ln an age of historical amnesia, media spin, ph oto hoaxes, and dilute art criticism , what passes as innovation in the art world's parlance is, to s ay the least, que stion- able. What, then, qualifies as "the inventive," particularly in an experimental system such as visual art ? If the practice of art is seen as a dynamic of changing attitudes, perspectives, and aesthetic de sires, artists might we ll tum to George Kubler's notion of "prime objects" for one generative answer. ' Prime objeclS, in Kubler 's formula- tion, may be considered the material by-products of altema- Suzanne Anker Prime Objects and Body Doubles tive propositions that have been previously neither stated nor po ssi ble. Are such speculative soluti ons the creative engines of ten driving the ontologic al structure of objects, works of art induded ' Or to pose the que stion in more cynical gui se , do such interrogative suppositions even matter at a time when "art fairs are the new disco" " I . See George K ubl er. The Shape Df Time: Remarks on me Hi scory a( Things ( New Haven : Yale Univer· sity Press. 1962). 39--45. 2. Anthony Haden-Guest quoted in Peter 5c hj eld ah l. ''The Tem ptati on of the Fa ir," The New Yorker, Oecember 25 . 2006 , ava ilabl e onl ine ar www.newy orl<er.c om / archive/2006 / 12/25 / 061 225c raw_ artworld. 3. Ku bler. 9. 4. For more on pri me numbers. espe c ially the number I. see David G. Wells. P rim e Numbers: The Mos[ Mysrerious Bgur es in Math (Hoboken. NJ : W il ey.2005 ). 13 - 15 and 29. 5. Kub l er . 39. 6. See Norbe rt Wiener. I Am a Marhematician (Ca mbridge. MA: MIT Press. 1964). 135- 36. Fo r more on emergenc e. see meeting notes of the Emergent Systems Worldng Group. Bryn Mawr C ol l ege. ava i la ble on lin e at http :l / emergent. bryn mawr.edu / emergent/ Emerge ntSys- temsMeeti ng I. Kubler posits an analysis of art in terms of influx and ou tput , a pul sating sys tem revealing the shape of time. Not content to discuss divisions in style as an overarching methodology in his theory, he instead examines the evolution of formal e rupti ons within a systemic flow of duration. Recons idering the more traditional con ce ption of art history in biological metaphor s, s uch as style considered as a type of species, or developments explained as growth pattems, Kubler instead turn s to the physical sciences for his metaphorical model of art history. ln this model he cites Michael Faraday's electrodynamics as a system of impul ses, relay points, and the ir sequences operating as time-based elements ' With this sc hema for articulating the hidden, yet perceptible relations between objects and processes, it is no wonder that the conceptualist, Minimalist, and ear thworks artists found resonance with his theories. For Mel Bochner, Carl Andre, Robert Smithson, Sol LeWitt, and Alice Ayc oc k, to name a few, the under - lying attributes of space and tim e, in Kubler's sense, became a consti tuent element in their work. Kubler's definition and, hence, articulation of a prime object is do sely aligned with the concept of the prime number. ln mathematics, a p rim e number has the unique quality of an integrated whole in that it remain s an integ er immune to divisible dis ruption by another number . For example, wherea s the number 7 can- not be divided by 2 or 3 or 4, etc. wilhout creating a fraction, the number 6 can be evenly divided by both 2 and 3. ' Kubler note s, "Prime numbers have no divi- sors oth er than themselves and unity; prime objects likewise resist decompo siti on in being or iginal entilies." He also observes that "prime ob jects r esemb le the prime number s of mathematics because no conclusive rule is known to govem the appearance of e ith er .... Their character as primes is not explain ed by thei.! antecedents, and their o rd er in history is enigmatic.'" As in eme rgent sys tem s, discrete change s in form are magnified thr ough t empo ral variables, in which a dynamic, yet unpredictable, pattem develops. What emerges from an interaction is something extra, not conceivable as a planned attribute. A1though the concept of eme rgence reaches back to Aristotle's Metaphy sics , the quality can be defined as so mething that self-organizing and complex adap- tive systems produce ' As an elemental concept in evolutionary biology, particle physics, and market economies , eme rgence is a way to explain novel ideas and actions. ln a Kublerian sense we can look at prime objects as belonging to a cla ss of objects s haring similarities with emergent systems and processes. F or example, 99 artjo urnal •