Past Event
Shared Languages: Crafting Cross Cultural Exchange - Day One
The two-day symposium Shared Languages: Crafting Cross Cultural Exchange will focus on platforms, programs and models established to create meaningful and reciprocal learning exchanges among art and design students, educators and artisans across the globe.
Key themes explored through panels include: the transmission of craft and design knowledge across communities of makers towards innovation and sustainability of all disciplines; platforms to create cross-cultural learning and exchange across design and craft educations; preservation and sharing of craft traditions and knowledge; and the role of craft within the built environment.
The pilot program includes a five-week travel course in Morocco for students to study craft in relationship to the built environment in Fés, a full semester on-campus course focused on the intersections of patterns within craft and the built environment, a seminar on craft in the Islamic world, and a one-week residency for members of Morocco’s craft community to be held on RISD’s campus. Each aspect of the program engages the RISD community with the depth and richness of craft in Morocco today while also showcasing the value of craft know-how and the role of craft within the built environment. A core goal of the program is to foster cross-cultural learning and exchange across languages, socio-economic realities and geographies.
Transmission of Knowledges: Craft and Design Pedagogies
Panel One, 9:30am—12:15pm
The speakers on this panel will explore the transmission of knowledge across craft and design pedagogies through case studies that range from a school of architecture and an artisan center in Morocco, a RISD pilot program developed to explore these intersections, and a design library in Hangzhou, China dedicated to the preservation of craft and the transmission of craft know-how to design practices.
Panelists: Iman Benkirane, Director, l’EMADU of Université Euromediteranieene de Fés, Morocco; Ahmed Aboujaafar, Director, Centre de Formation et Qualification des Métiers de l’Artisanat Al Batha, Fés, Morocco; Eduardo Benamor Duarte, Faculty, RISD Interior Architecture; Zhang Lei, Founder, Yuhang Rong Design Library, Hangzhou, China.
Methodologies for Collaboration: Crossing Craft, Design and Art
Panel Two, 2:00pm—4:30pm
This panel looks at the methodologies of collaboration inherent within craft practices and how these approaches develop as they engage design practices.
Panelists: Raul Cabra, Founder, Oax-i-fornia, Oaxaca, Mexico; Paolo Cardini, Associate Professor, Industrial Design, RISD; Maddalena Achenza, Assistant Professor, University of Cagliari, Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture; Swasti Singh Ghai, Associate Senior Faculty, Discipline Lead, Textile Design, National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India; Ezra Shales.
Crafting the City: Focus Morocco
RISD is partnered with Morocco’s Ministry of Tourism, Air Transport, Handicrafts and Social Economy, Maison de l’Artisan and Holmarcom Group to co-create a multifaceted collaboration and partnership between RISD faculty and students and Moroccan craftspeople, designers and academics.
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Morocco: Crafting the City
In this studio course RISD students will engage with the reciprocity between craftsmanship and the adaptation of the built environment in the context of artisan economies.
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