Simon Starling & Superflex

In connection with Simon Starling & Superflex. e.g.

A cross-departmental, pan-Styrian, polyphonic project directed by Simon Starling and Superflex, with Super Eggs by Piet Hein designed in light of a mathematical formula by Gabriel Lamé set within a museum founded by Arch Duke Johann of Austria following an elliptical epiphany by Johannes Kepler.

At the Centre of Natural History department of the Universalmuseum the shiny Super Egg finds itself under the exacting scrutiny of scientist Wolfgang Paill. While initially struck by the egg’s similarity to those produced by certain types of insects, Paill’s observations counter all previous speculation as to the origins and history of the Super Egg and even suggest a possible correction to the phonetics in use. The Super Egg thus becomes the “Superegg”, with its full Latin name being Superovatus splendens Paill, 2011 on the basis that Superovatus identifies a new Genera of perfectly shaped egg, splendens a new and conspicuously shiny species of microsculpture, Paill being the name of its identifier and 2011 being the year of identification.

Zoologist Wolfgang Paill says:
“If I had the Super Egg in my collection and this would really be ‘just an egg’ (meaning one of the first ‘stadiums’ of an animal) I would not be able to describe this, because naming a new taxon (species) should not be done (and is seriously not able to be done) on the basis of an egg alone. So let´s say the ‘Superegg’ represent a new animal that has never been found before, maybe captured at deep sea levels. Let’s also say, that this animal is somehow very specific, we say nominotypical (i.e. we don't expect to find something similarly in the future). In this case a new genera should be established and of course a new species”.

Thus the “Superegg” surrenders to the gaze and subsequent universal classification system of a zoological understanding, a systematic categorization of the world originally introduced by the Swedish zoologist Carl von Linné (1707 1778) in his book Systema Naturae. Linné claimed that “God creates, Linné organises” and chose an egg to take center-stage on his coat of arms "to denote nature, which is continued and perpetuated in ovo." But if anything in the Universe can be classified according to a zoological order this leaves one question unanswered. If our scientist can be classified according to Animalia (kingdom), Vertebrata (subphylum), Mammalia (Class), Primates (Order), Haplorrhini (tribus), Hominoidea (upper family), Hominidae (family) and so on, then what of his gaze itself, mirrored as it is in the shiny, distorting surface of the newly renamed “Superegg”? Could this in turn be classified? A Conspicio Superovatus perhaps?

Design by PIET HEIN © Piet Hein A/S Denmark
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