Meter Stick to Measure a Moment in Time (28 January 2020, 50°58’33 N 11°19’44° E)

Etched brass
74 x 24.5 x 0.2 cm
2021

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A single line across the surface of a crumpled piece of paper 100 cm long was extracted with 3D imaging methods. This line provided the high-resolution zigzagging edge with which to design a unique meter stick. After its digital capture, the piece of paper was moved, it changed shape, and the form was lost. As a result, this meter stick, which was designed to measure the surface roughness of that specific piece of paper, measures that single moment in time instead: like a plaster cast, it captured the crumpled paper’s form. Once that original source of the form was lost, the ruler itself was rendered useless as a measuring tool. Now no surface exists that would fit the particular zigzag of its line again.