lightness in and

beyond weight

Daniel schoelzhorn

golDsmiths Design 2009

trans-levitas

trans- : across, beyond, over, on or to the other side.

lev-amen : alleviation, mitigation, solace, refreshment.

lev-amentum : comfort, easing, alleviation, consolation.

lev-atio : alleviation, mitigation, solace.

lev-idensis : thin, slight, poor.

lev-is : unreliable.

lev-is : light, slight, trivial /beardless, bald /light-armed.

lev-is : rapid, swift /unimpotant /fickle, inconstant /unstable.

lev-itas : lightness, levity /fickleness, inconstancy /groundlessness.

lev-iter : lightly, softly, slightly.

lev-o : to raise, lift up /relieve, ease /diminish, weaken, impair. lev-o : to smooth, polish.

- Oxford Latin dictionary 1 

“Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love.”Albert Einstein20 

06

08

12

18 20

22 23

24 26

27 28

32 34 36

38

44

48

50

52

54

56

66

- Introduction . - Memories and reflections about balancing stones.

- Levels of lightness.

- Philosophy, literature, cinematography. - Nietzsche and the greatest weigh. - Kundera and the unbearable lightness of being - Italo Calvino - Werner Herzog and the ecstatic truth - Magical lightness. - Levitation in myths, tales and science fiction - Religiose stories - Psychedelic levitation and witchcraft - The magicians lightness

- Lightly technological. - Engineering and architecture - Copying from nature - Gravity and magnets

- Air and lighter.

- The trent for “light” products. - Looks and the ideal lightness.

- Disappearance, loss vs relieve.

- Heavy lightness and light heaviness.

- Balance.

- My process.

- Conclusion.

Content

light·-fingered adjective 1. having a light, delicate touch 2. a. skillful at stealing, esp. picking pockets b. thievish

light·-footed adjective stepping lightly and gracefully; nimble of foot

light·headed adjective 1. mentally confused or feeling giddy; dizzy 2. not sensible; flighty; frivolous

light·hearted adjective free from care; cheerful; gay: a lighthearted laugh. * lightheartedly light′·heart′ed·ly adverb * lightheartedness light′·heart′ed·ness noun

light-minded adjective having or showing a lack of serious purpose, attitude, etc.; frivolous; trifling: to be in a light-minded mood.

The Oxford english dictionary 1   

IntroduCtIon

This report is the contextual side of my project that came about from my interest in ‘lightness’ as an attribute in the physical and nonphysical world. It’s not the lightness of for instance a glowing light bulb, but the lightness forming the opposite to heaviness and the form that comes to life with the relief of not just weight and forces of gravity but various forms of heaviness.

The project is about the qualities and quality defects of lightness or “levity” and the transformations that are coming about in finding it. Balance as a quality of lightness is a key point in my investigation and will appear several times throughout this report. My process includes mapping and an analysis of the versatile meanings of ‘lightness’, proposing it as a material, but also as a personal and cultural attribute. I will open a discourse about lightness as a philosophical and religiouse concept and will also try to show its value in literature and storietelling on hand of examles from to folklore to science fiction. Continuously i will be speaking about the development of always lighter methods and materials in the technological evolution. Another aspect of this exploration is the lightness in the world of magic and witchcraft, where I will point out magical tricks by highlighting the use of designed objects. Levitation and vanishing are the categories in the world of magic that mostly relate to lightness.Levitation as an ultimate forms of physical lightness and vanishing related to the concept of the relief and disappearance of matter. When speaking about disappearance I try also to bring loss in relation to lightness, thinking about the positive and negative aspects of loss and on how to deal with it. What also stimulates my work is the trend of asking for less as for instance in healthy lifestyles, diets, fasting and generally abdication as such. Throughout my report I will show the development of my own design practice and give examples of mainly artists and designer works that relate to this investigation.

06

In this project to me:

“Lightness is a praiseful feeling, like that of a caterpillar that has turned into a butterfly.”

MeMorIes about balanCIng stones

To start with my report I’d like to tell a little story of my past:

Since my childhood I spent time with my friends on a local river the “Passer” next to my home town in the Italian Alps. That river is characterised by smooth rounded stones of various sizes. I remember meeting and speaking sometimes with a retired craftsman that has created his own little world on one of the little islands on that river. He has artfully build a little hut a small vegetable garden, walls, paths, and sculptures using mainly things that the river brought along. He died two years ago falling down a small rabid on his regular way over the river to the island. What specially impressed me was how he worked with stones and rocks; he knew how to immaculately split stones in half as if they would have been cut by just using a hammer, to built immaculate natural walls, tables chairs and so on. The main attractions where though the impressive stone sculptures that he has made by balancing round stones and rocks onto each other so that they look as if they would hang on a invisible wire. Cristian Bordon, an artist and friend of mine, is a passionate stone balancer and has taken the tradition of balancing stones along the Passer. He sees his passion of stocking one stone over an other by making their surface touch as less as possible as an art of finding balance and a celebration of the characteristics of gravity. He explains that the moment of letting go and to see the heavy stones as if they would levitate is a magical feeling and relieves him from the heavy burdens in his mundane live. In my research i found out that there are many persons around the globe that took on balancing rocks. Bill Dan, Lila Higgins, Stuard Finch, Adrian Gray, Volker Paul and Andy Goldsworthy, just to mention a few.

Thinking about my own passion to balance those heavy stones gave me the sparkle to start this project about lightness. It was then when i came to think that: this simple practise of balancing rocks was probably already fascinating prehistorical man and can be proposed as one of their first actions to reorganise their surrounding in search for lightness, balance and minimal energy structure, essentials of technology, architecture and design.

08

levels of lIghtness

Lightness is one of these words that has various different meanings.It is quite an abstract word and can only be fully understood when its brought into relation with something. In example: I’ve solved this task with lightness or the lightness of a balsa wood; refers either to effortlessness or weight. The first significant difference within lightness, is that it stays either for luminance and brightness, as the brightness of colours or the luminosity in a room; or the lightness as the opposite of heavy referring to  lightweight, effortlessness, ease or airiness. This can cause confusion, as in my case when telling someone that my project is about lightness some might think I’m talking about brightness. Other languages such as German, French, Italian, Spanish use different words to refer to either the lightness of luminosity or the one of weight where in English the Lightness can refer to the both of them. This is interesting as in English even tough someone might speak about brightness or weight related things, the word lightness opens a subliminal relationship between them. What I’m herewith assuming is for instance, that native English speakers might bring an object that is white and bright quicker into a relation with its lightness in weight.

12

“When I think about lightness, it is no longer here.”Joachim Driessen61 

lIght-ness 01

The quality or fact of being light, in various senses:

1. a. The state or quality of being light in weight, (a the amazing lightness of a new met all) b. A Fact of being lightly laden (smallness in quantity) c. An attribute in food, bread, pastry etc. (For instance to digest, low fat)

2. The condition of being lightened of relieved; alleviation.

3. Absence of heaviness or pressure in action or movement. Said both in material and immaterial things. (lightness of the wind, touch etc)

4. Of form or outline: Freedom from heaviness or clumsiness, graceful slenderness.; (lightness in wearing clothing, architecture etc.)

5. The quality of moving lightly; agility, nimbleness, swiftness. Also in immaterial sense. (lightness of understanding, lightness in dance etc.)

6. Ease, facility, readiness, esp. in believe., being naive and persuadable (His lightness to believe can be dangerous)

7. Levity in behaviour; lack of seriousness in actions, thoughts, or speech: (That kind of lightness seemed out of place.)

8. Freedom of depression or dullness; gaiety of manner, speech, style, etc.; Cheerfulness: (His lightness was just what the party needed.)

lIght-ness 02

1. The condition or quality of being light or illuminated.

2. Thin or pale coloration.

3. Brightness and the relative degree to which an object reflects light, esp. light of complementary or nearly complementary colors.

gerMan:

Leichtigkeit

Helligkeit

latIn

Levitas

Claritas

The Oxford English dictionary 2 

   

Weight related lightness has a serial of meanings that refer to qualities, features, manners, behaviours and not just to physical weight. If lightness is used to describe the way something is behaving it can be categorized in:

* Agility, nimbleness and quickness, as the one of a light-footed ballet dancer, but also of a so called light-fingerd person (thief)

* Pressure- and effortlessness, as the one a light wind breeze or a easy maths exercise

* Cheerfulness and gaiety, as the one of a light and amusing conversation, or party.

