Predrag Caranovic sculptures Sep. 2014 | Page 121

learn it anywhere else. For example, there was this Miloje Rakocevic, technologist that was obsessed by Njegos and wrote about the connection of Njegos with science. On the base of the portrait of Njegos, that is of the library that was represented in the background of that portrait, he made a selection of books that Njegos owned in his library and what were the books he could read at the time. Than, combining these and other facts, he concluded that Njegos was aware of some very complex math formula, because all of his lyrics followed a certain mathematical thread. This mathematical thread had two exceptions though. For years, he couldn’t prove his point. Finally, in some archive, he found the original handwritings of Njegos and thanks to those he proved that the two exceptions were made during the printing preparations and so his theory was confirmed. Rakocevic was a correspondent for the British Royal Society. One of the referees was also Goran Putnik. He is now a professor at Porto in Portugal. Ordinary professors are appointed by the Ministry there. He went there with the lecture entitled “How much does a kilo of mind cost?” He’s been there for some twenty years now. Putnik made a calculation of how many kilos of minds would take to make a satellite. He created some conceptual works influenced by this, and he had never been involved with art before that. One of his works was entitled “Demolition Ball Machine” (“Masina Djule”), and another one “The Language of Water” (“Jezik vode”). Demolition ball is really a machine, a simple machine used in the mining. It breaks great chunks of coal. “The Language of Water” is a round bowl he filled to overflowing with water. The suggestion is that the water has its own language and that this is a gesture language. I was also doing my post-graduate studies then in “History and Philosophy of Science” at the Centre for the Multidisciplinary Studies (Centar za multidisciplinarne studije). At the time it was an independent centre governed by Zoran Bozovic. I did all the exams, but I never did the final paper. It was Zoran that opened at the Centre a Department of Social Sciences. He made an agreement with the Science and Technology Museum (Muzej Nauke i Tehnike), that is with Aleksandar Despic, that this Department should first be part of the Academy of Sciences and the Science and Technology Museum. Then it was moved to the Faculty of Natural and Mathematical Sciences. That is where I met a group of extraordinary men. I recall Radovan Samardzic with great pleasure, he was very knowledgeable. He was a genius. 121