Malte Uchtmann

Atlas der Unmöglichkeiten

Encyclopedias have been widely used as "collections of knowledge" since the Enlightenment in the 18th century, embodying the ideas of universality and objectivity by organizing, systematizing, and classifying the world through words and images.

The work "Atlas of Impossibilities" by Leipzig-based artist Malte Uchtmann examines the (dis)continuities of visual representations of knowledge in encyclopedic media and explores how the images used shape concepts of knowledge, truth, and objectivity.

Focusing on the representation of knowledge and its temporal and spatial transformations, the project incorporates illustrations and photographs from encyclopedias across different eras and regions, as well as modern methods of digital knowledge transfer, such as search engines and AI. These diverse sources are interconnected and critically examined for their assumptions, policies, and worldviews.

Within the alphabetic structure of encyclopedias, where language loses its spatial anchoring, images can break free from taxonomic orders of knowledge. Through their network of relations, they create new and collective meanings.