* Softness, carefulness and delicacy , as treating something with a light-hand (cautious), or walking lightly to wake no one up.

* Freedom and Relief of material or immaterial burden as the one of a lighthearted (happy, carefree) person that just got out of jail and was relieved form the heavy chains he had to wear.

* Unserious- and weakness, as acting light-minded (silly, superficial), or light-headed (mentally confused, flighty)

* Being in disadvantage, as being light-handed, having enough of something that is needed.

levitation line

letting go line

yin and yangs balance line

italo calvinos litterative lighness line

spiritual lightness line

kunderas unbearable lightness line

eastern myths line

relieve line

weightless underdruginfluence line0 gravity line

centrifugal line

the losing line

the amputation line

Main themes in my project as names of the lines in a global tube map that I’ve found online.

Connections between theories and quotes, my design ideas, objects, methods and synonyms associated to lightness

survey on lIghtness

I’ve prepared a survey to get a better understanding what people associate with Lightness. A total of 63 persons around the Goldsmiths campus where so nice to fill it out. I have to mention that it was mainly design student that have participated therefor the answers are mainly a designers point of view.Here are the results:

When you hear the word lightness do you think first of?

brightness (luminosity) 55%lightweight (legerity) 45%

What relates to lightness more?

Feather 85%Bird 15%

By what activity do you feel lightest?

swimming 45%flying in a plane 15%jumping on a trampoline 35%

In what situation would you feel most relieved/happy?

being released form prison 35%solving a scientific problem that will change the world 45% saving a family in a third world country from starving to death 15 %

What brings you most joy

having fun with your friends 35%hugging a loved person 45%enjoying sublime nature 15%

If you could lose something would it be related to your:

personality 35%body 65%

-

PhIlosoPhy, lIterature and CIneMatograPhy

“One should be light like a bird, and not like a feather.” - Paul Valéry 11 

When the term ‘Lightness’ is used in philosophy it is differentiated to from physical weight and relates to various different qualities mostly related to the mind . Milan Kundera a Czech writer and philosopher explores the complexity of the positive and negative aspects between Weight and Lightness. In “the unbearable lightness of being he mentions Parmenides, a Greek philosopher, that saw the world divided in pairs of positive and negative such as warm/cold, being/non being, bondage/freedom. Parmenides saw light ness as the positive part of the pair and Kundera argues this and suggests that especially lightness and weight are the most ambiguous of all.5 

nIetzsChe and the greatest weIght

In existentialist philosophy Lightness describes a concept of Freedom of judgement and moralities.To gain true freedom Friedrich Nietzsche, a major pioneer of existentialism, proposes the destructions of morality, religions and fictive truths. For instance is he criticising Christianity, where man is suffering under the weight of his sins and can only alleviate though his belief and the fiction of the mercy of god. “God is death” is often quoted by Nietzsche and he sees it as a liberation but on the same time as a problem. He thinks that the lightness caused by the absence of a god leads to nihilism, carelessness and the lack of values and purpose. The solution for this problems, Nietzsche proposes with the eternal recurrence theory and “amor fati”, that he explains in “The gay science” and the “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” the book he calls “the deepest ever writing”.

18

-

For Nietzsche the idea of the eternal recurrence, it is the heaviest and most terrifying of all believes but it brings meaning into life as the fact that every thing and action in the universe is subject to happen over and over again makes people responsible for their eternity and would lead to a total affirmation of life

“The greatest weight.- What, if some day or night a demon were to steel after you into your loneliest loneness, and say to you: “This life which you live and have lived, you will have to live once more, and innumerable times more; And there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence.” _Would you not throw your self down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would answer him: “You are a god, and never have I heard anything more divine.” - sec.341;The Gay Science, Friedrich Nietzsche 3 

Nietzsche speaks about “Amor Fati”, latin for “love to ones fate” as the positivst thought that evolves from the eternal recurrence and indicates that there is no good or bad as everything happens by destiny and the sake of infinity. This quality is the acceptance of the unbearable weight of eternity, where everything happens for a reason and where even in case of injustice and suffering there is no need to judge or compassion, all that counts is trying to make the best out of everything and bring joy and happiness to infinity. Compassion makes infinity only heavier; to get rid of her is for Nietzsche one of the hardest but also most precious ability, that only the greatest philosophers are able to achieve.

“I want to learn more and more to see as beautiful what is necessary in things; then I shall be one of those who make things beautiful. Amor fati: let that be my love henceforth! I do not want to wage war against what is ugly. I do not want to accuse; I do not even want to accuse those who accuse. Looking away shall be my only negation. And all in all and on the whole: some day I wish to be only a Yes-sayer.” - sec. 273; The Gay Science, Friedrich Nietzsche 3 

Kundera and

the unbearable lghtness of beIng

"If every second of our lives recurs an infinite number of times, we are nailed to eternity as Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross. It is a terrifying prospect. In the world of eternal return the weight of unbearable responsibility lies heavy on every move we make." pag. 2; The unbearable lightness of being, Milan Kundera 5 

Milan Kundera takes Nietzsche's philosophy as a starting point of his novel "the unbearable lightness of being" and agrees that the the idea of the eternal return would be a terrifying prospect. He illustrates this by comparing the insignificance of a war in Africa in the 14th century that no one needs to remember as it doesn't affect the course of the world to the significance of the same war if it was to recur over and over again.He suggests that if Nietzsche was wrong and there is no eternal return, every occurrence would become completely insignificant, without weight and death in advanced. Kundera explains that the idea that what happens only ones is as it would have never happened and would lead to an ultimate "Lightness" and freedom of burden.At this point Kundera asks the question, that the whole novel is based on:

But is heaviness truly deplorable and lightness splendid?

The heaviest of burdens crushes us, we sink beneath it, it pins us to the ground. But in the love poetry of every age, the woman longs to be weighed down by the man's body. The heaviest of burdens is therefore simultaneously an image of life's most intense fulfilment. The heavier the burden, the closer our lives come to the earth, the more real and truthful they become.Conversely, the absolute absence of a burden causes man to be lighter than air, to sear into the heights, take leave of the earth and his earthly being, and become only half real, his movements as free as they are insignificant.

What then shall we choose? Weight or lightness?” 5 

20

In his story about Thomas and Theresa he affronts this question. Thomas is a light-hearted man, free of envy, morals, enjoying freedom in all its ways. He does not have any problems to love Theresa and live a promiscuous sexual life. He lives as every day could be the last and as if everything was relatively meaningless. Theresa is full of heavy morals and expectations, she loves Thomas and wouldn’t like to sleep with anyone else than him. She relies on him and that makes her heavy. Knowing that Thomas sleeps with other woman is unbearable for her. In the book Theresa and Thomas escape form the Czech Republic because of the Russian invasion and start a new life in Switzerland. Thomas keeps seeing other woman. Theresa knows this and suffers beneath it so much that she leaves him and goes back to Prague, "the country of the heavy" as she calls it in the leaving letter for Thomas. Thomas is trying to go on with his life in Switzerland but quickly realizes that the Lightness and meaninglessness in his life becomes unbearable and that he needs the heaviness of Theresa's love that first seemed so burdensome.

