Universal Explanation of Nothing

How does one illustrate something that does not exist?
This publication explores the philosophical and complicated idea of nothingness. Inspired by the fact that without zero, modern technology would not exist, I created a fictitious language that is based on the binary notion (a method of mathematical expression that uses only two numbers: “0” and “1”) to explain nothing from a scientific point of view. My goal is to ironically comment on the inefficiency of Carl Sagan’s Golden Record, which went into space onboard Voyager in the 1970s.

The final result was a double bind a5 publication printed with a risograph. One side of the zine serves the purpose of the vocabulary, which is there to help you to decipher information on the black pages. 


The Creation of the Symbols

Symbols are created based on the binary translation of a specific word. “0” (zero) would stand for one circle, and “1” (one) would stand for one line in my drawing. For example, the binary translation of intergalactic space consists of a total of 82 zeros and 72 ones, meaning the visualisation of intergalactic space will be made of 82 circles and 72 lines.
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Vocabulary


Reading Pages 


Page spreads and sentances that are being visualised

What is nothing?What humans declare is or is not is based on how our senses receive the environment.A completely ‘empty’ box is full of air.Air consist of the oxygen molecules.In one cubic meter there is a septillion air molecules.A Laboratory vacuum on earth has 10 billion molecules per 1 cubic meter.Interplanetary space has 10 million molecules per 1 cubic meter.But CERN (in Switzerland) has a better vacuum than interplanetary space.That makes CERN the most nothing place in the solar system.If we go to the interstellar space, we are still left with a half a million molecules per 1 cubic meter.In intergalactic space is hard to find few atoms of anything per 10 cubic meters.If we remove all of the remaining atoms, we are left with quantum physics.Quantum physics is not nothing.In order to have nothing, we have to remove space, time, matter and energy.But the fact that we can describe it, makes it not nothing.