9 minute read
WHY ARTISTS SHOULD PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT SCIENTIFIC GLASSBLOWERS DO
by Sally Prasch and Beth Hylen
Artists throughout the world are using scientific glassblowing techniques in their work. Professional scientific glassblowers, artists who commission scientific glassblowers to fabricate elements, and other flameworkers incorporate scientific practices as they create their artwork.
In this brief article we will introduce scientific glassmaking and touch on its history. We will hear from several artists who explain why these techniques are important to their work. We hope to challenge how you think of scientific glassblowing.
What is scientific glassblowing?
At universities and throughout the glass industry, scientific glassblowers construct the elaborate apparatus often needed for laboratory experiments. From the Galileo Telescope to Newton’s prism to the compound microscope; vacuum technology to the use of pure silica to detect gravitational waves—without scientific glassblowers, major scientific breakthroughs would never have happened.
Scientific glassblowers are trained to work with a variety of glasses: borosilicate, soft glasses, Vycor, quartz, and many others. Depending on the experiment, they usually start with glass tubing and use bench and hand torches to manipulate the glass into apparatus. If the glass is too large or too small to handle by hand, a glassblowing lathe is used to turn the glass. Making apparatus requires meticulously sealing glass tubes together using different techniques. Some of these seals include side, straight, ring, blind, Dieter, Dewar, and more. Many artists and pipemakers incorporate these seals, as well as the lathe, into their work today.
At GAS we usually use “flameworking” or “lampworking” to describe working at the torch, but within the scientific community, flameworkers are traditionally called “scientific glassblowers.”
Scientific glassblowing and contemporary artistic glass seemed worlds apart for much of the 20th century, but they were not always separate. Glenn Adamson asserts that “alchemical research and other forms of early modern science made no firm distinction between artisanal and learned forms of knowledge (there was an active interchange…).” ¹
Some of the earliest lampworkers produced a wide range of products, as seen in this illustration of a lampworker published in 1769. He is surrounded by a variety of wares ranging from barometers and scientific apparatus to glass eyes, elaborate birds, figurines, flowers, and centerpieces.
But gradually, skilled glassblowers were needed to build the highly specialized equipment needed for distillation, vacuum manifold systems, and extraction apparatus. Apprentices were rigorously trained and secrets were guarded. Lampworking for other purposes developed separately and there was little communication between the two branches. This is changing. What can we learn from each other?
In this article, we can cover just a few examples of the many artists who meld art with scientific techniques. To hear from artists with varied perspectives, we asked Tim Drier, Doni Hatz, Amy Lemaire, Boryana Rossa, and Sally Prasch this question: “In a few sentences, could you tell us why you chose scientific glass as a central part of your art work?” We mention a few others as well.
Scientific glassblowers who use scientific techniques to create their artistic work
Tim Drier constructs elaborate steins and goblets that are reminiscent of trick glasses.
"My work is pushing the boundaries of traditional drinkware. By using my scientific research glassblowing experience I am able to infuse both [art and science], to create visual enjoyment, as well as a futuristic uniqueness that is not found in everyday barware."
Doni Hatz, a scientific glassblower at Proctor and Gamble Co., says:
“Scientific glass training has heightened my ability to build highly complicated glassware. It is fun to transform technical glass into art glass using scientific techniques.
“Scientific glassblowing is a part of all my work. It is integral in many projects with side seals. For example, when I make a bird’s nest sculpture that has a glass nest sealed inside a 100mm OD tube…. The seals must be sealed in properly or the outside tube will crack. Proper methods lead to success. I’ve been given the tools to learn techniques from several masters that have enhanced my skill sets.
“Scientific glassblowing has increased my capability to make anything I want. With the ability to build complicated intricate glassware, with sound construction [so]… it won’t break, I will continue to push the limit.”
Sally Prasch, owner of Prasch Glass and scientific glassblower at the University of Mass at Amherst explains:
“I have always incorporated scientific techniques into my artwork, as my teacher Lloyd Moore did before me. Neither of us see the difference between the two. To tell you the truth, I also put my artistic work into my scientific glassblowing. There are some wild vacuum manifolds out there. I started teaching glass in the 1970s and have always included scientific glassblowing and artistic techniques into the class."
“When creating glass for others I work closely with my clients on their project; problem solving as well as assembling new glass items. Innovative research and art often require new glasses and new ways of working with glass. Together they create the next steps in science and art.”
