RHETT RUSSO

Dunejar II is a cylindrical vessel composed from the convex and concave features that are unique to the cascade-like qualities of sand dunes. The boundaries and edges of the jar conflate the sand like qualities of the dunes into an illuminated optical landscape. The surface of the jar is traversed with the meandering pathways of electrical circuits and dashboards. The razor thinness of the peaks and valleys allow light to penetrate the surface giving the edges and deep recesses their glow. Cast from translucent porcelain the interior is illuminated using LED lights to allow the jar to diffuse and reflect light into intricate and unexpected patterns. Each piece is slipcast and pierced to produce unique openings for light to escape. Amber, Green and Blue light are emitted from the openings while red light is absorbed by the porcelain. This mixture of light results in an unusual blending of light on the glazed surface of the jar. The slipcasting and plaster mold making was completed at the European Ceramic workcenter in 2018.

Dunejar I is a cylindrical vessel composed from the convex and concave features that are unique to the cascade-like qualities of sand dunes. The boundaries and edges of the jar conflate the sand like qualities of the dunes into an illuminated optical landscape. The razor thinness of the peaks and valleys allow light to penetrate the surface giving the edges and deep recesses their glow. Cast from translucent porcelain the interior is illuminated using LED lights to allow the jar to diffuse and reflect light into intricate and unexpected patterns. Each piece is slipcast and pierced to produce unique openings for light to escape. Amber, Green and Blue light are emitted from the openings while red light is absorbed by the porcelain. This mixture of light results in an unusual blending of light on the glazed surface of the jar. The slipcasting and plaster mold making was completed at the European Ceramic workcenter in 2018.

Architectural ornamentation can soften the way a space sounds. The Neoclassic Musikverein, in Vienna Austria, constructed in 1870 by von Hansen, is world renowned for its acoustics. The architectural finishes and statuary produce a unique diffusivity unlike any other place in the world.

This project involves the fabrication and testing of specially designed acoustical ceramic units to improve the acoustical quality of public space. Applications range from exterior public spaces to concert hall settings. The research focuses on evaluating how variations in the tile morphology can diffuse and scatter sound using a specially designed rough ceramic surface. The surfaces are developed using a computational sandpile model.

The tiles have been designed not as discrete elements but as equal parts in the design of an integrated architectural solution. This includes the unitary design of the walls ceilings soffits and lighting elements. The acoustical properties of the ceramic surfaces are scale specific and they cannot be scaled down without a loss in surface fidelity. It is generally accepted by acousticians that the complexity and intricacy of the surface morphology cannot be fully calculated computationally. In order to fully investigate the acoustical properties of the surface a matrix of full scale 40” diameter ‘samples’ have been developed to obtain the scattering coefficients of the material.

Museum of Underwater Antiquities (MoUA) is a competition proposal in Piraeus Greece focused on the adaptation of an existing concrete cereal silo into a museum for underwater Artifacts. The collection consists of artifacts that have been lost at sea for centuries. The design strategy converts the 100, 16 square meter by 26 meter deep, storage cells into exhibition spaces. Each cell of the silo is experienced differently. The cells have been modified by removing concrete to represent three features of the ocean: valleys, (for exhibition) islands, (for multimedia) and uplifts (for conservation). The valleys can be explored at the lowest level, the islands are situated at the top level of the cells, and contain multimedia features. The uplifts allow the visitor to experience the artifacts being conserved in a wet environment. No columnar points of support have been removed. The principal galleries are located on top of the silo, which operates as a sea floor, with the exhibition of artifacts clustered together in a large shallow pool.

Dumpling is a ceramic piece, the first in a series of translucent porcelain jars - Dunejars - that are designed to be illuminated from within. Dunejars are cylindrical vessels composed from the convex and concave features that are unique to the cascade-like qualities of sand dunes. In Dumpling, the convex and concave features of the jars utilize the cascade-like qualities of sand dunes to filter light into optical landscapes. The slipcasting and plaster mold making was completed at the European Ceramic workcenter in 2018.

