All these conversations, heading...

I just returned from a conversation around collaborative research at RISD, which was sponsored by the Landscape Architecture Department in honor of the 10th anniversary of Innovation Studio. These past few weeks have seen a congregation of thoughts and actions around the ways in which RISD as a community is stepping up to the social, political and design challenges of our times. Some of these other events and occasions include the panels around David Orr's visit, Marjetica Potrc's talk to the Sculpture Department on interdisciplary practice around issues of self-articulated communities, and our own office's Student Visioning Gathering this upcoming weekend.

In all of these gatherings, there exist a number of emergent themes that belie the imagined divide between the fine arts and design disciplines and offer up a compelling vision for really "what we do" here at RISD.

Just briefly, themes I took away include:

1) While innovative, integrated learning and research is happening at RISD, people are operating in discrete pods, which decreases the impact of the work. How do we create nodes of knowledge gathering and dispersal for students and caulty to know how to approach cr0ss-departmental collaboration and resource sharing?
2) As an institution RISD needs to shift gears to recognize the rapid speed at which financial, ecological, social, and political reorganization is progressing, lest we be left out of the conversation.
3) Research at RISD is classroom & studio-based, ultimately tied to the interests and passions of the student body. Therefore the school has an obligation to students to find ways of accumulating and dispersing information about what research they are doing and support faculty who are formulating new seminars and studios to push this learning.
4) The ways that we work with communities, whether local collaborations or in system analysis of developing countries, there needs to be an acknowledgement of the informal strategies (informal cities, design solutions, high-low technology interfaces, etc) that are also impacting these investigations.

With all of the incredible creativity here at RISD, there are no shortage of ideas of how to best address these issues. However, I keep returning to a place of caution - that we don't need to wait for leadership (and its subsequent financial resources) to come from above. We can do more by learning to want less, to make concrete steps forward that fit current financial realities. As an institution of creative learning, I am confident RISD can put forth innovative strategies for moving the agenda of ethical and sustainable education into the new paradigm that lies ahead.

Public art under review in Rhode Island

Yesterday the Providence Journal ran an article about the Senate Review of the state's current 1% for Art policy.

You can read the full article here. The likelihood of this review is a revision to the policy but hopefully in the favor of making a shift towards directing some portion of those funds to more community-based temporary public art projects. At the recent hearing, senators frequently mentioned RISD, along with other higher-ed institutions, as incubators for up-and-coming public artists.

For people who are interested in learning more or voicing their opinion on the issue, there will be a session for public testimony on Tuesday April 28th at the State House.

Contact RISCA at (401) 222-3882 for more details on the hearing.

David Orr @ RISD

The next two days are going to be jam-packed with events surrounding David Orr's visit to RISD.

Once again, Respond|Design has pulled together a timely and compelling series of conversations about the intersection between art/design and sustainability both globally as well as here on the RISD campus!

David Orr is Professor and Chair of the Environmental Studies Program at Oberlin College. He is perhaps best known for his pioneering work on environmental literacy in higher education and his recent work in ecological design. Orr is the author of four books: The Last Refuge: The Corruption of Patriotism in the Age of Terror (Island Press, 2004); The Nature of Design (Oxford, 2002); Earth in Mind (Island, 1994); and Ecological Literacy (SUNY, 1992). For a full bio, you can check him out here: http://www.davidworr.com/


This week's events include:
Thursday, April 23

11:30am - 1:00pm BEB* room 106
Urban Eden Conversation:
Professor Anne Tate will present her sabbatical work. Come join in the speculation on the future of our sustainable city.
Panelists include:
DAVID ORR +
Damien White, sociologist
Charlie Cannon, landscape architecture
Lili Herman, landscape architecture
+ more...

6:30pm - 8:00pm Metcalf Audiotrium**
David Orr: Down to the Wire:
The activist-educator joins RISD to discuss how sustainability intersects art and design in an age of climate change.

Friday, April 24

11:30am - 1:00pm BEB* room 106
Curricular Change: A Dialogue on Sustainability at RISD:
Panelist will include:
DAVID ORR +
Liz Collins, Textiles
Dennis Congdon, Painting
Peter Hocking, Public Engagement
William Miller, Painting
Robert O'Neal, Industrial Design
Colgate Searle, Landscape Architecture
Damian White, Sociology