Open AccessCONDITION—SUSPENSION
Author(s) -
CHOY TIMOTHY,
ZEE JERRY
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
cultural anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.669
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1548-1360
pISSN - 0886-7356
DOI - 10.14506/ca30.2.04
Subject(s) - atmosphere (unit) , suspension (topology) , subject (documents) , environmental science , history , meteorology , physics , computer science , mathematics , homotopy , library science , pure mathematics
Atmospheric scenes compel anthropology into a dilution: a shift in concentration. Working through suspension as a condition through which to ask into life in the air, this Opening pauses with moments of arrest, distribution, and deposit by various airs. Such moments compel a reorientation of attention toward airy things even as they model a recomposition of anthropological inquiry by atmosphere. Exploring how sands shift and settle in a Chinese wind tunnel and how matsutake mushroom solids become aromatic vapors in Seoul, we move from considering materials in airborne states to a condition of suspension in atmosphere to which particulates and people alike are held. What could an anthropology in suspension become when its anthropos is subject to vaporization into a thing among others in the atmosphere's composition?