The Project

A list of opposites adjectives, some blogs, a multidisciplinary exploration of concepts to decline in people and things, constantly referring to material culture and history, in order to create a network of intercultural relationship.

This is what they have tried to make the students of the master's degree in eco-design of the Politecnico di Torino, led by Professor Vittorio Marchis, within the course Hystory of Material Culture.

@ Visit Vittorio Marchi's Hystory of Material Culture blog

@ Explore students blogs:

High / Low

Hot / Cold
Light / Dark
Cooked / Raw
Straight / Curved
Hard / Soft
Wet / Dry
Dark / Refractory
Large / Small
Waterproof / Porous
Wide / Narrow
Liquid / Solid
Smooth / Rough
Long / Short
Heavy / Light
Full / Empty
Regular / Irregular 
Resistant / Weak
Rigid / Flexible
Robust / Fragile
Natural / Artificial
Sharp / Rounded
Transparent / Opaque
Fast / Slow
New / Used
Thick / Thin

Fantasies in Permeable Structures - Laura Elrick

The book begins with two epigraphs, one from German visual artist Rosemarie Trockel, often described as a feminist, and a second from black poet Will Alexander. These epigraphs delineate the book’s central concern and approach: the complexities of “model” behaviors of resistance and the notion of imaginative language as resistance.

@ Some passages of Fantasies in Permeable Structures

@ Read Fantasies... Review

Plaster

For injuries not serious enough to require a full-size bandage plaster protects the cut from friction, germs, damage, or dirt. Thus, the healing process of the body is less disturbed.

Plaster must be at the same time porous, to the skin to breathe, absorbent, usually having an absorbent pad with antiseptic, and waterproof, not to let out the blood.

Special blue bandages are used by food handlers. These are waterproof, have strong adhesive so they are less likely to fall off, and are usually bright blue in color so that it is obvious to the wearer if it has fallen off into some food.

Dam

Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water or prevent water flow into specific land regions. But dams are not completely waterproof structures. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are often used in conjunction with dams to provide generate electricity. Infact stored water could be released through turbines to a generator. To boost the power generation capabilities of a dam, the water may be run through a large pipe called a penstock before the turbine.
During an armed conflict, a dam is to be considered as an "installation containing dangerous forces" and shall not be made the object of attack.

@B Do you know Three Gorges Dam?

@ More about Pumped storage hydroelectricity

Plato, Hyperuranium

According to Plato Iperuranio is that area beyond the sky where they reside ideas. So the hyperuranium is that world beyond the sky that has always existed in which the ideas are immutable and perfect, accessible only by the intellect, not visible from land and corruptible bodies. The supercelestial therefore behaves porous compared to the real world, but it is unattainable, and therefore waterproof. Plato speaks about the Hyperuranium in Phaedrus.

@ Learn more about Phaedrus

Atoms vs. Monads

Experiment on atom interaction

For atomists natural world consists of two fundamental principles, atoms and void. Atoms are indestructible and immutable and there are an infinite variety of shapes and sizes. They are the smallest possible division of matter and cannot be split, cut nor in any way further divided, but they interact with each other, in a porous way.

Representation of the Pythagorean monad

The monads are "substantial forms of being", individual, subject to their own laws, un-interacting, and each reflecting the entire universe in a pre-established harmony. Monads are centers of force. Unlike atoms, monads possess no material or spatial character and have a complete mutual independence without interaction, they are impermeable.

Bergson, Closed and open societies

EU Parliament

In open societies, government is responsive and tolerant, and political mechanisms are transparent and flexible. The state keeps no secrets from itself in the public sense; it is a non-authoritarian society in which all are trusted with the knowledge of all.

military blocked the entrance to the Chinese parliament

Closed society claims to certain knowledge and ultimate truth lead to the attempted imposition of one version of reality.

Democracies are examples of the "open society," whereas totalitarian dictatorships, theocracy, and autocratic monarchies are examples of the "closed society."

@ Know more about Henri Bergson

Popper, Open society

Karl Popper, 1945

In open societies, government is responsive and tolerant, and political mechanisms are transparent and flexible. The state keeps no secrets from itself in the public sense; it is a non-authoritarian society in which all are trusted with the knowledge of all, in practice the Society behaves porous.

Political freedoms and human rights are the foundation of an open society.

