TO THE CLASS OF 2021

Long-distance relationships are hard to maintain
and long days on zoom can drive you insane.

Some got up for class at ungodly hours,
in t-shirts, no shoes, and sometimes no trousers.

Who cares? You never see below anyone’s waist
in our tiny rectangles, we’ve all been encased.

So what is phenomenal, what needs to be cheered
is the quality of the work you produced this year…

Plus the generosity and kindness you showed to your mates
Showing up to help, dance and make virtual dates.

A frightening time (still) in our world all askew…
But now is the time to celebrate something joyful: YOU!

We’ve huddled together in our own thesis classes
Some sessions jam-packed, some slow as molasses

(that’s true every year)

I wish I had jewels, champagne and food from the gods,
But all I can offer is praise to you in your own thesis pods.

Sit down, take a breath, I will call you by name:
Name, Helen, Ashwita, Gil and the Nicoles C&G,
Sun,Tirta, Sherry, Themis,Youngkun, Hanyi
Fanyi,Hyunseo,Tianxi, Leo, AlvaroHelen, Monni..
here’s to your brightest tomorrow.
Thanks August and Vero, and Kathleen (always the best)
They’ve guided you from vague musings to thesis success.

Now to the class led by Kat, your thesis advisor
with help from YG and Nun, you’re all so much wiser

Elena, Erik, Emma, Emily--so many E’s!
Fernando, Palaumi,Christina, Melissa, Abby Lee

Stacy,Sylvan, Beste, Daniel, Nailah, and (at last) Ryan Grippi
You made it! You’re done! Hurray! Woo-hoo! Yippee!

Stefani and Ashley say you all are industrious, sublime
Which is lucky for me, ‘cause it’s easy to rhyme.

Dylan, Douglas, Neta,Ahmad and Ji
Noah,Jan, Sarah, and Tundi,

Oliver-Rose, Sydney and Erkin
It’s easy to tell how hard you’ve been workin’

And finally, cheers to Wei and Cezar--
Impressed by how wonderful--no sublime, you all are.

Ahoy! there all in Oceans 15
Captained by Sarah and her resident team,

Gabriella and Rashida also on board
For Filmon, Zoe, Julian and Sammy Sords,

Daniel, Mary Ann, Max and Aditya
Last, not least: Na, Lu, Jason and Rita.

Now to Zoe’s class with resident Raaziq
You finished up well, did fine in critiques.

A class of deep-deep thinker-ers
Who also turned to be mighty fine tinkerers.

Hurrah for Vanessa, Russell, Rachel, Zack Lee
Kevin Lee, Vibert, Will and Mary Notari,

To you-Bilal, Jason, and Martin Martin..
For working, while studying, here’s to Yen Chen

Michael’s’ so far away and completely unmasked
Live and in person, we envy this class.

BenBen, Sheng, Lanni, Ge,and Tianyu
Siyuan, Sylvia, Rebecca, this tribute’s for you.

Residents,Guillermo and Billy, and advisor Luisa Pereira
Helped you to the finish line without a minute to spare-a

Dawn, Ben, Nikhil, Mark, KJ...who should come next?
Lynne, Noah, Ruixan, Cy Kim and Cy X

Juli, Dina, Shannel and Simone
Patrick, Elizabeth,Pippa--how you all shone!

Now to my own class, teaching you has been a singular pleasure
With all of the drawbacks, my last year and one I’ll treasure…

And Kudos, but first I just wanna
Give three cheers to Arnab and Dana

Who not only gave to this class, but thesis week, the archive,
the design lab, the shop, helped us all thrive.

Our group at first was all over the place..
But all the projects came through with your skills and your grace
I learned so much from you --these two long semesters
And feel so close, though we were all sequestered.
Thank you Sohaila, Katie, Nick and Lizzy
Your creativity and smarts leave me quite dizzy
And Jake, Danqi, Youngmin and Wen
Schuyler, Nok, Rae, Tina...wish we could do all over again

(just kidding)

Pablo, Yiting, Zeyao, Aidan...look what you did
And Sue fomented a rebellion of local Caryatids.

Have patience,don’t scurry, I’m not done rhyming quite yet
Thanks to the staff and faculty whom we all owe a big debt
Dante, Paul,Blair, and George and Midori: they keep the place running
Scott, Lenin, Yen,Ben, Marlon,Rob: they keep the tech humming
And then there’s the guy watches over us all--from macro to nano
He teaches! He Chairs! Goes to meetings! I’m talkin’ about Dano!
Thanks for your leadership, your friendship, your pacing, your giggles.
Your super short emails, generosity, bad spelling, and illegible scribbles.

To all of the faculty, my colleagues, from your number one fan:
Gabe, Matt, Allison, Mimi, David, Danny, Dan,Marianne
Sarah and Luisa, my heroes, I fall to my knees
For constant juggling spreadsheets these last few weeks.
Sometimes Luke,Sometimes Clay, Pedro, Ari and Shawn
and Tom (I am the one who still laughs at most of your puns)

I’ve loved working with you.. You always inspire
But now, I’ll take my leave, it’s time to retire.

Now, Everyone, one more thing, and then we’re done.
Everyone….
Three cheers for the class of 2021!

ABOUT ITP & THESIS

ITP is a two-year graduate program located in the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University whose mission is to explore the imaginative uses of media and technology — how they might augment, improve and bring delight and art into people’s lives. Perhaps the best way to describe us is a Center for the Recently Possible.

The ITP Thesis is taught as a class during the second year of the two-year period. It is the one class in which students work individually (i.e. not part of a team) and develop a project or their own choosing from concept to a proof-of-concept prototype.

The goal of an ITP education is that students leave here with the tools to do whatvever they want to do. Those tools include: knowing how to find out what they don’t know; to be ready for change, anticipate it; a willingness to experiment, fail, try again, etc; how to take an idea and make it real; to find their own strengths and deepen them; to follow your passions and trust their gut.

The faculty needs to see evidence both of mastery of these tools or qualities and of specific skills they have learned in their two years in the program.

ABOUT THE THESIS ARCHIVE

The Thesis Archive is a place for graduate students of ITP to showcase their projects. This years site was designed by Ilana Bonder with additional Lettering by Dana Elkis, and built by Lenin Compres and based off of a previous version by Dan Oved and Yang Yang, with production support by Zack Kampf and backend support by Yen-An Chen.

THESIS ADVISORS

Nancy Hechinger
Sarah Rothberg
Kathleen Wilson
Michael Naimark
Zoe Fraade-Blanar
Stefani Bardin
Luisa Pereira
Allison Parris
Kat Sullivan

FULL-TIME FACULTY

Gabriel Barcia-Colombo
Katherine Dillon
Luke DuBois
Nancy Hechinger
Tom Igoe
Dan O'Sullivan
Mimi Onuoha
Allison Parrish
Luisa Pereira
Marianne Petit
Craig Protzel
David Rios
Daniel Rozin
Daniel Shiffman
Clay Shirky
Shawn Van Every
Mimi Yin