Article | RISD Global Flies Again Image

This drawing course explored the work of Giovanni Battista Piranesi, the engraver widely known for his picturesque illustrations of eighteenth-century Rome, and his essential contribution to our contemporary understanding of antiquity.

This 3-week course was set in North-West Italy, specifically around the Cinque Terre region, a unique natural environment contained between the Mediterranean Sea and the Apennine mountains where farmers for centuries have challenged the landscape to strive and cultivate their lands. The peculiarity of the place exposed students to the complex relationships between nature and people who domesticated steep cliffs to farm olive trees and grapevines thanks to human ingenuity and expert craftsmanship.

In this 3-week travel course, students learned about design with nature, by designing for nature. The volcanic archipelago of the Azores, situated along the mid-Atlantic Ocean ridge, was the location and context.

This course, based in the heart of Copenhagen, was a three-week immersion into the world of Scandinavian design, with a focus on Denmark.

This course offered an insider’s look at past and current mechanisms of selling, buying, and exhibiting art. The goal was for artists and designers at RISD to understand the aftermath of art-making, something that they will eventually engage with once they become professionals.