Alessio Sciascia
GRADUATE VISITING DESIGNERS SPRING 2013
Renata Stih & Frieder Schnock
1 March 14-17
Memory, public space and social sculpture Whenever art leaves the secluded, safe heaven of the small art world, the studio, the gallery, the museum, we are confronted with an array of new problems and tasks. The main question is “Who is our audience?� It takes a distinct, refined approach to succeed as art in public space, to address the goals in a special kind of convincing enterprise, solidarity, knowledge and skill.
Make it better: Creating a concept for an intervention in public space in Providence.
City exploration and site inspection/ encounters: Exploring Providence and looking at urban structures and memory sites. How to communicate visions to the audience, creating site-specific interventions. What is an environment? Places like parking lots are dead spaces, but they can be transformed and injected with new life through aimed projects. Choose one of the several parking lot in Providence and create a site-specific intervention to bring it to new life.
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Providence Green House Project made in collaboration with Anne Pasanen
Exploring Providence and realizing how many parking lots exist in the city we focused on the one in Weybosset street. Location of the old Providence National Bank now the only thing left of that building is the beautiful faรงade. Left in origin with the intention of a future development, all the plans failed and now all that remain is a piece of an old building with an empty space behind, partially filled with cars.
Old Providence National Bank
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The effort to change the perception and the nature itself of this space needs to face the reality of the past, realizing the major impact and importance that the former building represent. At the same time building something new is not enough, to don’t fall in the trap of a senseless purpose again a new direction was needed too.
Was missing the community around the place itself
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Researching about the town and the space we were trying to repurpose we realized that what was really missing was the community around the place itself. A gathering space, an enjoyable square were everyone is welcome. Finding the reason why people would gather there was the new task, that found a solution in our design process with the materialization of the past time of this space.
Working with memory, time and history, was in our aiming to make reference to the old bank, not only for his purpose but also for the physical space that once was taken and that now remain empty, our intention was to materialize the ghost of the former building. Immateriality, past, future, new purposes and community let us to think about the movement of the city gardening, a beautiful idea to refill cities with green and grow not only vegetables but a number of new bonding around them.
A glass volume filled with light
So why not materialize the old Providence National Bank ghost under the form of a glass volume, filled with light? And why not grow plants inside it and a new stronger community around it?
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Providence GreenHouse Alessio Sciascia, Anne Pasanen
A good example is the idea of Italian squares. With their roots in the Greek Agora and in the roman Forum, squares are the central and origin points of most Italian villages and cities. Beside the main square usually the town hall and a church, around them all the rest. Points of gathering, commerce, and cultural exchange, they host also nowadays the most important events, giving them the right to be called living heart of a city. We have seen as Providence lack
communicate also with the city itself; not only a point of passage or a promenade but the place to be. The façade of the old Providence National Bank and the space behind it seemed to us the perfect environment to shape in this new form. Playing with the idea of memory and reshaping we
a place like this, a meeting point for people, a comforting environment to
resurrected the skeleton of the building bring it to a new life.
Workshop Title Here
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— The façade of the old Providence National Bank
HOUSE
— The Providence National Bank
Dead spaces come out from the lack of involvement and participation of people in the surrounding environment. But in order to be lively and welcoming an artificial environment, especially if public, needs to be shaped in that way.
GREEN
PROVIDENCE
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37 Weybosset Street
— The parking slot behind the façade of the Providence National Bank
The façade of the old Providence National Bank
... A greenhouse inside the city, oasis of peace and gathering, nature food and people they all meet in this space.
From the raw outlines of the former building our shape emerge, ghost of glass, iron and light ...
The façade will be preserved as
building will be restored becoming the edges of the greenhouse itself, iron will sustain the structure and colored glass and lights will fill becoming the very substance of the place. The natural light during the day and the artificial one during the night will help to shape a dreaming and welcoming environment, casting colored shadows all around. On the upper floor, protected by the glass structure, there will be the actual greenhouse, on the down floor an open space, a square to meet people either related to the gardening place or not. This place could be home of events and discussion, focus point of ideas and
a memento of the past and foundation of the future, the outlines of the old
changing, lighthouse of a possible future for the better.
From the raw outlines of the former building our shape emerge, ghost of glass, iron and light. A greenhouse inside the city, oasis of peace and gathering, nature food and people they all meet in this space. The fertile land can be rented to every citizen willing to cultivate his own garden, creating a community build around life, sharing and happiness.
Stih & Schnock | 2013 RISD Graphic Design Visiting Designer
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Scott Stowell
2 April 4-7
On This Site Identify a series of locations (probably in Providence) where you’d like to celebrate, explain, or identify something. These could be environmental (“these plants are here”), historical (“somebody slept here”), or anything, but the information should be true. Design a series of permanent markers (including the content) for these places, and create a guide to accompany them. The nature of the markers and the format of the guide are up to you. They should be visual and probably include typography. Explore how the information you’re communicating can be delivered and what the relationship between the markers and the guide can be. Do the markers raise questions that the guide answers? How much do you say, how, and where?
