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…

Shrink to Power

February 19, 2011 By arne hendriks 0

Popular culture is ripe with examples of the playful desire to shrink. We’ve reported before on the peculiar desire of some people to sexually fantasize about very small men, and women especially. But not all forms of microphilia are of an erotic nature. On the…

GHRHR

February 11, 2011 By arne hendriks 0

It seems as if nature itself is already investigating ways to counter hypergrowth, overpopulation and overconsumption. It’s creating perfectly proportioned, but small, human beings. Pituitary dwarfism, also known as Dwarfism of Sindh, is a form of growth absense where all parts of the body grow equally slow. At…

Robert Therrien

February 1, 2011 By arne hendriks 0

Robert Therrien makes monumental sculptures and installations, often in the shape of tables and chairs. In terms of material and form his works corresponds to the model down to the smallest details, but in scale the sculpture differs dramatically. The furniture has assumed such proportions…

Speculative Cooking

January 31, 2011 By arne hendriks 0

In preparation for TransNatural and the Disproportionate Restaurant a public research kitchen was set up in the Waag in Amsterdam. Chef Martijn Jansen, together with several guests, investigated and speculated on our future relationship with food, ingredients, and cooking techniques. The kitchen was located right in…

Small & Smart

January 29, 2011 By arne hendriks 1

There is an understandable fear that in shrinking the human body we might lose part of our brain capacity. With a projected head size of about 6 x 4,5cm it’s an obvious concern. One of the possible solutions we’ve reported on in a previous post,…

Dwarfism of Sindh

January 18, 2011 By arne hendriks 0

Donald Platt points out an interesting case of dwarfism in Pakistan. In 1994, an article appeared in a Pakistan newspaper, describing the existence of a cluster of familial dwarfism in two remote villages in the lower Indus valley.  The subjects were perfectly proportioned and in…

40 Whales

January 15, 2011 By arne hendriks Off

Creating a more sustainable lifestyle is an important argument why shrinking could be a good idea. At the same time the very real possibility of widespread megalophobia as a result of smaller size may lead to unsuspected urges to compensate. People will always find ways…

Aquarium Fish & Bonsai Birds

January 10, 2011 By arne hendriks 0

For the Disproportionate Restaurant we will investigate a different range of ingredients. During Transnatural several chefs will create a map of small ingredients and prepare a menu for The Incredible shrinking Man. Both will be offered for tasting. It’s likely that we’ll see a new…

The Stats on T.I.S.M.

January 8, 2011 By arne hendriks 5

Our projected height for The Incredible Shrinking Man is 50 centimeters. With that height, and the same proportions its weight will be around 1,7 kg. But how does that translate to a shoe or ring size? And what about the volume of our brains and…

Voyeur Town

January 7, 2011 By arne hendriks 0

In a previous post we reported on a village exclusively built for little people working in an airplane factory during the war. More often these temporary customized tiny towns were built for housing the small performers of amusement parks. The towns soon turned into sideshows catering…

Tiny Towns for Special Forces

January 5, 2011 By arne hendriks 0

Joost Janmaat of Partizan Publik recalls his memory  of an intriguing search for a lost tiny town: “I fruitlessly embarked on a quest for little people two years ago when I was in Detroit. I am gonna relate you the story anyway, since by posting it on…

7.000.000.000

January 1, 2011 By arne hendriks 0

In 2011 the world population will reach 7 billion.  To put this into perspective; around 8000 BC at the dawn of agriculture, the Earth’s population was only 5 million. At the beginning of our calendar (0 AD) this had increased to around 200 million. During the Industrial…

B-Movie Biology

December 29, 2010 By arne hendriks 0

The shrinkfilm archive features many 50’s movies of debatable quality. And there’s a reason: B-movies of the 50’s are a rich source of inspiration for size-related speculation.  The premise of the 50’s B-movie is invariably to take something out of its usual context -make people…

Queen Voluptuous

December 27, 2010 By arne hendriks 0

Once, when Nature’s overpowering vigorousness Conceived each day children this monstrous I would love to have lived with a young giantess Around her feet like a cat to a queen voluptuous. Would love to have seen the spirit that grew out of her Distending as…

The Ames Room

December 20, 2010 By arne hendriks 0

In an Ames Room two or more people of the same size standing in a space appear to be of dramatically different sizes, even though they are actually the same size. Adelbert Ames, Jr. (August 19, 1880 – 1955) was an American scientist who made…

Last Words Before Infinity

December 14, 2010 By arne hendriks Off

The Incredible Shrinking Man takes its name from a 1957 movie, based on a book by Richard Matheson. In it the protagonist Scott Carey slowly starts shrinking after having been exposed to radioactive pesticides. The film (and book) is about coping with this situation. Towards…

Can Shrinking Man Fly?

December 12, 2010 By arne hendriks 1

For some people the most exciting consequence of shrinking the human body is not that we’ll save resources, or the new abundance of space and the challenge of redesigning most of our things. What keeps them busy is if at 50 centimeters and 2 kilograms…

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…

Big Bird

December 7, 2010 By arne hendriks 0

The research for The Incredible Shrinking Man broadens, and some surprising connections are surfacing. In earlier reports on dwarfism and gigantism we discovered the special position of islands in regards to the size of its inhabitants. The Indonesian island of Flores is again the stage…