The 2026/2027 Friction Series

In Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing’s ethnographic framework, friction is not merely a force to be overcome; it is the essential "awkward, unequal, unstable, and creative qualities" of interconnection. Friction is what makes global connections--and by extension, creative breakthroughs--actually happen. It is the grit that allows for movement.

When we view creative practice through this lens, we see that friction is not a design flaw to be smoothed away, but a generative condition. While it is tempting to seek the ease of frictionless systems, many artists and designers intentionally construct discomfort. They reject the palatable and the predictable, utilizing the very real, clashing realities of materials, concepts, and cultures to generate momentum.

What is lost when we prioritize the elimination of friction over the development of the capacity to engage with it? When we outsource our discomfort--avoiding the friction of a quiet line, the unpredictability of a stranger’s voice, or the labor of verification--we risk weakening the "sticky" connections that allow us to inhabit a complex world. Yet, this is a delicate balance; creative practice is not a state of perpetual agitation, but the cultivation of the strength to sit within that tension and hold opposing ideas simultaneously. It is a commitment to the ongoing, often strenuous labor of engagement.

Throughout the upcoming academic year, RMCAD’s Friction Series will explore these dynamics. By investigating the "hot spots" of creative collision across the VASD Program, the Annual Student Symposium, the RMCAD Galleries, the Fashion Showcase, and the Frames n’ Games Annual Animation and Game Art Festival, we invite our community to examine how these necessary encounters produce the unexpected, the transformative, and the new.