Markus Wintersberger · Whole project 2023 — 2026 · 01 Verlorene Form · 2023 Scans · 02 ≠0
01 · LOST FORM
wax, glow, bronze — vacuum02 · ≠0 · ZERO IS NOT ZERO
count, don’t render — paper, ink
01 · Christ in Distress · I · Adriaen de Vries, 1607
PARTING LINE · 50.0 %
In March 2023 the bronzes of the Princes of Liechtenstein were scanned in the exhibition “Cast for Eternity” at the Liechtenstein Garden Palace. At the time, Big Think asked whether nothing exists at all. In 2026 the scans became two casts. The first thinks of nothing as a mould, the second as a measurement.
2026 · Version 01Lost Form
Two kinds of nothing: the quantum vacuum, where particle pairs appear and vanish (ΔE·Δt ≥ ħ/2, E = mc², Casimir), and the cavity of lost-wax casting. Sprues branch as Feynman diagrams; 1607 → 2026 is about 10¹⁰ seconds. Six chapters: Nihil, Cera, Forma perdita, Fusio, Aeternitas, Spuma.
3D scans of the bronzes, Liechtenstein Garden Palace, Vienna, 1–31 March 2023. They are the parting surface from which both casts are taken.
scans · Sketchfab ↓
2026 · Version 02≠0
Zero is not zero. Don Lincoln’s quantum foam and Marcelo Gleiser’s claim that our language cannot grasp quantum reality become the method here. The bronzes are counted from single events, reinterpreted as tables of numbers (Heisenberg 1925), split into position and momentum, and the words stay superposed.
The left of each plate is the bronze from the foundry of version 01; the right is the same figure counted from detector events in version 02. The seam follows pointer or finger. A click turns the plate: positive becomes mould, position becomes momentum spectrum.
Three measurements, upright: position, number, momentum.
A · detection · B · word · C · spectrumThe palace as line drawing: 18 scans on an ellipse in the Sala terrena, pouring cups, sprues as Feynman diagram, quantum foam, Casimir plates, Pozzo’s Hercules Hall fresco as foam. Free reconstruction.
The palace as measuring apparatus: façade as point cloud, windows as void, ground as zero field 0.0000. 18 bronzes collapse from foam into form, Casimir plates stand in the court of honour, a logarithmic time axis runs along the garden axis.
“Nothing” doesn’t exist. Instead, there is “quantum foam”. When you combine the Uncertainty Principle with Einstein’s famous equation, you get a mind-blowing result: Particles can come from nothing.Don Lincoln · Big Think · 16.2.2023
How long may something be borrowed from nothing? Uncertainty ΔE·Δt ≥ ħ/2 gives the answer. A 100 kg bronze from nothing would last 5.9·10⁻⁵⁴ seconds. The bronze in the palace has lasted 1.32·10¹⁰ seconds. Over that span it may owe the vacuum no more than 4·10⁻⁴⁵ joules.
Pointer or finger on the axis measures.
| Project | The Nature of Nothing — Cast for Eternity · 2023 · version 01 Lost Form 2026 · version 02 ≠0 Zero is not zero 2026 |
| Works | 18 scans after bronzes of the Princely Collections: Adriaen de Vries, Christ in Distress (1607) · Massimiliano Soldani-Benzi, Dancing Faun (1695–97) · after Giambologna, Hercules and a Centaur · Giovanni Francesco Susini, Kneeling Woman Bathing · Giambologna workshop / Adriaen de Vries, Mercury · Antonio Susini, Rape of a Sabine Woman (c. 1600) · The Farnese Bull (after the antique) |
| AV | per version long version 4:54, trailer 3:24, 3D animation 2:58 · 3840 × 2160 · 25 fps · −16 LUFS · plus three 9:16 stories (60 s) for version 02 |
| 3D · Game | two reconstructed scenes of the Garden Palace (GLB, animation 178 s), 18 work models and 18 detection sculptures for AR, two experiences, two art & science games (web and macOS) |
| Physics | W. Heisenberg, Z. Phys. 33 (1925) 879 · Z. Phys. 43 (1927) 172 · H. B. G. Casimir, Proc. KNAW 51 (1948) 793 · X. Fan et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 071801 (2023): g/2 = 1,001 159 652 180 59(13) |
| Footage | How was it made? Lost-wax bronze casting © Victoria and Albert Museum, London (edited excerpts) |
| Credits | Concept, 3D scans, image, sound, 3D, programming: Markus Wintersberger · medienwerkstatt006, Vienna · generative realisation AI-assisted (Claude, Anthropic) |
