research – Pauline van Lynden

November 19, 2013

Magic

What do we see in certain things? One of my favourite objects in my studio is just a piece of crushed wrapping paper. It came to me as the padding around a book sent by mail in a box, recycled material with enough ‘body’ to…

March 16, 2013

Old iron

I’m plunged in the early days of iron production about which lots of research have been done over the past twenty years. Iron is generally not the most admired of metals and when I called a Dutch museum of classical antiquities about some history questions…

March 1, 2013

Science and poetry

The colour red, in stark contrast with last week’s grey-and-whites, has unexpectedly led me this week to an inspiring series of lectures by scientist Richard Feynman. It began with pictures of what looked like a flow of lava but appears to be a rare natural spring phenomenon…

January 4, 2013

Style

Looking through my library these days I found a book of drawing exercises done at art school under guidance of my favourite…

October 19, 2012

An artist

At the Venice Biennale of 1995, the entire Danish pavilion was occupied by only one artist, John Olsen. The space was light in its Scandinavian simplicity, yet the exhibition felt like a dense, intimate world. During my visit I was the only visitor, which added to the intensity of the…

September 13, 2012

Fractals

I’ve had an interesting conversation with a physiotherapist about fractals, fractal dynamics to be precise. The word was entirely new to me, but it applies as much to his treatment approach as to nature in general. I am unable to reproduce his explanation other than as the…

August 16, 2012

Reading and writing

Here is another quotation in the same spirit as in last week’s blog post from an inspiring little book, ‘What is history’ by E. H. Carr: ‘…as soon as I have got going on a few of what I take to be the capital sources, the itch becomes too strong…

August 2, 2012

South Indian steel

Iron rusts, and therefore ancient iron objects are more rare (and often less appreciated) than other metals such as bronze. Piling on an old jetty In search of information on the dawn of iron for my new book, I recently called the…

May 4, 2012

Rust and art

Since I began this journal three months ago, I’ve intended to write about my current book project, Living Iron. The idea was to present it in a logical order, following the development of my research and adventures until today. That time has not come yet,…

March 27, 2012

Self-confidence

These past weeks I have often wondered about what makes people great, why they are often humble, and how badly we miss trustworthy models at the moment. Several recent press articles made me draw once again the conclusion that greatness resides in a subtle combination of humility and self-confidence.

December 22, 2011

Looking back #3: Rajasthan and making books

My most faithful travel companion is a small Moleskine ‘reporter’ notebook which, at home, is paired with a larger one that grows within a few months to bursting point with photos, sketches and cuttings. For years I used to bind my journals myself in different materials and those are particularly…

December 18, 2011

Looking back # 1: university and the benefits of method

After secondary school I went to university – I guess it was in the line of things. I began at Saint-Louis in Brussels with a broad combination of philosophy, social and political sciences and economics in the tradition of the Jesuit canon who was at…

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