Kartoffelmaschine - Apparat, mit dem eine Kartoffel eine andere umkreisen kann

"On the verge of giving up my planned [scientific] investigation [of inspiration] in the apparent absence of a suitable object of study, I happened to go into my cellar one day, where I finally found what I was looking for - the very incarnation of everything art critic and teachers imagine when they think of a spontaneously creative subject with a love of innovation: the potato! Of course - if there is anything at all that embodies every aspect of the artist that has ever come under discussion - love of innovation, creativity, spontaneity, productivity, creation completely from within oneself, etc. - it is the potato. One need only watch it as it as it lies in a dark cellar and begins to sprout spontaneously, innovating sprout by sprout in a virtual torrent of creativity; and then as it disappears beneath its teeming sprouts retreating totally behind its work - and brings forth the most amazing forms. And what colours! The practically shivering frozen lilac in the tips of its sprouts, the spaceless pale white of the sprouts themselves, with an occasional hint of morose, earthless green-and finally the timeless, maternal wrinkled brown of the self-consuming fruit that sacrifices itself entirely in the perfection of its work. Yes, what we see at work here is true creativity; it is genuine perfection"

(S. Polke, Sigmar Polke: The Three Lies of Painting, Ostfildern 1997, p. 286).