From 3 months of research & development, came over 50 commemorative ceramic plates! As part of new ‘Aesthetics to Engineering’ course housed between the Engineering departments & the Art department at UC/Boulder, two interns & I developed a convivial event celebrating the New Horizon’s 2015 fly by of the dwarf planet Pluto. At the center of the event was the production of a nine sided ceramic plate embossed with surface feature from Pluto. With posters, a performance of John Cage’s masterpiece 4′ 33″, sweet treats and a reading of a poem, written by a Doctoral candidate who was involved in the Pluto mission, it was a fun and fulfilling adventure. Very thankful to my good friend Martha Russo who taught the class and helped to shepherd the project along.
NASA images from the fly by here.

Introduction Presentation

Making Plates

First stop was the astrophysics lab to meet with Ph.D candidate Bryan Holler. After clueing us into the 9 sided logo for the New Horizons space probe. A perfect shape for the shape of our plates. Generously he allowed us to use a haiku he wrote during the fly by in July 2015.

After examining a large cache of images at nasa.gov several where laser etched onto wood molds cnc routed perviously.

Performance set up

Nine banners printed on tyvek. Utilizing a ornamental logic, collages produced from diagrams & images from multiple sources.

Performances & Receptions