Columbia Blues
the space shuttle Columbia - a story totally out of the blue.
Columbia Blues
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
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:
a science nest to avoid a liquidity crisis
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
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
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.
[Foam.Seminar]
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
Link: 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
JAAP PIETERS: "Een huiskamer op verschillende niveaus"
“Een huiskamer op verschillende niveaus”
Een over-zicht EN in-zicht dat zo’n enorme vol-ledigheid lijkt te suggeren dat de +/- 250 x 36 afbeeldingen in veelheid het hoofd doen duizelen. Echter, is het wel die hoeveelheid of is het ook de afmeting van het beeld?? Of wordt de onvoorstelbaarheid die tot de duizeling leidt door de inhoud van het beeld veroorzaakt??? De rudimentair kale ruimte waarin de overvolle ruimtes getoond worden lijkt in niets op dat wat het laat zien lijkt het….
Echter, ook hier bedriegt schijn: de haast tot een essentie teruggebrachte ”woonruimte” in ECHO.BASE waar Jaap Pieters voor tien dagen zijn intrek in lijkt te hebben genomen gaat op meerdere niveau’s een wisselwerking met het getoonde aan. Naast de gecondenseerde blik door het haast metafysische venster in de vorm van een projectiescherm waar de bezoeker AF + TOE op onregelmatige momenten mee kan kijken uit Jaap’s woning in de Amsterdamsche Volkswijk ‘de Pijp’, is er ook een gefixeerde blik van uit zijn leefruimte.
In alle gevallen strijden illusie, formaat, realiteit & voorstellingsvermogen, afmetingen & schaal om de aandacht van de toeschouwer & soms lijken deze contrasten als zeepbellen uiteen te spatten (als in zijn super-8 film “Schuimschrobben” 3’20 min 1995 geen geluid). Als blijkt dat toch alles weer een is & naar elkaar verwijst. Een gecondenseerde zeepbel van intimiteit of een reeks (af)beeldingen die de toeschouwer/bezoeker buitensluiten???
Amsterdam, 04032009
JAAP PIETERS: het oog van Amsterdam
23/04/09
24/04/09
Spel D, Ruben Kindermans en Wannes Goetschalckx
NL (english below)
Kunstenaars Ruben Kindermans en Wannes Goetschalckx bewonen FOAM.LAB met een nieuwe performance! Voor Spel D wordt Echo.Base hun territorium en schuim het materiaal om mee te leven.
Zaterdag 11/04/2009, PERFORMANCE "SPEL D", deuren: 19u, spel toegankelijk van 20u tot 23u
Ruben Kindermans en Wannes Goetschalckx, leerden elkaar kennen op het HISK in Antwerpen, en werken sindsdien regelmatig samen aan site-specifieke projecten. Ze maken performances in de vorm van een spel. Ze proberen zich de locatie waarin ze spelen eigen te maken. Ze vullen letterlijk de ruimte met een installatie. Zo’n installatie heeft de kwaliteiten van een autonome sculptuur, maar vormt tevens het toneel voor hun performance, hun speelplek.
Voorgaande spelen in de reeks waren: Spel A (2007), Playground, Stuk, Leuven; Spel B (2008), dedonderdagen, desingel, Antwerpen; Spel C (2008), It’s all in the game, avecom, CBK, Arnhem.
De kunstenaars geven langdurende performances in dergelijke installaties, waarbij de bezoeker zich gaandeweg al dan niet bewust wordt van de geldende regels. Zit er een ontwikkeling in het spel, herhaalt het zich, of werkt het toe naar een climax? Ondergaan beide spelers zelf een rolverandering, of zijn ze constant in hun karaktereigenschappen en bewegingen? In hoeverre is de installatie een draagvlak, in hoeverre werkt ze belemmerend? En in hoeverre zullen de kunstenaars één worden met hun kunstwerk, of blijven het toch twee verschillende identiteiten, ieder met hun eigen bestaansrecht?
Er zal een video van dit spel gecrëeerd worden om deel uit te maken van de finale performance installatie "foam.labOrint" in Echo.Base van 28/05 tot 21/06/2009.
EN
Artists Ruben Kindermans en Wannes Goetschalckx inhabit FOAM.LAB with a new element in their series SPEL (…). Echo.Base will become their game board and foam the material to play with.
Saturday 11/04/2009, PERFORMANCE "SPEL D", doors: 7 pm, game acceccible 8pm till 11 pm.
Ruben Kindermans and Wannes Goetschalckx met at HISK, Antwerp and have been collaborating since on a series of performances, titled Spel (…) These works take the shape of games they invent for themselves. With their performances they inhabit the place in which they play. They literally fill the space to produce an installation in the course of playing. They recreate the interior of the location using it as objects of the game. This installation is at the same time an autonomous sculpture and also the world the players live in.
Previous games in the series were: Spel A (2007), Playground, Stuk, Leuven; Spel B (2008), Dedonderdagen, desingel, Antwerpen; Spel C (2008), It’s all in the game, avecom, CBK, Arnhem.
The spectators step inside an long ongoing activity. They are challenged to find out the rules of these games. Perhaps they are not fixed? Will there be a climax or a turning point? Can there be a winner? Do the players act out characters? Is the installation a hindrance for them or a support? Will they become one with their work?
A video of Spel D will be shown as part of the performance installation "foam.labOrint" in Echo.Base 28/05 ’til 21/06 2009
ça / foam.seminar
After the first gathering we proceeded with our science-in-disguise at foam.lab and you’re very welcome to immerse yourself in the lab and get a taste of our research at Echo.Base, Ambtmanstraat 16b, 2000 Antwerp.
• on SATURDAY 28/03/2009 you can come and see ça a "labtest" by Eve Bonneau, doors: 7 p.m., start: 8 p.m.
EN If the body is a landscape, where do we find its horizon? Or maybe the
case is that we don’t live on a globe, but in a plurality of
space-bodies?
ça is a search into the intersubjective stories of the body and how they can be shared with the public.
NL Als het lichaam een landschap is, waar is dan de horizon? Of leven we
niet op een globe, maar in een veelheid van ruimtelichamen?
ça is een zoektocht naar de interpersoonlijke verhalen van het lichaam en hoe die met het publiek gedeeld kunnen worden.
• on SUNDAY 29/03/2009 you can join the foam.seminar by Bart Buseyne, Pat Bruggeman & Luk Mutsaert; they will dive into the Spheres and Foam from philosopher Peter Sloterdijk, doors: 2 p.m., start: 3 p.m.
EN Bart Buseyne, Pat Bruggeman & Luk Mutsaert take us on pathways through Peter Sloterdijks Bubbles, Globes and Foam. For the first seminar we set the tone with "love-affairs" and "inspiration".
NL Bart Buseyne, Pat Bruggeman & Luk Mutsaert nemen ons mee doorheen Bellen, Globen en Schuim van Peter Sloterdijk. Voor het eerste seminarie zetten we de toon met "liefdesaffaires" en "inspiratie".
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