Michael Rogers - Featured Faculty 2012
Michael Rogers
College of Art and Design
MICHAEL ROGERS IS A FULL PROFESSOR IN THE SCHOOL FOR AMERICAN CRAFTS GLASS PROGRAM. HIS CURRENT RESEARCH FOCUSES ON CROSS-DISCIPLINARY MULTI-MEDIA COLLABORATIONS. WHILE HIS HOME BASE IS HIS PRIVATE STUDIO OUTSIDE HONEOYE FALLS, RECENT PROJECTS HAVE TAKEN HIM TO JAPAN, SCOTLAND, LATVIA, FINLAND, SWEDEN, AND SOON TO CHINA.
Michael was accepted onto the Fulbright Specialist's List in 2012 and was awarded a Fulbright Grant to conduct research at the New University of Lisbon's VICARTE Science and Glass Art Course in Portugal. Michael has an ongoing project with VICATRE that involves the epic poem Os Lusiadas by Luís Vaz de Camões, a biologist, chemist, art historian and other artists. The Camões Project involved melting experimental batches of glass prone to corrosion, forming it into flat glass and then engraving it with poetic text. The engraved samples were given to the biologist who introduced them to a specifically chosen fungus that is believed to erode and deteriorate the surface of the glass over time. This process, valid both as an artwork and scientific experiment, is being documented with microscopic photography and will be exhibited in the Library Gallery at the New University of Lisbon.
Another recent project involved a collaborative exhibition titled Spillforth at Brown University's Cohan Gallery at the Granoff Center. This project involved senior professor Rick Hirsch at RIT/SAC Ceramics, poets C.D. Wright and Forrest Gander and sound artists from Formosa Labs in Taipei, Taiwan. An installation of large blown glass barometers engraved with the poet's text were hung on the wall with the poet's handwritten text on a shelf below. The tonal sound piece was composed in real time controlled by the same barometric pressure that affected the blue water in the barometers. Two days into the exhibit Hurricane Sandy hit the east coast, barometric pressure plummeted and water from the barometers spilled forth onto the handwritten text below altering the text in the process.
Yet another project has involved collaborative work with senior professor Rich Tannen of SAC Furniture Design. This project has involved casting CNC cut surfaces on wood into sculptural glass blocks creating transparent and translucent topographies.
These projects have all evolved from the belief that there is much to be gained where various disciplines intersect.