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Students in Sustainable Strategies Course Become LEED Green Associates

Art & Design, Students, Interior Design, , ,

This summer 2014, an interdisciplinary mix of LSU students completed the Sustainable Design Strategies course took and then passed the professional accreditation exam qualifying them as LEED, or Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design, Green Associates. The student who participated in the course included undergraduates in interior design, one undergraduate and one graduate student in the School of Architecture, and a graduate student studying finance—working toward a profession in real estate—at the LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business.

The course was taught by Matthew Edmonds, professional in residence at the LSU School of Interior Design. Edmonds, owner and designer of Commercial Design Interiors, is an NCIDQ certified designer, a registered interior designer in Louisiana and Texas, and a LEED AP BD+C.

Sustainable Design Strategies (ID 4772) is an intensive lecture course devoted to preparing students for the knowledge and skills that a LEED Green Associate and Accredited Professional will need in order to be affective in the field. The course focuses on LEED ID+C (Interior Design + Construction) guidelines and credits. Students in the course develop a clearer understanding of various features of the LEED Green Building rating system; review and discuss the intent, requirements, and potential technologies and strategies for each credit within the rating system; are introduced to case study examples to reinforce the implementation of LEED strategies; and prepare for the US Green Building Council’s (USGBC) revised LEED Professional Accreditation Exam.

Those enrolled in the course are encouraged but not required to take the exam. While the exam is an additional cost, many jobs in the design professions require green building expertise. Designation as a LEED Green Associates certifies that an individual has an up-to-date understanding of the most current green building principles and practices and is committed to his or her professional future.

“Since this class has been offered, more than 80 students have taken and passed the LEED Green Associate exam,” said Edmonds.

“Edmonds’s summer course is an excellent example of the School of Interior Design’s commitment to offering students coursework that is relevant to contemporary practice and facilitating their future leadership in the profession,” added Jim Sullivan, associate professor and chair of the School of Interior Design.

Many design professionals continue to earn credentials and take examinations leading to the LEED AP designation, which distinguishes the individual as one with advanced knowledge in green building as well as expertise in a particular LEED rating system, such as ID+C (Interior Design+ Construction) or BD+C (Building Design + Construction).

Visit usgbc.org for more information about the US Green Building Council and LEED credentials.

About LSU School of Interior Design
The LSU School of Interior Design is a CIDA accredited program emphasizing design that brings meaning and identity, function and purpose, health and safety to interior spaces. The program teaches specialized knowledge in creative problem solving, research and analysis, and professional preparedness. Interior designers give life to interior spaces. They shape, organize, furnish, and adorn the insides of buildings to reflect our personal and cultural aspirations. For more information, visit interiordesign.lsu.edu.

As the 2014–15 LSU College of Art & Design Lecture Series Begins . . .

Art & Design, Students, Art

As we approach the first week of lectures in the 2014–15 LSU College of Art & Design—Guy Nordenson, 2014–15 Nadine Carter Russell Chair in architecture will lecture on Monday, October 6, and artist Kurt Kauper on Wednesday, October 8—we wanted to take a moment to share a student’s review of one of last year’s lectures by French historian and member of the Académie française, Marc Fumaroli. Ariston Ross is studying journalism at the LSU Manship School of Mass Communication and expects to graduate in May 2017. Enamored with the experience—and the fact that he got the chance to meet Fumaroli before the lecture—Ross volunteered to write this review, which serves as a humble reminder of the impact the college’s visiting lecturers have on the university as a whole.

The invitation to attend lectures is always open to students, faculty, alumni, staff, and friends of LSU and all members of the community. You can view the 2014–15 LSU College of Art & Design Lecture Series schedule here or watch past lectures online.

Mark Fumaroli Lecture Review by Ariston Ross

LectureSeries2

“Immortals” are what the members of the French Academy are called. I had the pleasure of personally meeting Mark Fumaroli, an “Immortal,” twice, and shaking his hand.

The first occasion was just before the doors opened to his presentation in the Union Theater. I was waiting, alone, on the first floor when he entered. Immediately, all the students in the building stopped what they were doing to watch, whether or not they knew who he was. As he approached the bench where I sat, I straightened my back. He seemed like the kind of man you wanted to impress. I approached him carefully, introducing myself and showing him the copy of his presentation that I was reading.

