From the Fathomless World of Infinite Mystery & Unearthly Beauty!  Which Man has yet to Discover! 

INCREDIBLE STRANGE OBJECT (I.S.O.) – also unconnected foreign object; an object that cannot be identified and classified immediately. Someone made it; but to what purpose? Its former user may have known the answer; its maker certainly would have. Lacking any acquaintance with its application and therefore unaware of its purpose, the finder is mystified and intrigued by this unknown entity so close at hand. Perhaps its details suggest a technical function – or a ritual animus? The desire to solve the puzzle runs deep.

(And can we make those things ourselves?)

Admiration has always been one of the driving forces behind collecting. Collecting, collating and trying to identify ‘things’ in the first museums and wunderkammers of European courts were no exception. These cabinets of curiosity exhibited a mixture of opposing attitudes: acquisitiveness, pride and boastfulness, as well as a humble admiration for the wonders of the world. With a substantial demand for universality, they connected the things found with objects made, were always in praise of the special and full of amazement and respect towards the peculiar. It is all about how and why anything is at all connected to anything else.

The result of the four day ISO workshop can be a very personal cabinet of wonders created by the participants. They reflect on the appearance and meaning of incredibly strange things, admire their nameless beauty, and take this as an inspiration and starting point for making new things alongside the invented stories. To connect these findings with the big narration machine, which is the City, will be the great challenge.