foam.labOrint ::read our LabLit here::

Columbia Blues

admin — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:15:28 +0000

the space shuttle Columbia - a story totally out of the blue.

aka
Columbia Blues

I, the foam.scientist, struggle with the question, how to use this tragical story of science and endeavour. How to inject into the lab.drama the historical event of Columbia crashing. It feels like a very important little transition is missing: how to start this story and where does it come from?

Wings & foam have a complex relation: it’s the world turned on its head. The way foam flows, as compaired to usual fluids like gasses or liquids, is quite surprising. We’ll tell the story of the upside down wing.
(http://www.echobase.be/labOrint/index.php/foam/?title=foam-flows-versus-air-flows)

Wings are a poetic image for extacy, the permanent stage of us foam.scientists. Or are they? Muses don’t have wings. Our breath floats through the atmosphere in soap bubbles without wings. But perhaps the design approach can help. The shape of a wing as an example of thought figures?? As an example of how simple it can be: "turn it on its head and it works in a different context". I want to say how simple it is, just like switching your perception in the visual trick with figure and background: "is it a vase or two faces?".

The broken off bit of insulation foam of the fueltank hit and penetrated the insulation corbon/ceramics tile of the shuttle wing. The result is a dent in the heat shield of the wing, which eventualy is the cause of more heat when the wing cuts through the atmosphere. To be precice, the atmosphere at the dent will increase even more in temperature and turbulance, exceding the heat shield’s capacity . Thus the atmosphere will dig into the dent, to finally make a hole and the super-heated atmosphere will invade the interior space of the wing.

One can focus the story on the relation between the different walls: insulation foam, heat shield, atmosphere.

On the other hand, there’s the human tradegy and the response. The search for the cause, technical and strategical. The collection of the debris and tracing of responsabilities in a supposedly transparant organisation like NASA. Plus the global scale of the response, the frontpages announcing it all around the world!
Columbia = human factor / contamination in objective science <- versus -> foam as homo faciendo or factoris (the species is what it makes) But it’s no good to equate the human factor with a mistake, or even with the ungraspable.

And of course the whole Columbia tragedy is a hyperbole for the crush our two protagonists have for each other (or not). And my struggle is than focused on their relation to such a hyperbole. Humor, yes, but how to start the joke.

And in the margin of the story, there’s the saved hard disk with foam.data and the fire fighter turned black box hunter.

a visit to the Foam.labOrint

admin — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 16:45:27 +0000

This is a short visual tour in the final installation of the works of artists that met at regular intervals during the whole foam.lab:

shaping the meeting point

admin — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:23:26 +0000

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a science nest to avoid a liquidity crisis

admin — Sun, 24 May 2009 17:31:51 +0000

To avoid a liquidity crisis, we have to convince our sponsors to squeeze the sponge…
We must make them an atmosphere within our own danger zone. It must be a lovenest, the blind love kind. Cause seeing is not believing any more. We must let them feel that even the expression “it is what it is”, does not apply to foam.science. Foam.science is out of the blue. There’s no trace of where it came from. It is here, a trace of itself.

I made myself a little mathematical niche. My own research project. Science is always on the edge they say. I have to keep moving to stay where I am. The object I study is not known by any but a handful of co-researchers. Each of them is also extremely specialized. We hardly know of each other what we are doing. In my nightmares I run around like a white little rat in a laborint, and my neighbors conduct experiments on me. Still, in spite of the risk of getting lost, we follow each other very closely. We haunt each other, so to speak.

So where is this research-niche? I collect things to build my nest. Research is a deceptive word. I don’t search, I find things out. And in between the things, there’s space for refinding. Or for definding. (The extra d’s, you could say, that’s the dada of science, but it needs some verifinding, before it will appear in any textbooks!). I say “refinding” in stead of refining, because, as we’re getting more and more niched, there is no more small and big, no more rough and precise. “Here” has no scale. So I can’t draw maps or make approximations. So I nest in things as such. Not objects that are planned and controlled, but things that lead a life of their own and that other scientists make their nest in as well.