“How are you not bored to death?” he joked through a heavy French accent. He laughed a full and hearty laugh that I would come to hear again the next day. He then moved to admire a nearby advertisement for the Union Theater’s production of Beauty and the Beast.

It was because of this chance encounter that I received Professor Fumaroli’s lecture the way that I did. For now, I took my seat like everyone else and waited for his lecture to begin. Unlike everyone else, though, I had met him. I spoke to him personally. Thus, I viewed him more as a down-to-earth person and less as a scholarly figure or an enigmatic speaker.

He began by apologizing for his English, and said that he regrets Napoleon’s decision to sell the Louisiana territory to the United States. The rest of his presentation was very much a work of art in itself, drawing from both classical and contemporary sources. He discussed what it meant for art to be beautiful, and pitted “the conceptualization of art by aestheticians, such as Burke and Kant,” against the importance of personal taste and “the experience of the Beautiful as encountered in the sensory world.” He concluded with a quote from the philosopher Paul Valéry: “the Aesthetics of the Metaphysicians demanded that one separate Beauty from beautiful things.” I left the theater with a deeper appreciation for art and a better understanding of aesthetics.

The next day when Fumaroli came to my colloquium in the arts class, his tone was much more conversational. It gave me and my classmates a chance to ask the questions we had been saving and the questions that might have just arisen. It was not only informative but fun; Fumaroli’s knowledge, from what I gathered, was matched by his sense of humor.

All in all, I took a lot from the Fumaroli lecture. He exhibited an air of knowledge and pride that was matched by the modesty of being in a foreign land. He spoke carefully and beautifully, yet thanks to my fateful experience on the evening of his lecture, I could further appreciate what it meant for him to come all this way for the betterment of our education.

PROJECT 1:1. Architecture Students Design and Fabricate a Full-Scale Study Kiosk

Art & Design, Students, Architecture, ,
lsu architecture student work

Second-year architecture students designed and built full-scale study kiosks in the quad.

Second-year students in the fall 2014 architectural design III studio (ARCH 2001), taught by Visiting Assistant Professor Shelby Elizabeth Doyle and Adjunct Professor Kristen Kelsch, were required to design and fabricate full-scale study kiosks for the LSU quad using a 1:1 kit-of-parts. On Monday, September 8, the six student teams displayed their study kiosks in the quad outside of Atkinson Hall. The teams were judged by an interdisciplinary mix of faculty members of the LSU College of Art & Design, and—much like a reality TV show competition—classmates and passersby were invited to vote on the study kiosk they liked best.

The project provided students the opportunity to examine architecture as abstraction and architecture as construction through a digitally enabled design process and full-scale building project. The students were encouraged to recognize the common threads of intertwining the pragmatic and the imaginative while considering material qualities, rethinking details, and questioning how to anchor the construction.

“These projects are important because they give students a chance to test their ideas, skills, and space-making capacities. They may never physically build anything as a practicing architect, but they need to appreciate the complexity of building and the thinking that continues to occur as the full-scale construction emerges,” commented Professor Jori Erdman, director of the School of Architecture.

lsu architecture student work

Architecture students experience the challenges of implementing their designs.

Each team was required to use the same 1:1 kit-of-parts, which contained 25 2″ x 4′ x 8′ pieces of lumber and two ½″ x 4′ x 8′ pieces of plywood, to design and fabricate a study kiosk to meet the following parameters:

  • allow breezes to pass through the structure;
  • provide a curated view of Atkinson Hall, the LSU quad, and the sky;
  • provide some amount of shade from noon to 5 p.m.;
  • accommodate two people at the same time (one standing and one sitting)—they must stay dry in a light rain;
  • touch some part of an imaginary 10’ x 10’ x 10’ envelope;
  • feature two replicated connections or joint details that relate to the project as a whole; and
  • use the entire kit-of-parts.

As all of the parameters could not be met in entirety, Doyle and Kelsch asked the teams to prioritize constraints and to create a process of evaluating the success of the work in writing.

