Section IV
Air
Always there, it allows itself to be forgotten…
Luce Irigaray
Air, in various manifestations, is an element of ancient China, Egypt, and
Greece, and in Buddhism and Hinduism; of atmosphere, breath, life force,
weather, and wind. It pervades and intersects bodies, things, and places –
sustaining, lifting, warming, cooling, and sculpting. Or, eroding, blasting,
freezing, collapsing, and flattening.
The agency of air is taken for granted. In its collusions and hybridizations, as matter it remains invisible and as force its power attracts little more
than a casual nod. It is the things and entities that are sustained, warmed,
eroded, and collapsed that draw attention; it is a prejudicial primacy of
things that attain the status of matter of concern (Adey 2015; Jackson &
Fannin 2011). Thought and action teeter on the earth’s round crust, tethered
to and through things, yet seemingly immersed – assembled – in nothing.
Irigaray (1999) argues that there is little benign about this ‘forgetting of
air.’ An airy world is one of flux and change as there is never the same air
and thus never the same place. Supressing this airiness represents a drive for
mastery and control, an attempt to fix things and beings. Forgetting air produces a sense of permanence and order that enables assertions of power that
foreclose alternate thoughts and actions. Remembering air – proceeding
towards re-remembering air – loosens thought and action as this sense of
fixivity becomes disorientated and doubtful. No place is ever the same place
as the air is never the same air.
There appears to be a partial remembering of air in insurance. A preoccupation with the potential loss of things and healthy bodies is recalibrating
through the emergence of weather derivatives (Müller et al. 2017). Broadly
falling under the banner of climate insurance, derivatives use measured
weather events – including wind speed and extreme heat – as triggers for
payouts, rather than paying out for actual losses. The uncertain and risky
ruses and wiles of this illusive element are, momentarily, rendered tangible
and calculable. Things no longer need to be fixed to particular locations – as
if there was always the same air, or lack thereof – for insurance to act.
DOI: 10.4324/9781003157571-14
Air
Always there, it allows itself to be forgotten…
Luce Irigaray
Air, in various manifestations, is an element of ancient China, Egypt, and
Greece, and in Buddhism and Hinduism; of atmosphere, breath, life force,
weather, and wind. It pervades and intersects bodies, things, and places –
sustaining, lifting, warming, cooling, and sculpting. Or, eroding, blasting,
freezing, collapsing, and flattening.
The agency of air is taken for granted. In its collusions and hybridizations, as matter it remains invisible and as force its power attracts little more
than a casual nod. It is the things and entities that are sustained, warmed,
eroded, and collapsed that draw attention; it is a prejudicial primacy of
things that attain the status of matter of concern (Adey 2015; Jackson &
Fannin 2011). Thought and action teeter on the earth’s round crust, tethered
to and through things, yet seemingly immersed – assembled – in nothing.
Irigaray (1999) argues that there is little benign about this ‘forgetting of
air.’ An airy world is one of flux and change as there is never the same air
and thus never the same place. Supressing this airiness represents a drive for
mastery and control, an attempt to fix things and beings. Forgetting air produces a sense of permanence and order that enables assertions of power that
foreclose alternate thoughts and actions. Remembering air – proceeding
towards re-remembering air – loosens thought and action as this sense of
fixivity becomes disorientated and doubtful. No place is ever the same place
as the air is never the same air.
There appears to be a partial remembering of air in insurance. A preoccupation with the potential loss of things and healthy bodies is recalibrating
through the emergence of weather derivatives (Müller et al. 2017). Broadly
falling under the banner of climate insurance, derivatives use measured
weather events – including wind speed and extreme heat – as triggers for
payouts, rather than paying out for actual losses. The uncertain and risky
ruses and wiles of this illusive element are, momentarily, rendered tangible
and calculable. Things no longer need to be fixed to particular locations – as
if there was always the same air, or lack thereof – for insurance to act.
DOI: 10.4324/9781003157571-14