Artists who use scientific techniques
Amy Lemaire is a multi-disciplinary artist and educator. She told us:
“The field of scientific glassblowing is central to my work in several ways. The methods I use to fabricate my work are adopted from scientific glassblowing—lathe, ring stands, and lab clamps and holders, vacuum manifold—these tools are essential in the fabrication of my work, and I learned to use these at Salem Community College, where I am immersed in a community of scientific glassblowers, many of whom are also artists. I am also heavily influenced by the visual language of scientific apparatus, specifically how these forms have a close proximity to the technology that shape our contemporary world and enable an expanded perception and understanding of the world.
"Through teaching Plasma Design, I have the privilege of working with scientific glassworkers to produce artwork … and with young glassworkers who are blurring the boundaries between art and science by applying their scientific fabrication skills to produce artwork.”
Wayne Strattman’s work in lighted glass plasma technology requires meticulous glass seals. He publishes and teaches neon art, including a two-semester course in scientific glassblowing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He told us:
“From the beginning my ‘work’ has combined two passions, art and science, because I don’t see them as mutually exclusive, which is a trait imposed on them in the modern era. Before our age of specialization, ‘natural philosophers’ embraced curiosity whether that led to what we call science or art. Think [Leonardo] da Vinci and his ‘work’. The techniques and understandings from each field aid each other.”
Artists who rely on scientific glassblowers to fabricate pieces for their sculptural work
In “The Mirror of Faith,” the artists Boryana Rossa, Oleg Mavromatti, and researcher Michael Edel create a bio-art project, “meant to provoke critical public dialogue about genetic research, exposing some issues this technology and its political and commercial promotion creates.” The installation combines bio-art, film, drawing, and painting. They commissioned scientific glassblower Sally Prasch to create a hinged sculptural vessel at the heart of the piece. 3, 4
“We wanted to incorporate in our work The Mirror of Faith a glass that functions simultaneously as a container of a petri dish with a living yeast culture and has a symbolic meaning.
“It was important to us that the work incorporates knowledge from both art and science, and presents it in a manner that sparks the curiosity of people who are from one or the other field, or who have no relation to either of them to further investigate the questions of communication of scientific knowledge that our work is posing.
“We believe that sciences and arts are intrinsically connected. They have been connected historically. Many of the scientists have also been artists and have been drawing knowledge from a variety of fields….
“Finally, the aesthetic of scientific glass is enigmatic when someone does not know the exact function of the glass piece. Looking at scientific equipment as an art piece, as a sculpture or as an art installation, is another way to induce imagination.”
Other artists who have used scientific glassblowers to fabricate their designs include Richard Meitner, Donald Lipsky, Paul Lincoln, and Jeffery Schiff.
In particular, Meitner is a strong advocate for blending science and art. He states in his website that he is a member of the research group VICARTE, at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa in Portugal. “The group…fosters a Master’s degree program in The Art and Science of Glass and Ceramics … a joint project with the Fine Arts Faculty of the University of Lisbon.” 5
This has been but a brief glimpse into the ways artists employ the skills and techniques of scientific glassblowers. The authors believe the two disciplines are complementary. According to Sally Prasch, artists and scientific glassblowers share a motive: “They are both reaching to create something new. It is time that scientists and artists come together.”
Sally Prasch is the owner of Prasch Glass. She teaches and works at the University of Massachusetts. She exhibits and teaches glass worldwide.
Beth Hylen is a glass artist and researcher; retired reference librarian at the Rakow Research Library and the Corning Museum of Glass.
Notes:
You can learn scientific glassblowing through apprenticeship programs, or Salem Community College has a degree program. The American Scientific Glassblowers Society (ASGS) offers short workshops and seminars.
For more information:
Tim Drier’s glasses: https://laughingsquid.com/ glass-blower-creates-unique-beer-glasses/
You can find videos of his creations on Instagram and Facebook: BarwaREimagined by @driertim
Doni Hatz: https://www.theflowmagazine.com/ sulptural/doni-hatz-understanding-scientific-glass.html
Amy Lemaire: http://www.amylemaire.com/
Boryana Rossa: https://boryanarossa.com/about/
Sally Prasch: https://praschglass.com/p/1/AboutSally
VICARTE: https://vicarte.org/
References:
1. Adamson, Glen. The Invention of Craft. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013, p. 131.
2. J. d. B., Disting., and Diesing. Die Glasschmelzkunst, bey der Lampe.... Wien: gedruckt mit Schulzischen Schriften, 1769.
3. “The Mirror of Faith”: https://boryanarossa. com/the-mirror-of-faith/
4. Bio-Art: BioArt Pushes the Limits of Visual Art, Science and Techn
5. Richard Meitner: https://richardmeitner.com/ links/