Several faculty members participated as judges for the project, including:

  • Greg Watson, associate professor of the School of Architecture;
  • Jeff Carney, associate professor of the School of Architecture and director of the LSU Coastal Sustainability Studio;
  • Tom Sofranko, associate professor of the School of Architecture and associate dean of the College of Art & Design;
  • Patrick Jones, professional in residence at the School of Architecture;
  • Rod Parker, associate professor and director of the School of Art; and
  • Matt Dunn, associate professor of the School of Interior Design.

The judges were given ballots and asked to rate the performance of each group in 10 categories based on a scale of one to 10 (with 10 being the highest) for a total possible total score of 100 points. The projects were judged on:

  1. Craft & Joinery
  2. Structure & Stability
  3. Presentation Board Clarity
  4. Design Concept & Process
  5. Spatial Quality
  6. Drawing Legibility
  7. Inventiveness
  8. Comfort & Seating
  9. Curated Views
  10. Risk-Taking

The ballots were tallied at the end of the critique, and the teams were evaluated on their built work, creativity, and images; drawings and diagrams; written explanation of process; presentation board; and collaboration. In the end, teams 4 and 6 were declared the project winners. All of the teams were given the chance to revise their project boards for a final display at Middleton Library.

 

This was the first year the competition took place, and the display in the quad received quite a bit of attention on campus. KLSU covered the display in a newscast, and Brittany Clark wrote a story for The Reveille. View more photos of the kiosk project on Flickr. For future studios, Doyle and Kelsch hope to gain community interest and to have the students work on different projects each year, according to the need of the community.

About LSU School of Architecture
LSU School of Architecture students develop a solid foundation of traditional design, hand building, and drawing skills and learn to use computer and technological resources. The architecture program at LSU provides a balance between broadening educational experiences and discipline-focused coursework. In addition to learning how to make buildings, students develop a sense of professionalism and leadership in shaping the world by learning how to see, think, and act creatively. For more information, visit architecture.lsu.edu.

 

College Hosts First Annual Scholarship Reception & Presentation

Art & Design, Students, Landscape Architecture, Interior Design, Art, Alumni, Architecture, Donors,

The LSU College of Art & Design’s first annual scholarship reception and presentation was held September 4, 2014, in the LSU Design Building. The event served as an opportunity to honor this year’s recipients as well as the donors who made the scholarships possible.

 

In addition to recognizing the 84 scholarship recipients, the presentation served as a means for the donors and students to learn more about one another and the history behind the awards. Parents and families of the students and donors were able to visit the various studios and see the students’ current projects. “It was an event that aimed to bring everyone together and set a context for these awards,” said Director of Development Julie LeFebvre, who planned the event.

The event is something the college plans on continuing as their outreach to students, alumni, and donors increases. “On average, 125 scholarships are awarded each year by the college, and it is important that we continue to honor and engage the students, parents, and donors. For without them, the college would not be able to continue to provide such outstanding opportunities,” said LeFebvre.

The scholarship reception and presentation will be held at the LSU College of Art & Design each fall, going forward. The event recognizes the scholarships established directly through the LSU Foundation for LSU College of Art & Design students. For more information about scholarship opportunities, visit design.lsu.edu/student-life/scholarships. For information about establishing scholarship funds, visit design.lsu.edu/giving/support-art-and-design/scholarship-funds.

LSU Professor Bruce Sharky a Member of Winning International Team for Chinese Wetland Restoration Project

Art & Design, Landscape Architecture, Honors & Awards, Faculty, ,

 

Bruce Sharky, Reich Teaching Professor at the LSU Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture, is a member of an international team that won a design competition for a greenbelt and river restoration project in central China, XinJin Baihetan National Wetland Park. Other team members include Dr. Guo Li and Dr. Pan, members of the landscape architecture faculty at Sichuan Agricultural University in Chengdu, China; Dr. Pang, a hydrologist at SAU; Justin Kim, a landscape architect at Dongbu Engineering in Seoul, Korea; and 16 graduate and undergraduate students from SAU.

Sharky’s interests in landscape architecture have always been varied, evolving over the years through his work in a myriad of locations and countries. Consistent has been his interest in subjects related to regional and environmental planning. His notable work in coastal Louisiana has involved sponsored research, working with studio students, and professional work with the US Army Corps of Engineers and the National Wildlife Federation.

