1st Step – Dealing with Complexity
The conditions we have to work with are easy to describe: two sheets of A2 paper with about 150 points on each. What we see is part of the constellations in summer and winter, respectively observed from the equator.
This is the beginning of the cultural development of humanity: lying on the ground, looking at the stars, drawing imaginative lines from one to the other until we discover a figure that corresponds to us, the constellation of Orion. Orion, which shows a person standing upright, is the oldest constellation known in all cultures.
In the meantime, we know that there are more stars in the universe than grains of sand, if you take all the sandy beaches on this planet together.
What we are doing now is reconstructing the elementary way of dealing with complexity:
Connect each dot on the given sheets with another. Do this until all the dots are connected. Use a ruler and the ballpoint pens provided to do this.
The questions that involuntarily arise in this grasping of complexity are above all:
Can we describe a system according to which the subject connects the dots?
Does this presumed system only apply to the individual subject or do we find a similar procedure among different subjects?
What causes the similarities? Are they possibly based on cultural determination?
In order to be able to answer this question in a scientifically sound manner, we need a correspondingly sufficient number of results. To this end, we work with art and design schools all over the world.
Whether the structured grasping of complex coordinates proves to be a subjective act in each case or whether collective criteria such as age, gender, origin, education or other factors play a role in the process says something about the possibilities and restrictions of intercultural cooperation.