Ciphers, Codices & Cryptos – visually encrypted information

Description

Worldwide, information is written (encoded), encrypted (ciphered), and transmitted (transferred) around the clock. This data processing happens nowadays lightning-fast, mostly electronically-digital in the globally networked cyberspace.

One is hardly aware of the technical complexity of these processes anymore, as they have become completely natural. As long as everything works, no one cares. But on the event horizon, the dark side of the otherwise beneficial information & communication technology is already visible: an insatiable hunger for energy, which leads to overexploitation of raw material sources and, consequently, conflicts over sustainable resources.

People of the information age will have no choice but to solve the problem at its root. To do this, one must understand the nature of the information substance precisely, both from a technical-physical and a cognitive-communicative perspective.

In this regard, the new postulate called 'it from bit' in physics helps, which captures information as coded energy and researches it accordingly. Simply put, in the future, not only the quantitative amount of energy demand must be considered, but also the qualitative coding of all data concepts. This applies equally to analog-conceived information products as well as digitally processed ones.

The exhibition «Ciphers, Codices & Cryptos – visually encrypted information» presents this not easily understandable topic through a comparative, especially decelerated consideration of both a medieval and a modern example:

• On the one hand, the historic painted ceiling in the Church of St. Martin in Zillis. Its famous numbers, signs, and symbols were not created by chance but were made with the deliberate intention of targeted message transmission.

• On the other hand, innovative artifacts from the Andeer panel painting manufactory Stoffelsconception GmbH are exhibited. These technically called PNFTs (=Physical Non Fungible Tokens) contain sophisticated information processing methods. Their unique feature is that they always have a measured vibration as a content reference. Like their classical counterparts, the newly designed panel paintings have a strictly coded meaning.

The exhibition is open daily until October 25, 2026, from 10:00 to 17:30.

No registration required.

Highlights

• Exhibition on visual information coding from the Middle Ages to today
• No registration required
• Location: Viamala Tourism, Zillis

General Information

The exhibition "Ciphers, Codices & Cryptos" illuminates the development of information coding over the centuries. It offers insights into the technical and communicative aspects of information processing and its impact on society.

Location

Haupstrasse 28, 7432 Zillis, Switzerland

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