When the provincial government of Sichuan Province and the City of XinJin Department of Public Works & the Environment put out an international call for teams in summer 2014, Sharky jumped at the chance to be involved, embracing the opportunity to further solidify the cooperative and exchange agreement between LSU and SAU. The three teams that were selected as finalists were all collaborations of universities and private consulting firms, a model the Chinese federal government favors and frequently practices.

Sharky believes there is much to be learned from these community/private partnerships that operate like firms—earning fees and hiring students as interns, much like LSU’s Coastal Sustainability Studio. The SAU College of Landscape Architecture helped subsidize Sharky’s trip to China over the summer—Sharky met with city officials, visited the site in XinJin, helped organize the team, and came up with a work plan and method of communication for work to be completed going forward.

XinJin expects to increase its size by 250,000 people over the next few years. The city is one of the first to implement the Chinese national initiative to rebuild and reestablish native rivers. XinJin Baihetan National Wetland Park will be one of the first restorations and will serve as a model for sustainable design throughout the country. The three teams selected as finalists were requested to submit proposals for the restoration of five kilometers of river land, including designs for a greenbelt equipped for recreational activities with transportation connections to the planned extension of the old city.

Sharky urged his team to go above the requirements and to expand their focus beyond the edge of the river. Following his return to the US, the team communicated remotely, continuing their international collaboration, which posed its own set of problems—particularly with language barriers. The team’s communication method consisted of sketches and photos, which were marked with notations and passed back and forth. Finally, the team’s 117-page proposal was completed, and the team submitted their design by the deadline in mid-August. Fifteen days later, Sharky received an e-mail from Dr. Guo Li with the good news—their team was selected as the winner!

Their winning proposal is an integration of wetlands and city extension. Their design establishes a more natural “edge” between the urban and wetland environments, merging habitat with the city’s expansion and using the existing drainage systems of the new city to incorporate wetland parks throughout the town. Along the river, they designed venues for special recreational and educational activities, including an environmental museum on wetlands and wildlife, a system of bike paths and walkways with multiple connections into and out of the extended city, an eco-village, boardwalks, and an observation deck for bird-watching.

The next phase for the winning team is to flesh out their submitted design, providing more detail for implementation. Chinese officials have already hired a construction company to build and complete the project, an interesting process, Sharky pointed out. “We need to learn from it.”

Sharky is on sabbatical this fall, continuing his work on the XinJin restoration project and working on his writing. His book, Principles of Landscape Site Grading, will be published by Wiley in November, and he is under contract for another book with Taylor-Francis, London. He was invited to teach courses at two Chinese universities: he is teaching at the Chinese Academy of Art in Hangzhou in September and leading a one-week course at the North East Forestry University in Harbin in October. Professor Max Conrad taught in Harbin over the summer, as well. These opportunities—and more—have come about thanks to the cooperative agreement established between LSU and SAU in the summer of 2013, a collaboration that is turning out to be much more than a standard exchange agreement.

About LSU Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture
The Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture has established an international reputation as one of America’s leading and consistently top-ranked programs. Part of the LSU College of Art + Design, the school offers Bachelor of Landscape Architecture and Master of Landscape Architecture programs. For over 60 years, the program has produced landscape architects who practice all over the world and participate in the full spectrum of the discipline. For more information, visit landscape.lsu.edu.

Alumni Spotlight: Rachel Cannon Lewis

Art & Design, Interior Design, Alumni, Alumni Profiles

Rachel Cannon Lewis: From the Perfect Storm to the Perfect Circle

lsu interior design alumniOne week in July of 2009 proved to be the perfect storm for LSU interior design alumna Rachel Cannon Lewis. The waves of the 2008 economic downturn led to a devastating Monday for Lewis, when the firm where she’d worked for five years had to downsize and let her go. It just so happened that Lewis and her husband were closing on their first home on Friday of the same week. At that time, life was not looking ideal for Lewis, but little did she know, things were unfolding just as they were supposed to.

Lewis has that rare gift—the gift of knowing what you are meant to do in life the minute you encounter it. For Lewis, her encounter happened as a third-year graphic design major at LSU. She was sitting in a history of interior design class and knew within the first week that interior design was the perfect fit for her. “That is when I changed my major,” Lewis said. The change pushed back Lewis’s graduation date by three years. “I think that just shows how convicted and compelled I was,” Lewis recalled. Her father, also an LSU alumnus, shared his wisdom with her: “It’s not a race.” With her parents’ support, she made the switch and never looked back.

