Mathematische Modelle 2009-2024
Swiss Design Awards 2024, awarded
Messehalle 1, Basel 

For their series Mathematische Modelle, which has been ongoing since 2009, Lena Amuat & Zoë Meyer have been photographing mathematical models from various scientific collections and universities across Europe.

These mathematical models represent concrete visualisations of abstract formulae, or models of thought, primarily in academic contexts. The aesthetics of these models are characterised by their materiality and the traces of handmade production. They are discovered packed away and hidden in boxes, often decades after their actual use as they have been replaced by computer-generated models and may disappear in the near future. The photographers travel with a mobile studio and photograph the models on location in the institutions using analogue technology, with 35mm negative film and without digital enhancement. The series of mathematical models currently contains around two hundred framed c-prints and is part of an ongoing body of work entitled Artefakte und Modelle, 2009–2024.