One of my favorite things about essays are the opportunities for the writer and for us to suppose things. To think through ideas and concepts in exploration and experiment. Such experimentation can be seen in sketching too. But I have never seen animation be used as a tool for thought experiment. But that is exactly what this is. And it is mesmerizing. ​

Caution there are flashing lights in the video.​

The artisit Phillipe Artus explains:

"The basic idea of the work is inspired by processes of exponential acceleration, which can be observed at different levels. Thus, the evolution of life proceeds at an extremely slow pace for more than 3 billion years, until it suddenly seems to explode in the Cambrian period. The tools of human beings progress relatively little during the Stone Age until there comes a rapid cultural development during the Holocene. Nowadays, a similar acceleration process is generated by the exchange of information through the internet. From this perspective, the exponential spiral on a snail shell may almost appear like a miraculous wink of nature."

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