Ruth Tesmar, a German artist and professor of aesthetic practice, is celebrating the legendary letter-writing of the mathematician and rationalist Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in an exhibition that opens today at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences in Berlin. She explores the balance between aesthetics and scientific-technical rationalism. “Letters about monads”, shown here, represents Leibniz's theory of monads by playing with writing, the traditional means of conveying theories. Tesmar's handwriting frames two images of Leibniz's work, indicating the separation of ideas by boundaries. Rice and a leaf symbolize paper-making materials. “Briefe an Leibniz” runs until the summer.
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Alison Abbott is the senior European correspondent of Nature
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Abbott, A. Letters to Leibniz in Berlin. Nature 391, 652 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/35542
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/35542