Autumn, 1999
A mousemat facsimile of the Einstein Blackboard has been a best-selling item on the Museum bookstall for several years now. It reproduces the equations chalked by Einstein at a lecture on relativity in Oxford in 1931 and now preserved on one of the best known objects in the collection. An example of the mousemat is going on display at the Science Museum in London, alongside a signed photograph of Einstein taken in 1933, the idea being to illustrate how his theory has become a cultural icon and a fashion statement, even if it is not fully understood. The Einstein blackboard also recently featured in another exhibit in the Science Museum, this time by the artist in residence Cornelia Parker. Entitled ‘Another day spent’, the exhibition consisted of photograms, microscopic photographs, traces and drawings, installed throughout the galleries. It included photographic images by the artist taken in Oxford of the chalk marks on the surface of the Einstein Blackboard, enlarged almost unrecognisably at a very large magnification. |