Artificial Horizon

Bureau Fomo invites:
Johanna Pichbauer, Artificial Horizon
Vienna Design Week, 2025
Matthias-Schönerer Gasse 13, 1150 Vienna

Sight tube, horizon mirror, index mirror (mounted with the Aldihade), light filters to fold in and out, and a degree scale. The interaction of these parts results in the sextant. With the addition of an eye, a sun, a horizon, and a table of angles, one can locate one’s own point in the Earth's coordinate system. The decisive factor here is the view through the viewing window: it is halved by the first mirror, then further quartered by the horizon, until finally half of the sun—or the Pole Star—moves into the center.

For her installation ARTIFICIAL HORIZON, designer Johanna Pichlbauer makes the sextant accessible. The individual technical components become furniture and sculptures, while the horizon itself hangs from the ceiling, rotated by 90 degrees. The shift in scale and the rotation of the horizon create an installation that makes the functioning of the instrument comprehensible and at the same time raises questions about orientation and location in space.

Photos Julia Dragosits & Lea Sonderegger