iDE
A series of cultural and educational “episodes,” Risk/Dare/Experiment (RiDE) was conceived, created and coordinated by Amir Parsa, currently Director of Interdisciplinary Study in the Office of the Provost, in 2013. The RiDE series featured invited artists, designers, writers and creative practitioners from many different fields, as well as faculty, staff and students across departments and disciplines. Pratt faculty and administrators proposed topics and presenters, then curated and coordinated the individual episodes.
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Risk/Dare/Experiment (RiDE) was:
RiDE: Out
The kind of RiDE this is…
a constellation of collaborations across Pratt’s academic departments and divisions;
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a series of multidisciplinary deep dives into the poetics and ethics of charting new paths;
an ongoing venture to present the mechanisms and the strategies and the desires and the For more on the theoretical foundations, forces that lead one, or a the historical development and the poetics and politics of RiDE, as well as details group, or a school, to and descriptions of individual episodes launch new visions, and and the complete ebook of the RiDE: On catalog, please see: www.pratt.edu/ride. to fashion new forms;
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an ensemble of events, publications or exhibitions, or combinations thereof, showcasing those who challenge and go beyond disciplinary boundaries and perhaps, just maybe, enter the wondrous and dangerous arenas of new disciplines in their infancies;
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an exhilarating place, but a dangerous place too—a space that’s definitely worth exploring and inhabiting…
Audacious ventures
MD: Hi Alan. Could you riff a bit on the topic of risking, daring, experimenting, and possibly, failing? AS: Much of my work deals directly or indirectly with failure: when I’m playing music, for example, I try to use the instrument in an unfamiliar direction. I’m concerned with these moments of teetering, with working at the limits, my own limits of course. Sometimes I do fail; when I’m working in a virtual world, I can find myself repeating earlier work, albeit with a different route; at that point, I scrap the project and start again. It’s at the edge, at the limit, that everything happens. Otherwise, staying in the game space, in the standard corpus of form, what am I doing, except dealing with outdated semantics, the modernisms of standard grammars, where categories like noun and verb are either fixed or negotiated through one or another equally embedded strategy? The toll on me for all of this is personal, is considerable; I constantly move from one mental space to another, I can’t define easily what I do, and I find myself without much of an audience.
But the risk and the daring are always there, not exactly beckoning me; instead I fall into them.
RiDE: Out
Riffing on RiDE
... AP: Alan, you write this very poetic and beautiful sentence: “But the risk and the daring are always there, not exactly beckoning me; instead I fall into them.” Can you elaborate? What We hear and talk very often about ‘daring’ does it mean to “fall and ‘risk’ in creative practice. What does this really mean? Do we have an analytiinto” risk and daring? cal approach to dealing with these terms AS: I literally fall into them. It’s not a beckoning, a calling-forth, it’s a falling; I find myself in mid-air, unbreathing, perhaps a form of swoon? From which there’s no escape, just as there’s no escape from a fall in mid-air.
and concepts? Do we consciously try to create new forms and new paths? Are these manifest in certain processes and operations? Should there be scientific approaches to deciphering the nature of daring? How can we know if a risk or an experiment has actually been successful? How does one generate or live through these concepts and frameworks? The RiDE Riffs invited coordinators/curators and participants to engage in exchanges around the central notion of the RiDE episodes (risk, dare, experiment) using any format. The Riffs allowed an unfettered exploration of the nature of adventurous paths. The following is an excerpt from RiDE 31, an episode that reproduced two RiDE Riffs. It involved Alan Sondheim, Maria Damon and Amir Parsa.
Alan Sondheim is a multiinstrumentalist, media theorist and practitioner, and has been exploring the edges of body art, historical catastrophe and the dissolution of ‘self’—i.e., failure, abjection, trauma—in hypermediated spaces for four decades. He was the invited presenter at RiDE 16, ‘Teetering on the Edge of the Void—Practice Across Media,’ which took place on Nov 19, 2014, and was curated by Maria Damon.