The industrialized, abstract, notion of making, that is usually a tightly controlled top-down process, can be transformed by the strangeness of matter. The design of the heap tiles emerged from an interest in the complex behavior of sand. The amorphous nature of granular materials makes them ideal for forming applications. In this regard sand casting and 3d printing are similar processes that have been developed to fabricate complex objects. Historically, the ceramic process is comprised of many techniques, but at the industrial scale it has traditionally relied on mold making as a means to mass produce components. More sustainable fabrication techniques such as sintering can be used to eliminate the need for molds, tooling or the use of inorganic materials in the fabrication process.

The ceramic sintering technique used to make the tiles eliminates the need for water by forming dry bonds at high temperature. The secret to success lies in the material itself. Commercial porcelain is an engineered material. It consists of dry, spherical pellets roughly .5mm in diameter and it can be made from porcelain clay or recycled china. Unlike dry clay which behaves like powder, heaps of porcelain grains behave like fluids that take the shape of their containers. With the aid of gravity, a simple, two-dimensional plate pierced with holes can channel millions of individual grains into a self-organized network of ridges and valleys. The same pattern of holes will consistently produce the same network. If holes are eliminated or redistributed a new formation will result, providing a simple way to make unique components.

The design of the T-stool originates from an interest in the traditional Chinese ceramic tea stool. These stools are based upon a hollow vessel, often cylindrical in form, which is strong in compression. Alternatively, the T-Stool’s stability originates from the plasticity of a folded convex surface and its transformation into a hollow ceramic shell, approximately 1.5 cm thick (100 cm l. x 60 cm h. x 70 cm w.). While it is strong in compression the folded surface introduces stresses that are typically avoided when working with ceramic due to its low tensile strength.

A special clay recipe was developed in response to these characteristics. The high degree of surface curvature provides additional strength during firing and each fold creates opportunities for complex reflections. The use of metallic luster and the crackle patterns that develop in response to the surface stresses between the clay and the glaze, provide each stool with its specificity. 

A two part mold was designed to allow the clay to be pressed into the form. A 3 mm rubber membrane was constructed over the entire surface to insure its release from the mold. The mold has been used to produce three unique versions of the T-Stool. The use of rubber molds with ceramics is a recent development due to the fact that the rubber impedes the clays ability to cure. Once a layer of clay is pressed inside the mold to the desired thickness, the mold is removed, piece by piece, over several days.

Circuitjar I is a large cylindrical vessel composed from the convex and concave features that are unique to the cascade-like qualities of sand dunes. The boundaries and edges of the jars conflate the sand like qualities of the dunes into an illuminated optical landscape. The surface of the jar is traversed with the meandering pathways of electrical circuits and dashboards. The razor thinness of the peaks and valleys allow light to penetrate the surface giving the edges and deep recesses their glow. The slipcasting and plaster mold making was completed at the European Ceramic workcenter in 2018.

Inspired by an interest in revealing the hidden instrumentation networks of auto dashboards, the Circuitjar series focus on the sintering of printed circuits onto the surface of translucent porcelain using metallic inks. The patterns of the inks are designed to fit the convex and concave morphology of the jar. The jars have been designed for slipcasting to insure that the porcelain can be cast as thin as possible and to preserve the edge details.

These prototypes involve the production of a variety of ceramic jars that employ three unique properties of ceramics, the translucency of glasslike, vitreous, porcelain, and bone china; the design of a ceramic object which transmits light through the thin edges and veining of the porcelain; the testing of methods to adhere metallic inks to print functional circuits onto a non-porous surface; the attunement of a circuit that connects sensors on the inside and outside the jar to the local environment.

Flabella is furniture prototype employing press molding into rubber molds. It involves the use of clay parts, at the scale of furniture and involved the fabrication and joining of multiple, hollow structural shapes using a ceramic press molding technique. This was achieved through the use of rubber molds and the seaming together of the wet clay components. Flabella is designed to emphasize the weight of the material, its deformation as a body and the anatomy of the surface.

The design of the piece is the result of buckling or forcing a plastic surface into strange curvatures. It is through this relationship with the materials that traditional ideas of mass production can be extended using ceramic. With the aid of the 3D scanner we are able to refine our physical models and further develop the surface in relation to the constraints of the fabrication process. 

