On was an interdisciplinary graduate periodical established by RISD graduate students in 2006. It featured essays and student work that related to a general issue theme. On was intended as a quarterly publication, but it is unclear if further issues beyond the first were ever published.
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College of Education and Henry Barnard School, Providence, RI
Curt Teich and Co., Chicago, IL: publisher; Visual + Material Resources; and Fleet Library
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One Week Very Sleepy
Miles De La Torre, Special Collections, and Fleet Library
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.
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Unconditioning Air
Weijia Deng
Unconditioning Air rethinks the boundaries contrived through environmental control. For more than a century, HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) defined the boundaries of interior air. The regime and tools of mechanical conditioning promise stability and manageability of indoor air quality at the expense of external phenomena, and by extension, any complexity or fluctuation in the environment. As a result, air conditioning premises that ideal interior comfort is “bubble-like”, requiring increasingly standardized and highly regimented regulatory tools. The plethora of patent drawings, duct specifications, and ASHRAE comfort codes produce an oppressively tightening grip over indoor air and comfort, rendering both air and bodies measurable and manageable.
Yet despite the avalanche of regulations and controls, air doesn’t adhere to boundaries HVAC systems impose. Unlike conventional HVAC design, Unconditioning Air reconceptualizes air as an unconditional environmental phenomena to be marked and expressed rather than controlled. Misusing existing ducts and vents, this thesis reworks the material, design, and drawings of air conditioner tools. Through a series of air attachments varying in scale, materials, forms, and connections, Unconditioning Air explores ways to interact with internal and external air movement. These attachments accompanied with drawings of “air studies'' reverse the tools imposing control by manifesting its effects. With these attachments and air studies, this thesis aims to create a liminal space of variable air conditions. Unconditioning Air liberates both air and bodies from the constraints of maintaining interiority and fostering a dynamic interplay of alternative ideals of comfort.
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Puppetry Final Performance | Wintersession 2024
Film Animation Video Department and Andrew Murdock
A puppetry cabaret created by students as the culmination of a 2024 Wintersession course led by faculty member Andrew Murdock 13 FAV/SC. He is the first visiting puppeteer affiliated with RISD’s Movement Lab funded by RISD parent Cheryl Henson P 24, whose late father Jim Henson created the Muppets.
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Ye Olde General Stanton Inn, Boston Post Road, Charlestown, RI
Dexter Press, Pearl River, NY; Visual + Material Resources; and Fleet Library
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Graduate Thesis Exhibition 2024
Gabriel Drozdov, Emily Bluedorn, Campus Exhibitions, and Graduate Studies
Opening reception Wednesday May 22 from 6-8pm. On view May 23-June 1. View RISD Grad Show 24 online.
RISD Grad Show 2024 invites viewers to experience an expansive range of exploratory work by emerging artists and designers. The work selected represents the culmination of each student’s experience in RISD’s dynamic and diverse graduate programs. As in years past, the 43,000-sf space will be custom-constructed, with more than 2,000 linear feet of walls forming a network of smaller galleries. The unique configuration of the large, flexible space provides remarkable opportunities for graduate students to show multiple pieces or large installations from final thesis projects representing one to three years of research, experimentation, critical thinking and production. -
Kingston Inn, Kingston, RI
Eastern Illustrating Co., Belfast, ME; Visual + Material Resources; and Fleet Library
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Function Follows Material
Pablo Ejarque González
Dear Designer,
How often do we find ourselves lost in the design process, unsure of the next steps? It’s tempting to view every aspect of design as a problem needing a solution. However, function is not a problem. For a long time, I approached design from a problem-solving perspective, treating material as a secondary consideration after the idea had already formed. This approach needed to change.
This book is a journey—a map of material exploration. It is an embrace of experimentation and innate curiosity. Many of the experiments conducted did not culminate in finished furniture pieces, yet this does not trouble me. Instead, this book serves as a manual for material activation, showcasing how some experiments evolved into furniture, highlighting the transformative power of material exploration.
I hope you find joy in this process and in the furniture that emerges from it.
Best,
Pablo
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(Matter)ial Revolution
Aleza Epstein
The (Matter)ial Revolution proposes a fundamental shift in how we approach the built environment, drawing inspiration from historical precedents like the Roman Spolia and adaptive reuse strategies of past civilizations. Instead of the conventional cycle of demolition and rebuilding, this architectural movement advocates for learning to work with existing structures and materials – re-appropriating and re-circulating them to create new forms. It demands a return to craftsmanship, methodology, materiality, and non-standardization.
