ornaments artifacts materials

Our first assignment in studio was to display 40 materials that interested us. The discussion during the presentations touched equally upon the materials and the way we chose to display them. I thought the questions and responses were a great overlap to this introductory discussion on ornament. I randomly wrote down things people said, about their own work or others:

• is there a hierarchy?
• are you tip-toeing around your materials
• what do we impose on our materials?
• "I chose a white background to see the images clearly"
• You are making your own material.
• How did you cull your materials? What did you consider but in the end leave out and why?
• "I wanted a mini-museum"
• How did you rationalize the order of your materials?
• The materials versus the presentation...why, why, why?
• "I am so connected to these materials I want to display them in a way that makes them seem important to others."
• I am very interested that if you think these objects are in the same family, I want you to teach me how to look at them.
• Why did you have to change the materials?
• Just curious...what do you guys define as materials anyway?

Session in Special Collections Drawing Room RISD Library

Assignment: 

Spend one hour drawing ornaments from selected books in the Special Collection. Choose one that intrigues you and imagine yourself as a student at RISD one hundred years ago. That’s most of what they did back then...  

According to the thrilled librarian we where the first class to make use of the Special Collections in this way. How come something that was so central and taken for granted as a main activity in art/design education no longer has any place. Shall we thank Loos for this, or are we missing out on something? Is it important to study composition and is there a universal "law" to how "good-looking" ornaments are structured? 

I was thinking - We can’t talk about ornament, without studying them for real! 

Also as a way to use our practice as research in an addition to the readings, writings and discussions. 

Does drawing things helps us to understand something about them, or at least look at them more closely?

If you want more ornaments - Visit the Swan Point Semetary over by Black Stone Boulevard on the East Side. It´s full of amazing old grave stones and the nicest "parks" in all of Providence. 

Le Corbusier- International Style

Re-Posted From ryanthomaspeters.blogspot.com

Hot or Not

Definitely Hot. Haven't read it yet, but this looks rad... The semiotics of brooches.

"(Read My Pins) tracks how the country’s first female secretary of state used brooches as symbols of her mission, stance and more often than not, her mood. It all started with Saddam Hussein..." -WWD

Read the full WWD article here:
http://www.wwd.com/beauty-industry-news/albrights-legacy-read-my-pins-2320345?src=rss/beauty/20090929

Re-Posted From ryanthomaspeters.blogspot.com

theselby.com

Many tips of the hat to Meg, my life coach, for turning me onto this eRag. The site is old news for many (New Yorkers), but in the interest of promoting voyeurism I post a link to art director Julia Restoin Roitfeld's apartment expose. I am most interested in the inclusion of studio photographed jewelry offset with apartment interiors as a means to cultivate atmosphere and an understanding of place: http://www.theselby.com/4_29_09_julia_roitfeld/index.html

~rt

Adolf Loos

2.Ornament as Crime 

Oct 7^th

^9AM-12AM

Discussion: Art and Industry. Ornament vs. minimalism. The hand vs. the machine. What is ornament and what impact does it have?

Readings:

- Adolf Loos, Ornament and Crime (1908)

- Herbert Read, Art And Industry (1935) - The problem in its Historical and Theoretical Aspects p. 20-57

- Hal Foster, Design and Crime (2002)

Student presentations:

- William Morris, The Arts and Crafts of to day (1889) Also research: The Pre-Rafaelite Brotherhood, John Ruskins (the Stones of Venice/The Nature of the Gothic), The Arts And Crafts Movement, Morris & Co

- Frank Lloyd Wright, The Art and Craft of the Machine (1901). Also research: The Prairie School, Arts and Craft movement in the States.

- Walter Gropius, Bauhaus Manifesto of the Staatliche Bauhaus in Weimar (1919). Also research: History of Bauhaus, Art academies before Bauhaus, Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, De Stijl, Gerrit Ritveld and Ritveld Academy, Black Mountain College

Supplementary readings: Elizabeth Cumming & Wendy Kaplan, The Arts & Crafts Movement (1991), Victoria Z. River, The Shining Cloth (1999)

Ellen Dissanyake

http://www.ellendissanayake.com

1. Why we make

Sept 23^rd

^9AM-12AM

Introduction of course schedule and themes

Discussion: Why do we make - what do we want and why?

Reading: Ellen Dissanayake, Art and Intimacy - How the Arts Began (Introduction + Hands on Competence p 3-17 + 99-128),  Homo Aestheticus – Where Art Comes from and Why (The Core of Art - Making Special p 39-63)

Bring: One piece of your work and one reference.