The Ordered Universe symposium on Space and Place, focusing on Grosseteste’s treatises on De sphera and the De sex differentiis, included a public lecture and forum. The lecture, delivered by Clive Siviour, explored his research into high speed photography and material deformation. The film of the lecture will be added to the website shortly. Given in the Williams Library at St Chad’s College, Durham University, the lecture was a very stimulating introduction for non-experts, but full of research insights and details for those who were. Clive took us through a short history of high speed photography, as old as photography itself, and the various techniques adopted to achieve the effects desired. The beauty of the images was striking, just as much as the detail of the materials science. What high speed photography shows was brought home powerfully in an account Clive gave of photographing a piece of aluminium . During the process it broke into two but re-fused so looked the same at the end of the experiment as at the beginning. Only the photography showed what had happened. The lecture was a great occasion to find out more about the disciplinary expertise within the research team; the lifeblood of the interdisciplinary engagement.
After the lecture we held a public forum, with an exhibition of materials and resources from the project, the chladni plates – which proved as popular as their last outing, and an opportunity for people to meet the team. The elegant surroundings of the Cassidy Atrium provided the venue and it was a pleasure to see many who had attended Ordered Universe events before, and to report our progress in an informal setting.
