The Department of Materials Science and Engineering welcomes you to its 2016 Winter Colloquium Series.
Marc Walton
Location: Tech L361, 4:00pm
Form, Color, and Function: Understanding the Appearance of Art through Computational Imaging and Materials Analysis
How do you quantify the appearance of a work of art? Simply, take its picture.
New ways of engaging with cultural heritage objects have been made possible with advances in computation and imaging that allow scientists to analyze art non-invasively, historians to better address its function and context, and the general public to explore and interact with art objects in ways never before possible. In this talk, I demonstrate how the Northwestern University / Art Institute of Chicago Center for Scientific Studies in the Arts (NU-ACCESS) has been adapted these methods of computational imaging (e.g., photometric stereo, hyperspectral imaging, super-resolution X-ray fluorescence imaging, and other techniques) to reduce artworks into their basic components of form, color, and visual content. These data provide a better understanding of how artists worked, how these objects were used, and how they have aged over time. Case studies will be presented that show how multiple wavelengths of light illuminated from all directions onto Roman portrait paintings (2nd C. AD) and works by Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) are helping us re-evaluate how the artists created these paintings and drawings. Finally, I will demonstrate how collection of these data is facilitating material classification through the creation of image-based databases and libraries.
Bio: Marc Walton is the Senior Scientist at the Northwestern University / Art Institute of Chicago Center for Scientific Studies in the Arts (NU-ACCESS) and holds an appointment as a Research Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University. Trained in Chemistry and Art History at Clark University, he earned a D.Phil. from the University of Oxford following an MA in art history and a diploma in the conservation of works of art from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Marc worked at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for two years prior to joining the Getty Conservation Institute in 2005, where he was an associate scientist responsible for the scientific study of antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum. He established and ran the analytical laboratory at the Getty Villa site for eight years. His research has focused primarily on trade and manufacture of ancient objects as well as the development of new computation imaging techniques for the analysis of art.