American University of Beirut

On Broken Glass

​​                -Poster-                                         -Program-                                  -Titles and Abstracts​-


​​Cutting thr​​ough disciplines, our invited speakers will shed light on glass from multiple, often complementary perspectives. An archeologist will review three thousand years of glass making, an art historian a thousand years of stained glass from the Romanesque period to the present. An architect considers light through glass as science and poetry; a physicist grapples with dislocations, and with them glass relaxing, flowing. A historian of science and a chemist report jointly on the deciphering of ancient texts with a kiln at hand; a computational materials scientist simulates the deformation, the fracture of glass. Guided by a visual artist, we follow the primal energy of a glass making workshop feeding the fancy of contemporary artists; then conclude as we must with a critical theorist questioning “the very idea of a medium that transposes an immediacy beyond mediation”. Part hall of mirrors, part kaleidoscope, and you the listener, the virtual glass maker, assembling a mosaic as you probe the heart of the matter, the probe the heart of the matter, the heart​ of glass.​​

Speakers

  • Thilo Rehren (A.G. Leventis Professor for Archaeological Sciences, Director of the Science and Technology in Archaeology and Culture Research Center, The Cyprus Institute, Cyprus)
  • Antoine Chaaya (Partner/Director, Renzo Piano Building Workshop, France)
    ​[Moderated by: George Arbid, Founding member and director of the Arab Center for Architecture in Beirut]
  • Andrea Liu (Hepburn Professor of Physics, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, USA)
  • Koen Vanderstukken (Professor, Studio head of the glass department, Sheridan College and Series consultant for Netflix series "Blown Away", Canada)
  • Marya Kazoun (Visual Artist, New York-Venice)
  • George Saliba (Professor at the Department of History and Archeology, Jabre Khwarizmi chair in Arabic Science and Philosophy, Director of Farouk Jabre Center for Arabic & Islamic Science and Philosophy, American University of Beirut, Lebanon) and Ahmad Hellani (Department of Chemistry, American University of Beirut, Lebanon)
  • Mu’tasem Shehaddeh (Department of Mechanical Engineering, American University of Beirut, Lebanon)
  • Nadia Bou Ali (Civilization Studies Program, American University of Beirut, Lebanon)

Organizers

  • American U​niversity of Beirut
    • Faculty of Arts and Sciences
    • Farouk Jabre Center for Arabic and Islamic Science and Philosophy
    • Department of History and Archeology
    • Department of Physics
    • Center for Advanced Mathematical Sciences​
  • Trier University
    • Institute of Archaeology​











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