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National Geographic : 1993 Dec
Contents
as a thin and flat sheet for a liquid crystal display-is the material of choice." On the horizon, Dr. Prindle suggests, may be optical computers. These could store programs and process information by means of light-pulses from tiny lasers-rather than electrons. And the pulses would travel over glass fibers, not copper wire. These machines could function hundreds of times faster than today's electronic computers and hold vastly more information. Today fiber optics are used to obtain a clearer image of smaller and smaller objects than ever before-even bacte rial viruses. A new generation of optical instruments is emerging that can provide detailed imaging of the inner workings of cells. Called near-field scanning optical microscopes, they can harness what one scientist calls "the power of photons" to resolve images down to approximately one two-millionths of an inch. It is the surge in fiber-optic use and in liquid crystal displays that has set the U. S. glass industry-a 16-billion-dollar busi ness employing some 150,000 workers- to building new plants to meet demand. But it is not only in technology and commerce that glass has widened its horizons. The use of glass as art, a tradition going back at least to Roman times, is also surg ing. In Seattle and in the mountains of western North Carolina and the countri fied south of New Jersey-nearly every where, it seems-men and women are blowing glass and creating works of art. In recent years the movement has gained new status, taking leave of the world of craft and ascending into the galleries and slick catalogs and price-upon-request cachet. "I didn't sell a piece of glass until 1975." Dale Chihuly was saying that, and smiling as he did, for in the 18 years since the end of the dry spell, he has become one of the most financially successful artists of the 20th century. He went on to tell me about a new commission-a glass sculpture for the head quarters building of a pizza company-for which his fee is half a million dollars. More than anyone, Chihuly is responsible for the attention being given to the studio art-glass movement. He has had a one-man show at the Louvre, a rare achievement for an American artist, and just last year had the first show by a single artist in the new Seattle Art Museum. "They chose me rather than a painter or sculptor, so it shows there has been a crossover for glass from the crafts to the fine arts," he said. Chihuly, a meatcutter's son from Tacoma, has a studio on a waterfront in Seattle, where he and assistants carry his designs to creation. There is no mistaking a Chihuly piece. It is usually Glass: Capturing the Dance of Light
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