Glass Abstract 783
by Sarah Loft
Title
Glass Abstract 783
Artist
Sarah Loft
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
Colored glass has been popular for centuries for use in windows and household items such as drinking glasses. The earliest forms of colored glass were caused by impurities in the sand used to produce the glass. Later, colors were introduced deliberately into glass by addition of minerals or metals during the production process. Also entering into the composition are the reflections of shapes and colors in the environment.
The glass cube in this image, as well as the tile in the background are composed of dichroic glass which is manufactured by stacking layers of glass and thin layers of oxides or metals. This gives the glass a shifting array of colors depending on the angle of view, or, in the case of photography, depending on the angle of the camera.
Per NASA Spinoff (https://spinoff.nasa.gov/Spinoff2012/cg_2.html): NASA revitalized the production of dichroic glass in the 1950s and 1960s as a means of protecting its astronauts. Ordinary clear substances cannot protect human vision from the harsh rays of unfiltered sunlight, and everything from the human body to spacecraft sensors and computers are at risk if left unprotected from the radiation that permeates space. The microscopic amounts of metal present in dichroic glass make it an effective barrier against such harmful radiation.
While the ancient manufacturing technique called for adding metals to glass melt, NASA developed a process in which metals are vaporized by electron beams in a vacuum chamber and then applied directly to surfaces in an ultra-thin film. The vapor condenses in the form of crystal structures, and the process is repeated for up to several dozen coatings. The resulting material, still only about 30 millionths of an inch thick, is sufficient to reflect radiation even while the glass—or polycarbonate, as in the case of space suit helmets—remains transparent to the human eye.
Per Wikipedia: Abstract photography, sometimes called non-objective, experimental, conceptual or concrete photography, is a means of depicting a visual image that does not have an immediate association with the object world and that has been created through the use of photographic equipment, processes or materials. An abstract photograph may isolate a fragment of a natural scene in order to remove its inherent context from the viewer, it may be purposely staged to create a seemingly unreal appearance from real objects, or it may involve the use of color, light, shadow, texture, shape and/or form to convey a feeling, sensation or impression. The image may be produced using traditional photographic equipment like a camera, darkroom or computer, or it may be created without using a camera by directly manipulating film, paper or other photographic media, including digital presentations.
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Featured in the Premium FAA Artists group, July 2016.
Featured in the 500 And Beyond Fine Art Group, September 2017.
Uploaded
June 15th, 2016
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Viewed 1,504 Times - Last Visitor from Montreal, QC - Canada on 03/10/2024 at 7:02 AM
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Comments (6)
Ross Odom
Very nice and different. It reminds me strongly of some of your collages. Then I wonder if it really IS a collage.
Sarah Loft replied:
Thanks, Ross. It does look like a collage but it's an assembly of pieces of glass. I like the collage notion, though. I tend to see the whole world as an enormous (and unlikely) collage.