architecture degree program. I then chatted with a variety of students on the streets. Now I’m in a car to a meeting in Massachusetts and find it interesting how I can email a photo from my phone and quickly assimilate it onto this blog. Later this afternoon I will be back on campus to engage in an informal 9pm meeting with various student groups.
So much happens so quickly. I’m glad to share the blur with you.
I ran in today’s CVS 5K here in Providence for the RISD Public Safety team together with five undergraduate leaders (pictured above). The run took us through RISD campus and we were able to cheer “RIZ-dee” a few times to get out our school spirit. My right leg now aches, but I’m glad to have gotten out to get some sun with my people.
You may or may not know it, but the United States government has a website. USA.gov is dubbed the US government’s official web portal. There you can find information for citizens, businesses, government employees, and visitors to the US. Like many government websites, it is poorly designed and often confusing. It should be redesigned, especially if the Democrat candidate for president should win the 2008 election. In that case, the transition of our government from a capitalist, representative democracy to a Marxist state will require many changes, which should be reflected on the USA.gov website…
Maintenance Technician Floyd Luton officially retired a couple of weeks ago after 38 years of service at RISD. I met Floyd over the summer at the yearly summer picnic and was impressed with his passion for photography. In the photo above at his retirement party, Floyd is the person standing holding a camera. When Floyd showed me the camera, he described it as “the camera I use for taking close-up photos of insects” as one among many other special-purpose cameras he has developed. The attention to fine detail at RISD exists at all scales among the family of students, faculty, and staff and I continue to be amazed by the creatively inspired people I work with. Today in Floyd’s honor … I think I will photograph a bug. Thank you, Floyd, for your creative vision and for taking care of RISD for so many years.
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Last Update: Tue 07 Oct 2008 05:46:59 AM PDT
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