MARVEL EYE
IS VISION LIFE?1x Turnable LED Plate: CHF 24 (optional)
Packaging, postage 18 CHF
2x Turnable LED Plate: CHF 45 (optional)
Packaging, postage 25 CHF
3x Turnable LED Plate: CHF 66 (optional)
Packaging, postage 30 CHF
Vessels of a healthy mini-pig eye prepared for 3D printing and 3D laser engraving. A 3D model of a healthy mini-pig eye. The dent on the right-hand side of the image is the pupil, the opening that allows light into the eye. The blood vessels shown are bringing energy and food to the muscles surrounding the iris, which controls the amount of light entering the eye. The smallest vessels seen here are 20–30 micrometres (0.02–0.03 mm) in diameter. The other large vessels are feeder vessels for the retina, the light-sensing region at the back of the eye. (Winner of the Wellcome Image Awards 2018, London)
Blind boy
My name is Peter Maloca, and I grew up in Scherzingen (Thurgau, Switzerland), a very small village with one church and a tiny school. When I was five years old, I almost lost my left eye due to an infection. The eye was swollen. It hurt, and I was very afraid, because I was blind. I was so scared and couldn't understand such unpredictable things. I was nervous when climbing stairs with only one eye, but still thankful for my parents, who took me to an eye doctor. I was completely helpless and at their mercy. Only my trust in my parents and their trust in this doctor gave me hope.
I regained good vision after weeks of therapy, and the pain disappeared. Nevertheless, this experience had a deep impact on me, and the healing was a true miracle for me. I wanted to be like that doctor. How did he perform such magic? I felt that this doctor knew what he was doing, and I wanted to discover this knowledge so I could share it and help others.
Are your eyes important to you?
Have you ever considered the miracle that enabled you to read these words and to live independently? What would your life be like if you were blind? How much would you pay to save your eyes? How much would have somebody to pay you to obtain your eyes? What is vision worth to you?
Sight is still a fascinating miracle to me. I finally became an ophthalmologist to fight every day to help my patients keep their sight. And my passion for my profession helped me to become an artist, too. Every day, I am amazed by this unique miracle of nature: the eye, the incomparable window to the world!
The tree of vision: The best image around the world
The delicate structure of an eye has always fascinated and inspired me. It has become a passion to dig deeper into ever-smaller details that are otherwise unreachable. I wanted to find a better understanding. In the project "The Tree of Vision," we created a completely new way to explore and understand the vessels of a healthy eye. The results were so stunning, we were awarded with the Wellcome Image Award, London, for creating the world's most informative, distinctive, and technically advanced medical images.
Being part of something bigger
We succeeded in depicting these unknown spaces not only in two dimensions, but we also made them accessible in all dimensions with virtual reality. Now, we want to share and pass on this fascination to you: a real-sized eye, engraved with a laser in a 3D glass sphere. Get it, and become part of a miracle. Our saga begins with the mind-blowing Marvel Eye!
See the world differently!
Vision is communication. Vision helps us to understand and describe the world around us. With Marvel Eye, we reveal a new perspective, never realized before, with which you can suddenly see the world differently. Your perception of reality will change fundamentally because, when you look at the Marvel Eye, you are actually looking at yourself and the Marvel Eye is exploring you! My goal will be reached if you look at the Marvel Eye and say that you feel happy, warm, and joyful, and experience an energy that inspires you. Then the spirit of Marvel Eye has been released and has touched people. You will no longer see Marvel Eye, but yourself. I love this moment of discovery, because it will last a long time.
Is it science or art?
When we started this magical adventure and then held the first version of a heavy glass sphere, we were amazed and couldn't speak. We were overwhelmed. We wondered if this fantastic phenomenon was science or art. We invite you on an adventure during which we will try to see the world in a new way and communicate this vision to you. Anyone who holds the Marvel Eye turns it against the light to discover its beauty and never tires of beholding it. People are touched in an unprecedented way and are deeply impressed by this new vision.
Laser engraved Marvel Eye. When ideas are brought to life.
We are all bound together
We invented and combined the very latest concepts and laser technologies to portray this wonderful fusion of science and art. We’ve created access to a new kind of information, and we want to share that understanding with you. With this exquisitely lifelike 3D portrait, we swiftly convey the mystery of the eye.
Making the Marvel Eye
The first steps toward the creation of the Marvel Eye started in 2008. Hence, whoever holds the Marvel Eye embraces thousands of hours of hard labour and cutting-edge science. At the very beginning was a mini-pig’s eye as we did not have access to human eyes for this first experiment. Still, the mini-pigs’ eye is very similar in structure to the human eye. Instead of consuming it, we injected a fine contrast agent into the vessels after it died. Within two days, the eye was measured in three dimensions using micro-computer tomography, suddenly displaying the vessels. This technique was extremely difficult, because the noise decreased image quality. However, this noise could be removed with a filter to build a 3D model of the vessels. From this model, we created a 3D printable template. The template was welded with thousands of laser shots into the glass sphere until the points formed a whole universe: the incredible Marvel Eye.
Celebrate Marvel Eye's incredible journey
All that I want is that, once you own a Marvel Eye, you will sit down and spend time with your surprise at the gift that nature brought to you. We use the money we receive for the Marvel Eye to develop and produce this work of art, which should serve as a crystallization of knowledge and inspire other people. And of course, Marvel Eye is only the start of an eventful voyage of discovery, because further projects will become reality that are now still a dream. For example, we want to produce more beautiful crystal pieces. It is also our deep desire to produce an IMAX film that illustrates the miracle of seeing.
Vision is life!
Therefore, it should not remain with the Marvel Eye. Humans are curious beings. This curiosity should help us to find answers and to make life more lovely for all of us. We want to go on this journey together. Are you with us?
Feel the visual resonance
I love my job; it doesn't feel like work at all. As an eye doctor, I didn't really know how to make my ideas come true. I was a complete beginner, had no experience, and felt so stupid. I contacted researchers, artists, and musicians. Many said that it was impossible, that no one had ever done this before.
I just had the feeling that there was something bigger out there and certain people had found a key. And then I understood it: You don't have to think about it, you have to act and find the best people like my friends Christian Schwaller, visual artist, Zürich, Switzerland, Scott Marshall, senior creative, Bamsound Creative, London or Rosie Collins, photographer, London, and Martin Zurmuehle, Luzern, Switzerland. I said that I didn't know them, and they didn't know me, but I hoped that something would connect us.
You need people to realize ideas. They will go with you and fill their own new ideas with life. They will help you to avoid many mistakes. They push you until your result is truly excellent. The most important thing is to realize your ideas in accordance with your own dreams and goals, because nobody else has this particular energy. Only you have it!
With these people we created a new kind of interaction, and other people in the community shared that experience with us. My collaborators soon invited their friends, because they felt my enthusiasm and authenticity. We tried to unite ideas and conquer new worlds. After years of hard work and many failures, which cost us a lot, we realized that we had developed a common resonance. And then that miracle happened: The ideas came to life!
People could not get enough of the artworks we had created together. This life was imprinted in different media like film, pictures, and now, glass art. Furthermore, the ideas spread to living organisms with infinite possibilities. Indeed, the possibilities are infinite.
Inspiring people
Marvel Eye is the instrument through which you can experience seeing and, above all, life. It has suddenly taken on its own personality. When you look at the Marvel Eye, you know I cannot pretend to be anyone; you hold my idea in your hand. Vision, life, respect for the incredible power that gives us life and vision—all are incorporated in this piece—and that is so important to me.
Now, it's clear. The Marvel Eye is true and authentic.
Thank you so much!
Kind regards,
Peter Maloca