Our morning started early again with a tram and bus ride to Eaton, where we learned about the research and development occurring in their Prague branch. We were each given a lovely party favor and received presentations on their work and got a tour of some of their labs. After Eaton, we took the same public transportation back to the area near our hotel. We broke for lunch and then came back together for the next leg of our day.
We all gathered in our hotel lobby for a short train ride to the Kunsthalle Museum, which is a contemporary art museum with various art forms. From oil paintings, charcoal, sculptures, digital/visual displays, and interactive structures, the museum seems to have everything! The current exhibition is “The Battle Between YES and NO” by William Kentridge and uses a variety of art forms to keep the viewer engaged while they navigate many different themes inspired by Kentridge’s upbringing in Johannesburg, South Africa during the Apartheid. A picture of one of the interactive artwork pieces can be seen below!
The museum combines art and engineering by creating a strict environment that can help the art survive many years of viewing. For example, the heat, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) is regulated by specific, small intervals of acceptable temperatures depending on the type of artwork. These temperatures need to be maintained throughout the displays where viewers are walking, but also in the basement, where there is a lot of artwork in storage.
The other important engineering feature we learned of was a safety measure used for the artwork in storage. If a fire were to occur, a gas would be expelled into the storage that would cause the oxygen, which provides fuel for the fire, to be “moved out” of the room, making the fire to quickly die out.
Without these engineering designs, art would not be able to be preserved like it is today. On the other hand, we might not have these designs had the arts’ need for them not existed! This situation shows how art and engineering work hand-in-hand, bridging the gap of humanities and technology!
Swanson School of Engineering 