dr

Daytime view, no illumination. Permanent installation at the Fascitelli Center for Advanced Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island Commissioned by the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts and University of Rhode Island Light Pressure is a visual narrative that conflates mechanical, electrical, and optical phenomena, specifically blending pressure and fluid dynamics with the visuality of collimated light and force fields. Traveling down the corridor, a gestural vortex gives way to a linear flow of light encircled with curving glass and planar sheets, referencing magnetic fields, turbine blades, and supercavitation. Light Pressure is created with suspended glass rods and curved canes. The rhythmic layers of glass create varying areas of density and sparsity to form an energetic, gently curving beam as the lens-like ends catch and bend light. Light Pressure is a site specific work, appearing differently depending on the audience’s viewpoint and time of day. Hand made from clear glass with embedded mica flakes to reflect and refract light, Light Pressure is semi-transparent and sparkling. In this way, Light Pressure is a shifting spectacle, while also receding into the architecture to become almost invisible. At night the sculpture comes alive with dynamic custom lighting. Local tide and temperature data forms a basis of the machine-learning program, creating pulsing, sweeping, and spiraling patterns of shifting chroma and luminosity across the 1600 dimensionally mapped LEDs. This light is reflected off the interior glass wall and exterior curtain wall, creating an immersive feeling of deep waves and sparkling current as light pulses travel along the length of the sculpture.

Nighttime view, illuminated. Permanent installation at the Fascitelli Center for Advanced Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island Commissioned by the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts and University of Rhode Island Light Pressure is a visual narrative that conflates mechanical, electrical, and optical phenomena, specifically blending pressure and fluid dynamics with the visuality of collimated light and force fields. Traveling down the corridor, a gestural vortex gives way to a linear flow of light encircled with curving glass and planar sheets, referencing magnetic fields, turbine blades, and supercavitation. Light Pressure is created with suspended glass rods and curved canes. The rhythmic layers of glass create varying areas of density and sparsity to form an energetic, gently curving beam as the lens-like ends catch and bend light. Light Pressure is a site specific work, appearing differently depending on the audience’s viewpoint and time of day. Hand made from clear glass with embedded mica flakes to reflect and refract light, Light Pressure is semi-transparent and sparkling. In this way, Light Pressure is a shifting spectacle, while also receding into the architecture to become almost invisible. At night the sculpture comes alive with dynamic custom lighting. Local tide and temperature data forms a basis of the machine-learning program, creating pulsing, sweeping, and spiraling patterns of shifting chroma and luminosity across the 1600 dimensionally mapped LEDs. This light is reflected off the interior glass wall and exterior curtain wall, creating an immersive feeling of deep waves and sparkling current as light pulses travel along the length of the sculpture.

Night Image, Illuminated. West Lounge. Fascitelli Center for Advanced Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island Commissioned by the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts and University of Rhode Island Our site-specific sculptures, Droplets, investigate the elaborate forms and mass of nanoparticles while considering the atom and quantum mechanics as the driving force in our technology driven world. Droplet will serve both as an inspiration to those in the building, and as a beacon to campus, bridging the arts and humanities with engineering. This work is made of both mold blown and kiln formed glass. The overall shape is a compressed toroid to maximize the double height ceiling in the lounges. The center of the sphere is made of mold blown lensed diamond shapes, while the outermost rings are made of waterjet cut and kiln formed glass trusses. In both the blown and kiln formed objects, we designed and made custom molds with the aid of 3D printing and traditional processes. The form and techniques used relate to the material engineering of nanostructures, where traditional truss structures are employed in increasingly complex ways. The visible texture of the glass reveals the ways in which they were made, giving viewers access to the making process, while also providing a surface to refract light. During the day, the glass is translucent, catching light, while at night, the sculpture comes alive with dynamic light inspired by quantum entanglement and electron spin. With each piece of glass being its own light node, the trusses will seem as if they are spinning around the core of diamond lanterns. The three Droplets in the lounges and Bliss Hall being are connected together through the void of space, with the multithreaded lighting program creating visual dialog among the three pieces.