As the collection grows, the space in between becomes more intricate. One thing becomes a container for an other, or its skeleton, or its abstract, or its extra dimension. Or they add up, divide, multiply … each other. This in-between-laborint can’t be entered simply. There always needs to be something doubled. So as the mathematical collection grows, I go from simple to double. There is no more “us and it”. I don’t ever reach the point of understanding or seeing an overview. So I start letting the things inhabiting me. Or I pair up with one of my neighbor scientists and we are in a medium of things.

It’s tempting to start building mathematics from scratch. Where has a geometry of strings and sticks lead us to? Drawing circles and squares, and unsuccessfully trying to square the circles. I consider it a joke of mathematical history, that Aphrodite the Greek goddess of love and beauty is said to be born from foam. All our search for beauty in truth, has finally stumbled on that foam. What if mathematicians had started by building a foam-refinery?

But I think starting from zero again, would be a mistake too. Better begin at two.

my foam.definition

Anne — Sat, 23 May 2009 19:36:17 +0000

foam = a mass of bubbles of air or gas in a matrix of liquid film, especially an accumulation of fine, frothy bubbles formed in or on the surface of a liquid, as from agitation or fermentation.
foam = a thick chemical froth, such as shaving cream or a substance used to fight fires.
foam = frothy saliva produced especially as a result of physical exertion or a pathological condition.
foam = the frothy sweat of a horse or other equine animal.
foam = the sea.
foam = any of various light, porous, semirigid or spongy materials used for thermal insulation or shock absorption, as in packaging.
to foam = to produce or issue as foam; froth.
to foam = to produce foam from the mouth, as from exertion or a pathological condition.
to foam = to be extremely angry; rage: was foaming over the disastrous budget cuts.
to foam = to teem; seethe: a playground foaming with third graders.
to foam = to cause to produce foam.
to foam = to cause to become foam.
foam = a mass of small bubbles formed in or on a liquid;
foam = foamfroth
foam = shaving foam - toiletry consisting of a liquid preparation containing many small bubbles that soften the beard before shaving
foam = foambubble - a hollow globule of gas (e.g., air or carbon dioxide)
foam = foamhead - the foam or froth that accumulates at the top when you pour an effervescent liquid into a container; "the beer had a large head of foam"
foam = foamlather - the foam resulting from excessive sweating (as on a horse)
foam = lather, soapsuds, suds - the froth produced by soaps or detergents
foam = spume - foam or froth on the sea
foam = white water, whitewater - frothy water as in rapids or waterfalls
foam = a lightweight material in cellular form; made by introducing gas bubbles during manufacture
foam = foammaterial, foamstuff - the tangible substance that goes into the makeup of a physical object;
foam = styrofoam - a light resilient foam of polystyrene
foam = foam rubber - spongy rubber; made by introducing air bubbles before vulcanization and used for cushioning or upholstery
to foam = become bubbly or frothy or foaming; "The boiling soup was frothing"; "The river was foaming"; "Sparkling water"
to foam = effervesce, fizz, form bubbles, froth, sparkle
to foam = lather - form a lather; "The shaving cream lathered"
to foam = bubble - form, produce, or emit bubbles; "The soup was bubbling"
to foam = seethe - foam as if boiling; "a seething liquid"
foam = capuccino, soap, seafoam, shaving-foam, antiterroristfoam, quantumfoam, frog-foam, firefighting-foam,
foam = contagious
foam= fragile walls which we share with each other and which separate us from each other
foam = a collection of ever shifting spheres
foam = fragility
foam = a multichambersystem with fragile walls which connect AND separate us
foam = pluri-spherology
FOAM=UNGRASPABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

foam.seminar 23/5/09@ De Groene Waterman

Anne — Wed, 13 May 2009 18:27:07 +0000

www.groenewaterman.be

MAAND VAN DE FILOSOFIE

Zaterdag 23/5 tussen
14 en 16 uur: Schuimseminarie Foam.Lab, Echo.Base

door Bart Buseyne & Pat Bruggeman.

