From the 13th to the 21st century: Ramon Llull and Open Codes

BY PETER WEIBEL

Dear visitors,

Have you ever wondered what you can see on the first floor above »Open Codes« and have you climbed the stairs? The exhibition »DIA-LOGOS. Ramon Llull and the ars combinatoria« focuses on an outstanding figure of the Middle Ages: Ramon Llull was a thinker who moved between the worlds.

His life took place between his birthplace Majorca, the Spanish mainland, western Europe and the eastern Mediterranean, and thus also along the interfaces of Christian, Jewish and Muslim culture. He is one of the great founding fathers and most enlightened minds of European culture. That Europe can proclaim modernity and innovation for itself, is also essentially based on the work of Ramon Llull.

Ramon Llull's invention of rotating paper discs, with which one could formalize conceptual relationships, are the first »paper-based computers«. They clearly show the development up to the current exhibition »Open Codes«. The technique used by Llull represents an early attempt to mathematize and mechanize thinking. The so-called »ars combinatoria«, which was founded by Ramon Llull, inspired Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz to describe a binary system based on the numbers zero and one, and later George Boole (Boolean Algebra).

All the computers we work with today use this binary numerical system. Also the simple and higher programming languages like C++, Java and Python are based on this numerical system. True incunabula are also presented in the exhibition: An original calculating machine of Philipp Matthäus Hahn (1739-1790) from Württemberg and the calculating machine of Leibniz. Llull has also influenced numerous artists over centuries (Dalf, Täpies, Kiefer, Schönberg and others).

You should not miss the opportunity to experience this unique parcours from the 13th to the 21st century – the deep time of European culture, which the EU does not know – which is opened by the two exhibitions! »DIA-LOGOS. Ramon Llull and the ars combinatoria« can be seen until August 5, 2018 and we have extended »Open Codes« until January 6, 2019.

Your Peter Weibel