Nicolai von Rosen: Tafelbild

“Tafelbild” combines handwriting with digital notation and recognizes all forms of handwriting—whether writing, calculating, sketching, or drawing—as an important component of school education. This also reflects a connection to the school’s namesake, Leonardo da Vinci, who left behind a vast number of sheets of paper containing his drawings and writings.
Different forms of handwriting created on digital whiteboards during class are compiled on a central monitor in the foyer. The video sequence displays various whiteboard images in alternating overlays—a continuous flow of school drawings that, ideally, extends throughout the entire day without repeating itself. This creates multi-layered palimpsests of knowledge that can only be deciphered upon closer inspection. In this respect, the blackboard image resembles Leonardo’s scientific work, as he composed most of his universal studies in mirror writing and in code.

Participatory Process
The originally planned automatic transmission of the blackboard drawings from the classrooms to the monitor in the foyer was adjusted during the implementation phase. Instead of an automatic network transmission, blackboard drawings created during class are collected by the teachers and passed on to the artist, who develops a video sequence from them.
The art project was first shown at the open house in January 2025: an approximately 20-minute video in which four to five blackboard drawings are visible simultaneously and alternate via cross-fades—a playfully transforming school drawing in which notations from a wide variety of subjects correspond with one another.