“The Science of Optics; The History of Art”

Charles M. Falco
College of Optical Sciences
University of Arizona, Tucson

Recently, renowned artist David Hockney observed that certain drawings and paintings from as early as the Renaissance seemed almost "photographic" in detail. Following an extensive visual investigation of western art of the past 1000 years, he made the revolutionary claim that artists even of the prominence of van Eyck and Bellini must have used optical aids. However, many art historians insisted there was no supporting evidence for such a remarkable assertion. In this talk I show a wealth of optical evidence for his claim that Hockney and I subsequently discovered during an unusual, and remarkably productive, collaboration between an artist and a scientist. I also discuss the imaging properties of the "mirror lens" (concave mirror), and some of the implications this work has for the history of science as well as the history of art (and the modern fields of machine vision and computerized image analysis). These discoveries convincingly demonstrate optical instruments were in use -- by artists, not scientists -- nearly 200 years earlier than commonly thought possible, and account for the remarkable transformation in the reality of portraits that occurred early in the 15th century.
(for more information see http://www.optics.arizona.edu/ssd/FAQ.html)

Acknowledgments: This work was done in collaboration with David
Hockney. We gratefully acknowledge David Graves (London), Ultan
Guilfoyle (Guggenheim), Martin Kemp (Oxford U.), Masud Mansuripur (U. Arizona), José Sasián (U. Arizona), Richard Schmidt (Los Angeles), and Lawrence Weschler (The New Yorker) for a variety of valuable contributions to our efforts.

Falco will also speak Wed., Feb. 6 at 4pm in Hoblitzelle Hall Auditorium, HH 2.402 on “The Art and Science of the Motorcycle”

In 1871 Louis Guillaume Perreaux installed a compact steam engine in a commercial bicycle, and thus produced the world's first motorcycle. Subsequently, thanks to a period of extraordinarily-rapid technological advance, by 1903 essentially all the components of a modern motorcycle revolutionary invention.

Like many other objects of industrial design, motorcycles have played a variety of roles in society over the 135 years since the Michaux-Perreaux. This talk examines the interrelationship of the relevant technological, cultural, and aesthetic factors over the past century that have, amongst other things, resulted in standard production motorcycles -- incorporating such materials as carbon-fiber composites, maraging steels, and "exotic" alloys of magnesium, titanium and aluminum -- that can exceed 190 mph straight from the show room floor. (for more information see http://www.optics.arizona.edu/ssd/aotm.html)

About Charles Falco...

Charles Falco is a Professor of Optical Sciences at the University of
Arizona where he holds the UA Chair of Condensed Matter Physics. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and the Optical Society of America, has published more than 250 scientific manuscripts, most of which are related to various physical properties of thin film materials, co-edited two books, has seven U.S. patents, and has given more than 200 invited talks on his research at conferences and research institutions in some 20 countries. However, in addition to his scientific research, in 1998 he was co-recipient of an award from the AICA for his work as co-curator of the Solomon R. Guggenheim museum's "The Art of the Motorcycle," for which he also wrote the exhibition catalog's introductory essay and bibliography. With over 2 million visitors thus far in New York, Chicago, Bilbao, and the Guggenheim Las Vegas, it is by far the most successful exhibition of industrial design ever assembled, and is the 5th most attended museum exhibition of any kind. More recently, a collaboration with the artist David Hockney that found artists of such repute as van Eyck, Bellini and Caravaggio used optical projections in creating portions of their work has resulted in widespread coverage in the popular media, including an hour-long BBC special and a segment on CBS '60 Minutes', and over 70 invited talks and public lectures on this topic in eleven countries.