Alena Lackner + Judith Grübl

A man as obdurate as Otl Aicher was unlikely to have allowed room for role models, though there were people he might admit influenced his own thinking. Ludwig Wittgenstein was undoubtedly one such person. Aicher was particularly taken by Wittgenstein’s evolution as a thinker, moving as he did from positing the existence of an ideal language determined solely by logical considerations to a philosophy arrived at through observation of the concrete use made of language.

Otl Aicher had clear ideas on how exhibitions should be designed. The focus was to be on the information being conveyed, with the visual packaging playing a subordinate role. His exhibition designs were correspondingly low-key and devoid of embellishment. The “Dichotomy” project presented here looks into Ludwig Wittgenstein’s philosophical point(s) of view.

Rather than taking a back seat, the exhibition architecture contributes to getting Wittgenstein’s intellectual legacy across. Following on from an introductory section, the two philosophical positions Wittgenstein adopted are elucidated. Light is shed on key pronouncements by citing architectural features in Wittgenstein’s house. Awaiting visitors at the end is a quiz in which they are invited to digest what they have seen. This accords nicely with the Wittgenstein adage “Philosophy is about working on oneself.”