Gravity and Levitation
This text was written for the group exhibition ASCENSION an intervention @ Koppel, 177-180 Piccadilly, London.
Private viewing : Jan. 06 17h-20h : open 7th-12th Jan. 13h-18h : closing event 12th Jan 17h-20h
Gravity sucks. It is a force which tries to pull two objects toward each other. Anything which has mass also has a gravitational pull. The more massive an object is, the stronger its gravitational pull. Earth's gravity is what keeps you on the ground and what causes objects to fall. Gravity is what holds the planets in orbit around the Sun and what keeps the Moon in orbit around Earth. The closer you are to an object, the stronger its gravitational pull is.
What is not gravity is grace.
For her part, St. Teresa of Avila the 16th century mystic, writer and reformer was greatly embarrassed by her levitations and prayed that they would stop, and by all accounts they decreased greatly in her later life. She writes, “One sees one’s body being lifted up from the ground; and although the spirit draws it after itself, and if no resistance is offered does so very gently, one does not lose consciousness — at least, I myself have had sufficient to enable me to realize that I was being lifted up.” As with all claims of the miraculous, the Church has been on guard against exaggeration or fabrication. (I’ve told you a million times not to exaggerate).
In the illusion of levitation, a magician raises an object or person into the air, and a psychic or medium's levitation might consist of a table rising slowly into the air. The illusion of levitation can be achieved using hidden supports, strong magnets, counterweights, mirrors, wire-rigging, optical illusions, air pressure, buoyancy, and computer generated imagery (CGI). These techniques are commonly employed in magic performances, art installations, and visual effects in the entertainment industry.
There are also scientifically valid examples of levitation, from the simple occurrence of a feather being blown upward by a breeze to magnetic levitation, when a powerful magnet exerts a force that's strong enough to raise a metal object into the air.
Superconducting levitation aka the Meissner-Ochsenfeld effect occurs when a material is super-cooled and becomes superconducting, it expels magnetic fields from its interior, creating a perfect diamagnetism. This expulsion of magnetic fields leads to the levitation of the superconductor above a magnet.
In acoustic levitation a lattice of sound waves is pitched above the range of human hearing and used to lift and move objects against the force of gravity. Ultrasonic levitation of objects include beads, electronics parts, matches, screws, nuts, and alcohol droplets. Researchers have dramatized the advances by levitating such things as bees, ants and fish.
Without exaggeration, I tell you that I once levitated as a child, the night before my grandfather’s funeral. I lifted off the bedroom floor and onto my bed. It happened without me realizing it. My older sister was witness. We thought it was funny. But what do I know? I ain’t no saint. I ain’t no bee. I was just a kid unfamiliar with the gravity of grief.
