Xtallography

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cabbage flower / crystals

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re f rose n

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vertical soaking / growing

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cabbage litmus on different fabric

cotton, linen, polyester, linen, rayon velvet, linen, damask, cotton, cotton, cotton

Talking about: amie dicke: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij73AHc7E3Q

+ olafur eliasson: https://vimeo.com/69684119

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ooooooooo i want to be that kid :

http://engineering.oregonstate.edu/momentum/k12/june04/

nicole, what do you think of prussian blue? - it’s basis for laundry bluing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussian_blue

also - HOT ICE OK - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLq5NibwV5g - pmma?

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https://preclaboratories.com/lichens-and-litmus-and-ph-oh-my/

WHY IS IT ALWAYS BLUE AND PINK OR BLUE AND YELLOW BUT ALWAYS BLUE?

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Drierite. Anhydrous calcium sulfate (CaSO4), with cobalt chloride (CoCl2) indicator.  Cobalt chloride is dry in its anhydrous form (CoCl2), but pink in its hexahydrate form, after the absorption of water (CoCl2-6H2O). Technically speaking, it’s not wet, because the water is part of the solid--the water’s not really a liquid in this case. If heated, it will appear to melt as the water in the structure is removed. 

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in the kiln / lithium as sculptor

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future experiment?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iyRUBvd260

ascorbic acid (vitamin C) - 5g, 

Copper Sulphate - 1g 

and water at 70C - approx 200mL to make the solutions 

and a few drops of gum arabic to make the paint (this is sold as watercolour medium by art shops)

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http://www.speedymetals.com/information/Material14.html

dry = blue

wet = pink 

?

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following the liquipedia logic

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanic_cell >

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltaic_pile >

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolyte

^^

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanic_corrosion >

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferroxyl_indicator_solution >

^^

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redox >

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rust#Bluing >

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluing_(steel)>

^^

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface_energy#Wetting

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From the diary of Anaïs Nin

”So delicacy and violence are about to meet and challenge each other.

The image this brings to my mind is an alchemist workshop.

Beautiful crystal bottles communicating with each other by a system of fragile crystal canals. These transparent bottles show nothing but jeweled, colored liquids or clouded water of smoke, giving to the external eye an abstract aesthetic pleasure. The consciousness of danger, fatal mixtures, is known only to the chemist.

I feel like a well-appointed laboratory of the soul - myself my home, my life - in which none of the vitally fecund or destructive, explosive experiments has yet begun. I like the shape of the bottles, the colors of the chemicals. I collect bottles, and the more they look like alchemist bottles the more I like them for their eloquent forms.” p. 8

This passage instills what it is about our project that draws me forward:

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woahhhh

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Often through the course of my and April’s project, I worry that what we’re doing isn’t “hard enough” -- is what we’re doing remarkable? Often I feel like anyone could do it, and I worry about if it’s “good” enough. 

I think this video is a thoughtful commentary on the subject. 

Perhaps our work doesn’t display a remarkable amount of technical skill. There is some technical skill that has gone into our work, such as April’s abilities with ceramics, our growing experience with using glazes, and my chemistry lab skills. But I feel that our project is most remarkable because of the thought, exploration of materials and interactions, and the process. This video helped me better understand the value in these elements of our project. 

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F - ROSE - N

When Nicole and I got together last week to smash flowers, she mentioned that one of her colleagues said “liquid nitrogen never gets old”

This is related in part to the post on understanding how the ordinary laws of nature to appreciate when things get pushed to that extra ordinary texture.

For me, i had never heard of dipping flowers in liquid nitrogen until i came across it in Christian Bok’s crystallography text:

“A tulip dipped in liquid nitrogen undergoes instantaneous cryonics, whereupon the flower can be smashed to bits as easily as a wineglass”

I didn’t do any research before hand, however, my friend did send me some images by Jon Shireman, but I really didn’t know what I was in for.

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Liquid Nitrogen is the queen

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This follows a conversation with April about the gender bias in STEM fields, and how it affects individual fields differently. This graph is broader than just the sciences, so it also shows the context for women in STEM. All the physical sciences (Chemistry, Physics, Geology, Astro, etc.) are wrapped into one curve,  but there is also a bias within the physical sciences. For example, chemistry typically has a higher percentage of women than physics. There is also bias within sub-field. Women tend to be better represented in organic and bio-chemistry than they are in physical chemistry.  One of the things I find so interesting is that the percentage of women in computer science was comparably high in the 1980s, because computer science wasn’t as important of a field. With that developing importance, women were selectively excluded in its growth.  April commented that it is always strange to her when she comes to my lab at the University of Chicago, because there are so many men. Conversely, it’s always strange to me to go to the School of the Art Institute because there are so many women and being in a field where women are well-represented is so foreign to me.