Art and Design Commons^™

Making Then Meaning, Ben Denzer

Masters Theses

This is an artist talk contained within a book. It is 816 pages and 49 minutes long. Closed captions run across the spreads. A video of this talk can be watched on bendenzer.com/making-then-meaning

At RISD, I’ve been prompted to expand the scope and tools of my practice and to reflect on questions of meaning in my work.

I spend my days making things, but I’ve never really had good answers to questions of why I make the things I make, or what their meaning is. I don’t think there are simple answers to these questions.

I think meaning comes from …

Moving At The Speed Of Trust, Sun Ho Lee

Masters Theses

Moving at the Speed of Trust is a workbook of strategies — practices, definitions, and techniques — to nurture community-building in support of inbetweeners who live between power structures and cultures and are often left out. Inbetweeners are those individuals whose lives are in transition through recent immigration or forced translocation from Asia to America.

These strategies revolve around threads of trust: kin, giggles, vulnerability, and shared experience. With these threads, we can question power. We can preserve stories, expand the ways we connect, shift perspectives on what is “standard,” and cultivate a community rooted in understanding. To understand each …

Liquid Border, Yingfan Jia

Masters Theses

A River is a mighty and constantly-evolving force, leaving behind an intricately designed and constantly changing system. Not just a river, the Rio Grande stretches all the way from Colorado before intersecting with the US-Mexico Border in southern Texas - a point where the powerful forces of nature now merge with a clearly-defined political boundary. The outcome of this is a unique ecological niche, which may often go unnoticed despite its distinctiveness.

Texas is famous for its farms and ranches, and the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas was once an agricultural hub. However, urbanization and the depletion of water …

Knot, Just Craft It, Qingxian Xu

Masters Theses

The thesis aims to explore the intersection of traditional crafts and modern design by modernizing traditional Chinese crafts like knitting and knotting. The objective is to preserve the aesthetic, cultural, and utility values embedded in these crafts while creating a series of home-scaled furnishing designs that offer a self-making experience.

By applying traditional crafts to modern daily life, the thesis seeks to give new life to the essence of traditional crafts and create new life experiences that are accessible to more consumers. The focus will be on creating modern designs that incorporate traditional knotting and knitting techniques, while also offering …

Mini Makers: Designing Curriculum For Community-Based Arts Education, Hayden Goldberg

Masters Theses

This work serves as documentation of my experience planning and teaching classes for a Rhode Island based after school visual arts pro- gram. Through arts-based action research, I explore methods of documentation and material exploration in order to create an adaptive, emergent curriculum that is responsive to a community-oriented arts education setting.

Material Encounters: Making Memory Beyond The Mind, Ariel Wills

Masters Theses

Can acts of making carry the memories of our embeddedness within the world? This thesis explores how making things can nurture a sense of kinship that cuts across the organic and inorganic, erasing the distinction between living and dead, material and spiritual. Through handwork such as art-making, sewing, knitting, cooking, woodworking, and beyond, the burden of remembering and of archiving is shared across human and non-human bodies, cultivated through practices of making, and through the materials themselves. By recounting the stories of my family’s experience as Jewish immigrants in the United States, I aim to reveal how their domestic practices …

Yearbook, 2020, Risd Archives, Center For Student Involvement (Csi), Risd Design Guild

RISD Yearbooks

No abstract provided.

Draw Down Books, Draw Down Books, Kathleen Sleboda, Christopher Sleboda, Zak Jensen, Nejc Prah, Daniel Eatock, Maziyar Pahlevan, Benoit Bodhuin, Bráulio Amado, Jost Hochuli, Ian Lynam

UNBOUND 2020 Archive

Draw Down Books exhibitors. Draw Down is an independent publisher located in the northeastern corner of the United States. Created in 2012, Draw Down publishes small books about graphic design, typography, illustration, photography, art, and architecture.

Framing Questions And Modes Of Inquiry In Illustration Process And Critique, Robert Brinkerhoff

Faculty & Librarian Work

Every creative act begins with a question—whether consciously or unconsciously formed—and illustrators may enhance their approaches to visual problems by framing a line of critical inquiry that invigorates conceptualization. While inventories and lists of questions are suitable ways to begin, there exist many different modes of questioning—verbal and non-verbal, manual and cognitive, linear and discursive, intuitive and rational, integrative and deconstructive. This chapter explores diverse methods for inquiry in problem definition and resolution, describing a variety of models and incorporating observations by professional artist-educators to expose different strategies for illustrators.

A Guide To Thesis Book Design, Marcus Peabody, Center For Arts And Language

Thesis Writing

57 pages. "This guide is more basic and specific than other design manuals. Used in isolation it should tell you all you need to produce your book, even without prior graphic design knowledge. It could also be a starting point for a deeper dive into book design: other manuals that deal more thoroughly with elements such as book binding or typography are mentioned along the way for further reference." – from the introduction. "This book is set in Brandon Grotesque and Miller Text. Written and designed by Marcus Peabody (GD MFA 2019). Edited by Jen Liese and Meredith Barrett (A&L). …

Yearbook, 2019, Risd Archives, Center For Student Involvement (Csi), Risd Design Guild

RISD Yearbooks

No abstract provided.

