Describes the world’s leading approach to art and design taught at Rhode Island School of Design
At Rhode Island School of Design students are immersed in a culture where making questions, ideas, and objects, using and inventing materials, and activating experience all serve to define a form of critical thinking—albeit with one’s hands—i.e. ‘critical making.’ The Art of Critical Making, by RISD faculty and staff, describes fundamental aspects of RISD’s approach to ‘critical making’ and how this can lead to innovation. The process of making taught at RISD is deeply introspective, passionate, and often provocative.
This book illuminates how RISD nurtures the creative process, from brief or prompt to outcome, along with guidance on the critical questions and research that enable making great works of art and design.
- Explores the conceptual process, idea research, critical questions, and iteration that RISD faculty employ to educate students to generate thoughtful work
- Authors are from the faculty and staff of the Rhode Island School of Design, which consistently ranks as the number one fine arts and design college in the United States
The Art of Critical Making shows you how context, materials, thought processes, and self-evaluation are applied in this educational environment to prepare creative individuals to produce dynamic, memorable, and meaningful works.
Tabella dei contenuti
Foreword 5
John Maeda
Preface 11
Frank R. Wilson
The Art of Critical Making: An Introduction 19
Rosanne Somerson
Groundwork 32
Leslie Hirst
Text and Context: Outward in All Directions 52
Daniel Cavicchi
Conversation: Drawing 74
Patricia C. Phillips
Thingking 94
John Dunnigan
Object Lessons 116
Sarah Ganz Blythe
Conversation: Materials 138
Kelly Dobson
Graphic Design, Storytelling, and the Making of Meaning 164
Lucinda Hitchcock
The Nature Imperative 190
Neal Overstrom
Conversation: Critique 210
Eva Sutton
Acting into the Unknown 230
Pradeep Sharma
Afterword 245
Mara L. Hermano
Acknowledgments 251
Contributors 253
Illustrations 261
Index 265
Circa l’autore
ROSANNE SOMERSON is the Provost at Rhode Island School of Design. A professor for more than 25 years, she has lectured in museums, conferences, corporations, and schools across the world. She has maintained her own studio since 1978 and has exhibited work extensively in museums throughout the United States and internationally including the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Louvre in Paris.
MARA L. HERMANO is Executive Director of Strategic Planning and Academic Initiatives at Rhode Island School of Design. Trained as an art historian, she has focused her career on the intersection of art and design, culture, and higher education