Tucked away in the Studio Arts Center at the University of Texas at Arlington, the artist Justin Ginsberg carefully fuses two panes of glass through a process known as optical contact bonding– an adhesive-free technique that permanently binds two objects.
In order to work, it requires perfection. The surfaces must be totally flat and clean, something hard to do outside of an industrial context, where optical contact bonding is usually employed. For now, Ginsberg has developed his own method and has been at work for hours wiping the glass with laboratory grade cleaner and an air compressor. After contacting the glass and despite his meticulous approach, tiny pockets of air form in the microscopic space between the two planes, producing iridescent rings that resemble lines found on a topographical map. The ability to see these rings shifts based on where you are looking from.
The meaning of touch
For Ginsberg, this visual phenomenon is a way to illustrate the question “What does it mean to touch?” To further explain his intention, Ginsberg calls forward an Ancient Greek paradox, Zeno’s Dichotomy, that suggests no two objects ever truly touch, that there will always remain a distance between them…