Foam.lab is een artistiek project
van Echo.Base vzw met de steun van de stad Antwerpen.

SCHUIM: zeepschuim, cappucino, zeeschuim, kwantumschuim, kikkerdrilschuim….
het staat voor de fragiele wanden die we met elkaar delen en die
ons ook van elkaar scheiden.
Kunstenaars en filosofen werken samen aan een schuimlabOrint,
geïnspireerd door het werk van Peter Sloterdijk. Op een speelse
manier worden grenzen afgetast tussen schuimwetenschap en fictie,
elk van de kunstenaars doet zijn eigen (artistiek) onderzoek. Ze maken een tussenstop met een “schuimseminarie”
in de Groene Waterman op 23 mei tussen 14.00 en 16.00 uur.

De Groene Waterman, Wolstraat 7 - 2000 Antwerpen

[Foam.Seminar]

Anne — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 09:11:40 +0000

Pannelled by Pat Bruggeman, Bart Buseyne and Luk Mutsaert

1.    it’s no secret that the Foam.Project is also inspired by Sloterdijk’s Spheres-trilogy, and in particular to the 3rd vol. Foams/Schäume/Schuimen, from which it borrows its titular figure of thought.

2.    the foam.seminar proposes a platform on which to explicate that reference, to develop and welcome it, to be surprised or enticed by it (and to suffer it on occasion)

3.    it is set up as an echo.chamber in which material from the trilogy –textual and graphic, as well as some related material from other sources- may resonate; as a hotbed where seeds may be sown and come to grow, be it into beautiful flowers or into hardly recognizable weeds

4.    a seminar is, generally, a form of academic instruction, either at an educational institution or offered by some or other organization, for instance commercial.   Etymologically it is a nursery or breeding ground : a more or less marked-out place –a lab, if you like- where seeds (semen) may be cultivated.   In that regard it constitues an enclosure of sorts, where the interest of knowledge and of life may overlap.

5.    The Spheres-trilogy is much about “the configuration of the relation between knowledge and life”; in Sloterdijk’s perspective the verbs to think and to live come to the same thing, as both amount to “the creation of spheres”

6.    In its thematic and method, its spatial metaphoric and somewhat baroque tone the trilogy addresses the formal crisis life goes through, once the world –life- is entering the 3rd faze of the globalization-process. This crisis comes to a loss of form, which can only be addressed by an increasing mobility.

7.    Spheres analyses and describes, but in view of the enhancement of vital possibilities; it is theory, but live theory, affirmative and explorative

8.    This has implications for the way the foam.seminar may be configured. It should work toward some understanding of the books’ strategy and content: the seminar is also an class of instruction.   Yet it should contribute in its own way to the ongoing “exploration of the possibilities and limits of a geometrical vitalism”; it should create an inner-space in which “seeds of life” may be “cultivated”, and thus work as a selective transmission medium for different spectral frequencies -as a greenhouse does.

9.    1st memory-instruction: “spheres are space-creations, that work as immune-structures, for ecstatic beings that are exposed to -and affected by- the outside”

10.    Pat Bruggeman, Bart Buseyne and Luk Mutsaert have different backgrounds, in chemistry, philosophy and cultural anthropology respectively, but they share a committed interest in continental philosophy and aesthetics. They have previously been involved in reading-groups hosted by Echo.Base.

a short interview with Jaap Pieters and Fred Pelon

admin — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 10:21:07 +0000

http://www.echobase.be/labOrint/media/blogs/foamlabOrint/jaappietersfredpelon.mov

Fred Pelon made a documentary on Jaap Pieters, his love of super8 and the living archive Jaap keeps at his house.

follow the link above, or see it at http://www.antennetv.nl/read/antenne_item/id/96614/a-portrait-of-jaap-pieters