In Karl Popper's definition, found in his two-volume book The Open Society and Its Enemies, he defines an "open society" as one which ensures that political leaders can be overthrown without the need for bloodshed, as opposed to a "closed society," in which a bloody revolution or coup d'état is needed to change the leaders.

@ Know more about open society

Porous society

The Futility of "Homeland Defense"

"Don't even try to close the holes in a country, and a society, designed to be porous"
David Carr
The Atlantic Magazine, January 2002

@ Read this article

The merchant, the donkey and the salt

A merchant who owned a donkey heard that salt was cheaper by the seashore, so he decided to go into the salt business. He went and loaded his donkey with salt and then headed back home. At a certain moment, the donkey accidentally lost his footing and fell straight into a stream. This caused the salt to dissolve, making his load lighter. The donkey was thus able to rise easily to his feet and enjoy a less taxing journey home. The merchant sold what was left of the salt and led the donkey back again to load him with an even greater cargo than before. As the donkey made his way with difficulty back to the stream where he had fallen before, he sank to his knees on purpose this time. Then, after his cargo had dissolved in the water, he leaped nimbly to his feet, delighted to have turned the situation to his advantage, or so he thought. The merchant realized what was happening and decided that the next time he would bring back home a big load of porous sponges. On their way back across the stream, the wicked donkey fell down on purpose as before. This time the sponges grew heavy with water and the cargo expanded. As a result, the donkey had to carry a burden that was twice as heavy as it had been to begin with.

Aesop's Fables
Translation by Laura Gibbons

@ Explore Aesopica fables

Puzzle Jug

Puzzle jug with inscriptions

A puzzle jug is a puzzle in the form of a jug. The challenge is to drink the contents without spilling, which, because the neck of the jug is perforated, is impossible to do conventionally. Usually on the jug there are inscriptions like Come drink of me and merry be or Come drink your fill, but do not spill.

Puzzle jugs of varying quality were popular in homes and taverns, especially during the 18th and 19th centuries.

@ More about Puzzle Jug

Quicksilver porosimetry

Quicksilver porosimetry is an analytical technique used to determine various quantifiable aspects of a material's porous nature, such as pore diameter, total pore volume, surface area, and bulkand absolute densities.
The technique involves the intrusion of a non-wetting liquid (often mercury) at high pressure into a material through the use of a porosimeter. The pore size can be determined based on the external pressure needed to force the liquid into a pore against the opposing force of the liquid's surface tension.

Michelangelo vs Leonardo

Tondo Doni, Michelangelo, 1508

Vergine con il bambino e Sant'Anna, Leonardo

Michelangelo believed that painting should approach the sculpture. His painting technique can be described as statuesque. The subjects of his paintings are well defined and appears impermeables.
Leonardo, instead, thought the painting would approach the reality, and because between one thing and another there is never absolute void, the figures were to fade and lose one another and with the background, so porous.

Le Corbusier, Notre Dame du Haut

Generally, the churches are closed, impenetrable, as if wishing to become detached from reality.
Notre Dame du Haut is instead characterized by its porosity, its relationship with the outside and light.
All the coverage does not rest directly on the walls but on short pillars drowned in the wall thereof. In this way, looking at the ceiling from the inside, you feel a shaft of light that penetrates the walls and the canopy of concrete. The light is also used by dozens of openings in many different forms. Louvers, windows and blinds that determine evocative lighting effects enhanced by the contrast between the white plaster and gray dirt of cement.

Inside view

@ Learn more about Notre Dame du Haut

@ View photos

Sunscreen

Sunscreen is able to absorbs or reflects some of the sun's ultraviolet (UV) radiation on the skin exposed to sunlight and thus helps protect against sunburn. To absorb UV radiation sunscreens contain organic or inorganic particulate governed to about 90% by absorption and 10% by scattering of UV light. In addition, many sunscreens are waterproof, to keep the effect while swimming.
Many sunscreens do not block UVA radiation, which does not cause sunburn but can increase the rate of melanoma. Additionally, sunscreens block UVB, and if used consistently this can cause a deficiency of vitamin D.

@B View advertising of Extreme Waterproof

Baggage scanner

Scanned image of a luggage bag

To increase security at airports, all baggage is scanned by X-rays with a procedure similar to that of radiography. So you can also pass through what you cannot see with human eyes only.