Curricular innovations
of audacious undertakings//
RiDE: Out
RiDE: Out the last
a demonstration of word (last?—yes…) : daring, on RiDE unsettling — given
the horizon of expectations
its adventurous mission —as we did, in the over fifty episodes its formal ambitions and its innovative po-
over five years
etics—
bringing
the last
to the fore the
word (maybe)
exciting (re)search of thinkers, writers, artists, designers, architects, makers of all sorts,
must project
agitators activists fusionists newformists puncturers of illusions
a sense of the necessity
Emerging practices
changing its essence even as it
on campus, off, and at all odd hours of nights and days//
modifying its processes, adjusting and adapting— a chameleon of many hues, and a wide range of abilities a new venture, just like it, inevitably emerges//
so: RiDE: Out— fine, but true to the spirit rethinking the world (continues) reimagining connections (continues) recreating the types of environments spaces universes realms identities languages and ways of seeing making being: carries on// RiDE: Out into… into uncharted territories, into unnamed territories… shape-shifting, multi-formatted,
RiDE: Out
and de lusions…
unfolds—
RiDE: Out meaning: riding out the troubles, riding out the waves of uncertainties and of anxieties—and the actual consequences of risks: riding out the storms… RiDE: Out outside the spaces where research usually takes place... outside environments where creative practice usually happens... into all corners of the world (literally, figuratively), where we don’t expect it// RiDE: Out as in: say your goodbyes, take a bow (or not)—and move: on… How will we RiDE out? Will we, really? RiDE: Out? Is it really ending?
constantly revisiting its own foundations
Adventurous new paths
This from the catalog:
RiDE: Out (The Last RiDE Episode) Two salons & a celebration (+ this supplement) Spring 2018 and September 27, 2018, at 8 PM Student Union Pratt Brooklyn Campus
RiDE: On. The name of the catalog: both celebration and invocation: of a way of living and creating, fearlessly and without pause. An adventurous and simultaneously rigorous commitment to new and exciting thinking and making, while challenging all to see the world differently. The RiDE series was emblematic of this spirit and ethos: an ongoing examination of what it means to dream and to dare. An imperative, a name, and a salutation— to carry on and be well. RiDE: On. And the truth is… It never ends. It cannot end. Under one guise or another, the tireless attempt to fashion new understandings of the world and ourselves, new visions of the world and ourselves, lo, new worlds and new selves, carries on.
So… The last— Word— On— RiDE, is: … Always again… And now too… Always again, one shout left—same as always— Shout out to all RiDE: Out is composed of two salons, a celebration and this supplement. Shout out always RiDE: Out, RiDE: On RiDE: Out, RiDE: On (Come on, Everybody with me now—) RiDE: Out = (?) RiDE: On RiDE: Out = (?!) RiDE: On … Again and always, RiDE: Out,
Maybe there is no last word—? Or else… Redux? (RiDE Redux is already around the corner, after all…)
RiDE: Out
We had actually anticipated what that might mean. How it’s not really ever over. How our ‘out,’ is another opportunity to reframe and reformulate.
RiDE: On//
During the salons, held in the spring of 2018, participating faculty and staff reflected on the themes of RiDE, interdisciplinary manifestations on larger scales and the opportunities and challenges ahead for cross-departmental and neodisciplinary creative practice at Pratt. Discussions revolved around the theoretical foundations of the RiDE series and going beyond—towards the mission of Fuse, a Nexus for Interdisciplinary and Individualized Learning. And the Celebration: Inviting all RiDE curators, coordinators and participants— that is, all Fellow RiDErs—to a gathering in the recently restored Student Union, featuring food, drink and revelry. The RiDE: Out celebration follows an evening organized by Pratt Presents and the Office of Public Programs. There, renowned artist Laurie Anderson was joined by Holland Cotter, chief art critic for The New York Times, for a conversation about her life and work and the ways in which her career has embodied the themes of risk, dare and experimentation—the core of the RiDE ethos.
