{"id":1004,"date":"2015-11-15T00:06:12","date_gmt":"2015-11-14T22:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.subcaelo.net\/ensis\/?p=1004"},"modified":"2015-11-15T00:06:12","modified_gmt":"2015-11-14T22:06:12","slug":"sword-form-thought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.subcaelo.net\/ensis\/sword-form-thought\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sword – Form & Thought"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the end of September, I had the pleasure to attend the opening of the new exhibition of the Deutches Klingenmuseum in Solingen, The Sword – Form & Thought<\/a>. It was a special moment for me, as I had a small part in the preparation: together with Peter Johnsson, I had been working over the last year on the computation and display of the dynamic properties of swords. I am very happy with this collaboration (I hope Peter is, as well), and it was exciting to see the full exhibition, and finally read the catalogue!<\/p>\n

I wanted to write a quick review of the exhibit and accompanying catalogue. The catalogue is actually what I have worked most on, and I am arguably not a completely unbiased reviewer! I do think it is a very important publication on swords, which showcases many new ideas and contains a wealth of previously never published data.<\/p>\n

The exhibition<\/h2>\n

The exhibition is relatively small, you will not go through rooms after rooms with walls filled with swords as you might experience in permanent collections of bigger museums. Rather, the point of the exhibition is to display carefully selected specimens, representative of many different sword types. The downside is that there are few examples of each type, and fans of one specific type could find it frustrating. The upside is that you get to see the variety of swords, and what unites them as swords across time and space. You navigate from viking swords to longswords, to rapiers, passing through messers and falchions. <\/p>\n

Having worked on the catalogue, I had already seen drawings and measurements of many of the swords in the exhibition. Seeing the swords in person gives a sense of scale to all of this that I was still missing! The dominant feel that I took away is how tight and almost delicate everything tends to be; not just the handles as is often observed, even guards and blades. Modern examples seem overbuilt somehow, after seeing the show. This is not a new trend either: the museum hosts some 19th century fake rapiers in its permanent display, and although the guards are quite correctly proportioned they are huge and thick.<\/p>\n

The display cases are well made and you can look at the swords from quite close if you so desire. The lighting is good! Each sword is accompanied by a notice, and when applicable by the hypothetical geometric construction that gave the design according to Peter Johnsson’s research. A few information panels are scattered throughout the exhibition. Sadly they are only in German, which means international visitors will not always be able to read them. Towards the end of the exhibition there is a beautiful room on the use of geometry for design, including a video explaining some of the concepts.<\/p>\n

Next to one display of rapiers, martial artists will have the pleasure of looking at original fencing books, including the huge Thibault volume. There is even Thibault’s circle on the floor! As a Thibault fan, I fully approve, although I think it has been made a little bigger than it should.<\/p>\n

One full well-lit room is dedicated to the Xiphos project, for which several modern makers provided their interpretation of a “sword of piercing light”. Around each swords preliminary drawings are displayed, which gives an enjoyable window into the design process.<\/p>\n