June 12–25, 2016
Deposit deadline: March 14
Registration deadline: April 8
Domaine de Boisbuchet
Lessac
France
Contributing to the Domaine de Boisbuchet‘s long-standing innovation in design and sustainability, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) collaborates with the site to offer a series of unique, two-week intensives that address the intersections of art, design, sustainability and contemporary approaches to landscape.
RISD brings to Boisbuchet its practice of critical making, in which the hand and mind combine to envision and create objects, experiences and meanings. Addressing the Domaine de Boisbuchet’s role in the exploration of the ongoing making of “nature,” these intensives focus on the historical and social context of the landscape and the potential for utopian futures.
These immersive workshops explore materials, processes, interpretation and making through studio- and land-based practices, interdisciplinary discussions and group critiques.
Credit: Each workshop offers three credits.
Cost: 4,220 USD (includes tuition, meals, shared accommodations, transport from Poitiers to Boisbuchet, lab fees and mandatory insurance)
Space is limited; early registration is encouraged.
Ceramic Sculpture – Atmospheric Firing
Faculty: David Katz
This intensive course delves into the language of clay as a material, exploring the broad range of opportunities imbued in the history and physicality of clay. Embracing tactility and the immediacy of touch inherent in the material, students reflect on their surroundings in this unique setting, while exploring the boundaries of form through personal expression and structural experimentation.
Exploring the Sensory Landscape
Faculty: Suzanne Mathew
This course dives into the deep beauty of Boisbuchet’s natural setting and uses weather instruments to translate the dramatic sensory experience of the environment into a series of sketches, mappings, collages, body-scale drawings and site installations that engage a new level of understanding of the forms and phenomena that animate the landscape.
Nature/Sculpture/Site
Faculty: Bruce Chao
This course initiates a vigorous sculptural exploration of culture by engaging students with nature within a constructed landscape. Using the environment of Boisbuchet as both location and subject, students create site-specific sculptures as part of a series of purposeful and experimental interventions.
From 2D Field Sketch to 3D Interpretive Drawing
Faculty: Daniel Heyman
The rich and varied architecture of Boisbuchet, as well as the villages and countryside of the Poitou-Charentes that have been shaped by 20 centuries of human habitation, serve as inspiration for the large interpretive drawing installations participants create in this course. Students are asked to think about how far one can push the idea of “drawing” into three dimensions, without it becoming a sculpture.
Learn more and register for RISD à Boisbuchet
About Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) has earned an international reputation as the leading college of art and design in the United States. Recently ranked #1 in Business Insider’s survey of “The World’s 25 Best Design Schools,” approximately 2,400 students from around the world study at RISD, pursuing full-time bachelor’s or master’s degree programs in a choice of 19 studio majors. RISD is known for its phenomenal faculty of artists and designers, the breadth of its specialized facilities and its hands-on, studio-based approach to learning—one in which critical thinking informs making works by hand. Through the accomplishments of its 26,000 alumni, the college champions the vital role artists and designers play in satisfying the global demand for innovation. Founded in 1877, RISD (pronounced “RIZ-dee”) and the RISD Museum of Art help make Providence, RI, among the most culturally active and creative cities in the region.
About Boisbuchet
Domaine de Boisbuchet integrates innovative architecture and design into the setting of a 19th-century French estate. The 400-acre cultural institution is home to the Vitra Design Museum and the site of a noted international design conference held each summer.
