A new interdisciplinary studio offered in 2007 brought students in several departments together to explore what happens when artists encounter new materials in a collaborative context. For Clay in Context/Wet Space, Digital Space, Assistant Professor of Architecture Hansy Better and Assistant Professor of Ceramics Linda Sormin challenged students to investigate the intersection of their disciplines through the design and construction of an architectural screen built at Harmony Hill School in Chepachet, RI. As students worked in teams to plan the structure and ceramic components of each panel, Better and Sormin encouraged them to give thought to themes such as vulnerability and transformation — concepts that took on extra meaning when the ceramists began working side-by-side with adolescent students from the school.

Harmony Hill is a nonprofit school for boys aged 8 to 18 who are challenged socially, emotionally and behaviorally. Most students come with a history of traumatic experiences and are required by the state to attend the residential school. Daily life for the boys is regulated by tight schedules and strict rules of conduct, so the chance to get their hands into transformative clay processes alongside RISD students signified a refreshing break in the routine. Robin Jaglinski, a graduate student in Art + Design Education, noted that the Harmony Hill students appeared to appreciate the “humanistic element” that the creative opportunity provided; Architecture student Zehra Ahmed noticed that the work had a “relaxing effect” in that it invited the boys to “slow down and observe” the results of their actions.

Despite the special nature of Harmony Hill, Sormin was quick to point out that the project was not intended as community service, but rather as a research opportunity to explore how artists work together and respond to material and conceptual problems. “We are not there in the role of art therapists,” she emphasized. Therapy is already a big part of Harmony Hill students’ lives; in fact, the public space that the screens were built for is a waiting area outside the counselors’ offices. Instead, Sormin explained that RISD participants are “there to experiment, to investigate how this kind of exchange and collaboration can unsettle art practice.”

In examining the results of the collaboration, it becomes clear that everyone involved took the artistic charge seriously. Each panel in the semicircular screen is a cohesive and carefully executed work, successfully integrating structural elements and ceramic components. Describing the process they used, a teenager named Rob explained that he would develop a clay form until he was pleased with it, and then hand it off to another member of the group for further shaping. This vulnerability of the piece — the fact that it would be altered by other hands — illustrates a serendipitous discovery made by the participants: “It helps you get used to change,” he said — a crucial skill in a place characterized by transition and transformation.

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