Specific Randomness

Author

• Xinyi LiFollow

Date of Award

Fall 5-22-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Department

Jewelry and Metalsmithing

First Advisor

Timothy Veske-McMahon

Second Advisor

Daniel Lefcourt

Third Advisor

Daniel Ritchie

Abstract

Stability is not a default. It must be actively produced.

My work grows out of precarity. Everything around me is a running process, but nothing is guaranteed. This thesis is about how to keep form going under that condition. My argument is that pattern is the key: not as decoration, but as an information system that lets the effort of sustained construction be seen, while keeping its logic from being fully read.

I use computational tools to apply rules to source images. The condition of these source images is that multiple constrained processes are running at once, each following its own logic, with no unified coordination among them. The rules I set do not eliminate irregularity; they decide the range within which irregularity can exist. The final results are realized as jewelry through 3D printing and manual metalwork. Jewelry is the necessary format: it imposes a slow, close-range condition of attention, and only under that condition can the logic be perceived but not decoded. These pieces are worn on a living body that never stops regulating its own continuation. The body of work that has come out of this research is titled Specific Randomness after the operating logic that runs through the entire series. The pieces record not a resolved form, but the activity of sustained construction under conditions that have never been stable.

Recommended Citation

Li, Xinyi, "Specific Randomness" (2026). Masters Theses. 1591.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/1591

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.