Erik Adigard is the Katherine Edwards Gordon Rome Prize Winner in Design, the founder and designer of M-A-D, and a lecturer at the California College of the Arts.
What part of the United States did you come from?
I am based in the San Francisco Bay Area. I live in Sausalito and my studio is in Berkeley.
Why did you apply for the Rome Prize?
The Academy is the best place to pursue the sort of cross disciplinary research that I am interested in and that has not enough place in the design industry. Furthermore, my iconography and urban concerns made Rome a perfect subject and setting.
Describe a particularly inspiring moment or location you’ve experienced in Rome thus far.
Nothing compares to the marvels one can contemplate in Rome, but this year I would say that I have been most inspired by many conversations with other Rome Prize Fellows over dinner. The long table, outside in the cortile further contributed to the experience.
To what extent, if any, has your proposed project changed since your arrival?
My project continues to be focused on the new nature of “image” as it can be expressed through a prism ranging mostly from ancient Rome to the Renaissance. However, since my arrival at the Academy, the perspectives and expertise of the other Fellows has influenced my project, which is continually evolving and in some ways “sprawling.”
Have you had any “eureka!” moments or unanticipated breakthroughs in the course of your work here?
Every other day is met with some form of “eureka!” These are typically coming from conversations or from the shoptalks, which I call “stalks” since I attend all of them. Each one of our walks, has also been very inspiring.
What aspect of your project are you most looking forward to?
My main project is quite tedious and tricky to resolve so I do look forward to the moment when my research has found an expression that is at once relevant and innovative. I am confident that I will conceive of a good approach around the new year. With my secondary projects, which are installations undertaken at the Academy, my favorite aspect is the ideation and planning phase.
What part of your main project has been or do you anticipate will be the most challenging?
The research phase itself is more complex than anticipated, and the conceptual planning requires simultaneous consideration of heterogeneous and often conflicting information and perspectives. A key challenge is to simplify and clarify the outcome.
What’s surprised you most about living in Rome?
I am as convinced as ever that Rome is the ultimate image city, but I now can better appreciate the complex fabric of people, spaces, things, and temporalities that are making Rome such a unique and sensorial capital. It is small enough to walk through and yet monumental, which provides for seemingly infinite discoveries. The buried and decaying part of Rome is another aspect than continues to inspire me. It is perhaps the only city where one is aware that what is seen on the surface echoes still buried wonders.
How have you managed the balance between your work (time in the studio/study) and engagement with Rome and Italy (travel, sightseeing, interactions with locals)?
I see my Fellowship as a unique opportunity to collaborate with experts in other disciplines than mine, and therefore do admit to spending too much time within AAR walls, typically working long days alone or with other Fellows. Luckily that is balanced by specific walks, and I do intend to further explore the city in the months to come.
How do you anticipate your Rome Prize Fellowship will influence future work?
Predictably, this fellowship will turn into one of the high points of my career and surely will be a tough act to follow, and that is why I took on a project that can be scaled into the future. In that sense, my Fellowship will continue in some way.
What is your favorite spot at the Academy? Or in Rome?
A quick answer would be our fourth-floor terrace from which one can admire the density of Rome with its countless domes and monuments. But from a Fellow’s perspective, the Academy and Rome are symbiotic. All aspects of the Academy, with its library, cortile, garden, kitchen, and Villa Aurelia are exceptional, and Bernini’s Santa Teresa Extase extends to every corner of the city.