Thermal shock – and its perfect imperfections

• Author(s): Kattelus, Saija
• Date: 2011
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/8083
• Origin: Repositório Institucional da UNL
• Subject(s): Thermal stress; Thermal shock; Float glass
• Document Type: Master thesis
• Language: English
• Advisor(s): Almeida, Teresa; Vilarigues, Márcia; Ramos, José
• Contributor(s): RUN

Description

Dissertação de Mestrado em Arte e Ciência do Vidro

These two years have brought lots of richness to my life and to my thoughts and I have learned so much more than just a content of International Master Degree curriculum. By simplifying the situation, Glass Art and Science-program combines Me, Finland and Portugal. There are plenty of differences between Finland and Portugal and I have turned them into moments of personal growth by thinking that it is not about being better and worse, it is about being different. In the scientific part of the thesis three different experiments are described, how float glass reacts when it is exposed to variable rates of rapid temperature change (thermal stress) and if by controlling the temperature change, the visible consequences (thermal shock) of thermal stress, could be controlled. After experimenting, the results are observed through a Polariscope and different microscopes are used to examine the ‘paradoxes’ of glass, to see the information it hides. In the art part of the thesis artists who have influenced and contributed to the subject matter of my thesis are named and spoken about. These studies allowed me to find an express my feelings about being in Portugal during the International Master studies in Glass Art and Science. These were times of confusion and inner tensions as a foreign woman, the shocks caused by cultural differences between ‘cold’ Finland and ‘hot’ Portugal, and the total liberation once differences collided and adjusted. These feelings are expressed through my thesis artwork “ Thermal Shock – and its perfect imperfections” exhibited in Galeria Diferença, Lisbon, Portugal, from 6th of July until 10th of September. “Thermal Shock – and its perfect imperfections”-exhibition is part of series of Thesis Exhibitions 2011 from International Master of Glass Art and Science- students, of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Artwork is produced using float glass thermally stressed in controlled ways to prouduce thermal shock.It is further looked at under microscopes, photographed, silk screen images were produced and applied using glass enamels and glass inks, and laser engraving on glass is also utilized. The optical properties of glass offer amazing possibilities to ‘extend time’ to transform the stillness of something ‘frozen in time’ like a photograph, returning it to movement again.