Off the Rails is informed by the political state of our contemporary landscape and ecology. Rather than realizing a utopia, I’m considering what author Kim Stanley Robinson calls an optopia, an optimal place based on the best possible outcome given the current environmental conditions. Instead of seeing only devastation in the Anthropocene, we see possibility and aesthetic opportunity, especially in connection with landscapes of carbon-neutrality. Doing so is part of our role in reinventing the social space of our global environment. Our landscape is emblazoned with abandoned buildings and crumbling infrastructure, monuments to our approach to spatial development. We visualized a new structural approach to building tall forms with an inherently fragile material. This work is an uneasy negotiation with gravity. Off the Rails is a rollercoaster based on our ongoing obsessions: wooden lattices and truss systems, entropy, and installation sculpture. The illuminated flashiness of carnival lights draw us in towards the horror of impossibly banked turns and a broken, failing track. The candy-like, gold ruby twisty cane is informed by gilded decadence, while the broken track considers a deserted amusement park, where economic imperatives have made disinvestment more profitable than maintenance. The crumbling infrastructure correlates to a vision of our current political landscape, where compassion and forward thinking has been abandoned for greed and isolationism. Crows are scavenging broken pieces of glass, and flying towards an unknown future. It is a frightening ride going off the rails.

Permanent Installation, Visitor Center, Baltimore Harbor, MD Sea Grass is comprised of two main elements informed by the historic tall ships of the Baltimore Harbor: a steel armature, and kiln formed float glass. Suspended from the exposed ceiling beams, the curving steel armature and glass mimic the organic gestures of coastal eel grass as they move in the tides. These aquatic grasses allow for the abundance of life in the coastal waters. Always in motion, the glass moves with subtle air currents and reflects light upon the ceiling in dynamic displays during the day. At night, the Visitor Center is illuminated with a dynamic light show, Making Waves. Sub-aquatic vegetation can be found in the shallow intertidal waters and is a critical part of a healthy Bay ecosystem. A healthy Chesapeake and Inner Harbor vibrant with the arts are cultural identifiers and supports a healthy Baltimore community, one that is in a symbiotic relationship with the Harbor. Commissioned by Visit Baltimore.

Virga: Latin meaning ‘rod’, ‘stripe’, ‘branch’. (meteorology) A streak of rain or snow that is dissipated in falling and does not reach the ground, commonly appearing descending from a cloud layer. (music) A type of note used in plainsong notation, having a tail. (measurement) A unit of length: a rod, pole or perch Our site-specific sculpture Virga is inspired by the complex natural phenomenon of light and water vapor and the gestural ridge lines of the Wasatch Range. In meteorology, virga is a shaft of precipitation that falls from a cloud but evaporates before reaching the ground. This observable phenomenon bends light via water particles, appearing as a streak in the sky suggesting rain. At high altitudes the precipitation falls mainly as ice crystals before melting and finally evaporating. Our sculpture aesthetically responds to these clouds that are often visible floating over Utah Valley. Virga is created with 1650 individually suspended rods in the form of elongated rain drops. The rhythmic layers of glass create varying areas of density and sparsity to form an ethereal cloud as the lens-like ends catch and bend light. Virga is a physically dynamic work, appearing differently depending on the audience’s viewpoint. As the viewer shifts position from outside and within the lobby, the droplets seem as if organized in a linear formation from below and present a complex moiré pattern from the sides and the balconies. Virga is a semi-transparent shifting spectacle that transforms with the changing light of the day. During the daylight hours the glass is the dominant material, reflecting the natural light through the windows. In the early morning sunrise and throughout the evening, the programmable and individually controllable LED lighting is most visible, offering another opportunity for visual transformation. Virga’s custom lighting program transforms real time environmental data drawn from high-elevation weather stations. Data points include wind speed and direction, cloud cover, humidity, precipitation, and temperature, among others, that recreate the cloud conditions in light. Each day, the sunrise and sunset are emulated and extended in light throughout the sculpture, connecting the UVU audience to their environment.