Emily Frances Winter MFA 15 TX describes her research-driven thesis as “an argument for the potency of textiles as a medium.”
When Jane Androski MFA 11 GD and Emily Rye MFA 11 GD were collaborating on their joint master’s thesis five years ago, they often referred to it as “the work before the work” – a way to establish and visualize the terms and goals of a professional partnership post-graduation. Now co-principals of Design Agency, a Rhode Island-based studio they founded to embrace design as an agent of change, their experience stands as a prime example of the theme at the center of Formative & Persisting, the most recent iteration of a biannual exhibition that highlights the research, dimensions and dynamics of the written thesis at RISD. The exhibition, on view through September 25 at Sol Koffler Graduate Student Gallery, presents the thesis as a living document-one that frames and propels work done at RISD as much as it sustains future practice.
Supported by Graduate Studies and curated by Senior Lecturer Anne West, Director of Campus Exhibitions Mark Moscone and current grad student Elizabeth Leeper MFA 17 GD, the show includes written theses by 30 graduates (including Androski and Rye) along with visual representations and descriptions of their creative practice. The curatorial team has divided the work into six categories – blueprint, catalyst, method, monograph, pedagogy and research – that suggest the various ways the thesis is, as the title suggests, both formative and persistent. With outcomes that range from a graphic novel questioning approaches in arts education to a speculative magazine focused on the future of wearable technologies, the work showcases the diversity and depth of voice found within the graduate community at RISD.
