Looking Back 2014
University
of Sustainable Development Eberswalde
Acrystal,
glass crystals
400 x 280 x 2 cm
Looking Back shows a world-enwrapping cloud formation out of polished glass crystals. The beauty of this jewel object lies in the many tiny and oscillating reflections of the glass crystals. It reminds you of a description which the astronaut Edward Mitchell made when he whitnessed the rising of the earth: "Suddenly, from behind the rim of the Moon, in long, slow-motion moments of immense majesty, there emerges a sparkling blue and white jewel, a light, delicate sky-blue sphere laced with slowly swirling veils of white, rising gradually like a small pearl in a thick sea of black mystery."
Looking back. Today the photographic image of the world as a whole is matter-of-fact. In 1966, however, the button "Why haven´t we seen a photograph of the whole earth yet?" caused a stir. The question expressed the heart of a movement: the dissatisfaction of the environmental community and its disapproval of the billions that space colonization cost, while signs of ecological disasters on earth were being ignored. When two years later, in 1968, the Apollo-8 Mission could behold such new perspectives of the earth for the first time, its photographic images were to revolutionize the collective visual memory of mankind. The images met a desire which had evolved during the sixties to perceive the world holistically as a sensitive environment.
Through this "overview effect" the earth became a symbol of the peace movement in the cold war era and has remained so in the global environmental efforts within science and politics towards a greater sustainability.
Despite today´s cheap industrial production of crystal glass, it stands for affluence, because its aesthetic appearance is similar to that of the diamond. Here lies the ambivalence, which comes with a challenge: on the one hand it represents a treasure that needs to be guarded, on the other the beauty of its crystal stones represent the desire for possession and economical growth. Thus it reflects the principal aim of sustainability in research and the schools of thought: to achieve a sound working relation between ecology and economy.
An interesting play of thought poses the following scenario, in which the image of desire to possess on a whole would dominate, but then lead to individual stones being broken out of their settings. The faulty gaps appearing in the cloud formation might well evoke talks on responsibility, on the necessities and possibilities of renewal; and would not the argumentative and performative strategies of such discussions be instructive in showing the parallels to the struggles in maintaining the ecological balance on our planet?
