v.1 Is Zooming Out

A message from v.1 (volume-1.org), RISD's student-run publishing platform …


before, we might greet you:

"welcome back",

back as a return, as a retread,

back to behind us,

to the good old days,

to the routines and

familiar gestures of the season.

back to the thing that we

have done before and continue to do.


to simulate normalcy as best we can is not the solution;

the solution is only ahead.

through and around the

Zoom windows,

sanitary plexiglass windows,

bedroom windows.


when you look away from Zoom, what do you see?

IMG_5082.JPG

here, from my desk,

i see my own window

humorously illuminate

a lamp for 15 minutes

before moving onward


let's start—

we invite you all to join us and share a view of your own

a picture maybe,

or poem,

or critical essay,

or sound piece

if you'd like to receive emails from v.1 about news, opportunities, and new pieces we publish, sign-up here.

and anytime, send us stories from quar or hopes for the future;

all kinds of verbal and non-verbal mediums are welcome:

videos,

theory,

paintings,

scripture,

maps,

comics,

mixed-media poems,

musing,

soundscapes,

orchestral interpretation,

letters,

pleas,

experimental text,

demands,

making a pie,

tarot reading—

keep your eyes open and imagination wild, and send your submissions or ideas to v1@risd.edu and we'll respond very soon and walk alongside you till your submission reaches its destination—whether online or in printed form.


thank you for your participation,

we are here to welcome something new, and

RISD students have already begun to build it.

Fall 2020: Notes on Screens and Selves

This Summer, A&L’s staff, taking in the fact that we would be working online for the year ahead and dispersed from our lovely home in 15 West …

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took a good look at how we do things. We were grateful that while we couldn’t host students for collective writing events or cozy v.1 readings, our core work, one-to-one tutoring …

is remarkably resilient and transferable to an online space. Working one-to-one on a writing, speaking, or visual project in Zoom even has special benefits—from shared Google-doc editing or access to one’s own bookshelves or artwork to a certain kind of focused intimacy. It’s not that we won’t miss our physical togetherness while we’re visiting each other on screens, but we feel lucky that the essence of peer tutoring—two unique minds and selves meeting and thinking together—can be as constructive and meaningful as ever.

There’s one more big change we are about to make that you might notice: We’re reorganizing and expanding our handouts, videos, and links to allow for more topic-focused independent learning. Check out the link on our home page to A&L’s Resource Guides.

As you meet with tutors and access our resources, please don’t hesitate to reach out with feedback, suggestions, or questions. We are “here” for you, in our virtual office (see link on home page), every weekday, and always available by e-mail (artsandlanguage@risd.edu or jliese@risd.edu).

Formal Description: How and Why To

From one of our favorite artist-writers—thank you, Greg Allen, for your treasure of a blog, greg.org—comes an object lesson in formal description that suggests how looking, really looking, with the closest attention, is an act of respect and love, and helps us imagine what we want and need to see next.

Read Greg’s review of Muriel Bowser’s Black Lives Matter here.

The Center for Experimental Lectures Presents ...

A&L is thrilled to spread the word about a series of three lecture-performances that starts this week.

Programmed by the Center for Experimental Lectures (CEL), the series will feature new work by Pablo Helguera (May 7), Naama Tsabar (May 12), and Carissa Rodriguez (May 19).

CEL was started in 2011 by artist Gordon Hall, a 2019-2020 RISD Provost Fellow in the Sculpture Department, and has since commissioned 40 new lecture-performances at venues including Recess, MoMA PS1, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Artists Space, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

These three new pieces are site-specific to the internet, using a variety of online presentation platforms, and have been developed throughout the spring with RISD students in Hall’s course "Talking Is Dancing: Lecture-Performance As Form."

Pablo Helguera: Thursday May 7, 5 pm

Pablo Helguera Zoom link: https://risd.zoom.us/j/6715673877

Naama Tsabar: Tuesday May 12, 5 pm

Carissa Rodriguez: Tuesday May 19, 5 pm

All times Eastern Standard Time. 