There are four primary aspects of this work, 1. The adoption of the ceramic process as a means to develop intricacy, in particular, techniques that have been developed by artisans, and metal-smiths that can be intensified with digital tools. 2. The deployment of a plastic membrane as a computational mechanism for generating nuanced form and the production of feedback that operates independently from the digital environment, 3. The use of digital tools for formal refinement and optimization, 4. The development of a design process ‘From Technique to Product’ that involves the orchestration of disparate tools, often from separate industries into new workflows and new products.

Three morphological families, consisting of three hexagonal tiles each, were tested for their ability to scatter and diffuse sound. Ten sample surfaces were produced, each one containing identical tiles. The tenth surface consists of identical flat tiles that served as a control surface. One advantage of the surface morphology is its ability to diffuse sound hemispherically. The general design strategy was to see if multiple frequencies could be diffused by a single tile rather than assigning individual frequencies to individual tiles. Each family is designed to include a range of amplitudes and depths that can be compared in order to help identify which frequencies of sound are diffused. Since this phase of tests is focused on the scattering of the sound the holes were closed to eliminate absorption. The term attractor was adopted due its behavior in the construction of the Python script as a means to replicate the dispersal of the grains during the analog process. The shape of the attractor in each family is either a circle or an oval.

Moraine is a 650,000 stitch, thirteen color, digital embroidery that was commissioned by WORKshop Gallery in Toronto, for the exhibition Suzhou Fast Forward. It is a response to the hand-made silk embroideries of the Suzhou school revisited through the use of digital embroidery. The techniques used were inspired by the painterly methods of the Suzhou embroiderers and their depictions of nature using dyed threads. The level of intricacy produced by the Suzhou embroiderers’ is impossible to match. As a counterpoint the design objective was to develop an alternative form of intricacy by interfering with the digital process.

 The digital transformation of contemporary embroidery parallels recent developments in architecture and industrial design which are increasingly employing automated fabrication processes. Rather than accept the neutralizing effects of these tools our work seeks to integrate a wide range of digital and analog methods to reconstitute the questions of craft and variability. Computation offers a form of control that is numeric rather than manual, and this makes it possible to revisit the themes and techniques of the Suzhou school where the intricacies of nature inspire new stitches and a wide range of fluid effects.

Embroidery is inherently coded, tonal from afar and impressionistic at close range. The haptic dimension of the thread, its layering, directionality and reflectivity make it a dynamic medium, deeper than a drawing and shallower than a space, but well suited to constructing a landscape. Moraine, is inspired by the optical effects that are unique to the continuous flow and modulated surface of glacial formations. The canvas is a synthesis of waterborne ink and computer scripting. The components of time, movement and morphology are integral elements of the glacial ecology and more generally are indispensable to our contemporary understanding of nature and the duplicitous character of matter, observed up close and from afar.

The Orbigraphia are topologically folded animals that have been developed through the folding, rotation and symmetrical buckling of two dimensional paper cutouts to produce 3d dimensional structures. To produce the drawings, each species was modeled and developed as drawing using as a series of 2 dimensional slices that are oriented in space to multiple viewpoints. The drawings and full essay, Orbigraphia, can be found in Via: Dirt, Vol. 2, published by Penn Design in 2012.

This project is a proposal for a new Information and Visitor Center to be located within walking distance of Northern Ireland’s most famous natural treasure, the Basalt outcropping known as the Giant’s Causeway. The causeway and the visitor center site were classified as UNESCO World Heritage sites in 2005. The project required revisiting the existing auto and bus infrastructure, parking, landscape and the integration of an international visitor center within a small coastal village. The proposal also sought to integrate the community’s needs with the commercial activity and tourism that the building program provided.

In order to develop a porous relationship with its context the building is planned as a single circuit. The exhibition hall incorporates galleries, a rooftop bar, lantern, and educational spaces around two central courtyards that are connected to the surrounding landscape and roof scape. In this way, both the museum and community can co-inhabit these spaces and also use them for larger events. Introverted spaces, such as the courtyards are common features of the farmhouse and village typologies, in Northern Ireland. The farms consist of small free standing buildings separated by shared gardens. The design sought to pursue this formation not through an aggregate of buildings, but rather through the development of a single porous building that integrates the local landscape. The buildings structural system is inspired by the basalt geology. The roof and lantern consist of interlocking hexagonal tiles that are clad in ceramic.