All photos by Franziska Strauss, © Macarena Ruiz-Tagle, shared with permission
While exploring the Alpine region around Mont Blanc in 1789, the Swiss physicist and mountain climber Horace-Bénédict de Saussure (1740-1799) conceived of a tool to measure the blueness of the sky. He developed a round instrument dubbed a cyanometer with 53 shades dyed from Prussian blue he could hold up and compare to the atmosphere above. Saussure correctly predicted that the color correlated with the amount of water present, handy information for someone intending to scale a mountain.
Artist Macarena Ruiz-Tagle created a new version of the 18th-century tool for the 13th Annual Architecture Venice Biennale. Whereas the original cyanometer was geared toward personal use, Ruiz-Tagle’s design is outfitted as a postcard. Users hold the work up to the sky, mark the corresponding hue, and share a thought or two before dropping it in the mail. The artist also designed a sunset iteration with brilliant pink, orange, and yellow rays, both of which capture the current conditions and remind us that even though we may be physically separate, we all exist under the same sky.
You can find more from Ruiz-Tagle on her website, and pick up the postcards in the Colossal Shop.
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