@B Learn how Radiography works

The family man

Sometimes an hermetic character can quickly become in one open and caring.
This is what happens to the protagonist of A Family Man who sees what could have been had he made a different decision thirteen years ago. At the end, the protagonists concludes that living a quiet family life is preferable to achieving success and wealth at work.
@ Read the whole story

Tullgren funnel

A Tullgren funnel, also known as Berlese funnel, is an apparatus used to extract living organisms from samples of soil. The Tullgren funnel works by creating a temperature gradient over the sample, such that mobile organisms will move away from the warmer temperatures, and fall into a collecting vessel where they perish, and are preserved for examination. Animals escaping from the dessiccation of the litter descend through a filter into a preservative liquid in a receptacle.

Diode

A diode is a two-terminal electronic component that conducts electric current in only one direction. Usually it is a crystalline piece of semiconductor material connected to two electrical terminals.
The most common function of a diode is to allow an electric current to pass in one direction while blocking current in the opposite direction, and is used to convert alternating current to direct current, and to extract modulation from radio signals in radio receivers.

Diode electric symbol

Albedo

Albedo, or reflection coefficient, is the diffuse reflectivity or reflecting power of a surface. It is defined as the ratio of reflected radiation from the surface to incident radiation upon it. Being a dimensionless fraction, it may also be expressed as a percentage, and is measured on a scale from zero for no reflecting power of a perfectly black surface, to 1 for perfect reflection of a white surface.

Albedo global map

The Greenhouse effect

The greenhouse effect is a process by which thermal radiation from a planetary surface is absorbed by atmospheric greenhouse gases, and is re-radiated in all directions. Since part of this re-radiation is back towards the surface, energy is transferred to the surface and the lower atmosphere. This is because the atmospheric gases, virtually transparent to solar radiation, absorb infrared radiated from the Earth. As a result, the temperature there is higher than it would be if direct heating by solar radiation were the only warming mechanism.

The growing presence of greenhouse gases are endangering the Earth

@ More about Global Warming

Conceptual Map

To Filter

    To Flow                                                     To Protect

Waterproof/
Porous

    To Refuse                                                  To Absorb

To Assimil

Click to explore single actions

To Flow

Water under the Bridge

River Delta                                                   Infiltration

To Flow

Tarmacdry                                                           Diode

Luminiferous Aether

Click to explore single post - Go back

To Assimil

A Family Man                                 

                                                    Fallingwater House

To Assimil

Greenhouse effect                                              Chi va con lo zoppo

Condensation Cube

Click to explore single post - Go back

To Refuse

Albedo

Spiral Jetty                                                          Diode

To Refuse

Mosè                                                   Pantheon Oculus

Watch

Click to explore single post - Go back

To Absorb

Nappy

Infiltration                                                          X-Ray

To Absorb

Sanitary Napkin                                          Black Body

Chirpò spheres

Click to explore single post - Go back

To Protect

Dream Catcher

Fencing Mask                                               Timberland

To Protect

Gore-tex                                                          Camera

Sunscreen

Click to explore single post - Go back

To Filter

Drain is just for Rain

                                                                        Narthex

 Magritte

To Filter

Audio Filter                                        Buchner Funnel

Filter Press

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Groundwater

Groundwater is water located beneath the ground surface in soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water. Groundwater is recharged from the surface naturally; natural discharge often occurs at springs and seeps, and can form oases or wetlands.
Groundwater aren't confined only to the Earth: some landforms observed on Mars may have been influenced by groundwater.

Probable groundwater on Mars

Confined Aquifer

An aquifer is a layer of soft rock, like limestone or sandstone, that absorbs water from an inlet path. Porous stone is confined between impermeable rocks or clay. This keeps the pressure high, so when the water finds an outlet,it overcomes gravity and goes up instead of down without the need for pumping. In this case is the presence of an artesian well.
The Great Artesian Basin is the largest and deepest artesian basin in the world, occupying 23% of the Australian continent.

Great Artesian Basin

Magritte, La Condition Humaine

In front of a window seen from inside a room, I placed a painting representing exactly that portion of the landscape covered by the painting. Thus, the tree in the picture hid the tree behind it, outside the room.

Renè Magritte, 1933

Then paintings may include both impermeable, because they hide what is behind, that porous, because the concealed portion coincides with the image painted.

