The Galerie alexander levy is very pleased to present the work Experiment among Circles of the artist Julius von Bismarck at the abc.

The installation consists of two high bay lamps suspended from the ceiling. Each lamp hangs on a pendulum set into motion by an apparatus. They swing in a circle and it gradually begins to seem as if the room itself is starting to sway like a ship. The mathematically calculated movement of the lamps is thereby inspired by wave patterns occurring in nature. The circular movement of both lamps fluctuates between a harmonic and a chaotic moment.

Experiment among Circles demonstrates both the elementary laws of physics and the chaotic forces of nature. The key here is temporary harmony and the striving for regularity in untamed nature.

“The important thing here for me is not a particular thing, but rather, what does one think when this harmony between the swinging lamps occurs briefly and then disappears again. There are phenomena which occur in nature, in the form of numbers, in the form of vibrations, in the form of music, in the form of light. With this work I have attempted to present the phenomena which normally occur at the tiny microscopic level in very large dimensions and to make these tangible in a completely new way. Human beings look for harmony and a certain regularity in everything. Here one finds it, and loses it at the same time.”

The reason for this anomaly of the behavior of the lamps is a minimal difference in the length of the pendulum. The length of the pendulum is decisive for the speed at which a lamp travels in a circular movement. Objects cannot swing synchronously when they swing at different speeds. However, when one chooses a speed that provides them with a common denominator, the objects swing together briefly after a certain number of rounds.