Psychologie de l’espace by Abraham Moles and Elisabeth Rohmer (review)

168 Books This is an excellent introductory manual for teachers, students and lay persons who are interested in teaching or in learning firsthand about practical applications of lasers and laser light and about new ways of demonstrating the basic principles of optics by using a laser as a light source. The author explains how a laser works and why laser light is so special; he briefly covers laser safety problems (a very important subject). The experiments on the fundamentals of optics deal with refraction, reflection and transmittance, which are quite easily illustrated with a laser. Thereafter, he touches on many of the diverse applications for lasers, including point-of-sale label scanning (used in many grocery stores), the Michelson interferometer (used for velocity measurements) and laser holography (the use of lasers in 3-dimensional imaging). The fascinating experiments are presented clearly on the basis of elementary optical knowledge. Each experiment is provided with a brief reference section, as well as with notes on equipment needed and on suppliers in the U.S.A. There is an extensive bibliography for those who want to pursue a particular item further. Safe Practices in the Arts & Crafts: A Studio Guide. Gail Coningsby Barazani. The College Art Association of America , New York, 1978. 72 pp. Paper, $3.75. Reviewed by George A. Agoston* Here is an excellent, long-overdue chemical and radiation health hazards manual for art schools and for practicing artists and artisans. It is usefully subdivided into short sections that treat the subject in the following domains: Ceramics; Collage, Decoupage, Assemblage; Glassmaking; Cold Glass, Stained Glass, Lampwork; Leatherwork; Metals: Foundry; Metals: Welding, Brazing, Soldering; Painting and Drawing; Photography ; Printmaking; Woodworking. In addition, there are short sections on: Dyes; Fibers and Fabrics; Plastics; Radiation , Non-Ionizing; Solvents. Each section presents, first, a list of materials, substances, and processes and the harmful effects on health that are produced following overexposure to them and, second, a list of precautions to be taken. Each section is printed in a format suitable for copying and posting on a studio wall to serve as a safety guide. The sections are necessarily brief and to the point. With respect to the cited effects of overexposure, the author adds the following important qualification (p. 18): 'Frequency and duration of exposure, health and age of individuals, whether a woman is pregnant, amounts of materials used, even genetic background are crucial to the potential effect of the substance or process used.' On introductory pages of the book, there are brief discussions about work-area ventillation, protective clothing, eye protection, respirators and masks, and housekeeping and storage. For more detailed information on these and on the hazards, one must turn to authoritative source literature, some of which is cited in the bibliography at the end of the book. In the U.S.A. there are local safety and health services with which artists and art educators should become familiar. The author provides a list of 10 regional offices of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which supplies helpful literature and guides on request, a list of 23 poison control and information centers in the U.S.A., a list of 6 other major sources of information and a list of 6 suppliers of protective respiratory devices. The book, it should be emphasized, is limited to chemical and radiation health hazards. Artists in their work are also concerned with other safety hazards not treated in the book: fire hazards in the use of solvents, plastics and powdered metals; electrical shock hazards; other hazards presented by the use of tools and machinery. (Because these are not discussed in the book, its title seems too all-inclusive.) I have only a minor complaint, one concerning the nonuniformity in the statements on effects of overexposure. For example, in the section Metals: Foundry, the effects of overexposure to asbestos are given as 'Can cause cancer', *4 Rue Rambuteau, 75003 Paris, France. whereas in the section Ceramics they are given as 'Known to cause serious lung disease, lung and abdominal cancer (mesothelioma)'. The Ceramic section includes, in addition, a discussion about substitutes for asbestos, but the Metals: Foundry section does not. Similarly the effects of styrene monomer and...