Architecture of the Alphabet

Adam Słowik has created a geometric structure, with whose rotations the 26 letters of the alphabet can be reproduced in the room. Using special software that was developed at the ZKM by Christian Lölkes, the motion sequences between the individual letters resulting from the rotation of the ABC Object are formed as new objects.

650 objects are developed from the number of possible combinations of the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet. These are exported as CAD models and outputted and materialized by the medium of 3D printing. Therefore, the »Crisis of Linearity« described by Vilém Flusser in 1988 finds a new solution, as we stand today at the threshold of a three-dimensional notation. While movement in film is noted through its linear listing of individual frames as a two-dimensional motion sequence, an ABC room emerges from the two-dimensional linear ABC with spherical or spatial notation. With these transformations in the ABC room, both the individual images and their movements are depicted in the room. With the help of the computer, software and 3D printing, an architecture of the alphabet emerges from the two-dimensional alphabet. The spatial notation transforms the transformation movements of the alphabet object into fantastic architectures and sculptures.

Within the exhibition »Architecture of the Alphabet« the ZKM presents another work of art by Adam Slowik »Digital Defects«.