Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Endless Form, Kaela Kennedy

Masters Theses

Endless Form is a gentle argument for a practice rooted in embodied seeing and communicating. It invites the reader through multiple actions of visual and linguistic perception – observation, seeing, and attention – and examines how these methods operate to widen our fields of understanding to more empathetically engage with the world as an ecological whole. It claims that graphic design, as a practice built on the relationship between visual form and language, has a unique ability to translate the unending feedback loop between the eye, the seen, and the language we use to define it. It argues for ways …

From Here To The Ground, Courtney Mccracken

Masters Theses

Art, for me, is a thinking process. It is also a process of connection to body and place. It directs my fractured attention toward the things I care about. As I labor through process, I am gifted with a moment of attentiveness. In a time where everything feels urgent, and our perspective can be warped by the endless flood of information, making art is a chance to stop, to think, and to feel.

It is a space for holding, and a space for being held.

Recently, I have been working primarily in animation and sound design, experimenting widely across media …

Embodied Abstractions: Identity And Representation In The Digital Era, Srikar Hari

Masters Theses

The digital image is a copy in motion. As it accelerates, it deteriorates.

It is a ghost of an image, a preview, a thumbnail, squeezed through

digital connections, resized, uploaded, downloaded, reformatted

and re-edited.

- Adapted from “In defense of the Poor Image” by Hito Steryel

With today’s digital technology, the image is no longer a stable

representation of the world, but a programmable database that

is updated in real time. It is not only part of a program, but it

contains its own operating code: the image is a program in itself.

Consequently, the image’s rhetoric has taken on …

Soft Procedures, Alec Figuracion

Masters Theses

Looking through the soft lens — from the vantage point of a place one calls home, and steered by an interiority that feels a little too much sometimes — I am interested in the hazy, undefined subjects and instances that occur around the peripheries of our lenses: fuzzy imprints of memories, shifting notions of home, and shapeless narratives. Working primarily with the moving image, I investigate the multiple threads that might exist between them, and persistently shift and adjust the focus ring on the camera lens so as to embrace and celebrate multiplicities, and our collective definitions of softness.

To The Dogs Or Whoever, Jacqueline Walker

Masters Theses

My creative process is inspired by the natural world and its inevitable conflict with humans. Through intricately layered screen prints, repurposed furniture, or reimagined animal hides, I craft narratives depicting the complex interactions between animals and humans, examining their conflict and the ensuing consequences. I weave layers of information and symbolism from natural history, behavioral ecology, music, and personal experience into each piece. This thesis explores my artistic practice, discussing its underlying values, and examining the influences and stories behind each piece. Focusing on the narrative of the animal, my body of work strives to cultivate empathy towards them and …

Dimensional Dialogues, Farida Abousteit

Masters Theses

What does it mean to be, hear, interpret and understand language? And does it truly matter if we don't? This work explores linguistic translation and mistranslation, through the exploration of three-dimensional and interactive spaces that to create an opportunity to interact with language as an visual and felt environment; rather than language on a page or the spoken word.

When we stand next to typography, next to language, scaled up to a human-sized presence, do we find an immediate kinship and warmth towards it? Do we find ourselves more captivated and intrigued?

I believe that when we encounter the unfamiliar …

Tennessee Sure Knows How To Make 'Em, Lorena Park

Masters Theses

I would say that I have a preoccupation, as well as a complicated relationship, with “the truth”. I was fortunate enough to be raised (and I use the term raised quite loosely, for I was downright ferrell) by pathological liars. This did an excellent job of preparing me for the world, I understand the deep horror and utter hilarity in life’s condition. I felt as though I was set upon a different path than most of the people I’ve come across. There was no intense disappointment when I was introduced to the ideas of the constructs of time and reality, …

While We Were At Dinner, Anna Glass

Masters Theses

Mealtime is globally recognized as a time to gather, as food catalyzes connection. This project delves into this human practice of commensality and both explores and emphasizes the significance of communal eating and its benefits through designed objects. Through a collection of six designed dining experiments, this study examines the role of novel tabletop objects and unusually curated meal environments. The way these experiments are designed highlights how communal mealtime experiences can be used as tools for social engagement and disruptors of cultural norms.

Furniture and tableware designs have the power to challenge the assumed arrangement of traditional mealtime rituals, …

Maxime Cavajani Movement Lab Fellowship Final Presentation, Maxime Cavajani, Movement Lab

Personal Work

May 14th 2024, Fellowship Final Presenation

Consideration For The Sun, Roxy Bridges, Special Collections, Fleet Library

11th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest 2025

LIBRARIAN'S CHOICE PURCHASE PRIZE | $250 Purchase prize winners receive a cash reward and the books are added to the Fleet Library at RISD Special Collections' Artists' Book collection. Entry for the 11th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest. Opening reception and award ceremony Wednesday, February 19, 2025 at 6:30pm, Fleet Library, Main Reading Room. Juror: Roger S. Williams.

