Combinatorics and order as a foundation of creativity, information organization and art in the work of Wilhelm Ostwald

Thomas Hapke

 
Biography

Thomas Hapke is subject librarian for chemical engineering at the University Library of the Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH)  and deputy university librarian responsible for the customer services of the library. He studied chemistry and mathematics along with philosophy, history of science, and education science in Berlin. He concentrates on digital libraries and the Web 2.0, mediating information literacy, e-learning, chemical information, and the history of scholarly information and communication. Recent papers include the titles "Roots of mediating information : aspects of the German information movement" and  "Information literacy 2.0 and the disappearance of the user". More at http://www.tub.tu-harburg.de/192.html . He maintains a weblog "About information literacy, history, philosophy, education and beyond" at http://blog.hapke.de .

 
Abstract

The physical chemist and 1909 Nobel laureate Wilhelm Ostwald (1853-1932) developed broad and multifaceted interests in philosophy (of nature), history (of science) as well as color theory and the international organization of scholarly work. Applying combinatorics, which grew out of his philosophy of nature and which was viewed by Ostwald as a basis for creativity, Ostwald developed a theory of forms and colors. His work influenced marginally the activities of such movements in art like the German Werkbund, the Dutch De Stijl, and the Bauhaus. This poster supports a today more and more visible connection between "in-formation", education as well as art and design.