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433 EROS


Having been asked for a contribution to an exhibition about nature-inspired design entitled «Nature Design», we decided to show a tool which has the potential to design nature: an asteroid. «433 Eros» is similar to the asteroid that reshaped the surface of the Earth, extincting a few thousand species, when it impacted 65 million years ago.

It is the impact which releases the energy, and this with delicate preciscion: Eros measures only 33×13×13km, and yet it can change everything on the 12’700km diameter Earth. And the asteroid itself has been shaped by impacts.

When building the scale model, we used this as the generating momentum: the substitute material was exposed to thousands of impactors which transformed the surface into a scale substitute of reality.

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Works in Catalogue
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Produced for : Museum of Design Zurich, 2007
Publication : «Nature Design», Lars Müller Publishers, Baden
Still and movie camera : Tobias Madörin
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created 2007-08-22   |    last update 2007-09-11   |    Copyright (c)2002–2010 by Christian Waldvogel

GLOBAL SCALPEL: «433 EROS»


«The most extensive process of «Nature Design» to date occurred during the transition from the Cretaceous to the Tertiary period, when an asteroid the size of the city of Paris collided with the earth. The resulting release of energy changed the earth's climate and led to the extinction of the dinosaurs and many other species. This was the basis for evolution, the spread of the mammals, and the development of Man. Since the end of the twentieth century, universities and space agencies have been recording astral objects that pose a potential threat to the earth; by the year 2008, 90 percent of those with a diameter of at least one kilometer will have been registered.

fig. 1) Shooting Eros. Styrofoam, shotgun, gun powder, gravel, pepper, 2007 (photo: Tobias Madörin)
 
fig. 2) Asteriod 433 Eros orbiting the Sun between Earth and Mars, 2007 (rendering)

This research program is intended on the one hand to allow the threat posed by asteroids to be calculated, and on the other to develop scenarios in the case of a possible collision. Within the framework of this program, the probe NEAR Shoemaker measured the asteroid 433 Eros—originally discovered in 1898—that moves between the orbits of the Earth and the planet Mars. With a length of thirty-three kilometers, it is comparable to the one that so enduringly changed the earth 65.5 million years ago.
 
fig. 3) Drawing #1: Asteriod 433 Eros projected onto the Canton Zürich, rising above the constant cloud cover
 
fig. 4) Drawing #2: 1:500 scale Eros model at the Museum of Design Zürich. Due to budgetary concerns, only the small part puncturing the museum’s facade was built
 
fig. 5) Installation view Museum of Design Zürich, Styrofoam, pepper, gravel, shotgun, two inkjet prints


Christian Waldvogel understands 433 Eros as representing the «global scalpel», and develops the scenario of a new collision at the beginning of the twenty-first century that affects the Zurich area. In the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, 433 Eros is exhibited as a 1:500 scale model. What is still imagination in the park penetrates the external wall of the museum and becomes visible in the exhibition space as a volume with a depth of thirty-five centimeters, corresponding in reality to a length of 175 meters.»
Excerpt from «Nature Design», Lars Müller Publishers, 2007, Text by Angeli Sachs


fig. 6) «EROS Shovel», Rendering, 2008
mov. 1) «Shooting Eros», 00:36, 2008. Camera: Tobias Madörin, editing & concept: Christian Waldvogel

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SOURCES AND COPYRIGHTS
433 Eros 3D-Model: Arizona State University / NASA
433 Eros Surface Texture: University of Maryland / NASA
Satellite photo and region zürich clouds: The Blue Marble / NASA
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THANKS
The artist would like to express his profound thankfulness to these persons, who each have contributed to this project: Angeli Sachs, Christian Brändle, Tobias Madörin, Alex Konrad (Hard AG), Jürg Abegg and Claudia Meier
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created 2007-08-22  |   Copyright (c)2002–2010 by Christian Waldvogel