After graduating from the interior design program in 2004, Lewis worked at a local commercial design firm in Baton Rouge.  While there, she obtained her NCIDQ license and Louisiana Registered Interior Designer status, she also became the lead project designer for the firm until she was laid off that fateful week five years later. When she began her own business in 2009, she focused on the kind of design and experience she would offer to her clients. Her firm, Rachel Cannon Lewis Interiors, is focused on creating full-service, luxury design for a clientele of professionals with demanding schedules. “We like to focus on the little details as well as the big picture for our clients. While we offer services that address the entire home, it is the experience that we give our clients that sets us apart,” said Lewis. “We love surprising them with things that delight and intrigue them. They’re busy running businesses, raising families, and traveling, so we do all we can to simplify the process of designing and furnishing an entire home on a custom level so that all they have to do is open the door and enjoy it,” she added.

As the owner of her own firm, Lewis began to hone in on her own branding and aesthetic as a designer. “My design aesthetic is rooted in my love of art history,” Lewis continued. “What I do best is bridge the gap between the old and the new, working with inherited artwork, heirloom antiques, and sentimental items, and pairing them with furnishings that work for today’s lifestyles. The look is really a mix of traditional and modern.”

 

Once Rachel Cannon Lewis Interiors was off the ground, a number of other opportunities started to come Lewis’s way. As a frequent reader of House & Home, Lewis was interested in pitching a few ideas to the magazine. “I proposed a piece that would be called Postcards from the World of Design,” Lewis said. The purpose of the series is for readers to see what designers are doing around the world. She thought it would add diversity as well as a fresh perspective to the magazine. Needless to say, the publisher loved the idea and asked Lewis to not only write the piece but to join the magazine as a contributing editor. (Read more at houseandhomemagazine.net.)

“The funny thing about the magazine coming along is that I always said in high school that I wanted to be a journalist,” she said. “I was the editor of my yearbook, and I always had an interest in writing.” The position as editor at House & Home led to a regular segment on Talk 107.3 FM’s Saturday Style with Karen Profita, where Lewis brings in expert guests for design discussions the first Saturday of each month. Lewis’s exploration into journalism did not stop there. She received a phone call one Friday from the station manager at WBRZ, who approached her to pitch several ideas for a design segment. This led to Lewis becoming the program’s resident design expert. (View past segments here.) “In a way radio prepared me for television, but it was still very different,” Lewis said. “I love interacting with the callers on the radio show and answering their questions, but I am able to explain design more effectively on television because I am able to demonstrate ideas through visual media.”

One of Lewis’s residential projects was featured on HGTV’s website. (View the HGTV project here.) Lewis believes what made the work notable was her use of color. The area featured was a living room that consisted of a mostly neutral color palette with strategically placed accents of color. “I’m not afraid of color, but I also know when to dial it back,” Lewis said. “My clients want rooms and homes that are tailored, sophisticated, and timeless.” Lewis credits the LSU School of Interior Design for giving her the knowledge to create and implement the plan to provide the best service to her clients. “The process of design is consistent, whether you are working on a commercial project or a residential one. That linear path from programming, schematic design, design development, and more, is very much present in everything I do in my work for clients.

“Looking back on my time at LSU, I am thankful that it was not solely a technical focus,” Lewis continued. “As interior design students, we were required to take art history classes to give us a broader view of the past, and I appreciate that so much more now.” To this day, Lewis has not sold back any of her text books that she bought while studying interior design. “I use them frequently as reference books,” she said.

When asked about her best memory while at LSU, Lewis said it was her personal epiphany. “That moment when I figured out what I was supposed to be doing with my life,” she explained. “Also, the lifelong friends that I made while in the program.” Lewis still keeps in touch with many of the students in her class, and they embrace the relatively small design community within Baton Rouge.

“I was 100 percent prepared by the interior design program to get a real job, but I never dreamed I would own my own business by the time I was 30. It was always a long-term goal, but the economic downturn made it a reality a lot sooner than I thought,” Lewis said. Doing the work to identify the clients with whom she is meant to work, defining her aesthetic, and going a step further to offer a luxury experience to her clients has all unfolded it should.

