Arriving at the Spitalplatz in Göppingen, the spectator encounters a sculptural construction. It consists of a stage-like, wooden substructure that supports a platform paved with cement cobblestones. The oddly patterned surface floats just a little above the already existing pavement, so a new place is defined on the existing place. The spectator can reach with only one step the approx. 50 cm (1,62 ft) high platform where he can take in an elevated position above the level of the original place. Therefore, the stage makes the spectator explicitly visible. Looking at the pattern from above, the spectator is irritated; it is difficult to keep track and to understand the pattern’s structure, because it works against the natural attempt to find symmetry or a familiar principle of systems.

The pattern itself originates from the mathematical special field of theoretical paving. It is used in theoretical physics as a two-dimensional analogy for the molecular arrangement of a certain material. The displayed pattern corresponds to the molecular arrangement of a real material, which actually, according to the rules of the usual spatial structure of crystals, should not exist and therefore it is called “quasi-crystal”, a kind of “super-material”, a special case of molecular arrangement.


-------> full text by Werner Meyer


© 2003 Ulrich Genth

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