----------empyre- soft-skinned space---------------------- Johannes -
I wondered though what happens to flow when screened off (behind the glass, on other side)? That was what I tried to ask John regarding his position on converting energy sources (attenuating some, amplifying others) - watching a storm or the revolution (as the actor called Hamlet does in "Hamletmachine") behind bullet proof glass is not the same as being in it (Hemingway, i read somewhere, did it the same way as the actor during the spanish civil war).
What happens in a simple sense is that the energy flow that would otherwise be impinging on your body-system is directed or available elsewhere (probably in another 'form'). "In the moment that the embodied manifestation of flow presents itself, a negation of flow also appears: attenuation, filtration, or blockage. Blockage is the reciprocal of flow: the attenuation or seemingly absence of flow. Blockage is to flow what cold is to heat. Blockage is the evidence of flow that is drained away from one actual pathway to another potential pathway: a flow that is elsewhere. It is a constant underlying condition of our embodied presence. It reveals itself through the presence of more or less defined stricture or directedness of (mediatory) flow pathways. The presence of a strictly defined pathway suggests that outside of that pathway there are limited possibilities or allowances for flow." (Hopkins, pp. 46) [Hopkins, J., 2012. The Regime of Amplification. Bundoora, VIC, Australia: La Trobe University.] It is possible to protect ones self from flows trough a variety of means (skin evolving a complex means to deal with UV radiation; putting a layer of fabric over it; using a 'sunscreen') but each means of protection has consequences to the environment 'outside' of where the attenuation is occurring -- (in the three cases mentioned: the appearance of a 'different' skin color and a change in the overall functioning of the organism; the energy of preparing a fabric (the whole infrastructure necessary to make a fabric!); and a complex techno-social structure necessary to research, develop, and produce a complex chemical compound). These are the more obvious effects, but there are always more and more subtle effects as well. Think of dancers in a room, breathing, the energized matter we call 'oxygen' and 'nitrogen' is being bodily exchanged between everyone in the room; infrared radiation is radiating from one body; impinging on another, changing the base metabolic situation (temperature). Our bodies are 'constructed' as a complex system of protocols that direct energy in a variety of ways, each re-direction of energy wastes a little bit (or more!) energy. Maybe having the dancers in a room where there is no visible Light at all (an underground mine comes to mind!), so that some of the other senses might be awakened (the sound of the breathing, the heat of the body)... Back to the issue of glass -- the existence of glass as a tiny window in a hut in Iceland was a huge thing -- glass was tremendously energy-intensive product to make (causes deforestation among other effects!). It had to be carried great distances by ship (more energy used!), etc etc. One can 'reverse engineer' any energy changing process and see how amplification (+/- gain) changes everything around it. Interestingly, conversion of energy from one 'form' to another is itself a draining process -- it 'wastes' energy, always! This is one reason that complex animals are 'warm blooded' -- they have so many complex energy conversion processes going on to maintain their organismic order that the cumulative effect is that they radiate waste infrared energy. And regarding the effect of gesture -- in a quantum universe, any change anywhere is experienced simultaneosly everywhere -- internal/external are only bounded conditions (thanks, Mr. Descartes, et al) of a spent model. A few morning thoughts before getting back as house-building... I'm burning up a lot of life-energy to create an effective attenuation system to stay inside of... Cheers, John -- ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD grounded on a granite batholith twitter: @neoscenes http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ _______________________________________________ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://www.subtle.net/empyre