“There is no other profession like interior design; you can interact with people and impact how they live their lives,” Lewis said. “Having an interest in people is an essential part of what designers do. I have really big goals for my company, and I’m excited for what the future holds.”

Lewis is grateful for everything she has experienced thus far, and it all goes back to that moment in her third year at LSU in that history of interior design class. “I have never told the full story out loud before; it’s making me realize luck truly is the meeting of preparation and opportunity,” she said. Without a doubt things have come full circle for Lewis, but there are hints that another circle is about to start.

Visit rachelcannonlewis.com for more information about Rachel Cannon Lewis Interiors.

Guy Nordenson Named Fall 2014 Nadine Carter Russell Chair

Art & Design, Architecture, ,

Guy Nordenson_WEBGuy Nordenson, structural engineer and professor at Princeton University, has been named one of two 2014–15 Nadine Carter Russell Chairs, a rotating residency shared among the four disciplines within the LSU College of Art & Design—this year, hosted by the School of Architecture. Nordenson will serve as the Nadine Carter Russell Chair for the fall 2014 semester, and Kiel Moe, associate professor at Harvard Graduate School of Design and co-director of the Energy, Environments & Design Research Lab, will serve as the Nadine Carter Russell Chair in architecture in spring 2015.

Nordenson is a partner at Guy Nordenson and Associates in New York and a professor of architecture and structural engineering at Princeton University. He practiced structural engineering in San Francisco and New York. In 1987 he established the New York office of Arup, where he was a director until 1997 when he began his independent practice. His current projects include the expansion of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston with Steven Holl and the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC with David Adjaye and Phil Freelon. He currently serves as commissioner of the New York City Public Design Commission, as a member of the New York City Panel on Climate Change, and as a board member of the Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy. Nordenson’s research project On the Water | Palisade Bay won the 2007 AIA Latrobe Prize and was published in 2010. The project and book served as the inspiration for the MoMA workshop and exhibition Rising Currents.

guy nordenson

Image of lower Manhattan from On the Water | Palisade Bay

In his role as Nadine Carter Russell Chair, Nordenson will present a lecture at the LSU College of Art & Design at 5 p.m. on Monday, October 6, 2014, in the LSU Design Building Auditorium, room 103. In his lecture, Nordenson will present the work of a Rockefeller Foundation–funded project led by his research team at Princeton, including teams from Harvard University, City College, and the University of Pennsylvania, to develop “Structures of Coastal Resilience,” in collaboration with the US Army Corps of Engineers. [Read more about Nordenson’s lecture.]

Nordenson’s residency as Nadine Carter Russell Chair is integrated with an architecture and anthropology course taught by A. Hays Town Professor of Architecture Ursula Emery McClure, Vernacular Architecture and Material Culture: The LA Tectonic (ARCH 4440). Nordenson will lead a series of four intense seminars over the course of the fall semester, exploring the development of coastal resilience strategies for the New York and New Jersey region both before and after Superstorm Sandy in 2012. Students will review general strategies for the New York/New Jersey area and particular strategies for Jamaica Bay, New York, and Atlantic City, New Jersey. For a final project, students will develop a design for coastal resilience based on the principles of “dynamic performance-based design” discussed in the seminars and presented in the two examples of Jamaica Bay and Atlantic City.

“Climate change adaptation is a pressing and difficult challenge to urban design, ecological, and engineering planning theory and practice. Architects, planners, engineers, and designers have an increasingly important role to help cities, especially coastal ones, contend with climate adaptation,” Nordenson states in the course syllabus. The seminars will introduce students to three time and spatially based vectors to consider in their approach to the final project: the gradual implementation of coastal protection over time; the interplay of nature-based (islands, wetlands), engineered (levees, seawalls), and planning (elevation, zoning) features; and the change in coastal storm surge hazards with rising sea levels and changing climates.

Kiel Moe’s residency as Nadine Carter Russell Chair in spring 2015 will coincide with the theme of coastal resiliency.

For more information about the architecture program at LSU, visit architecture.lsu.edu.

MIT Press Publishes New Book by Art History Professor Susan Elizabeth Ryan

Art & Design, Research, Publications, Art History, Art, Faculty, ,

GarmentsParadise_WEBSusan Elizabeth Ryan’s book, Garments of Paradise: Wearable Discourse in the Digital Age, was published by MIT Press in June 2014. Ryan is a professor of contemporary and new media art history and theory at the LSU School of Art. She is also an affiliate of the LSU Center for Computational Technology, where she is a member of the Cultural Computing group.