Italo CalvIno

“Melancholy is sadness that has taken on lightness”Italo Calvino 6 

In 1985, Italo Calvino prepared a lectures about Lightness as a values in literature in his “Six memos for the next Millennium”. The other qualities he describes are “Quickness”, “Exactitude”, “Visibility”, “Multiplicity” and the last one was going to be about “Consistency” but was never started because of Calvinos unexpected death. All of these values are also important qualities in Design. He considers lightness a virtue and sees it as a reduction of weight in various forms. He speaks about Lightness in stories, language, time, people, structures, cities, technologies and so on. By giving examples of his own and the works of various other writers and philosophers. He is showing the metaphors and symbols that are often used to describe or amplify the feeling of lightness as for instance: “as the snow falls without wind” (Dante), or the appearance of the moon in poems by Leopardi. His exploration goes from, the lightness of Ovid’s Perseus who defeats the Medusa, over the one of a magic shaman that flies into different levels of perception, to the lightness of computer software in contrast to its hardware.

“Then we have computer science. It is true that software cannot exercise its powers of lightness except through the weight of hardware. But it is the software that gives the orders, acting on the outside world and on machines that exist only as functions of software and evolve so that they can work out ever more complex programs. The second industrial revolution, unlike the first, does not present us with such crushing images as rolling mills and molten steel, but with “bits” in a flow of information travelling along circuits in the form of electronic impulses. The iron machines still exist, but they obey the orders of weightless bits.”7 

He confronts and compares Dante,Leopardi, Shakespeare, Kafka, Kundera and many more stating that

“Literature as an existential function is searching for Lightness as a reaction to the weight of living” 8 

What Calvino also differentiated superficiality from thoughtful lightness saying:

In fact, thoughtful lightness can make frivolity seem dull and heavy. 9 

22

A central point that Calvino is making is that there is no need to compare the importance of weight to the one of lightness and that meaning and weight will evolve through the process of lightness. He concludes his lecture with a mysterious story in Kafkas “Der Kübelreiter” (knight of the bucket), where the narrator tries to fill his bucket with coal at a coal shop, because he can not pay for it his bucket stays empty. Eventually the light and empty bucket flies away with him all the way to the ice mountain. He use the bucket example as an advice for the next millennium and explains that the heavier the bucket is the less it’s able to fly and that we should only fill it with what we can bring to it ourselves.

werner herzog and the eCstatIC truth.

Lightness is also often a quality or a quality defect in Cinematography. In Werner Herzogs Films, wether in the award winning Fitzcarraldo where the main character, with the help of savage people, is able to move a ton-heavy boat over hill in the jungle or in the many of his documentaries, there can be find the sense of a surreal lightness. Herzog explains that this Lightness is created when comparing the insignificance of mundane problems, to the overwhelming nature as an entire. For his Film he tries to capture a the so called “ecstatic truth”, where he searches for examples of the nature of things in all their madness and cruelness, not fictive perfection and beauty that is often found in Hollywood movies. The true and heavy face of our nature is the rule of killing or being killed and collective murder and that the lightness and meaninglessness in men lives came with the virtue in our civilisations, where we don’t have to hunt and there are no more bears to fear. 11 

MagICal lIghtnessFrom the ancient Greek, middle eastern cultures, western myths and fairytale until nowadays we can find the fashination and desire to levitate or fly.

levItatIon In Myths, tales and sCIenCe fICtIon:

Being light and the ability to levitation or fly appears in many myths, fairy tales and fantasy stories.From Aladin and the flying carpet in the book of thousand and one night to witchcraft stories in the medieval stories to the story of Superman we can find magical levitation. The Elves in Tolkiens, the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings an advanced race of middle earth, that are lighter in weight than other races. Peter Pan learns to fly by using fairy dust. Marry Poppins flies with her umbrella. Merlin the wizard in the Arthurian legend, moved the stone edge form Ireland to England by using his psychokinetic powers(“The movement of objects with the mind”).In the science fiction story “Starwars”, Yoda the Jedi Master gets psychokinetic powers and the ability to levitate by using “the Force”, an energy field created by all living things. Probably one of the most absurd but funny ways of learning to fly is by using the trick, Douglas Adams illustrates in the Hitch-hikers guide on how to fly:

“There is an art, it says, or rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and

miss. Pick a nice day, it suggests, and try it. The first part is easy. All it requires is simply the ability to throw

yourself forward with all your weight, and willingness not to mind that it’s going to hurt. That is, it’s going to hurt if you fail to miss the ground. Most people fail to miss the ground, and if they are really trying properly, the likelihood is that they will fail to miss it fairly hard..”

-Douglas Adams, ‘The Hitch-Hikers Guide To The Galaxy,’11 

In the next picture series you can see me performing an act of letting go , unfortunately the cloth was not very strong and as Douglas Adams would say I’ve missed the ground not good enough.

24

relIgIose storIes

In various religions and believe systems lightness is a desired quality. Apart from a symbolic levitation as alleviation of the mind such as in the story of Mary Magdalene that went fasting in the desert in order to gain relieve and enlightenment from her sinful past, there are many stories where prophets or gifted persons are able to truly levitate or fly. In the Hinduism and Buddhism, levitating monks or saddhus have often been reported. .12 

In Maharishi Yoga it is known to be a elevated form of the yogic flying that starts with the jumping up and down in the lotus position. Levitation is mentioned in the 4th of the eight primary Sindhi Powers of the Sansgrit as “laghiman” that means “the power to become light”. Also in Christianity appear various flying or levitating figures. Apart from Jesus that walks over the water by levitating, there are stories of monks and sisters such as Saint Theresa of Avila or Saint Joseph of Copertino. In Buddhism, unlike in Christianity, Levitation can happen actively by meditating. Some neurologist have taken on researching the procedures in the brain during yogic flying practise or other ways of meditation and found out that in those moments a high amount of joy hormones are produced and could cause the sensation of lightness or even levitation14 

The Buddhist and Zen approach is similar to Nietzsche idea of the eternal return, where every actions matters and serves an a course and condition. Even though Nietzsche is criticising the idea of the nirvana and the search for lightness in Buddhism, as being nihilistic and pessimistic, there are many parallels and Buddhist representatives allude that those critiques are based on misunderstandings. 13 

26

PsyChedelIC levItatIon, and wItChCraft.

Throughout history the of magical healers and sorceress have always had an important possession.And their role included being a doctor, psychologist and magician at the same time. From eastern witchcraft to African Voodoo, to rural American methods, particular herbs, plant, essences but also animals are used to evoke extraordinary reactions. Carlos Castaneda speaks about his flying experience in his book, The Teachings of Don Juan, a Yuay way to knowledge. Under guidance of Don Juan an Mexican shaman (Yaqui sorcerer), Castaneda applied an ointment of the psychoactive “Datura” plant onto his body. Under the narcotic and hallucinogenic effects of the ointment he was able to experience a transformation from his body to the one of a crow as what he then was able to fly. What I’ve found interesting is the conversation he had with Don Juan after his journey as a crow. Castaneda: Was I really flying, I mean did I really fly like bird flies?Don Juan: No, you flew as a man who has taken the weed. Flying is a common thing birds do, because you can see them, but there are many other things birds do that you have never seen. A man that takes the weed, has also many abilities that you have never seen.Castaneda: What if my fellow student had been here, would he have been able to see me fly.Don Juan: If he had simply watched you he might have seen you, or he might not. That depends on the man.Castaneda: Let me but it like this, if I had been tied to a big rock with a heavy chain, would I have flown just the same? Don Juan: In that case, I’m afraid, you would have had to fly holding the rock with it’s heavy chain. Don Juan tries to explain that in order to see clear and without burden we shouldn’t differentiate and value to much whether things happen in our mind or in the physical world.15 

Inspired by the mid eastern stories and reports, magical performances started also to become popular in the western world. Daniel Dunglas Home, a spiritualist and a medium séances, of the 19th century, was known to be gifted with several supernatural powers such as the ability to heal people, speak with the death, see things that are out of view and to levitate. 14 

