Day 039: Flatland

Look around you, spot all the possible lines around you!

Today our dear friend Kathrin Alischer, a designer who was visiting Bobola as a Sunday guest on April 12th has supported us on creating a great explorative activity for Bobola again. Kathrin is currently working with physical, mental and social boundaries in different environments. Spatial projects being close to her mind, she also found interesting exploring the spatial topic in Bobola. We are super happy, this is a cool activity again!

A world out of lines

Yesterday we examined our surroundings. In sunny weather we were able to discover the unknown here and there and could sharpen our eye for the fine details. Perhaps you noticed during your walk yesterday that the world of humans often consists of lines. The world of human beings, us, is build by us and we fill it with meanings. The environment we live in is created by us.

Today we are looking at the environment very closely and looking for the line based world around us. How many different kinds of lines and elements based on lines you can find in your daily environment? If you just highlight the lines as building elements of different things, how does it look like? There is the facade of a house, or a bicycle tire, but we also find recurring lines and grids in nature. Just have a look around your room? Where can you discover lines?

There are so many different kinds of lines around us! How many different kinds you can spot?

The Englishman Edwin A. Abbott already introduced the idea of flatland in the 19th century. In 1884 he published the book "Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions". His thoughts about living in a two-dimensional world were later filmed in Flatland: The Movie (2007) and Flatland 2: Sphereland (2012).

Today you will design your very own world. All you need is a sheet of paper and crayons - preferably at least three colours.

There's no limit to your imagination. Sketch as you go. You can start on a large scale - what would a two-dimensional city look like? You can continue with plants and animals. And you might even want to design transportation products such as bicycles and rollerblades.

After you have a sense of your newly created world, try to move yourself in it. Run along the new streets and stroke a dog. Oh but what is this? Someone is coming towards you - will you have to lie down on the floor to get by the other person?

Have a nice walk in your Flatland.