The Book Of Thesis Books, Elizabeth Leeper, Jennifer Liese, Center For Arts & Language

Thesis Writing

89 pages : color illustrations ; 18 x 23 cm."This guide is intended to help future thesis writers understand the range of approaches to and content in RISD thesis books, locate some especially strong examples in the Library's vast thesis collection, and imagine and plan their own theses." - from the introduction. "Introduction by Jennifer Liese" - Colophon. Contents: Academic thesis -- Monograph -- Project document -- Mosaic essay -- Artist's book. "Designed by Elizabeth Leeper (MFA Graphic Design 2017). Set in Parry and Parry Grotesque, by Artur Schmal, and printed by Lulu."--Colophon.

Yearbook, 2018, Risd Archives, Center For Student Involvement (Csi)

RISD Yearbooks

No abstract provided.

Risd Faculty Values Statement, Rhode Island School Of Design

RISD Faculty Values

After thoughtful consideration and refinement of the 2017 RISD Faculty Values Statement, the full-time faculty, several part-time faculty and RISD Museum curators voted in favor of its contents and have signed on as supporters. We intend that this statement will remain relevant beyond the current political moment and encourage its wider distribution—both at RISD and beyond.

Ise Annual Report 2016-2017, Intercultural Student Engagement Office, Barbara Baker

Intercultural Student Engagement (ISE) Annual Reports

The ISE Annual Report 2016-2017 is a year in review containing a message from the director, staff updates, community programs, statistics and general report of the work of this office. Our Mission: The office of Intercultural Student Engagement (ISE) promotes cultural awareness, dialogue, and interaction while serving as a hands-on resource for specific RISD communities. Primary target communities include: students of color, international students, students identifying within the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning (LGBTQ) spectrum, religious and/or spiritual students; and those dedicated to inclusive community.

This office provides leadership in the areas of student success, retention programs, campus education and …

2017 Faculty Letter To Students, Rhode Island School Of Design

RISD Faculty Values

An end of the year letter from the RISD faculty sent to RISD students reaffirming their support of the students, acknowledging the challenges of this past academic year in light of the current social and political turmoil and sharing the RISD Faculty Values Statement.

An Introduction To Positive Sum Design, Ian Gonsher

Articles

No abstract provided.

Positive Sum Design: Designing Affordances For Bias, Choice, And Coordination, Ian Gonsher

Articles

No abstract provided.

Yearbook, 2017, Risd Archives, Center For Student Involvement (Csi), Risd Design Guild

RISD Yearbooks

No abstract provided.

Ise Annual Report 2015-2016, Intercultural Student Engagement Office, Anthony Johnson

Intercultural Student Engagement (ISE) Annual Reports

The ISE Annual Report 2015-2016 is a year in review containing a message from the director, staff updates, community programs, statistics and general report of the work of this office. Our Mission: The office of Intercultural Student Engagement (ISE) fosters multicultural understanding and personalized support at RISD by engaging its community through programming, advocacy, and specialized services. ISE believes in the power of art and design to unleash our inherent curiosity, constantly broadening and reshaping our understanding of the human experience. ISE envisions an artistic community where the breadth of the human dignity is creatively realized, inspiring everyone to collectively …

Risd Cabaret 1987-2000 Retrospective Program, Agnieszka Taborska, Bill Newkirk, Risd Archives

RISD Cabaret 1987-2000 Retrospective

No abstract provided.

Risd Cabaret 1987-2000 Retrospective Poster, Agnieszka Taborska, Bill Newkirk, Risd Archives

RISD Cabaret 1987-2000 Retrospective

No abstract provided.

Risd Cabaret 1987-2000 Retrospective Poster, Agnieszka Taborska, Bill Newkirk, Risd Archives

RISD Cabaret 1987-2000 Retrospective

No abstract provided.

Risd Cabaret 1987-2000 Retrospective Program, Agnieszka Taborska, Bill Newkirk, Risd Archives

RISD Cabaret 1987-2000 Retrospective

No abstract provided.

Positive Sum Design And The Economics Of Sharing, Ian Gonsher

Articles

No abstract provided.

Double Or Nothing: Reflections On Bridge Design, Hillary Brown

Articles

No abstract provided.

Post Critical Again, Charlie Cannon

Articles

No abstract provided.

Introduction To Making Futures, Pelle Ehn

Articles

No abstract provided.

Beyond Design Thinking, Ian Gonsher

Articles

No abstract provided.

Yearbook, 2016, Risd Archives, Center For Student Involvement (Csi), Risd Design Guild

RISD Yearbooks

No abstract provided.