∏ by Marta Laurenti

∏ is a mathematical constant, a real, irrational and transcendent number, whose decimal expansion therefore never ends nor becomes periodic. It is an infinite number, implying that every possible numerical combination exists somewhere in ∏. In this endless string of numbers is the name of every person you have ever loved, what you will do in the morning, how much your car cost, the coordinates of where you were last year, the words you are reading now, the date and circumstances of your death, and all the answers to humanity’s greatest questions. This is the truth. Partially. The information contained in ∏ has no structure, and understanding an infinite number is, by definition, beyond human reach: to think of using ∏ as an oracle is as absurd as wanting to count every atom in the universe. However, it is from the idea of ineffability that this project was born: the obsessive repetition of the flower subject, drawn by a hand that makes it always the same and always different, finds relief in the knowledge that everything has, somewhere, meaning for someone. By assigning each segraphic sign a numerical value or simply counting how many floral elements exist in a given spatial range, the resulting string is found to be ∏. These little flowers, potentially, represent anyone and no one, in a universe that has already existed, in a time that will never exist-with many, many misspellings. Marta Laurenti was born and raised in Turin, studied in Treviso, and lives and works in Reggio Emilia as a designer. She dreams of the sea, eats fruit, and draws flowers. Instagram: @marta.laurenti