In Garments of Paradise, Ryan applies historical and critical analysis to wearable technologies in order to frame a perspective on where they have come from, how they are developing, and what is at stake. Her study moves from computer labs to runways and city streets as she considers a broad assortment of electronic and digital phenomena under the lens of dress. As she writes, “Wearable technologies must be wearable, after all, and they draw meaning from their contexts in science fiction and popular culture, clothing and fashion, and social visions and ideologies of body display.”

Garments of Paradise considers nearly two centuries of wearable technology, from early advancements by the military during World War II to wearable devices for physical enhancement and personal display developed in the last 30 years.

Wearable technology—whether a Walkman in the 1970s, an LED-illuminated gown in the 2000s, or Google Glass today—makes the wearer visible in a technologically literate environment. Twenty years ago, wearable technology reflected cultural preoccupations with cyborgs and augmented reality; today, it reflects our newer needs for mobility and connectedness. In Garments of Paradise, Ryan examines wearable technology as an evolving set of ideas and their contexts, always with an eye on actual wearables—on clothing, dress, and the histories and social relations they represent. She proposes that wearable technologies comprise a pragmatics of enhanced communication in a social landscape. “Garments of paradise” is a reference to wearable technology’s promise of physical and mental enhancements.

Ryan defines “dress acts”—hybrid acts of communication in which the behavior of wearing is bound up with the materiality of garments and devices—and focuses on the use of digital technology as part of such systems of meaning. She connects the ideas of dress and technology historically, in terms of major discourses of art and culture, and in terms of mass media and media culture, citing such thinkers as Giorgio Agamben, Manuel De Landa, and Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. She examines the early history of wearable technology as it emerged in research labs, the impact of ubiquitous and affective approaches to computing, interaction design, and the influence of open source ideology. Finally, she considers the future, as wearing technologies becomes an increasingly naturalized aspect of our everyday lives.

Visit susanelizabethryan.com or mitpress.mit.edu/9780262027441 for more information about Garments of Paradise.

Read a review of Garments of Paradise on io9.

Praise for Garments of Paradise

“Garments of Paradise gives an impressive overview of wearable technology as an evolving set of ideas within a range of historical and social contexts. Susan Elizabeth Ryan investigates wearables as part of a complex language of dress that has always involved technology and establishes a critical context by drawing on the writings of theorists and philosophers. The book makes an invaluable contribution to shaping the discourse on wearable technologies as a cultural phenomenon embedded in social behavior, communication, and display.”

—Christiane Paul, Associate Professor, School of Media Studies, The New School; Adjunct Curator of New Media Arts, Whitney Museum of Art

Ceramics Professor Andy Shaw Selected for 2015 McKnight Residency

Art & Design, Honors & Awards, Art, Ceramics, Faculty,

Andy ShawAndy Shaw, associate professor of ceramics at the LSU School of Art, was selected for a $6,000 2014 McKnight Residency for Ceramic Artists. Shaw is one of five ceramic artists selected for this national award. Each of the selected artists will be in residence for three months at the Northern Clay Center during 2015 or 2016, and each will present a slide lecture during his or her residency. The Clay Center will present a group exhibition of the work completed during the McKnight Residency periods.

Shaw’s tableware has received multiple awards, is shown widely across the US, was recently featured in exhibitions in Australia and Korea, and has been published in Studio Potter, Ceramics Monthly, Ceramics: Art and Perception, Garth Clark’s Shards, and Elevations, the magazine for Ritz Carlton club members. Several museums hold his work within their collections, including the Garth Clark and Mark Del Vecchio Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Swidler Collection at the Crocker Art Museum, the American Museum of Ceramic Art, and the Sanbao Institute of Ceramic Art in Jingdezhen, China. Shaw has been an artist-in-residence at the Archie Bray Foundation, the Arrowmont School of Crafts, and the Clay Studio of Philadelphia, where he was a 2006–07 Evelyn Shapiro Foundation Fellow.