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Think about fabrication and materials. A marble plaque carries different meaning than a routed wood sign or a silkscreened metal panel. Also, these all function differently, which informs the content as well. Meanwhile, is the guide printed or electronic? Your final product should be some kind of presentation that explains your idea and how it would be made. So you can choose marble or wood or metal without having to actually manufacture anything, as long as your choices are clearly explained.
Providence Permutation Society The first approach that I had with Providence historical markers has been with a plaque dedicated to Lovecraft in my first week in the city. This memory leaded my research to how we value historical events and famous people and how do we leave marks for both of them.
Apparently is in human nature the necessity to mark our passage and the one of others, as a sort of advertising of our existence and life persistent in time. We can see evidence of this in the inscription on famous monuments done by tourists, but also on school desk all over the world by students.
Frame a moment in time, making it important
Marks like this can come in different form, materials and from different people but they all share the same aim, frame a moment in time, making it important.
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Researching on how Providence deals with historical markers I discovered the existence of the PPS, The Providence Preservation Society. Through its Historic Property Marker Program this society regulate and provide historical markers for the historical buildings of the city.
ermutati eP
Society on
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“It is the hope of PPS that these markers will serve not only to identify buildings of historical and architectural significance, but also to encourage, through heightened community awareness, the continuing care and preservation of individual buildings and neighborhoods.”
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With some irony involved I decided to create another PPS, The Providence Permutation Society. per·mu·ta·tion (pûrmy-tshn) n. 1. A complete change; a transformation. Promoting the same spirit of historical preservation but form a different point of view this PPS aims to create and promote a new type of markers. If we think about historical relevance most of the classical markers like “This important person slept here” or “He passed from this very spot” are in fact not important at all, and frequently the goal is to give some echo of importance and significance to that place and moment. Is highly possible that some other event happened in the same place in a different time that had far more relevance and personal connection with the people of the city, so why don’t mark also those?
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“John Doe received his first kiss in this spot� Permutati ce
Society on
www.PvdPS.com
Providen
J.D. 1997
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Recalling my first encounter with the Lovercraft plaque I decide to focalize on the university environment that characterize Providence.
Events that seem of no importance for us can be of great relevance for others escpecially if they are part of the personal life sphere.
Frequently the university world and the city outside it lack in mixing and contaminate, so materialize the life of the students and of the university community for all the city to see seems like a powerful element to mark how all those little moments can be important for the whole Providence life.
For each one of us the place and moment of our first kiss is far more relevant than the once in which Lovercraft slept or Edgar Allan Poe courted a woman. With this idea in mind the Providence Permutation Society wants to promote all those relevant moments placing plaques all around the city.
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All the events I used are real (or at least plausible) and come from stories told me by RISD and Brown students. The plaques are designed to appear similar to the official ones already present around the city.
The guide to all the markers is on form of a website, her people will be able to see a map of all the plaques, see extended stories about all the events and also submit their own markers proposals. The very core of this project is in fact participation, without real stories from normal people all of this have no sense to exist. Visitors of the site will be able to vote the markers and the more popular ones will be installed by the society.
HOME
MAP
“Jill jumped over this wall to enter the Snoop Dogg concert”
VOTE
“Jake proposed to Mary with a cappella song under this arch”
ermutati o eP
J.K. 2009
www.PvdPS.com
ermutati o eP
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“John Maeda ate a sandwich here” Mary C. www.PvdPS.com
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“Emma Watson broke a heel here”
Victor Brummer
Mike Johnson www.PvdPS.com
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ociety nS
1995
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ermutati o eP
ociety nS
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2012
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“Victor Brummer lived in this house for three years”
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ermutati o eP
ociety nS
2008
Providen c
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Lizzy M.
www.PvdPS.com
2010
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“Michelle and Lizzy fell in love in this house”
www.PvdPS.com
ociety nS
Providen c
Julie Young www.PvdPS.com
ABOUT
SUBMIT
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ociety nS
Is one of them more important than the other or is only a matter of perception and point of view?
Providence Permutation Society
ermutati eP
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The outcome will be a layer of various event of different nature, maybe coexisting in the same place, giving the perception of how the personal history of people is in fact both layered and parallel to the general and more famous one.
Is history more important that personal events?
2009
2013
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Natasha Jen
3 April 18-21
Arcaded The primary objective of this 3-day workshop is to investigate a range of issues – formal, authorial, economic, pragmatic – and their complexity intertwined in everyday design practice through designing an identity system for a real estate site. The site is Wesminster Arcade Hall, a local historical building also known as the oldest shopping mall in the country. In 2012, it was announced that the building will turn into residential micro-lofts as well as new shops and restaurants on the ground floor. I am curious as to how you, a designer and a local residence, respond to a condition of such contrast: past v.s. future; preservation v.s. adaptation; public v.s. private; content v.s. capital transaction, and anything that may interest you in this case study.
