Search Results for: technology

French Door Fridge

October 10, 2023 By arne hendriks Off

Plus-sized fridges in American kitchens have long been regarded as a domesticated expression of the banal idea that bigger is better. And the rest of the world caught up. Many a kitchen is dwarfed by the size of their refrigerator. We’ve come to the end…

The Zooms: The Feynman Zoom

March 13, 2020 By arne hendriks Off

The Zooms are modest symbolic gestures intended to initiate an embodied practise of the desire for smaller. Although they are often hardly more than physical whispers these actions attempt to overcome the inability to act in the face of the omnipresent desire for BIG. They…

Implosion Fabrication

December 27, 2018 By arne hendriks Off

It’s not quite the Dehnel phenomenon but implosion fabrication does allow for a different perspective on shape shifting, size and shrinking and may just add a piece to the puzzle of achieving a smaller size for that bloated hydro-species by the name of Homo sapiens. Researchers…

Beyond Phlebotinum

September 12, 2017 By arne hendriks Off

Phlebotinum is the versatile substance or incomprehensible technology that causes an effect needed by a plot in a work of fiction. Phlebotinum basically does everything, except solve specific limits and dangers required by the plot. Without it, the story would grind to an abrupt halt.…

Post-Growth / Post-Scarcity

June 18, 2013 By arne hendriks 0

Scarcity is the fundamental economic problem of having seemingly unlimited human needs and wants in a world of limited resources. Several cornucopians have explored the notion of the post-scarcity economy, with unlimited free goods, services and information. The most appealing aspect of most of these post-scarcity…

Abundance Fantasies: Cornucopia

June 6, 2013 By arne hendriks 1

In the Abundance fantasies we explore the origin and contemporary meaning of symbols, stories and tropes of abundance. People have an insatiable desire for more, but in reality we constantly have to cope with scarcity. Perhaps the activation of an abundance iconography will help further ignite…

Hhp (Human Height Print)

December 5, 2011 By arne hendriks 2

Tall people need more resources than short people. That’s why it’s rather alarming that the human species continues to grow taller. In fact our increasing height puts more pressure on the ecosystem services than the total population growth. If people become 20% taller this creates over…

Small Brain Issue

October 2, 2011 By arne hendriks 1

It seems there are ways for the brain to retain intellectual capacity even when if considerably smaller. The study of Homo Floresiensis shows that despite being only 100 cm tall, and with the brain-size of a Chimpansee, he possessed technology we’d normally only expect of…

Bantam Astronauts

March 24, 2011 By arne hendriks 1

Perhaps it’s our desire to go to Mars that in the end will lead to smaller human beings. NASA is obsessed by the immense costs of putting things into space. Every extra pound sets them back thousands of dollars. That’s why it is perhaps not surprising…

Mapping Shrink Culture

February 27, 2011 By arne hendriks 0

Over the past 10 months The Incredible Shrinking Man research collected a wide array of shrink facts, figures and visions. The categories spanned everything from science to art, from history to genetics and entertainment, from technology to psychology and so on. We have deliberately not…

Penny Shrinkers

December 9, 2010 By arne hendriks 0

Even if shrinking the human body is the focus of The Incredible Shrinking Man we do have a keen interest in other theories and practices of shrinking. We came across electromagnetic forming through the curious tech subculture of penny shrinking. By running a very high…

Megalophobia

October 15, 2010 By arne hendriks 0

Quite often the  primary response to The Incredible Shrinking Man’s ambition to downsize the human body is the fear of being exposed to animals. As we’ll shrink, our environment and everything in it will appear a lot larger. The fear of large animals and objects…

Gravitational Time Dilation

September 25, 2010 By arne hendriks 0

Einstein’s theory, that short people grow old slower then tall people, has finally been proven scientifically. In an experiment using the most accurate atomic clocks ever invented, researchers of the National Institute of Standards and Technology showed that clocks run faster if they are raised…

Is there a better human size?

September 9, 2010 By arne hendriks 0

43 years ago, in 1967, R.J. Hansen and M.J.Miley, two civil engineering professors from MIT, published an article in Technology Review, on the advantages of smaller human beings. They ask themselves if we can afford to NOT consider, in all it’s aspects, the question of…

There is Plenty of Room at the Bottom

August 17, 2010 By arne hendriks 2

Richard Feynman’s groundbreaking lecture at Caltech in 1959, There is Plenty of Room at the Bottom,  introduced the idea of nanotechnology. Since then we are as obsessed with miniaturizing our tools, as we are with growing tall. It seems strange that our tools keep getting…

Donald Platt

April 8, 2010 By arne hendriks 0

Donald Platt is interested in using genetic engineering and synthetic biology technology to miniaturize organisms, perhaps including, one day, humans. One of the main interests in doing this is space colonization. Space exploration has huge mass and volume constraints and yet we will need livestock and animals so…

Rachel Armstrong

April 8, 2010 By arne hendriks 0

Rachel Armstrong innovates and designs sustainable solutions for the built and natural environment using advanced new technologies such as, synthetic biology and smart chemistry. Her research prompts a reevaluation of how we think about our homes and cities and raises questions about sustainable development of…