In the fall of
2002, after a series of meetings and discussions among the Presidents and
Provosts of Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design, a committee of faculty
members (the “Committee") was charged by the Provosts to explore potential collaborations
between the two institutions.
The Committee's
first meetings generated an extraordinary amount of interest and enthusiasm
among all members. Old connections were renewed and new connections were made in
conversations that began in formal Committee meetings and extended beyond them. The variety
and complexity of the ideas for collaborative work between the two institutions was impressive.
It was clear to the members of the Committee that many connections had already formed
between the two institutions, and that many more could readily be developed, connections that
would clearly bring enormous benefits to the students and faculties of the two institutions. The
first meetings were focused both on inventorying these collaborations and promoting creative
thinking about potential future connections. The first problem facing the Committee was
bringing order to this process without inhibiting it. The Committee therefore appointed a
steering committee (the “Steering Committee”) to set agendas and draft documents for the
larger Committee.
The Committee decided
that it had a responsibility to remain open to all ideas that might
emerge from the discussions of the Committee members and the discussions that had begun
among many Brown and RISD faculty members, the Committee members viewing themselves
primarily as conduits to the ideas of faculty members from both institutions. The Committee thus
organized a set of focus groups (sub- committees), led by Committee members, to hold open
meetings with other interested faculty from both institutions and report back to the full
Committee. This process of developing and discussing proposals for collaborative engagements
showed both the variety of potential intersections between the two institutions and the creative
excitement that an invitation to work together unleashed on both campuses. The Committee
then set about refining and coordinating these proposals.
They determined that the
time is right for a major collaborative effort between Brown and
RISD. The two institutions have been kept apart in the past by mutual suspicions, fears, and
academic inertia. The Committee’s preliminary investigations have found a real hunger for
collaboration in both schools. Collaborations that make the most of this situation will release a
tremendous creative synergy. The time is right, if the two institutions have the vision and the
courage to grasp it.
1. The Center for Emergent Arts, Design and Science (CEADS)
The following is the emerging relationship between the 5 variables in this equation:
I propose C, E, A, D, S as the names for the five variables in this emergent equation.
Click the picture to see a metaphor
for the endeavor of education and CEADS.
The Steering Committee's Report:
Rosanne Somerson, Professor and Head of Furniture Design*
Richard Fishman, Professor and Chair of Visual Arts*
Mari Jo Buhle, Professor and Chair of American Civilization*
Brian Casey, Associate Provost*
Todd Winkler, Associate Professor and Chair of Music*
Lucretia Giese, Professor and Head of Art History*
Bill Seaman, Professor and Head of Digital Media*
To Download Complete Map with Embedded Information Click Below:
"A map has no vocabulary, no lexicon of precise meanings. It communicates in
lines, hues, tones,
coded symbols, and empty spaces, much like music. Nor does a map have its own voice. It is
many-tongued, a chorus reciting centuries of accumulated knowledge in echoed chants. A map
provides no answers. It only suggests where to look: discover this, reexamine that, put one thing in
relation to another, orient yourself, begin here...Sometimes a map speaks in terms of physical
geography, but just as often it muses on the jagged terrain of the heart, the distant vistas of
memory, or the fantastic landscapes of dreams."
1. Andreas