He levitated several times in front of audiences and none has ever reported a fraud. Once it was witnessed that he flew out of one window and back in from an other. Popular tools for levitation tricks are invisible strings or specially designed solid superstructures. In my research I found a patent for a complex apparatus with whom someone is able to fly freely around the stage like in the famous David Copperfield Levitation. Famous tools for disappearance tricks are mirrors, light effects, deflection or secret escapes. Mirrors have been used for example by Franz Harary to make ower bridge varnish. A simple trick to illustrate levitation is by laying the front of the body vertically on the edge of a longer mirror and lifting off the leg facing it. This trick inspired me and gave me idea how it could be used in design to make things look lighter or make them disappear.17 

the MagICIans lIghtness

Levitating and Varnishing are probably the magical phenomenons that most cause a sense of lightness. Speaking to David Ball from the magic circle London, I found out that these phenomenons are two main magical disciplines next to Production, Transformation, Teleportation, Escapologie, Penetration and Prediction.16 

In India, magical occurrences like hanging-rope climbers and magically levitating monks and saddhus, magical healing, and demon expulsion are a mundane thing. It is impressive how elaborate designed the tricks for some supernatural performances are.I am especially impressed by the levitation trick where the performer has one hand on a stick and the rest of the body floats in the air. With this trick many Indian saddhus and magicians have caught peoples attention over the last centuries. It was a cleverly designed iron structure that is based under the ground and comes up as a single stick, that under the hand of the saddhus makes his way through the waive cloths and obviously ends in a sitting platform under the saddhus bottom. 12 

28

“You call this magic? I call it heavily wishing.”- Terry Pratchett 18 

30

lIghtly teChnologICal engIneerIng and arChIteCture

From the time when humans where still nomad up to present times of aviation and space-travel the lightness of our tools and techniques to lighten processes and battle gravity is significantly important. The nomadic Yurt for instance is a energy efficient, light, portable dwelling and is still used in many cultures up to today. The bow is an other example of a light and efficient tool, works that still up to today has many advantages to other weapons.“The bow may seem as the first machine, since it employed moving parts and translated muscular into mechanical energy.”-pag. 84, Beukers and Hinte, Light-ness.19  In Architecture and Engineering Balance and Lightness are fundamental.Livers and Pulleys where helping already the ancient Assyrian and Romans to lift the heavy stones for their constructions. Arches are used since thousand of years to build entrances and supporting structures. With the effective suppurating attribute of arches Fillipo Brunnelesci has build the gigantic Dome of the Cathedral “Santa Maria del Fiore” in Florence. Antoni Gaudi, has build the “Sagrada Familia” in Barcelona in an way no one else has build before. He has build a construction where a net like structure of semi-flexible robes hangs down by the just the pressure of gravity. Onto this organic structure he has build the whole cathedral. His concept was that if gravity is pushing the construction in its right shape it would afterwards have a strong natural tension that is able to resist all kinds of forces. Tensegrity is used in various forms of Architecture. Its means tensional integrity and is based on synergistic interplay between balanced tension and compression. Artist Kenneth Snelson was probably one of the first to define the therm tensegrity. He makes tensegrity structures by interweaving solid sticks with strong strings. The principle of tensegrity can though be found in all kinds of forms. For instance in cranes, bridges, aeroplane just to mention a few. Tensegrity can be compared with a tensioned Bow, that when its released applies all the energy to the arrow. 21 

“The weakness of a single tensegity structure is that it is vulnerable. If one element breaks the whole thing falls apart.”pag 3519 

Bridges, as the Bay bridge in a San Francisco is an example of this: if one the main supporting cords brakes, then the whole bridge collapses.

32

“Organic buildings are the strength and lightness

of the spiders’ spinning, buildings qualified by light,

bred by native character to environment, married to

the ground.” Frank Lloyd Wright20 

CoPyIng froM nature. One of the best ways to learn about tensegrity structures is by observing nature. A birds wing, plants, bees seashells, microcosmic elements can all show tensegrity structures. Shapes and structures that we find in nature can be very strong and dynamic. The body of a Boxfish for example was translated into a car by the designers at Mercedes, because of his phenomenal synergy between spaciousness and aerodynamic. 22 

The hexagonal shapes like in a bees honeycombs has shown next to their strong characteristics in architecture also advantages in photography. Fuji for instance are using a hexagonal pixel system in their digital cameras because as they say the result is a smoother image, that makes pixels are less visible. Organic architect and designer, Ross Lovegrove, has designed an alpine capsule that looks like a huge mercury drop. This nearly invisible mirrored capsule is a completely off grid automatic lodge that sustains his self form wind and solar energy that is cached by artificial trees standing around it. 58 

34

gravIty and Magnets

Even though humans have been trying to levitate as a result of advanced spiritual and supernatural powers it has not shown a lot of process, where the improvement in the scientific and technological world has been remarkable. Scientists don’t need superpowers for their magical tricks; For instance the flying rope trick was performed by Tom Mullin, a physicist at Manchester university, without using magic. He developed a method to make flexible rope stand up vertically by attaching it to a machine that rapidly moves up and down what balances the rope. 12 

An other levitation trick is the “Levitron” where a spinning gyroscope levitates above a magnet, or the floating magnetic chair. To understand how this trick works it’s necessary to know first how gravity and magnetic forces work. So the gyroscope is magnetic and is spinning on lets say its negative pole above the bigger magnet, that has his pole contrary to the Gyroscope; The Gyroscope lifts up as two of the same poles repulse each other.When it stops spinning it loses it’s dynamic and flips around so the poles that attract each other meet.

36

As we are part of the earth’s gravity field we are eider +- or -+ poled depending on what hemisphere we stand.Some irons have very strong magnetic fields that can be intensified by electrical power. If Magnets are big and strong enough to work contrary to Earths gravity even humans could be levitated. To levitate a human would cost a unreasonable amount of energy but small things like frogs or little plants have already been successfully levitated. This way is convenient to researches for example the growing behaviour of a plant in space without having to sent it there. 12 

Magnetic levitation has also shown to be advantageous in transportation. In the last century men advanced their territory into sky and space and transportation started to set the worlds heartbeat, but all this progress was for the dangerous cost of consuming huge amounts of energy and earths resources. Big achievement in terms of energy efficiency have though been made with a magnetic trains. In Japan or Birmingaham, England the Maglevs, trains that magnetically levitate on rails, are in use since a few years now. The trains accelerate with a linear electric motor and because there is no friction rides smooth, fast and energy-efficient.The Maglev Trains can reach up to 580 km/h and is relativity low in maintenance and the Nasa is planning to use the same technology to launch future spaceships with over 1000km/h into space. 12 

aIr and lIghter

aIr is not just a useful thing for breathing and pumping up flat tires. The company Inflate has shown that the inflatable structures can be used in housing, clothing and many other categories. I’ve been working in a Snow-dome last winter that was build by blowing snow and water around a huge drop shaped Balloon . In tent and dome constructions air pressure has proven to be very efficient in terms of energy, weight and materials that are required. Air-bags for instance have changed safety in transportation in a indispensable way. Air pressure is also used in lifting up heaviest things, outplaying the strongest ratchets. An interesting design project is Michael Rakowitzs ParaSITE, where he made inflatable emergency housings for homeless, that blow up by attaching them to the vents of building Heating, this keeps them warm in cold winter days. 24 

helIuM and Hydrogen are lighter elements than air and because of this characteristic they can be very helpful in various fields. Compared to planes or helicopters that consume big amounts of fuel, to make a helium or hydrogen balloon rise, zero energy is needed. The Zeppelin that was in use from 1900 to 1940, although it was not very fast, was more energy-efficient than most of today’s commercial aviation vehicles. Since the Hindenburg catastrophe the production of hydrogen based Zeppelins stopped.The comeback is the modern helium based NT Zeppelin or other so called Blimps that are used in various cities for tourist tours, police practise, and Film or TV shooting. 25 

Graham Dorrington a aeronautical engineer at Queens Mary University has build helium containing teardrop-shaped airship that was used in the film by Werner Herzog “The white diamond”. Grahams nearly noiseless airships are ideal for documentary filming in difficulty terrain, such as the jungle, because of its calm flight and its agility. In “The white diamond”, the Kaieteur Falls, and their surrounding are the main subject, but Grahams development of the airship and the accident with one of his earlier ships, where documentary maker Dieter Plange has lost his life, are also confronted. 26 

