Tag: St. Louis Immersion

Laumeier Sculpture Park

At Laumeier Sculpture Park.

“It’s one of the places I’m most proud to bring people when they visit St. Louis,” commented (more or less) one of the other faculty on our field trip to the Laumeier Sculpture Park. My hope was that this trip, combined with our visit to the Leonardo Da Vinci Exhibition, would be a nice way to demonstrate that the distance between art and science isn’t so large after all.

I believe this sculpture is called, "Balance".

I required all of my students (physics and middle school science) to identify their favorite piece and sketch it. We’ll be covering forces, balance and mechanics in the coming quarter, making this part of the spark-the-imagination part of the lesson.

Also, detailed sketches are not easy. An accurate drawing requires a lot more careful observation than even taking a picture. By trying it themselves they’d get a much greater appreciation of Da Vinci.

The large pieces are quite impressive. The brightly painted metal tank combination at the top of this post just towers over everything. However, one of the neatest was carved out of one enormous piece of wood. It’s made to emulate the distinctive, ridged bark of the cottonwood tree. The artist accentuates the ridges and valleys quite elegantly, making a wonderfully warm and organic abstraction.

Looking up at the cottonwood tree sculpture.

There’s also an indoor museum (which was closed while we were there), and, apparently, pieces are added and taken away so the park is worth revisiting. The only problem is that you’re not allowed to climb on the sculptures. This is a quite understandable precaution to protect the pieces, but, as some of the students observed, the sculptures “invite” you into and onto them. It’s a stark contrast to the St. Louis City Muesum, which is designed specifically to be played on.

Glassworks

Molten glass, upwards of 2000 degrees, cools slowly, quickly, slow enough to pull, twist, fast enough to feel the brittleness between metal tweezers in seconds. Runny to viscous as it cools. Change of state — freezing — feel it in the glass.

Tweezers and jacks keep hot glass at a distance. Third class levers require balance and firmness to control their mechanical advantage.

Glass, silica, SiO2. Quartz crystals, ordered array of molecules. Glass, no organization, amorphous.

Furnaces blast hot, you can see the yellow-orange color, you can feel the hard infra-red light, thermal energy. IR – long wave – less energetic. When extra heat is needed, the blue/ultra-violet flame of propane (mixed with oxygen). UV – short wave – high energy – hard on the eyes though you can’t see it.

Combustion needs three things, heat, fuel and oxygen. Propane, C3H8, not methane, CH4 – the greater energy density. Propane, C3H8, not butane, C4H10 – is a gas not a liquid. To burn real hot needs extra oxygen.

Propane torch.

Conservation is a challenge. Furnaces –> heat –> lots of energy –> bad. Natural light, big doors, lots of windows. Recycle glass (at least the clear glass). No need for heat in the winter. Drink lots of water in the summer.

3rd Degree Glass Factory, make your own paperweights. About 12 minutes per person. Excellent way to spend a morning. Really cool faucets and water basins in the bathroom.