Serving bowl by Andy Shaw

Serving bowl by Andy Shaw

The McKnight Residency, sponsored by the McKnight Foundation in Minneapolis, Minnesota, reflects the foundation’s program goal to support an environment in which artists are valued leaders in the community, with access to the resources and opportunities they need to succeed.

Three individuals comprised the 2014 selection panel: Mary Barringer, studio potter from Sherburne Falls, Massachusetts, and director emerita of Studio Potter magazine; Jeff Guido, independent critic and curator and former artistic director from the Clay Studio in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Tim Berg, participating artist in Northern Clay Center’s current exhibition, A Gilded Age, part of the duo MyersBerg Studios, sculptor, and assistant professor at Pitzer College in Claremont, California.

The Northern Clay Center opened in 1990 and is an established, regionally based national ceramic arts association. Special programs such as the Regis Masters Series, through lectures, symposia, and publications, reach a national and international audience as well as a direct audience of regional participants. Other programs, such as the American Pottery Festival and McKnight Residency grants, bring national artists to the region to continually feed the lively exchange of ideas and aesthetics. Visit northernclaycenter.org for more information.

The LSU School of Art offers concentrations in ceramics for both the Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts. An undergraduate minor and a special student/post-baccalaureate program are also available. The program’s success is reflected in the current rankings by US News & World Report, which places LSU as the ninth best MFA ceramics program in the nation. Read more about the ceramics program at LSU.

New York Artist Nari Ward Sculpture Unveiled in LSU Sculpture Park

Art & Design, Art, Sculpture, Donors, ,

 

On August 14, New York artist Nari Ward, the 2013–14 LSU College of Art & Design Nadine Carter Russell Chair, unveiled a sculpture he completed during his residency at the LSU School of Art. Named Msssspp Runoff, the piece will remain a permanent installation in the LSU Sculpture Park.

The sculpture was constructed of found objects from the Louisiana Machinery “Caterpillar graveyard” and refuse discovered at LSU Landscape Services. The bench/trashcan/lamppost combination is a repeated feature along the banks of the Mississippi River in downtown Baton Rouge. Ward’s installation juxtaposes the uncontrollable nature of the roiling Mississippi River against the peacefulness of sitting and contemplating. However, some argue that the Caterpillar yellow paint color is reminiscent of LSU gold, and the metal-worked river pattern on the base of the sculpture recalls the university mascot’s tiger stripes. No matter how one perceives the artwork, the sculpture is a fitting and welcome addition to the permanent sculpture collection at LSU.

Born in St. Andrews, Jamaica, Ward came to the United States as young boy and currently resides in New York, where he is an active artist and a professor at Hunter College. He is represented by one of the foremost New York art galleries, Lehmann Maupin, and his work is sold internationally to private collectors and museums. Ward recently returned to the US following a 2012–13 Rome Prize fellowship. Additionally, he has received commissions from the United Nations and World Health Organization and awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, and the Pollock Krasner Foundation. A master at balancing elegance with grittiness, Ward articulates multilayered issues that affect all communities—economics, poverty, race, culture—and how these factors shape a society.

During his residency at LSU, Ward created several pieces for the exhibition at the LSU Museum of Art, Rooted Communities: The Art of Nari Ward, which will remain on display through January 2015. He also worked with students in Associate Professor Malcolm McClay’s advanced sculpture studio, and he presented a lecture at the LSU College of Art & Design, “The Laying on of Hands: Marking Place and Time.” (View past lectures at design.lsu.edu.) Currently, Ward is creating a piece for the Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art and Storytelling, a Broadway Housing Communities project in Harlem. He also plans to create a sister sculpture for Msssspp Runoff to be installed in New York at a location to be determined.

Nadine Carter Russell attended the unveiling and was one of the first to try using the sculpture as it is functionally intended. A graduate of the college with a degree in art history, Nadine Carter Russell’s aunt, Paula G. Manship, bestowed a fund for the LSU College of Art & Design to establish the Nadine Carter Russell Chair, which enables the college to annually bring a prominent artist, designer, or scholar to campus. The rotating chair provides outstanding opportunities for all disciplines within the college and allows the college to meet a variety of curriculum needs.

For more information about Nari Ward’s residency at LSU, read the feature article, “Shifting Gears: From New York to Baton Rouge,” in the summer 2014 issue of Quad: The LSU College of Art & Design Alumni Magazine.