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The Arcade This was another project about considerations between past and future, in this case the future of housing and The Arcade building. My research started looking at the story of the mall and at the plans for the new opening. All the pictures and postcards that depict The Arcade remark how much as been an important landmark for Providence during his long history. But at the same time is clear the need of a fresh image for the new purpose of the building.
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Focusing on the beautiful architecture of the faรงade is evident how the powerful element is represented by the columns. These are in the style of the ionic order were the volutes are the main element. To convey an image for The Arcade that was recalling his own story and appearance referring to these volutes seemed as a clear as well as significant solution.
Recalling history and appearance of The Arcade
The volutes of the ionic order are spirals, circular elements that have movement and spin in their own nature. Using this form recall the passing of time, renewing and also a sensation of depth. To create the new logo I applied the concept of segmentation and young life that the micro-lofts wants to convey. The spiral itself is segmented but in different ways in terms of size, position and color, to recall the different possibilities of life that The Arcade will offer. The colors are vibrant and fresh as the young people interested are. The name remain the same, in a light and simple Museo Sans. 22
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The next step has been the design of a brochure to explain the opportunity and the way of life proposed for the new Arcade. The type of image chosen for the brand is visible inside the spreads where architectural elements are highlighted and their geometric shapes are recalled. In the lifestyle of micro-apartments most of the time is passed outside home and there is a great contrast between the little internal space and the big outdoor, as well in the brochure the contrast is given by depict little details in a bigger size and big spacial pictures and elements in a small size. 24
Architectural elements are highlighted
At the same time the spiral form is once again used in the brochure layout.
The pictures are positioned to follow the spiral movement
All the pictures are positioned during the spreads to follow the spiral movement, going through the inside until the internal spread to then change and going through the outside. All the material used inside the brochure (text and pictures) is taken from the original material present on the site of The new Arcade, a way to design and rearrange only with the elements already present and real.
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Jon Sueda
4 April 25-28
Exhibition about Exhibitions Each student group will, curate, organize, and realize an exhibition about a historically important exhibition about graphic design. This exhibition can be large or small, and can be located anywhere from your studio space to a classroom as long as it can be exhibited to the public in some way. This exhibition is not only meant as historical reference or overview of your subject, but could be an unearthing of some unknown aspect of the exhibition, a conversion starter, a portrait, a comment, a critique, and could include everything from actual documentation, reproduction of work, video/text interviews with the curators, facsimiles, books from the library, or outside material that you find, collect, or create, that expands our understanding of that exhibition (you do not have to show any material from the actual show that is your concept)… The main idea being to create an exhibition that comments on, expands, and represents the particular nature of that show. The location or display of the exhibition should be significant somehow. Is the exhibition in a white room? on your desk? Imbedded in your book collection? Next to the copy machine? In a box the floor or a shelf high on the ceiling? In the library stacks? etc… Is it easy to access? Or does it take some effort? Reminder: You must “curate” your exhibition (make a selection of objects/images/documents based on some narrative or point of view), and then design some mode of display that reinforces your selection. Don’t forget the curatorial part and just rush on to designing a special shelf or display case. Build your concept from the ground up! What are you going to say about you exhibition? How do the things you select communicate the story you want to tell? An interesting curatorial concept will guide you to interesting form. Hopefully all these elements add up to more than the sum of their parts.
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exhibition about exhibition about exhibition Project made in collaboration with Jenny Kim
The exhibition we worked with was “Graphic Design in the White Cube” by Peter Bilak. The original exhibition was a critique about how graphic design exhibition are made, Bilak commissioned to the designers posters designed both to advertise the event and as piece of the gallery itself. On the side of each poster the original sketches to show how the design process was made. Approaching to such a difficult piece was hard but we decided that the main task was to expose clearly as possible the powerful idea behind the original work using a new setting.
To make an exhibition about graphic design without took the works away from the context we decided to use the actual setting in which we were.
We used the other exhibitions as graphic design pieces
We used the other exhibitions as graphic design pieces, creating a sort of introduction to all the other works, and showing the sketches that leaded our classmates and ourself to the final presentation. Each work has it’s own white cube representing a gallery space, and each cube is carefully positioned in the space to achieve a powerful visual impact.
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Alessio Sciascia RISD Spring 2013 Graduate Visiting Designers Professor: Bethany Johns Visiting Designers: Renata Stih & Frieder Schnock - March 14-17 Scott Stowell - April 4-7 Natasha Jen - April 18-21 Jon Sueda - April 25-28 Font used: Museo Sans Calluna Regular 35