11.07.2007

Inhabiting Hydrospace: Scuba + Gravity

"From birth, man carries the weight of gravity on his shoulders. He is bolted to earth. But man has only to sink beneath the surface and he is free, buoyed by water, he can fly in any direction-up, down, sideways-by merely flipping his hand. Under water, man becomes an archangel." _Jacques-Yves Cousteau



















The Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus (scuba) is specifically designed to allow humans to explore and experience the underwater environment as Cousteau has described it. The system in this case is a life-support system which attaches directly to the diver and allows compressed air to be breathed at one atmosphere of pressure even at extreme depths of more than five hundred feet. The purely mechanical system uses springs and valves to regulate air flow to the diver on demand. Simply breathing and lowering the pressure in the mouthpiece opens one way valves releasing air into the lungs. Exhaling closes the same valves and carbon dioxide is exhaled into the water. The body holds the energy which activates the system and gives order to the arrangment of the entire network.
















The Buoyancy Control Vest is used in conjunction with the scuba system to act as an air bladder and support the scuba system on the body. This vest mimics the function of the air bladder organ found in fish which allows them to remain neutrally buoyant at different depths.

The network is weightless when it becomes neutrally buoyant, unhindered by gravity, orientation is lost, up is the same as down and space is truly experienced, close your eyes and cease to exist, the diver becomes the 'archangel.'

Generally this is the type of network which is operating best when it is unnoticed and the human experientially becomes the fish with gills. The system is integrated to the point of parasitism, so much that life itself depends on the functionality of the network.

The Architecture_

_User Framework: Matter, energy and information transfer structured entirely around the form and order of the user, a dynamic framework.

_Dynamic Space: Altered perception of space by changing basic premises which are taken for granted.

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