Artifact 001 · The Human Condition // 001
The Observer
Does reality exist independently of observation?
- Composition
- A marble thinker confronting a chrome sphere that holds an impossible universe.
- Animation
- The sphere opens into a universe.
- Character
- Stillness before a revelation.
The idea
A thinker in marble stands before a sphere of polished chrome. Closed, it shows him only himself and the room around him. Opened, it holds a universe far larger than its surface allows.
The question is one of the oldest in philosophy: is the world we perceive the world as it is, or only how it appears to us? The artifact does not answer it. It puts the question on your back.
Sources & claims
- History
Plato's allegory of the cave, Republic Book VII (c. 375 BCE).
- History
George Berkeley, "to be is to be perceived" (1710).
- History
Immanuel Kant, phenomena and noumena, Critique of Pure Reason (1781).
- Science
In quantum mechanics a "measurement" is a physical interaction, not an act of consciousness.
Every statement is labelled: History is documented, Science is current understanding, Interpretation is the artwork's reading, Speculation is imaginative.
The physical artifact
Printed large on the back. Marked small on the chest.
Heavyweight 7.5 oz garment-dyed cotton in a slightly oversized fit. The museum placard under the artwork carries a permanent QR code that opens this artifact's exhibit.