Today started with another extremely stimulating discussion delivered to us by our instructors. It addressed the concept of shape and how its was applied in art and science. The examples that they showed us helped show me that the line the world has drawn between art and science is even more transparent than I was made to believe earlier in the week. After the discussion given by our instructors we had a guest speaker from the Getty who spoke to us about preserving art.
The preservationist from the Getty proceeded to tell us about the plethora of techniques used to keep the art the way it is, and he told us about the many new things they have discovered about masterwork using these various techniques. An x ray type machine is used to analyze the art to see if it has been tampered with and to see if any restorations are required.
After the discussion on art we had our daily lab visits. The most intriguing lab visit of the day was most definatly Dr. Yang Yang’s lab where we learned about the many uses of Sol Gel. Sol Gel is glass that is made at room temperature. This provides many practical applications the main one of which uses the glass to generate energy. This is possible because molecules that can create energy can easily survive at room temperature while they die at the normal 1000 degree temperature. Sol gel is an extremely useful and versatile item that I believe will provide us many good things in the near future.
http://www.solgel.com/
http://www.chemat.com/html/solgel.html
http://www.apsnyc.com/
http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Difficulties-of-Art-Preservation&id=150345
http://www.getty.edu/