WITHIN LIGHT // INSIDE GLASS
In collaboration with Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti.
February 8th - April 15th 2015
WITHIN LIGHT // INSIDE GLASS
Light, glass and their interaction from an artistic and scientific perspective.
Location: Istituto Veneto di Scienze Lettere ed Arti, Campo S. Stefano 2945, 30124 San Marco, Venice.
Duration: February 8th - April 15th 2015
Conceived and promoted by Vicarte, the research unit "Glass and Ceramics for the Arts" based in the campus of the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa. The event is organized in Venice on the occasion of the International Year of Light 2015 and in collaboration with Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti.
Light and indirectly also vision, have always fascinated philosophers, physicists and artists alike.
Light understood as both a physical entity with wave and particle duality, or as a sacred and transcendental entity, has always been central to our ability to grasp Reality in both its concrete and spiritual respects. Metaphorically light represents The Beginning, but also Knowledge as opposed to the darkness of ignorance. Light is both related to and opposed to non-existence, just as white exists on the basis of its relationship to its opposite, black. But what are white and black really? And why are we able to perceive colors?
The electromagnetic spectrum of white has all the possible frequencies related to the range of colours visible to the human eye. On the contrary, black is the absorption of all frequencies. Today we know that reality is revealed to us through our eyes as the result of the interaction of light and matter, i.e. the relationship between them is the basis of our visual perception. Because of reflection and absorption, we can see things and experience colours.
Glass can absorb, transmit, reflect, and refract light, and it can also multiply or distort our vision.
Glass is a membrane, a border, which can conceal and protect; a diaphragm between the external world and the internal world, between closed and open space. It has the ability to limit the passage of air or any other material, but at the same time, it allows light to pass freely through it. Because of these properties glass was considered a magical material in the Middle Ages, linking the visible and the invisible, earthly reality and the divine.
