Floater #01 - Editorial

#01 on Floatation / Floater Magazine suggests an inventory of floatation mechanisms within architecture; Without Stability, Without Foundation / Flip is an ocean research platform that capsizes in order to maintain its stability. Yannikos Vassiloulis presents the mechanism of this paradoxical stability / Armin Linke’s images of astronauts and divers project the realities of a utopian body equipped with prosthetics that provide the ability to exist in conditions of No Gravitation / Wave Garden by Yusuke Obuchi and Meduseabloo by b. are performative, highly intelligent environments capable of collecting and administrating data / In 1968, Takis invented Oscillation of the Sea; a device that translates the motion of the sea surface into kinetic energy / Dimitris Antonakakis describes the chronicle of an unusual project commissioned to Atelier66; redesigning the cruiser Libra Y the parameters of instability and non foundation demarcate a new territory for the architect / Louisa Adam explores architectural strategies and practices within contemporary cultural concerns, commenting on OMA’s Harbour of Ideas / Nikos Navridis cooperated with floater magazine for the production of a digital representation of his recent show Tomorrow will be a Wonderful Day... / Evi Sougara's interactive animation is based on J. Swift's Laputa; a mythical island from the novel Gulliver's Travels / Takis Zenetos’ Electronic Urban Planning Utopia is negotiated in juxtaposition with Maurizio Cattelan’s installation Mise-en-Scene. Nikos Tsimas declares floatation experiences as parameters that can provoke feelings of Pleasure and Awe / Micro-organisations, by Elysa Lozano, reflects the socio-political realities of Sealand's micronation, where the artist explores the potential of registering and developing a not for profit organization / in Floating and Sinking in Psychoanalysis Nikos Sideris analyses the mechanisms of floating and sinking in relation to both psychic structure and spatiality / Giorgos Lagoudakis suggests legal aspects of Floating Territories presenting specific archival cases along with the relative legal texts.

Floater #01 edited by Yannis Arvanitis, Elina Axioti, Yannis Papayannakis, Evi Sougara, Eleni Spiridaki, Yannikos Vassiloulis / Fall 2008.

Without Stability, Without Foundation
Floater#01 editorial by Elina Axioti

1. Pull life-jacket over the head
2. Pass tapes round the waist, cross them and bring to the front
3. Tie tapes securely in a double knot under jacket
4. Inflate by pulling red knot at bottom of jacket smartly downwards. Mouthpiece on left side can be used if required

The instructions for use were written on a Personal Floatation Device (PFD). More precisely they describe the exact function of this peculiar inflatable object that could extend the human's body ability to float. There are certain rules that accompany the use of this object-an object useful only in a particular situation; in an emergency. However, we never really know if this supplement is really a safety valve or reinforces the illusion of safety provided by a body capable of floating.

An archeology of floatation could provide us with many examples of such structures; technological inventions that can resist gravity, like, bathyscaphes, missiles, ships, planes, and mythical islands as well are bound with floatation dreams in an imaginary space that often confronts the language of architecture. There is no limit within the idea of floatation where fictional scenes become reality, projecting the past onto the present. There has been a subtle conception of the transformation of preexisting fictional structures in the modernist's experiments of technological inventions in science, art and architecture, which generated contemporary digital architectural initiatives. This condition could be described as always existing on the border where fiction and reality are involved in a constant, mutual reflection and perception.

The term floatation is quite flexible, and Floater magazine, without defining it, uses its functionality to grasp certain spatial, political, legal, artistic, and architectural experiences. Issue 1 is not to be understood as a thematic display of projects and texts that seek a seamless completeness in the representation of a topic. Rather it should be seen as a discursive field in which the contributions expand the perception of floatation. The material-artworks, projects and texts-selected for this publication provide another format for such negotiation and investigation, emphasizing key aspects of a discourse initiated, this time, by the Floater group through the example of Flip (Floating Instrument Platform). The declared emphasis on this reference organises the direction of the group's thoughts on the floatation process.

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