Whether
a natural or man-made material, glass has many properties and
qualities: resistant and fragile, insulating and possibly transparent,
unalterable and waterproof.
Starting with a composition
based mainly on silica and a little sodium and calcium carbonate (soda
ash, and limestone), heated to 1400°C/1500°C, the resulting glass is
then processed in a variety of ways.
Although developed
by man over 5,000 years ago, glass is both a simple and a sophisticated
product. It is the subject of ongoing research, and new applications and
potential are regularly found in cutting-edge scientific fields such as
optics, energy, communication, electronics, health, etc.
Everywhere
in our daily lives, both indoors and outdoors, glass is used to wrap,
dress, structure and protect. It takes many different forms: glazing,
containers, fibres, tableware, art and decorative objects…
Source : Anne Pluymaekers
Preamble, as part of the Mingei, prior to the Craeft project, research was carried out by the CNAM on glass:
Founded in 1794, the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers (CNAM) in Paris, is a Higher Education Institution, and home to the Musée des arts et métiers, a museum of technological innovation, traditional and industrial arts and crafts. CNAM is one of the oldest technical and industrial academic institutions and university museums in the world. It exhibits over 2.400 inventions, split into 7 collections: Scientific instruments, Materials, Energy, Mechanics, Construction, Communication and Transportation. Among these, glass and the glassmaking exhibition of the permanently exhibited “Materials Collection” is considered to be one of the most important for CNAM and its visitors. Glassmaking brings together artistic skill with a thorough technical and sensory understanding of the material. With a set of simple tools and processes, glassblowers are able to produce an almost endless variation of objects, from the decorative and fragile to the robust and functional. Glassmaking and glassblowing exhibit a range of expressions from handicraft to industrial, while it has been globally practiced for centuries. This pilot offers an excellent opportunity to produce and test meaningful tools for capturing the gestures of the contemporary creators of glass objects (tools, light machinery and glassware artefacts, etc.) and on investigating “reverse engineering” techniques for “re-inventing the gestures” of the creators of rare classical objects only, thus integrating them into motion-driven narratives for its visitors, in a MR environment.