8000+ Lil’s

August 18, 2018 By arne hendriks Off

Spotify now features over 8,000 artists with “Lil’” at the beginning of their name – from the well-known Lil Wayne and Lil’ Kim,  to Dutch favourite Lil Kleine (which actually translates as Lil Little).  It’s interesting that the seemingly macho world of hip hop seems to…

Hallmarks of Malignant Growth: Sustained Angiogenesis

July 20, 2018 By arne hendriks Off

In trying to understand what makes continuous growth such a powerful idea (despite clear evidence that it often becomes harmful) The Incredible Shrinking Man turned to cancer research to learn where healthy growth turns malignant. Although cancer is a very complex phenomenon the seminal paper…

Original Final Words

July 18, 2018 By arne hendriks Off

Richard Matheson’s novel ‘The shrinking man’ was published in 1956 and soon adapted for film. In the film the famous last words are inspiring but quite different from the original final words in Matheson’s book. Supposedly the original text was adapted by director Jack Arnold.…

Hallmarks of Malignant Growth: Limitless Replicative Potential

June 15, 2018 By arne hendriks Off

In trying to understand what makes continuous growth such a powerful idea (despite clear evidence that it often becomes harmful) The Incredible Shrinking Man turned to cancer research to learn where healthy growth turns malignant. Although cancer is a very complex phenomenon the seminal paper…

Hallmarks of Malignant Growth: Resisting Apoptosis

June 11, 2018 By arne hendriks Off

In trying to understand what makes continuous growth such a powerful idea (despite clear evidence that growth often becomes harmful) The Incredible Shrinking Man turned to cancer research to learn how growth as part of a healthy and balanced system turns malignant. Although cancer is…

Fisherian Runaway

June 5, 2018 By arne hendriks Off

Fisherian runaway is a mechanism proposed by the mathematical and evolutionary biologist Ronald Fisher, to account for the evolution of exaggerated male ornamentation by persistent, directional female choice. When females are attracted to a certain trait within males, this trait over time gets over-emphasised because males with the trait…

Hallmarks of Malignant Growth: Evading Growth Suppressors

June 1, 2018 By arne hendriks Off

In trying to understand what makes continuous growth such a powerful idea (despite clear evidence that it often becomes harmful) The Incredible Shrinking Man turned to cancer research to learn where healthy growth turns malignant. Although cancer is a very complex phenomenon the seminal paper…

Temperance

May 8, 2018 By arne hendriks Off

Temperance is defined as moderation or voluntary self-restraint and characterized as the control over excess. It is what an individual voluntarily refrains from doing. This includes restraint from retaliation in the form of non-violence and forgiveness, restraint from arrogance in the form of humility and modesty, and…

Shrink Exercise: Growth Chart Resilience

May 6, 2018 By arne hendriks Off

When we say that the human species is obsessed with growth we mean that even without specific context any decline or absence of growth mostly inspires a negative response. At the same time an increase creates a positive feeling. Through a series of simple exercises…

Shaq Sequence

May 4, 2018 By arne hendriks Off

Shaquille O’Neal is an American retired professional basketball player. At 2.16 m tall and 147 kg, he was one of the heaviest players ever to play in the NBA. His size inspired the Shaq Sequence, an number of images used by The Incredible Shrinking Man to illustrate the ramifications…

Hallmarks of Malignant Growth: Self-Sufficiency in Growth Signals

May 1, 2018 By arne hendriks Off

To understand what makes continuous growth such a powerful idea, despite clear evidence that it often becomes harmful, The Incredible Shrinking Man turned to cancer research to learn where growth within a healthy system turns malignant. Although cancer is a very complex phenomenon the seminal paper “…

The Growth Hormone Jungle

April 29, 2018 By arne hendriks Off

Growth hormone is a peptide hormone that stimulates growth, cell reproduction and cell regeneration in humans and other animals. As with all hormonal pathways the path concerning the promotion and secretion of growth hormone leads right into a dense entanglement of interrelated secretions of life. If…

KankerCel: The Hallmarks

April 25, 2018 By arne hendriks Off

In trying to understand what makes continuous growth, despite its obvious harmful effects, such a powerful idea The Incredible Shrinking Man took cancer as one of its key areas of research. When it comes to understanding the biological desire for growth beyond what is healthy…

Unsinkable Jesus Gecko

April 24, 2018 By arne hendriks Off

Changing perspective and seeing reality through the eyes of the very small has the potential to unlock previously unimagined, unseen worlds. The Coleodactylus amazonicus, or Brazilian Pygmy Gecko, could sit comfortably on a finger tip. It is so small that no other reptiles in South…

Neglecting Gravity

April 17, 2018 By arne hendriks Off

As Stephen Jay Gould writes in “Size and Shape” we are prisoners of the perceptions of our size, and rarely recognize how different the world must appear to the very small. Since our relative surface area is so small at our large size, we are…

The Zooms: Abun’dance

April 16, 2018 By arne hendriks Off

The Zooms are modest symbolic choreographed 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.…

Abundance Fantasies: Mukbang

April 9, 2018 By arne hendriks Off

In our series of abundance fantasies we investigate if and how the human desire for abundance can become a positive force for change. Most abundance fantasies revolve around an illustration of the central promise that if we act in a certain way we will be…

Readyquotes

April 4, 2018 By arne hendriks Off

Readyquotes are slightly altered quotes by known thinkers and makers. The spirit of the original quote often is already a reflection of the interests expressed within the research of The Incredible Shrinking Man but may have one or two words changed to allow us to…

Haplogroup Hot Switch

April 1, 2018 By arne hendriks Off

Haplogroup I-M170 is a common Y chromosome DNA haplogroup among unnecessary tall males mostly situated in North and South East Europe. The descendants sharing this specific group of identical genetic traits all come from a unique male ancestor that lived approximately 22.000 years ago during…

Shrink Exercise: Giant Vegetable Hugging

March 28, 2018 By arne hendriks Off

Hugging a giant vegetable initiates a light-hearted feeling of pleasure and relaxation, as well as the experience of being in the presence of a messenger from the future when the human species has become a lot smaller and the world is again a place of…