Triton Mobley receives a graduate degree in fine arts yesterday. The Rhode Island School of Design held its 125th commencement in a breezy space with a good view on South Water Street next to the Providence River. It granted graduate and undergraduate degrees to 650 students.

The Providence Journal / John Freidah

PROVIDENCE — Laurie Anderson, who was the first and so far the only artist-in-residence at NASA, told graduating Rhode Island School of Design students yesterday that it’s a good time to become an artist.

“I can’t think of a better time to be starting out as an artist,” she said. “There’s a big audience eager to see what you make.”

Technology has brought both better tools and new ways to get art before an audience, she said, “without necessarily going to big corporations and collections.”

Anderson is a multimedia artist — from the pop single “O Superman” to film to drawings, prints and the invention of the “tape-bow violin,” which used recorded magnetic tape on the bow and a tape head on the bridge.

She thought the call from NASA was a joke. “I said, ‘You’re not from NASA.’ ”

But it was NASA, she said, leading to “a very strange gig,” beginning with her asking the agency what it wanted its new artist-in-residence to do. The agency responded by asking her what she thought the job meant.

For inspiration, she went from Mission Control, in Houston, to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in California, to the Hubble Space Telescope headquarters, in Baltimore.

But when she told NASA officials that she was thinking of a poem, “their faces fell.” NASA, she said, was expecting “some sort of sexy techno-project, like lighting up the other side of the moon.”

Her career recommendation for the graduates: multimedia. Then, she said, “You can do anything and no one can tell you, ‘Get back in your category,’ because you don’t have one.”

RISD held its 125th commencement in a breezy space with a good view on South Water Street next to the Providence River, granting graduate and undergraduate degrees to 650 students.

Outgoing President Roger Mandle presided over his 15th and last commencement before taking his new job, executive director of the Qatar Museums in Doha. His replacement, John Maeda, had just a quick word — “Hi, guys” — for the audience.

Mayor David N. Cicilline spoke, making his appreciation of the art school very clear. He credited RISD with having a powerful, positive effect on the city. Having RISD here, he said, is “helping to make Providence once again a center [for] creating innovation.”

Cicilline also invited its graduates to stay on in Providence. He asked them to “share your brilliance right here in Providence” and to “remain in Providence and build lives and careers in our community.”

RISD graduates tend to add creativity and visual interest to the inevitable cap and gown. Yesterday, that ranged from decorating caps with flowers, sculpture, feathers and beads to discarding the cap and gown entirely.

An architecture student graduated with a multistory structure on his cap, and another graduate received her degree dressed mostly in clear plastic.

Nicholas Holcomb got his degree in sculpture, which in his case includes electric guitars in wood and metal. He said he also worked for Ten31 Productions, a creative group, on gargoyles for WaterFire.

His message for the day, however, was delivered in rows and rows of buttons supporting members of the technical staff at RISD, who want better pay and, in Holcomb’s experience working with them, deserve it.

Graduates’ families came from near and far, sometimes very far.

Ken Gilbert, a marketing and research consultant in Stamford, Conn., and his wife, Doreen, couldn’t have been happier.

Their son, Miles, received a degree with honors in graphic design. “We’re thrilled to death that he chose RISD,” said Doreen Gilbert.

EK Chung, a Korean who runs a Hong Kong trading company dealing in electronics, waited proudly for his daughter, Saena, to receive her degree in textiles. She has had a good time at RISD, he said.

What’s next for her? “I’m not quite sure,” Chung said.

For a list of graduates, go to

www.risd.edu/pdf/xtras/commencement_program.pdf

blandis@projo.com