A quote from Micromégas by Voltaire filled a long wall in a connection corridor leading to Project Space Plus at Lincoln University.
‘Because,’ Replied the scholar, ‘one should always cite what one understands least in the language one least understands.’
This quote from Micromégas by Voltaire filled the 13m long wall of the glass fronted space that connects the exterior campus with the interior gallery Project Space Plus at Lincoln University, England.
Thinking about the flow of students, staff and visitors around the outside of the building and between departments via the interior link corridor, we used the size and transparency of the site to play with themes inherent in Voltaire’s 1752 science fiction story Micromégas such as scale, human foible, scientific superstitions, science as ruse, science as spectacle, anti-utopias, human essence, and the formation of ideas.
The larger context of the site being within an art school that sits within a university added an element of provocation to the quote selected from Theo Cuffe’s 1994 translation of Voltaire’s original text (London: Penguin, 1994).
The wall work brought an additional layer of meaning to Tracy & Edwin’s ongoing Micromegas publishing project which was presented in the adjacent gallery.
During the public lecture ‘Hundred Thousand Lunatics’ at The Collection museum for art and archaeology in Lincolnshire Tracy & Edwin traced the links between conflict, history, social engagement and process in their work, through the Micromegas project.