38

Hydrogen and helium balloons can fly up to the outer layer of our atmosphere where the air becomes too thin to keep the other gases rising. This is a convenient and economical way for scientists to do research in those altitudes. For example in the Antarctica, scientist research neutrinos in high altitude using a giant helium balloon that flies the detectors up to the brink of our atmosphere. 27 

The use of Helium or Hydrogen has a lot of potential in designing sustainable innovations. The Company Magnenn for instance has developed a helium balloon that is a energy windmill at the same time. It has a couple of advantages to conventional wind electrical generation systems. It is more cost-efficient, runes on less wind, rises into high altitude where it gets more wind and disturbs less the landscape image. 29 

In advertisement helium has found a funny new use. With the quote: “Its not a Bird, not a Plane, its a flogo”, the inventors of “Flogos” try to sell their machines that generate helium filled soap-clouds, that have the scape of logos. 29 

With the slogan lights lighter than air, various designer promote helium filled lamps;The light weighted, long lasting LED technology makes it possible. German Designers Falk Starke and Christoph Beyer have designed a helium balloon as a ceiling lamp that flows above the dinning table and can be recharged in a magnetic docking station that holds the balloon down and transforms it into a standing lamp. 30 

Designer Luc Schouten has made “Floating Lights” using helium filled latex balloons anchored by a small LED base. The multiple lightening effects of the LEDs keep the audience entertained. 31 

Haque design+research, have used the same technique slightly more complicated for their project Burble, in celebration of the London Fashion Week 2007. They have created a massive net, with hundreds of extra large latex balloons, micro-controllers and colour changing LEDs. As a result the entire structure waved in the sky with changing light effects and colour patterns. An other entertaining Helium Balloon is Zygote, a Huge light growing ball that changes colour every time someone push him back into the air. Alex Beim, of the Interactive Collective Tangible, designed it for Clubs and Discotheques. 33 

40

Henriette Melchiorsen has designed a flying chair; A rubber bubble that is filled with helium, hangs in the air; When someone needs a chair, the bubble can be pulled down and be used as a sitting opportunity; When it no more needed the bubble flies back up and is out of the way. 34 

Architect Junya Ishigami made a four stories- high cubic helium installation called “space for your future” ; The gigantic balloon is made out of aluminium foil and that floats on the inside of a building. 35 

Artist Ricardo Jacinto exhibits 5 huge black helium balloons at Manifesta7 with whom the spectators can intervene by hanging them self up .He calls his work Labyrinths, where he tries to physically alter the visitors perception by upsetting their system of balance and therefore upsets the relationship of their body with space. 36 

But not all things with helium are useful, for example “The missile balloons” that can be attached to the back of a car are only good to scare other drivers and provoke safety on streets. 38 

What is a intelligent blimp?

Blimps can be much more than just airships, they are used as interfaces for independently acting devices. With helium blimps, a chip and some mechanics, it is for example possible to recreate underwater creatures in the air. The Swiss Company Festo is for example making robotic recreations of jellies and rays, but not to swim in water but in the air. Those creatures are made by building a program that is connected with complex mechanical muscles and sensors into a rubber skin that is filled with helium. 39 

The researchers at Festo have studied the movements of those underwater creatures and have translated them into their blimp robots. ALAFS (autonomous light air vessels) are other kinds of blimps. They are designed to sensor and find light and phone signals as if it was food. The audience can interact with then by calling or waving their mobile phone that causes the blimp to find the phone and response with a light-signal or tone. Their surrounding in various ways. 40 

An other example is the aggressive blimp designed by the swiss collective “Knowbotic research” that attacks black balloon sticks also known as “Naked Bandits”. 41 

42

the trend for “lIght” ProduCts In many cases we can associate the quality of things with their lightness in weight; In mobile phones, watches, of sports tools, shoes, clothing and so on. One of the few categories where heavy weight is still of quality is the car industry; The heavier a car, the saver it is, at least for the passengers on the inside. In alimentary goods “light” products have gained massive popularity in the last decades. After the mass consumerism and global fast food chains embossed the world, many diseases and disorders rose with it. In opposition to this, the trend for a healthy life stile and refusal of the mass consumerism rose at the same time. Nowadays there is a light version for nearly all kinds of food, in high class restaurants, the portions become always smaller promoting quality instead of quantity. Critical Films such as “Super Size Me” or “We feed the World” and a growing objection has in fact led to a the closure of many Fast Food Chains and forced them to introduce healthier menus. The phenomenon of taking less and refusing certain lifestyles is nothing new though. Throughout history we can find rituals of fasting, and special diets in various Cultures and Religions. In Christian Culture the alimentation calender used to be a lot stricter in the past, now some Christians may remember that on Lenten Fridays they should not eat meat, but always less see it as a sin. In today's western society, the religious ethics and believes, especially in Christianity are generally decreasing, but the trend to individually question ethics around alimentation has become increasingly popular; this can be observed by looking at the increase of Vegan- and Vegetarians. Slogans such as “vitalizes body and mind”, or “drink Zen-vitality” give to products apart from their beneficiaries for the body also a spiritual nearly religious taste. The Trent for 'light' products has been pushed from the market to a nearly ridiculous extent. Many Companies use the 'Light' icon now as a marketing trick, where they can sell less ingredients for a bigger value. A critical design project that shows this is Tithi Kutchamuches chocolate bar with “extra less” where she made a charming standard sized chocolate bar with roughly 30% missing; pointing at the design tricks in products such as Cadbury twirl or Milla luflée, where a big percentage of the bar consists of air-bubbles.42 

44

MILK

CH

OC

OLATE

with E

XTR

A less by Tithi K

utchamuch

looKs_and the Ideal lIghtness.

“In the age of television, image becomes more important than substance.” -- S. I. Hayakawa 43 

In our society Lightness is an ideal quality not just for our gadgets and products but for our own bodies. Light, and young bodies are part of the rules in the fashion world, beauty magazines, TV, Cinema, Advertisement and so on. We see youth and perfection around every corner and for many this subconsciously becomes an ideal of how to should look like. Commercial media objectors claim that the commercialised figures and their looks can cause a inferiority complex and psychological and behavioural problems known as the “beautiful people syndrome” or “Barbie and Ken syndrome”. Those Syndromes consist of treating less attractive people as an inferior species, dissatisfaction and vanity that would eventually lead to unsocial behaviour, loneliness and misery. Overweighted or anorexic persons for instance tend to make it even worse, ones they have fallen into misery and eider eat more or nothing at all.44 

People are spending fortunes on products to lose weight and look young; cosmetic care and therapies have become as important as the visit to church for a pastor. In fact for many people, doing prayer in a church, for a bit of altar breath is not enough of fulfilment. They rather drink healthy “Zen” Cocktail and chill out at one of the trendy “Buddha bars”, after a day in the spa; and if their sins where really bad they can vanquish them with plastic surgery. Some are fasting and praying for the forgiveness of God; others are in a beauty saloon or under the knife, trying to look like Marilyn Monroe or Claudia Schiffer. I’ve asked myself what makes people use plastic surgery to change their body and if there was something I would change on myself.