Pablo Helguera (b. 1971, Mexico City) is a visual artist living in New York City. His work involves performance, drawing, installation, theater and other literary strategies. He is often considered a pioneering figure in the field of socially engaged art. His work has been featured at many international biennials including Manifesta, Havana and Liverpool Biennial, and Performa. He has received the Guggenheim and Creative Capital Fellowships as well as the first International Award of Participatory Art in Bologna, Italy.  Recent projects include a two-person exhibition with artist Suzanne Lacy at the UC Santa Barbara Museum and the 8th Floor in NYC and a mid-career survey of his work at the Jumex Museum in Mexico City. He is the author of many books including Education for Socially Engaged Art (2011) and The Parable Conference (2014).

Naama Tsabar (b. 1982, Israel) lives and works in New York City. She received her MFA from Columbia University in 2010. Solo exhibitions and performances of Tsabar have been presented at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York), Museum of Art and Design (New York), The High Line Art (New York), Nasher Museum (Durham, NC), Kunsthuas Baselland (Switzerland), Palais De Tokyo (Paris), Prospect New Orleans,

Tel Aviv Museum of Art, The Herziliya Museum for Contemporary Art in Israel, MARTE-C (El Salvador), CCA Tel Aviv (Israel), Faena Buenos Aires, Frieze Projects New York, Kasmin Gallery (New York), Paramo Gallery (Guadalajara), Dvir Gallery (Israel), Spinello Projects (Miami) Shulamit Nazarian (Los Angeles). Tsabar’s work has been featured in publications including ArtForum, Art In America, ArtReview, ARTnews, The New York Times, New York Magazine, Frieze, Bomb Magazine, Art Asia Pacific, Wire, and Whitewall, among others.

Carissa Rodriguez (b. 1970, US) lives and works in New York City. Solo exhibitions include the Art Institute of Chicago (2020); the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2019); MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge (2018); SculptureCenter, New York (2018); CCA Wattis Institute, San Francisco (2016); Front Desk Apparatus, New York (2013); Karma International, Zürich (2012); House of Gaga, Mexico City (2010); New Jersey, Basel (2009). Rodriguez participated in the Whitney Biennial of 2014 and 2019. She received a BA in Literature from Eugene Lang College at the New School, New York in 1994, and attended the Whitney Independent Study Program in 2001. She was a core member of Reena Spaulings Fine Art, New York from 2004 to 2015. She is currently Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Art, Film and Visual Studies at Harvard University.


Quick Tips and Deep Dives

Looking for insights and advice as you approach assignments for the end of the term? We have some resources to recommend:

  • If you’re working on a research paper, check out our research paper video tutorial that guides you through the whole process, from active reading to citation to integrating sources into your writing. 

If you don’t see what you’re looking for or want help applying what you’ve learned, sign up for an appointment on our online schedule: risd.mywconline.com

And don’t miss these other resources RISD staff have created to support you this semester: 

Remote Tutoring Available this Spring

In keeping with RISD’s virus-preventative shift to remote learning this Spring, A&L’s physical doors will be closed for tutoring starting March 15, but student tutors and professional staff will continue to offer tutoring via Zoom conferencing throughout the Spring. Until March 30, please e-mail us at artsandlanguage@risd.edu to make an appointment. Starting on March 30, click on “Make an Appointment.”

In her 2013 book The Faraway Nearby, essayist Rebecca Solnit portrays the deep roots and value of writing and storytelling in helping us make sense of our lives. She drew her title from a phrase in a letter Georgia O’Keeffe wrote when she’d moved from New York to New Mexico. As this public health emergency sends many of us from RISD in different directions for a while, A&L hopes to be a place for storytelling and solace, a “faraway nearby” that eases our temporary separation.

It Was a Dark and Cozy Night

v.1 (volume-1.org) kept Wintersession cozy with a mid-January reading from the Fall issue, along with a special performance by Glory West and assorted fondues. v.1’s Wintersession issue, a riso-printed “interlude,” will be out any day now …

Asher White opens the ceremonies with a reading from v.1’s letter from the editors.

Asher White opens the ceremonies with a reading from v.1’s letter from the editors.

Glory awaits.

Glory awaits.

Glory pulls us in and doesn’t let us go.

Glory pulls us in and doesn’t let us go.

Angela Lobel reads from Ali Dipp’s “Smooth Stones.”

Angela Lobel reads from Ali Dipp’s “Smooth Stones.”

Tiger Dingsun reads from “Ballast” …

Tiger Dingsun reads from “Ballast” …

While the gathered read along.

While the gathered read along.

And yes, there really was fondue …

And yes, there really was fondue …