Metermorphosen

History By The Meter: Four Frankfurters Capture 2000 Years On A Folding Rule
»To capture a single century with its abundance of events is hard enough. What about two millenniums? A Herculean task, if anything. Four Frankfurters did not see it that way. They have developed a "Historic Folding Rule" that is supposed to do just that – accurate by the millimeter. You only have to unfold it to learn that Europe was hit by a dance epidemic in 1021 for instance, that night fashion from sleeping jackets down to bed shoes (people slept completely dressed) reached a temporary peak in 1662, and that Johann Sebastian Bach discovered a musical theme in his family name in 1729.«
Frankfurter Rundschau, 23. August 1999

History by the meter
MeterMorphosen is a collective based in Frankfurt comprising a publisher, an architect, a carpenter ans an Italian teacher who between them have conceived the multiple ‘Histroy by the meter’. The basic priciple is simple - 2,000 years is compressed into 2,000 millimeters along the lengths of a wooden folding ruler. MeterMorphosen would argue that the publication is a ‘non-book’, but the Folding Rule satisfies any criteria one would bring to bear in judging it an artist’s book and it does so with a satisfying eclecticism.
Designed in the clear Gill Sans typeface, it evokes the memory of school pencil cases and their personalised contents. Time runs in a line from 1 AD punctuated on one side of the rule by historic events which range from the Sermon of the Mount to the arrival of potatoes in Europe in c. 1548. On the other side major movements in ‘Mind, Power and the Arts’ place these historic events in the light of contemporaneous philosophic, cultural and religious influences. The selection and juxtapositions are fascinating, funny and above all associative. The editors have achieved a shorthand by which the single entries e.g. ‘Einstein: e = mc2’, can spell out wider, more complex connotaions.
The Eagle, London

A Measure For 2 000 Years: Not Every Tool Is Trash
» This folding rule reads like a novel. It is the courage to be selective that is so impressive about the "Historic Folding Rule".«
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 29. November

2 000 Years Of History On 2 000 Millimeters / Manufactured by Adga In Mainhardt
» Those who believe they will be tortured by data that were already boring in school are wrong. Guasti, Koch, Kollmann and Kremer did not just want to reel off the dying days of emperors, they wanted to stun with the unknown. It seems they have succeeded: who knows that the first rubber balls appeared 1193 in South America? Or that the first cookbook was published in 1474?«
Frankfurter Neue Presse, 21. August 1999

Measured
» If you want to know if there are 60 cm space for a bookshelf in your office you will learn fittingly that around the year 600 Chinese printing was developed. Or if you want to hang an oil painting in your living room, approximately 160cm wide, the folding rule provides the necessary information that from the year 1600 on Rubens, Rembrandt and Vélazquez might be taken into consideration.«
BUNTE, 28. November 1999

How Long Are 2 000 Years? – Exactly Two Meters
» The folding rule is based on a striking idea. It strikes everybody who is holding one in his hands. It provides incentives to talk about history, to look up further facts and to deal with history.«
Lernwelten, February 2000

The Most Important Periods Of Intellect, Powers And The Arts
» The ultimate Gift for passionate DIYers«
Mein Eigenheim, IV 99. November 1999

»Ingenious mixture of practical tool, clever gift and art.«
Südwest Rundfunk, 21. September 1999

»It is the selection of the MeterMorphosen tinkerer team that is impressive about this folding rule.«
Hessischer Rundfunk, 4. December 1999

»An intelligent folding rule with many dimensions to it, developed by four young men.«
ZDF Nachtstudio "fin de siècle: Lifetyle in the Nineties", 1. December, 1999

»A beautifully designed object with many references and surprising historical data.«
3sat Kulturzeit, 23. December, 1999