48

I’ve never had any weight related problems but since some time I have some issues with my teeth; thinking that they don’t look good and are not very visible when I smile. So I looked into the mirror with some white batting around my front teeth to see what it looks and feels like having a fuller and whiter cannon. My experience was that I felt fresh and lighter, similar to the feeling after getting a new haircut. In this progressive times of plastic surgery, genetic engineering and stem cell growth and transplantation, I am curious what the future change of looks will look like. The biojewellery team has successfully grown and produced weeding rings from cells of an engaging couples wisdom teeth. 45

Recently I have red in an article that pulling teeth is effecting the memory. 46 

 An other story on teeth is that studies on growing third teeth from stem cells takes remarkable steps. Japanese scientists have been able to grow entire teeth from single stem cells and implanted them successfully into mice. 47

Thinking about this I wonder if in future persons with a terrible past would want to lose their memory. Perhaps they could start a new live as part of a life-extension program where next to a cord blood transfusion for a general cell push up the set of old weak teeth are replaced with some fresh ones from the lab or as a fashion or fetish trend, old teeth could perhaps be replaced with animal teeth or a set of specially shaped designer teeth.

dIsaPPearanCe loss vs relIeve

How far is disappearance connected to lightness? When things disappear, die or are being dumbed, the experience is eider loss or relieve. But sometimes its hard to say weather letting things go is good or not. For instance many people find it hard to get rid of their old furniture, one side of them wants them out and an other can’t let them go. Jurgen Bey is confronting this problem in designed objects, such as his mirrored light-shade-shade that has an antique Victorian lamp hidden on the inside and that becomes visible when the light is turns on. An other example are his PVC coated, traditional furniture, that with the new skin get a new identity. 48 

An question that interests me is, when is loss considered to be negative and when positive and how is society setting the boundaries? For instance losing weight is in contemporary society often seen as a good thing where losing hair is seen generally as a negative thing. Loss can result either in relieve and in freedom or in loneliness, alienation and pain, depending on how someone looks at things. The Italian futurist for instance have seen the cultural weight of their history as a barrier to creativity and wanted to vanquish it by denying classical methods and possesses in their practise. The artist Michael Landy has categorized and shredder all his personal belongings seeing loss as a relieve. 49 

How do we deal with loss that is unbearable, like when a loved persons dies or when losing a body part or an object we were attached to. What design tricks can be applied to make those losses more bearable. In a conversation with Jason Finch, a Goldsmiths design graduated in 2008 at, he explained that his project was about numbness and amputations. He found out that for instance people that have lost their hand are often getting cramps on that arm and a trick to release this is to move the healthy arm in front of a mirror, similar to the magical trick I’ve shown before. Nadine Jarvis, a graduate form the year previous to Jasons, has designed objects that are made with the ashes of death persons, for instance a birds feeder that contains bird food mixed with the ashes or a box of pencils whose mines are made from the ashes.50 

50

heavy lIghtness and lIght heavynessSometimes when we see a stone it might not be that heavy and sometimes when we see a pillow it might not be that soft. Austrian Artist Hannes Ludescher makes copies of stones out of ultralight acrylic and glass fibres.So that what looks like a heavy stone can float on water and hang on thin fishing wire.51 

Cornelia Parker is an other artist that works a lot with transparent fishing wire to hang stones or burned wood in the air as if it had been frozen while falling. The moment of an explosion is also a thing that she likes to freeze. 52 

Designers Oskar Zieta makes high-pressure inflatable chairs, tables, pillows and so on that look as if they where light and soft as a rubber inflate but in fact they are made out of steel and are actually quite heavy and hard. 53 

The famous “Knot chair” by Marcel Wanders is and other example. It’s made out of a simple rope and knots and looks fragile but the hardening raisin made the rope strong and stiff. 54 

52

balanCe

“Some people must go to extremes to get the world in balance for themselves. Some can’t bear bright lights, so wherever they go they search for the dark; they turn the lights down, anything to sustain some level of comfort.” Julian Schnabel54 

After having spoken about Literature, Philosophy, Magic, Technology, Healthy Lifestyles I’m going back to balance, my stating point, as I think lightness can after all be seen as a sensation of balance. Pointing back to Newton and that all things attract each other and there is no escape from gravity or such thing as Zero Gravity; that also in Space there is just the sensation of weightlessness but in fact we are always spinning in some kind of orbit. Ones we are out of the gravitational field of the earth we will spin around the sun or some other big space body.. What I believe is that there must be just a few moments of balance between one and the next gravitational field. Like the point where two balanced stones touch and that the feeling in those places must be incomparable lightness. Artist Chris Burden illustrates a moment of lightness in one of his performances, where he makes a steamroller fly in circles by balancing it on a turning lever. He explains that the work should bring people to question the physicality of things.60  Designer Daniel Eatcock presents at the exhibition Nowhere/Now/Here in Madrid a picture of him when leaning back on his Chair and balancing on two legs, trying to start a discourse about this habit that especially students enjoy doing.59

Its interesting that several schools have introduced alternatives to a standard school chairs for nervous Kids, that can not be balanced and are apparently better for the back. 57 

Balancing on a chair, or walking on a tide rope needs a lot of delicacy and concentration; but also when preparing food and many other forms in life balance is important. The moments in balance bring us lightness and fulfilment but its hard work to hold on to them. I agree with Julian Schnabel that everyone needs to find his own balance and there is no recipe for it. Often people search for extreme or risky situation such as tide rope walking to others prefer saver ways to experience balance. I think that interactive objects that can or need to be balanced are exciting as they allows this essential activity to be practised.

54

My ProCess:My progress was based on a constant research about forms of lightness. As part of the research I was sketching, crafting and making objects.

As my context differentiates between physical and nonphysical lightness I’ve decided to split my exploration in different parts. One part consists of an investigation into the phenomenon of human desire and the trend to overcome the laws of gravity, giving examples of flying machines, minimal energy structures, materials and designed objects that either fly, levitate or illustrate lightness. The other part is based on the nonphysical meanings of lightness, referring to things such as ‘lightness of being’ meaning,being problem-free or as an easement, consolation, alleviation. As regards design, I am investigating objects that illustrate or amplify these feelings.

At the beginning i was researching magic tricks and levitation at most. At that time I’ve made a flying book holder, that is easily transportable and meant to hang on top of the bed to read in a comfortable way without having to hold the book in the hands. Also I’ve produced a bowl with a rubber skin that easily can be turned in to a laptop lifter that helps to a better sitting position.

I’ve also had an idea of helium filled furniture, and made some experiments with it. Because of the short life of helium and the fact that Henriette Melchiorsen made it already, I not very keen to continue.

I’ve also made a small handbook with practical solutions for everyday problems as ideas to lighten the live of especially lazy persons.

56

desIgn for the lazy

I think that, as lightness refers to an easement and an effortlessness it also refers to the not always positive attitude of laziness. What i try to reveal is that laziness can also be a good thing. For instance are lazy people more likely to do their shopping in a corner-shop close by as driving or going all the way to the shopping mall, this saves the local businesses. If people would be more lazy, transportation would diminish, and a local life-style rise. Often lazy people tend to be short on money, this can though be an incentive to be creative and less consume oriented. What I try to promote is a smart laziness that provides practical solutions for lazy people, showing them how to easily make things them selves and that a sustainable life-style is often much easier than a consumerist. In my handbook I am collecting ideas to help this target group. One ideas is an invention to get people out of their beds in a softer way than typical alarm clocks. Its an alarm that is connected to a motor that’s slowly roles up the bedsheet. This takes away the confront of sleeping and the need of putting the bed back in order. By the way it is also a great idea for deaf persons.

a flyIng booK-holder

58

laPtoP rIsIng bowls

ModellIng

In modelling week we where asked to make models, prepare food and a performance about our project.

Inspired by magic levitation and disappearance tricks with mirrors I’ve tried to apply them on two table models with mirrored coating. One is a long table that leads into a mirror and comes out on the other side as a small version that with the mirror effect looks as if it would levitate. The second is a table that sits on two mirrored boards that function as well as chair bases. When people sit around the mirrored legs it gives the impression as if they would levitate.Interesting on this table is that the chairs are attached to the table, this makes it ideal for public places where the chairs usually get stolen.

As a food example I’ve made a various little vegetables creations. I’ve filled onion layers with couscous, courgette, mushroom and egg. This way the healthy veggie snack looks like a little cake and makes it lighter and more attractive as a standard couscous dish. l

As a textile idea I’ve made a cubic plush dice referring to Milan Kunderas idea of lightness as results form the singularity of a life.

As a performance I’ve improvised a falling backward into a bigger cloth of fabric that my colleagues where holding, as an act of letting go. Unfortunately the cloth was much to thin and ripped.

60

not just staCKIng objeCts

One of my designed objects is a vertical basket that is somehow an idea of how a basket for space travel and so called zero gravity fields could look like.

