Glass

I've often considered the nature of a transparent material, I suppose if I'm honest from a young age my life has always been focused through either glass or now plastic. I'm not talking about a camera lens, but spectacles so that I can see correctly. Although at times I think we all look at the window pane on the Bus, noticing the dirty, hair oils, food etc. So we keep glass clean and we see a perfect image, but over time glass wears and starts to show signs of life. It takes on it's own personality through wearing its scars openly for all to see.

On another level does glass have a memory? a window that sits looking out towards some scene or view, be it stationary or moving. Like photographic film that captures something in an instant, can glass hold onto something by means of a long exposure. By exposure time of years not seconds? I've always had an interest in the deformed glass of years old.. the imperfections, bubbles, distortion, was glass always like this or has it aged with an absorption of light over time? okay so they couldn't make glass that well years ago so that's why it's like that... but does it have an organic nature? can it feel and record without us seeing?

I've posted two images below that follow my thinking. The first is of an old window - glass through glass, this is the Harris Art Institute. The next is the bay window of the Edwardian house I live in. I'm not looking at what is beyond the glass, but the glass and what it might see.