La Condition Humaine I (1933)

La Condition Humaine II (1935)

The Promenades of Euclid (1955)

@ Go to the official website of Magritte Foundation

Semiconductor

A semiconductor polymer

A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity due to electron flow intermediate in magnitude between that of a conductor and an insulator. Semiconductor materials are the foundation of modern electronics.
Common semiconducting materials are crystalline solids, but amorphous and liquid semiconductors are known. The electronic properties and the conductivity of a semiconductor can be changed in a controlled manner by adding very small quantities of other elements, called “dopants”, to the intrinsic material. But temperature also can cause rapid variation of conductivity.

@B Do you know what a Diode is?

@ Learn more about Electrical conductivity

Infiltration Rate

Infiltration is the process by which water on the ground surface enters the soil. Infiltration rate in soil science is a measure of the rate at which soil is able to absorb rainfall or irrigation. It is measured in inches per hour or millimeters per hour. The rate decreases as the soil becomes saturated. If the precipitation rate exceeds the infiltration rate, runoff will usually occur unless there is some physical barrier. It is related to the saturated hydraulic conductivity of the near-surface soil. The rate of infiltration can be measured using an infiltrometer.

Double Ring Infiltrometer

PATENT: Automatic Recording Infiltrometer, Almond D. Bull, 1949

Suez Canal

Sometimes what appears to be impermeable, can suddenly become permeable. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 created the first salt-water passage between the Mediterranean and Red seas. It allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigating around Africa, through an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt. It contains no locks: seawater flows freely through the canal. In general, the Canal north of the Bitter Lakes flows north in winter and south in summer.

Air view of whole Suez canal

@ Look at Suez Canal Company stamps

Hydrate

Cobalt Chloride before and after hydration

Hydrate is a term used in inorganic chemistry and organic chemistry to indicate that a substance contains water. The chemical state of the water varies widely between hydrates.
Mineral hydrates are inorganic salts containing water molecules combined in a definite ratio as an integral part of the crystal that are either bound to a metal center or that have crystallized with the metal complex.
A colorful example is cobalt chloride, which turns from blue to magenta upon hydration, and can therefore be used as a water indicator.

@ Learn more about hydrates

Optical fiber

An optical fiber or optical fibre is a thin, flexible, transparent fiber that acts as a waveguide, or "light pipe", to transmit light between the two ends of the fiber. Fibers are used instead of metal wires because signals travel along them with less loss and are also immune to electromagnetic interference. Furthermore, because optical fibers transmit only the light, while this is produced by an external generator, they can directly pass through hostile environments for electrical cables, such as water.

optical fiber pool lighting

@ Watch how optical fiber work

PATENT: Method of producing optical waveguide fibers, Keck et al. 1970

Pampers Baby Dry

Wright, Fallingwater house

Fallingwater stands as one of Frank Wright's greatest masterpieces The home was built on top of an active waterfall which flows beneath the house, was essential the impermeability of the foundation.
Wright's passion for Japanese architecture was strongly reflected in the design of Fallingwater, particularly in the importance of interpenetrating exterior and interior spaces and the strong emphasis placed on harmony between man and nature. So for its dynamism and for its integration with the striking natural surroundings, Fallingwater house can be understood as porous.

Fallingwater or Kaufmann Residence, 1935, Southwestern Pennsylvania. 

Explore the Official site of Fallingwater house

Audio filter

They are called filters audio devices that accept an input signal and returns its entire output in just one part. audio filters are often different depending on sound frequency. Low-pass, that enables only frequencies below a certain point called the cutoff, High-pass, that does the opposite of the low-pass, band-pass and rejecy band.

Look how to make a low pass filter

Radiography

Radiography is the use of X-rays to view a non uniformly composed material such as the human body.

A heterogeneous beam of X-rays is produced by an X-ray generator and is projected toward an object. According to the density and composition of the different areas of the object a proportion of X-rays are absorbed by the object. The X-rays that pass through are then captured behind the object by a detector which gives a 2D representation of all the structures superimposed on each other.

@ More about Radiography

Pozzolana

Pozzolana was the first material that Romans used to make roofs waterproof. Pozzolanic ash was first discovered and dug in Italy, at Pozzuoli, in the region around Vesuvius.
It reacts with calcium hydroxide in the presence of water, creating compounds possessing cementitious properties at room temperature which have the ability to set underwater. It transformed the possibilities for making concrete structures, although it took the Romans some time to discover its full potential.
Modern Pozzolana blend may be stronger than Portland cement, due to its lower porosity, which also makes it more resistant to water absorption and spalling.

Pantheon dome made of Pozzolana

@B Read more about Pantheon dome curiosities

@ Explore pozzolana.it (ITA)