The idea came about from my inspiration in stone balancing. I felt challenged by the problem with stacking round objects. An example of the problem with round shapes is for instance the fact that cubic watermelons are being produced. Rings are one solution to stock rounded shapes or a gutter that keeps them form falling sideways but I was looking for an other solution where

Cage Basket is a cubic structure with a vertical matrix of stretched rubber bands on the inside where all kinds of things like fruits, office tools, shoes and so on can be hanged into. Personal belongings can this way be freely placed and sculpture likely exposed in space and there is no more need to scrabble around in drawers or baskets. It has a playful character that could for example be useful to make the disorder in children rooms disappear as the tidying up becomes a fun activity.

62

64

ConClusIon

transforMatIons:

The lightness of a butterfly is what I’m aiming for.

Throughout this report I have tried to show the many qualities of lightness and in overall i suggest to see it as a quality of change; a quality that helps to get over the heaviness of the past, loss and other kinds of burden. The changes in our selves and in our objects are like the metamorphosis in nature that is constantly changing and reinventing it self. As a designer i wonder how these transformations and changes look like and what forms they can take on. In example the transformation of a man that learns to fly, a person after a plastic surgery, the one of the old Victorian chair that receives a new skin; the transformation of a rope that becomes a chair, a basket that turns into a matrix of rubber bands, a helium balloon that turns into a manta ray and swims trough the air; and also the transformation of an already death persons that’s ashes are eaten by birds. These are examples of innovation and progress . I see the desire to change as a search for lightness and that this search is driven by disappointment, doubt, pity and other forms of heaviness. As often change can bring what is not expected, often those that desire to much are instead losing, as a Chinese proverb says:“Falling hurts least those who fly low”  56 . Change is important and especially designers are here to make it happen. But is it just about creating new things that will go into landfill sooner or later? No! Designers can transform things, taking old things and giving them a new face or soul. Recycling, reusing, refusing and the many other re- words are written big in contemporary design.

66

In my project I try to transform aiming for lightness. Changing objects by substraction their heaviness. In one part are Ideas of transformations that are easing peoples lives, that I have collected in my handbook of practical solutions . The other transformations will occur in mainly two magical forms. One where I try to illustrate levitation, such as with the vertical basket, the mirrored furniture a flying lampshade and some other ideas. The second is in the field of disappearance, where I try to vanquish things without losing them. There the transformations will occur by hiding already existing object, without losing their presence.

sKetChes

68

referenCes:

1 Oxford Latin dictionary / edited by P.G.W. Glare.. Oxford : Clarendon , 1982

2 The Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition J.A.Simpson and E.S.C.Weiner, Clarendon Press. Oxford 1989

3 The Gay Science, section 341, page 273 , Friedrich Nietzsche, translated by Walter Kaufmann, New York :Vintage Books ,1974

4 The Gay Science, section 276, page 223 , Friedrich Nietzsche, translated by Walter Kaufmann, New York :Vintage Books ,1974

5 The unbearable lightness of being / Milan Kundera ; translated from the Czech by Michael Henry Heim.. London : Faber, 1984

6 pag. 16; Calvino, Italo: Six memos for the next millennium.. London : Vintage , 1996.

7 pag. 8; Calvino, Italo: Six memos for the next millennium.. London : Vintage , 1996

8 pag.26; Calvino, Italo: Six memos for the next millennium.. London : Vintage , 1996.

9 pag 10; Calvino, Italo: Six memos for the next millennium.. London : Vintage , 1996.

10 From interviews and reports with and about Werner Herzog in the films, Imagine Werner Herzog: beyond reason / written & presented by Alan Yentob; produced by Chris Hunt; directed by Steve Cole. and Burden of dreams / directed by Les Blank with Maureen Gosling; narration written by Michael Goodwin.

11 http://www.moviecitynews.com/arrays/2005/hgg_fly.html12 BBC Documentary “ The secret of levitation” http://youtube.com/

watch?v=Z06c5k6kKH413 http://www.the-philosopher.co.uk/buddhism.html14 Levitation, pag. 371-378, The encyclopedia of the paranormal /

edited by Gordon Stein..Amherst, N.Y :Prometheus Books ,1996.15 end of capter 6, The teachings of Don Juan : a Yaqui way of

knowledge / by Carlos Castaneda.. Harmondsworth : Penguin , 1970. 16 Telephone Interview with Mr David Ball from the magic circle,

London; Centre for The Magic Arts, 12 Stephenson Way, Euston London, NW1 2HD tel.020 7387 2222

17 Tower Bridge Mirror Trick, http://youtube.com/watch?v=b-zYcST-TxV0

18 www.quotationpage.com/magic19 Lightness : the inevitable renaissance of minimum energy

structures / Adriaan Beukers, Ed van Hinte.. Rotterdam : 010 publishers, 1999

70

20 http://thinkexist.com/quotes/lightness21 Tensegrity;Encyclopaedia Britannica CD99.. Sutton, Surrey :

Encyclopaedia Britannica International Ltd. , 1999.22 http://www.designboom.com/contemporary/biomimicry.html23 Gravity;Encyclopaedia Britannica CD99.. Sutton, Surrey :

Encyclopaedia Britannica International Ltd. , 1999.24 http://www.designboom.com/Air/ParaSite25 Blimps; Encyclopaedia Britannica CD99.. Sutton, Surrey :

Encyclopaedia Britannica International Ltd. , 1999.26 The white diamond / written & directed by Werner Herzog.. Marco

Polo Film / NDR & NHK / BBC, 200427 Encounters at the End of the World / written & directed by Werner

Herzog, Marco polo Films, 200728 http://www.magenn.com/29 http://www.flogos.net/30 http://www.designboom.com/contest/view.php?contest_pk=19&item_

pk=17838&p=131 http://www.designboom.com/snapshots/inspired06.html32 http://www.haque.co.uk/burblelondon.php33 http://tangibleinteraction.com/34 http://www.designhm.dk/main.php35 http://www.iconeye.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=articl

e&id=3544:junya-ishigami36 http.www.manifesta7.it/artists37 http://ttl.tuwien.ac.at/docs/proceedings_polar_tourism_081021. pdf38 http://www.thegreenhead.com/2004/09/missile-balloons-for-your-car.

php39 http://www.festo.com/inetdomino/coorp_sites/en/c79c5d07d-

5805095c12572b9006f04f5.htm40 http://www.alavs.com41 http://www.krcf.org/krcfhome/42 http://www.tithi.info/43 http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/commentary/syndrome.html44 http://www.bwsyndrome.com/45 http://www.biojewellery.com/46 http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_

id=qw1098982261169B23547 http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/

idUSN1834654020070219http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn6061-tooth-growing-experiments-bring-smiles.html

48 Jurgen Bey section; Skin : surface, substance and design / Ellen Lupton ; essays by Jennifer Tobias, Alicia Imperiale and Grace Jeffers.. London : Laurence King, 2002..

49 http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/feature_micheal_landy.shtml

50 http://www.nadinejarvis.com/projects/bird_feeder51 http://www.hannesludescher.at/52 http://www.frithstreetgallery.com/artists/works/cornelia_parker/1/53 http://www.zieta.pl54 http://thinkexist.com/quotes/julian_schnabel/55 http://thinkexist.com/quotes/lightness56 http://thinkexist.com/quotes/falling57 pag. 64- 65; Design for the real world : human ecology and social

change / Victor Papanek.. London : Thames and Hudson , 1985, c1984. 58 http://secret-architecture.blogspot.com/2009/01/alpine-capsule-by-

lovegrove-studio-2.html59 Roberto Feo y Rosario Hurtado (El Último Grito), Nowhere/Now/

Here Exhibition Catalogue, LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, 2008, Madrid Spain.

60 http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/nwh_gfx_en/ART40736.html61 Conversation with Joachim Driessen, astrologer and writer.

