Wednesday Nite at the Lab
media release: WN@TL goes hybrid both with Zoom and with in-person (Room 1111) presentations. The zoom registration link is still go.wisc.edu/240r59. You can also watch a live web stream at on YouTube.
On October 18 artist, author & chemist Daniel E. Kelm will speak on “Chemical Glassware as Functional Sculpture.”
Description: Chemical glassware exists solely to serve the investigation of our material world. It has become so intimately associated with this endeavor that some of the best-known shapes have become universally recognized icons.
The development of glassware over the years has been the result of numerous influences—including adaptation by chemists to changes in chemical processes, the evolution of glass technology, and the wartime shortages that led to an American chemical glassware industry. This presentation will explore the history and aesthetics of glassware, and how its functionality and beauty have inspired my own artistic journey.
Bio: Daniel E. Kelm is an artist who is known for his innovative book structures and extensive knowledge of materials. His expression as an artist emerges from the integration of work in science and the arts. Alchemy is a common theme in his bookwork.
Kelm’s experience with book arts began in 1978 with employment in the first of several production studios where he learned progressively more specialized traditional techniques. In 1983 he opened his own studio in Easthampton, MA, called The Wide Awake Garage, where he designs and produces artist’s books, interpretative fine bindings, and book sculptures.
Before Daniel settled into his career in the book arts he taught laboratory chemistry at the University of Minnesota. Kelm has a keen interest in the history of chemistry and is an avid collector of chemical and physical apparatus. He re-creates historical scientific experiments and lab environments, and offers services as a consultant to museums creating videos and installations.
Explore More:
Demonstration re-creating James Smithson’s blowpipe analysis:
https://www.si.edu/object/
Video for the Folger Shakespeare library demonstrating the production and use of syrup of violets in medicine and as an acid-base indicator:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Kelm’s website at http://danielkelm.com has two sides: Poetic Science for his explorations of science, and Wide Awake Garage for his artwork.
“Poetic Science offers a way of being in the world that celebrates relationship and connection. It crystallizes a broad approach that I have developed in my life and work. By combining the perspectives of art and science it moves to unify what is commonly thought of as separate. Through this fusion of body and mind, heart and head, matter and spirit, we are able to enter into a more intimate relationship with materials. And, having learned to distinguish their characteristic rhythms, ask them each to lend their unique personalities to the expressiveness of our work.” —Daniel E. Kelm
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