Amir Parsa
Risk
Numbers
Takeaways “I think your RiDE series is marvelous. Something magical happened with your Pratt students when I was working with them, but then again maybe that’s normal around your campus. Applause. Applause.” —Lynne Sachs
(Academic Years: 2013/14–2017/18)
(intersectional offerings across many departments and divisions) (all RiDE participants are Fellow RiDErs)
5 51 Over 300 More than 15
“The value I associate with the RiDE platform was an opportunity to Overall, there was an overwhelmingly positive response to the possibilities experiment in an open-ended way. RiDE provided curators, coordinators, Working with Analia and Eduardo gave faculty, guests and departments. The series provided funding for research, me a chance to not only work with new explorations, works in progress and and get to know colleagues in other dedaring concepts, all presented through innovative formats. Artists and participartments, but also to see myself pants found in the framework a liberatand my own work differently. Being ing opportunity to present their work in unique and unexpected ways. given the freedom to set the agenda encouraged all of us to go beyond our comfort zones, break our habits and run the risk of failure.” Lynne Sachs makes films, videos, installations and web projects that —Alex Schweder explore the intricate relationship between personal observations and broader historical experiences by weaving together poetry, collage, painting, politics and layered sound design. Her films have screened all over the world. Lynne was the main presenter at RiDE 5, ‘Taking a Documentary Detour,’ which took place Mar 11, 2014.
More than 11 (12 + curators/coordinators who were involved in more than one episode)
60 + 1
(Fine Arts)
(The Dead Poet on Amsterdam Ave in Manhattan; Urban Vintage on Grand Ave in Brooklyn)
17 2
(2014/15)
17
(LOL)
Lots
(+ ‘RiDE Degree Zero—In Lieu of a Manifesto,’ which is the title of the introduction. Make sure you read it at www.pratt.edu/ride.)
5 1
years
episodes
Fellow RiDErs
departments and divisions involved
outside organizations that participated in episodes curators/coordinators
time a planned episode had to be rescheduled highest number of episodes any one department was involved in (solo and in collaboration) favored spots where catalog was edited and revised most episodes in an academic year (Sep-June) times the word ‘adventure’ or ‘experiment’ or ‘risk’ or ‘dare’ is found in book episodes with a number in the title
book
Alex Schweder is an artist, designer and a Visiting Associate Professor at Pratt. He was one of the three faculty members who participated in RiDE 3, ‘Risky Discourse— A Ménage à Trois,’ which took place Feb 25, 2014.
Dare
RiDE2 (again) RiDE episodes brought various processes related to artistic, intellectual and design practices into a visible arena, while illustrating the unforeseen outcomes of experimentation—ventures that open up new paths, abandoned projects that lead to new insights, risks that inspire adventurous ideas and actions. As museums curate their collections, so too, we endeavored to curate what it is that we do: curriculum design, teaching, learning and always innovating within that mission. And so: curating a slice of that curricular universe: the innovations and foundations at the beginning. Where they are born… RiDE, in effect, curated potentiality in curricular design. Or rather: curated works and endeavors born of the adventurous spirit and theoretical beginnings of what can lead to curricular design. That is our permanent collection: the works of the artists and thinkers and creatives that lead to new curricula, new fields, new domains of thinking and making. These episodes dared to reveal the processes at work behind the scenes. Projects that took unexpected turns. Works that ended up looking nothing like their creator thought they would!
They dared to reveal the struggles and challenges that prompted the detours, and generated the new visions, and led to the new works. They inspired and instigated curricular innovations while bringing to light emerging practices and new disciplinary formations. They were experimental themselves, modeling, in their own forms and manner of unfolding, the Form-shifting, multi-pronged, constantly spirit of daring. revisiting its own structure: RiDE itself— They aimed to provoke and inspire, to challenge and present alternative and innovative paths.
the entire suite of episodes—was yet another RiDE episode. Always in reflective mode, recognizing that the entire venture itself—the fashioning and implementation of the RiDE episodes as a whole— was indeed an undertaking full of risk and daring. What else but a RiDE…
They were free to be bold. And dared to inspire all to also be bold. In effect, all of RiDE was a demonstration of daring. All of RiDE was a tribute to the thirst for radical ideas that take us into uncharted territories, into unnamed territories.
For queries or comments, or more information on RiDE, please email Amir Parsa at aparsa@pratt.edu. If you’d like to riff on the central thematics of RiDE, don’t hesitate—and email it to aparsa@pratt.edu. We might be able to find a place for it. www.pratt.edu/ride
All of RiDE was a RiDE episode.
Experiment