Fish Girl, Sadie Levine, Special Collections, Fleet Library

11th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest 2025

Entry for the 11th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest. Opening reception and award ceremony Wednesday, February 19, 2025 at 6:30pm, Fleet Library, Main Reading Room. Juror: Roger S. Williams.

Orlando Darling, Willow Baker, Special Collections, Fleet Library

11th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest 2025

Entry for the 11th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest. Opening reception and award ceremony Wednesday, February 19, 2025 at 6:30pm, Fleet Library, Main Reading Room. Juror: Roger S. Williams.

Notes On Iterating, Daniella Pozo, Special Collections, Fleet Library

11th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest 2025

Entry for the 11th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest. Opening reception and award ceremony Wednesday, February 19, 2025 at 6:30pm, Fleet Library, Main Reading Room. Juror: Roger S. Williams.

Poetry Research, Maxime Cavajani, Movement Lab

Personal Work

Spring 2024 Poetry Research

Pastel Sculpture Research, Maxime Cavajani, Movement Lab

Personal Work

Spring 2024 Pastel Sculpture Research

Oral History Transcript | Interview With Michael Fink, April 21, 2024, Michael Fink, Margot Mcillwain Nishimura, Risd Archives, Peter O'Neill

RISD Oral History Project Transcripts

No abstract provided.

{Re}Considering Illustration | Risd Mfa Illustration Anthology 2024, Illustration Department, Illustration Mfa, Jenine Bressner, Emilia Miekisz, Simone Nemes, Simone Khanyi Hadebe, Ananya Parekh, Ariel Wills, Irene Chung, Nellie Geraghty, Nina Martinez, Reem Al-Ani, Lingyi Kong, Courtney Mckracken, Deanne Fernandes, Mara Menahan, Ji Zou

Illustration MFA Anthologies

The essays in this volume have been created by the candidates of the inaugural cohort of the Masters of Fine Arts in Illustration Practice at the Rhode Island School of Design. The writings provide an overview of some of the ideas, research methods and artistic concerns addressed by the candidates through their art over the two-year span of their graduate studies.

V.1 Spring 2024, Center For Arts & Language, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

v.1 is a publishing platform for the ongoing work, ideas, discussions, debates, and aspirations of students at the Rhode Island School of Design. The Spring 2024 issue contains articles on rewilding in Southern Africa, digital folklore, the RISD Musem exhibition on Nancy Elizabeth Prophet "I Will Not Bend an Inch," student musings on Indian identity, queering domesticity and gender in China and Taiwan, interviews of RISD students, the second Black Biennial, displaced ceremonial objects, the defunct student club RISD Quickies and interdisciplinarity at RISD, a student's queer identity, and flirting with GPTs, along with student creative writing.

How To Crochet, Koji Hellman, Special Collections, Fleet Library

11th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest 2025

LAURIE WHITEHILL PURCHASE PRIZE | $375 Purchase prize winners receive a cash reward and the books are added to the Fleet Library at RISD Special Collections' Artists' Book collection. Entry for the 11th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest. Opening reception and award ceremony Wednesday, February 19, 2025 at 6:30pm, Fleet Library, Main Reading Room. Juror: Roger S. Williams.

Waiting For Democracy, Naya Lee Chang, Special Collections, Fleet Library

Baker & Whitehill supplemental content

No abstract provided.

Material Order: A Discovery Group And Shared Catalogue For Materials Collections, Mark Pompelia, Margot Mcilwain Nishimura

Faculty & Librarian Work

Material Order is an academic consortium of material sample collections for art, architecture, and design disciplines. Founded by the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University and Fleet Library at Rhode Island School of Design and since comprising several more institutions in the US, it provides a community-based approach to management and open access utilizing and developing standards and best practices. Now in its twelfth year and reaching a level of maturation, Material Order offers research and pedagogical value to current and potential members and the larger design communities.

Hunter Cabiness | Thesd Hands, Hunter Cabiness, Maxime Cavajani, Movement Lab

Student Statements

No abstract provided.

Mohammad Abasi | I Love You, Mohammad Abasi, Maxime Cavajani, Movement Lab

Student Statements

No abstract provided.

Neil Hsiao | Double Sided, Neil Hsiao, Maxime Cavajani, Movement Lab

Student Statements

No abstract provided.

Ava Maghsoodlou | Regeneration, Ava Maghsoolou, Maxime Cavajani, Movement Lab

Student Statements

No abstract provided.

Kisaki Matsumoto | Sylveine, Kisaki Matsumoto, Maxime Cavajani, Movement Lab

Student Statements

No abstract provided.

Candy Qu | Ripples Of Distraction, Candy Qu, Maxime Cavajani, Movement Lab

Student Statements

No abstract provided.

Echo Xu | No One Enters, Echo Xu, Maxime Cavajani, Movement Lab

Student Statements

No abstract provided.

Reem Al-Ani | Down Below, Up Above, And Beyond, Reem Al-Ani, Maxime Cavajani, Movement Lab

Student Statements

No abstract provided.

Elise Williams | Deliver Me, Again (But Cleaner) (Please), Elise Mollie Williams, Maxime Cavajani, Movement Lab

Student Statements

No abstract provided.