Category: Entertainment

Type 700 Tom

February 20, 2023 By arne hendriks Off

The Thumbling project focuses on global variants of the Tom Thumb and Thumbelina tale. There are literally hundreds of variants of this popular story that features a character of extremely tiny size. This character may be referred to as thumbling, inchling, fingerling, dwarf, homunculus, manikin,…

Court Dwarfs: Nano Morgante

June 13, 2022 By arne hendriks Off

Surely one of the most remarkable sculptures created during the reign of Cosimo I de’ Medici is that of the dwarf jester Nano Morgante, whose real name was Braccio di Bartolo. Morgante, which means giant, was ironically nicknamed after the giant from the poem of the same name…

3-Point Space & Time

May 29, 2022 By arne hendriks Off

Not long ago basketball was dominated by very tall men who positioned themselves near the basket to score, rebound, or discourage any opponent from getting to the hoop. The closer a player got to that hoop, the better, as shots from up close earned him…

The Dwarf and the Giant

October 27, 2020 By arne hendriks Off

Between 1896 and 1913 French film pioneer and illusionist Georges Méliès directed over 500 films. Most of them were very short experiments exploring the possibilities of special effects inspired by the tradition of stage magic. As such the appearance and disappearance of objects and people…

Abundance Fantasies: Fish Story

December 6, 2014 By arne hendriks 0

In our series on Abundance Fantasies we explore how a deeply rooted desire for abundance manifests itself in our vocabulary, our myths and legends, and our cultural artefacts. The question is how we can activate these cultural pathways to initiate the desire to become smaller,…

Co-Ex Interface

September 27, 2014 By arne hendriks 0

When first confronted with the idea of a human species with an average height of 50cm, initially most people express their fear for cats and dogs and how our diminutive size might affect our relationship with them. The Incredible shrinking Man doesn’t deny that this…

Abundance Fantasies: The Alasitas Pathway

March 7, 2014 By arne hendriks 0

From an early age the miniature teaches us to want. During childhood toys in all sorts and shapes create the pathways for  a grown-up desire for material abundance. The promise is right there, in the palm of your hand: toy cars, doll’s houses, miniature cattle and…

The Fear of the Gods

February 3, 2014 By arne hendriks 1

In one of his lesser known stories, The Food of the Gods and how it came to Earth, the British writer H.G. Wells presents Herakleophorbia IV, a nutrient that makes anything grow to about six times its regular size. The story takes the reader, rather uninspired,…

Abundance Fantasies: Giant Sushi Roll

September 12, 2013 By arne hendriks 1

Our desire for tallness is strong and deeply rooted. So deep it is difficult to imagine the change towards a general desire for shorter stature. However, the human species is not the sum of just one or two desires but of many. In the Abundance…

Abundance Fantasies: Exaggeration Cards

August 30, 2013 By arne hendriks 1

Exaggeration cards are picture postcards depicting enormously oversized fruits, vegetables and livestock. First appearing in Fresno in 1905 the cards quickly struck a chord throughout the western United States. These  “tall-tale postcards”  became especially prevalent in small town rural communities hoping to forge an identity…

This Crowded Earth

November 30, 2012 By arne hendriks 1

This Crowded Earth by Robert Bloch is a 1958 novel set in a future where overpopulation has inspired science to create a small human race with the use of hormone therapy. The story starts in the late 1990’s when suicide, crime and accidents have increased steeply…

Subliminal Tinker Bell

November 9, 2012 By arne hendriks Off

If we want to convince mankind that we should downsize the human body it will not be sufficient to present the endocrinological and genetic possibilities to shrink, or point out the amount of damage we are causing because of human size, or any of the…

Munchkin Statistics

September 6, 2012 By arne hendriks 0

Statistical research on the 124 actors who played the Munchkins in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz shows that little people live longer. Through Wikipedia we were able to calculate projected life expectancy and actual date of death of 77 actors, both male and female and…

TEDx Lecture on Shrinking

June 10, 2012 By arne hendriks 0

During TEDx Brainport Arne Hendriks gave a short talk on some of the reasons the human species should shrink, some of its possible consequences, and how it could be done. See it HERE.

(Mad) Scientist Fiction

October 24, 2011 By arne hendriks 1

Mankind seems so indoctrinated to think bigger that sometimes the mere suggestion that we should become smaller is thoughtlessly rejected as mad science. Ever since the 20th century our relationship with science, vacillating between science as the salvation of society or its doom, has been personified by…

Relic Paulina

September 8, 2011 By arne hendriks 0

The Dutch are among the tallest people in the world yet the smallest girl that ever lived was from the Netherlands. Johanna Paulina Musters’ extremely small stature, she was only 61 centimeters, her talent for acrobatics, singing and dancing, and the ability to speak several…

Japanese Miniatures: Prepping Tiny Plastic Food

August 23, 2011 By arne hendriks 0

The consequences of shrinking the human body for the world’s food situation is a main topic of research for The Incredible Shrinking Man. One chicken could feed up to 100 people if we are 50 centimeters. That’s why it would be unwise to shrink agricultural…

Supersize Tourism

June 14, 2011 By arne hendriks 1

Jim Hejl keeps a website called Jim’s Big Things with photos of himself near (you guessed it) BIG things. He typically finds these things near freeways, in shopping malls, in restaurants and amusement parks. It started harmlessly with a single blurry photo of Jim next to a…

Small Wonder

May 14, 2011 By arne hendriks 0

Jyoti Amge is the world’s smallest girl. She weighs about 5 kilograms and at 58 cm’s her height  is really close to The Incredible Shrinking Man’s projected future size of 50 centimeter. She has been the subject of numerous documentaries and enjoys her star status.…

Shrink Rays

March 17, 2011 By arne hendriks 0

A shrink ray is any device which uses energy to reduce the physical size of matter. Although the laws of quantum physics don’t allow the miniaturizing of atoms and shrink rays do not exist (perhaps with the exception of electromagnetic forming) they feature quite prominently in popular fantasy and science…