union investment

"adaption III" / staircase design

 

[exhibition concept, drawings, text,

exhibition design, spatial graphics]

union investment "adaption III" / staircase design

[exhibition concept, drawings, text, exhibition design, spatial graphics]

"a picture – it is an impression of the truth that we’re allowed to look at with our blinded eyes."

andrej tarkovskij [director, film theorist, writer]

"sculpting in time"

1984

design of an exhibition concept, compilation of all contents from different disciplines as well as the development of five thematic spatial graphics, which extend over 21 storeys in the form of a staircase design. the work illustrates the evolutionary human understanding of the natural principles underlying our world. it provides an intuitive insight into the corporate culture of union investment through these abstract, free channels.

the conceptual work is created as an exhibition and stretches throughout the whole staircase. it’s an invitation to immerge into the world of unconventional philosophers and mystics. alongsode the thoughts, sentiments and ideas of scientists, artists, designers, writers, film makers etc. the visitor is accompanied through all levels by 22quadrat’s graphical interpretations. the journey it’s supposed to raise questions and to encourage dialogues – about nature, future and also about the corporate culture of union investment.

it addresses the structural order of nature: the flexible principals of self-organisation and how they are revealed in the micro- and macrocosm. humankind was once part of this system, but with the awakening of consciousness the segregation started. humans considered themselves no longer as element of the system but as observer, shaper and dominator of nature.

the work attempts to portray the development of our comprehension of nature; how we moved through the system since the awakening of our consciousness, how we move today and how we might possibly move in the future… to become once again part of the system, to live in harmony with it.

as alleged dominators do we still life in balance with nature? what could we change to become part of it again? or is our current behaviour just part of our role: destined to cause a constant imbalance. to destroy, to interfere, to meddle and to change radically, only to keep the complexity and diversity of nature and chaos in motion and alive?

the work is composed of five episodes.

episode I

chaos 

"1. mathematics is the language of nature.

2. everything around us can be represented and understood through numbers.

3. if you graph the numbers of any system, patterns emerge therefore: there are patterns everywhere in nature."

darren aronofsky [director, writer]

quote max cohen in "pi – system in chaos"

1998

humankind arises from nature and stands opposite of it. the arising consciousness split up the holistic mentality. first connections and overlaps form, but without recognisable patterns.

episode II

fields

"it all must move, make new creations,

first take form, then transformations;

for moments it just seems held fast.

in all things life's perpetuated,

and all must be annihilated

that existence strives to last."

johann wolfgang von goethe

[writer, natural philosopher, diplomat, civil servant]

"one and all"

1820-1822

based on the classic / euclidean geometry the first sciences develop. highly specialized, incoherent, neither holistically thinking nor communicative. they try to organise nature, to dominate it. they try to penetrate the life-giving chaos with inflexible and linear equations.

episode III

network

"all living beings are members of ecological communities bound together in a network of interdependencies. when this deep ecological perception becomes part of our daily awareness, a radically new system of ethics emerges."

fritjof capra [physicist, system theoretician, philosopher, writer]

"the web of life: a new scientific understanding of living systems"

1996

expansion and collapse of a gigantic, permanently pulsating and rampantly growing super-organism. the network as a graphic turns into a geometrical space; a dynamic, three-dimensional construct illustrating simultaneously the diversity and complexity of nature as well as the fundamental but simple idea of a connected world.

episode IV

hyperspace

"our descendants, who and whatever they might be, will explore time and space on a scale we're not yet able to comprehend. they will create new melodies in the music of time. there is an infinite number of harmonies to explore."

clifford pickover [writer, journalist]

"time: a traveler’s guide"

1998

classic geometry is no more than a highly abstracted reality. but that is insufficient to satisfy our human desire of delving deeper into the existing complexity of nature, to understand the meaning of our existence.

it was time for a new geometry, a new understanding of dimensions, to fathom the mysteries our perception fails to sense.

maybe higher dimensions aren’t located at the edge of a black hole, somewhere in outer space, but are immeasurable, so inconceivably small, that no human being will be able to make them visible...

episode V

multiverse

"if we find the world to be a whole, not allowing fragmentation, then we have to ask: how do we gain access to this entirety? and then we discover our spiritual experience to be a gateway. we never experience the mind to be completed.

in the whole of the universe there is an intelligence we can't comprehend. i can be certain about things i don't understand. with intelligence i mean something open, not subordinated to law of nature."

hans-peter dürr [physicist, essayist]

"there are no borders to the mind"

[in an interview with der spiegel]

1999

how is it possible that our universe offers the exact conditions to sustain life, to create self-aware beings, allowing itself to become observable, capable of self-reflexion?

if these characteristics were changed by a mere fraction, the universe would collapse or expand with such high velocity, that all life forms would be erased in a split second.

the many-worlds interpretation offers a physical explanations of this phenomenon. according to this model there is an infinite number of universes, arising and disintegrating like bubbles in the twinkling of an eye. therefore our universe is only one of the endless varieties of universes and intelligent life arises as a necessary possibility out of this infinity.

"in the beginning there is nothing but the mystery."

christian montillon [writer]

quote of perry rhodan in "plejaden"

2015