72

PICture referenCe:

l. = left, r= right, t = top, b = bottom, c = center

1 pictures from l.t.: http://www.flickr.com/photos/37613229 r.t.: http://www.flickr.com/photos/evert-jan/82907545/ l.b..: http://www.takegreatpictures.com/content/images/ tip1_26.jpg r.b.: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Daniel-Dunglas- Home-levitation.jpg2-3 photo of nutrino detector ballon http://stratocat.com.ar/fichas-e/2003/MCM-20031217.htm

7-11 pictures by Christan Bordon; http://www.stonebalancing. com/stones-gallery.php; http://www.flickr.com/photos/fresh electrons/4528019/12 - 13 http://www.flickr.com/photos/29055440@N05/2715773753/ in/photostream/14 Christian Bordon 15-16 Mapping scans ,documnets and edited map by http://i106. photobucket.com/albums/m275/jogi21/random/world_tube_ map.jpg17: //www.flickr.com/photos/evert-jan/82907545/20- 21 my picture and edited: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hbi erau/544653849/ 23 http://www.cinematismo.com/nuevo-cine-aleman/fitzcar raldo/25 Screenshots from filmfootage of modelling week26-27 l.http://www.flickr.com/photos/tone999/249131956 c.http://www. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aladdin r.http://diden.net/~maga/images/formatted/mescaline.jpg28 -29 l.b http://plus.maths.org/issue31/features/acheson/figirt.jpg http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Daniel-Dunglas- Home-levitation.jpg, my own pictures, screenshots of http://www.metacafe.com/ watch/200607/tower_bridge_illusion/30 - 31 Screenshots of BBC Documentary “ The secret of levitation” http://youtube.com/watch?v=Z06c5k6kKH4. http://hight3ch.com/post/how-does-david-copperfield-fly/33 l.:http://www.flickr.com/photos/phrenologist/2863142371 t:http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsommers/2475693530 r.c:http://flickr.com/photos/wolfgangstaudt/2053446134 r.b:rhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsommers/282284832634- 35 l.b.:www.flickr.com/photos/biotron/346774662 l.c: www.flickr.com/photos/745257501 r.b & r.c: www.designboom.com/contemporary/biomimicry. r.t 58 on page 72

36- 37 l.b http://plus.maths.org/issue31/features/acheson/figirt.jpg; http://www.levitron.com l.t http://www.schillerinstitute.org/economy/phys_econ/phys_ maglev.html r.l http://www.magturbine.com/; http://www.hoverit.co.uk/; http://www.msfc.nasa.gov/news/news/photos/1999/pho tos99-260.htm

38- 39 l.t http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindascannell/1392295905/ B000AQ68XC.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg r.t. http://www.totonko.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/rea- para-1.jpg; http://www.ttl.tuwien.ac.at/docs/proceedings_po lar_tourism_081021.pdf r.b.http://libarynth.org/lighter_than_air; http://www.amazon. com/ the white diamond40- 41 l. & r.t.: www.magnenn.com; http://stratocat.com.ar/fichas- e/2003/MCM-20031217.html; http://www.haque.co.uk/bur blelondon.php; r.c.: http://www.designboom.com/snapshots/inspired06.html; http://tangibleinteraction.com; www.flogos.com r.b.: http://www.designboom.com/contest/view.php?contest_ pk=19&item_pk=17838&p=142- 43 l.t http://www.designhm.dk/balloons.php; 35 on page 71 http.www.manifesta7.it/artists http://www.thegreenhead.com/2004/09/missile-balloons-for- your-car l. & r.b. 39 - 42 on page 71 44 - 46 my pictures46 42 on page 7148 b.g. “http://techwoo.com/marilyn-monroe-photo-gallery/” r.c.: “http://www.biojewellery.com/” r.b.: my pictures50- 51 t.”http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/fea ture_micheal_landy.shtml” l.c.48 on page 72 l.b”http://www.nadinejarvis.com/projects/bird_feeder”51- 52 51- 54 on page 7254- 55 59, 57, 60 on page 7254--67 my own pictures,58 b. Max Magliana_edited by me. 65 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-398894/Square- melons-way.html; http://library.otterbein.edu/ Tutorial/2Keywords.htm, http://www.gymballmax. co.uk/section.asp?sectionid=27; http://interior-furniture. blogspot.com/2008/01/fruit-stack.html64- 68 my own pictures

74

bIblIografIe

booKs:

The Gay Science, Friedrich Nietzsche, translated by Walter Kaufmann, New York :Vintage Books ,1974 The unbearable lightness of being / Milan Kundera ; translated from the Czech by Michael Henry Heim.. London : Faber, 1984

Six memos for the next millennium. Calvino, Italo London : Vintage , 1996. The encyclopedia of the paranormal /edited by Gordon Stein..Amherst, N.Y :Prometheus Books ,1996.

The teachings of Don Juan : a Yaqui way of knowledge / by Carlos Castaneda.. Harmondsworth : Penguin , 1970

Lightness : the inevitable renaissance of minimum energy structures / Adriaan Beukers, Ed van Hinte.. Rotterdam : 010 publishers, 1999

Skin : surface, substance and design / Ellen Lupton ; essays by Jennifer Tobias, Alicia Imperiale and Grace Jeffers.. London : Laurence King, 2002..

Design for the real world : human ecology and social change / Victor Papanek.. London : Thames and Hudson , 1985, c1984.

Roberto Feo y Rosario Hurtado (El Último Grito), Nowhere/Now/Here Exhibition Catalogue, LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, 2008, Madrid Spain.

Design and the elastic mind / organized by Paola Antonelli ... [et al.].. New York : Museum of Modern Art, c2008.

Bright minds, beautiful ideas : parallel thoughts in different times : Bruno Munari, Charles & Ray Eames, Martí Guixé and Jurgen Bey / edited by Ed Annink and Ineke Schwartz ; Amsterdam : BIS Publishers, 2003.

Air : unity of art and science = Luft : Einheit von Kunst und Wissenschaft / Oliver Herwig, Axel Thallemer.. Stuttgart : Arnoldsche, 2005.. Lighter than air : moral poems / Hans Magnus Enzensberger ; translated by Reinhold Grimm

fIlMs and doCuMentarIes:

Imagine Werner Herzog: beyond reason / written & presented by Alan Yentob; produced by Chris Hunt; directed by Steve Cole. Burden of dreams / directed by Les Blank with Maureen Gosling; narration written by Michael Goodwin.

BBC Documentary “ The secret of levitation” http://youtube.com/watch?v=Z06c5k6kKH

The white diamond / written & directed by Werner Herzog.. Marco Polo Film / NDR & NHK / BBC, 2005 Encounters at the End of the World / written & directed by Werner Herzog, Marco polo Films, 2007

eleCtronIC MedIa and websItes:

http://www.flickr.comhttp://www.the-philosopher.co.ukwww.quotationpage.comhttp://www.designboom.comhttp://thinkexist.comEncyclopaedia Britannica CD99.. Sutton, Surrey : Encyclopaedia Britannica International Ltd. , 1999.http://www.magenn.comhttp://www.flogos.nethttp://www.haque.co.ukhttp://tangibleinteraction.comhttp://www.designhm.dkhttp://www.iconeye.comhttp.www.manifesta7.it

76

http://ttl.tuwien.ac.athttp://www.thegreenhead.comhttp://www.festo.comhttp://www.alavs.comhttp://www.krcf.orghttp://www.tithi.info/http://www.turnoffyourtv.comhttp://www.bwsyndrome.com/http://www.biojewellery.com/http://www.iol.co.zahttp://www.reuters.comhttp://www.newscientist.comhttp://www.bbc.co.ukhttp://www.nadinejarvis.comhttp://www.hannesludescher.athttp://www.frithstreetgallery.com/http://www.zieta.plhttp://secret-architecture.blogspot.comhttp://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk

Person to Person:

Interview and conversations with Cristian Bordon

Conversation with Joachim Driessen, astrologer and writer.

Telephone Interview with Mr David Ball from the magic circle, London; Centre for The Magic Arts, 12 Stephenson Way, Euston London, NW1 2HD tel.020 7387 2222