II · Archai 06 / 07
DENDRITIC SYMMETRY
Atoms and Void
A crystal is the nearest thing we have to Democritus' vision: order made of atoms and void. Colour, he says, exists only by convention — and here colour is, quite literally, the alphabet.
The hidden text
Νόμῳ γλυκὺ καὶ νόμῳ πικρόν, νόμῳ θερμόν, νόμῳ ψυχρόν, νόμῳ χροιή, ἐτεῇ δὲ ἄτομα καὶ κενόν. In English, my rendering
By convention sweet, by convention bitter, by convention hot, by convention cold, by convention colour; in truth, atoms and void.
Democritus of Abdera, fragment 9 Public domain — ancient text, c. 400 BC
This is exactly what the sheet carries. The reader returns it letter for letter.
Measurements
- Words
- 16
- On the sheet
- 185 bytes
- Capacity
- 887 bytes
- Fill
- 21%
- Line length
- 1.8 m
- Data rungs
- 1,774
- Paper
- A4 · 210 × 297 mm
Prints
Archival pigment print, signed and numbered. Choose a size:
