15 November

Returning to anglepoise lamps. My friend David Gorman uses these lamps to help people get a more accurate picture of how their body is supported in space. We tend to carry around an assumption that 'gravity' is dragging us down all day, and we use effort to haul ourselves up against it, in everything we do - like sitting, standing, walking - whatever. And when we get tired we let go, we slump, collapse, 'relax' on a bed etc. So either constantly lifting ourselves up, or letting ourselves drop down. But actually, our bodies are tensegrity structures, meaning we're suspended in a web of elastic tissue. That suspension is similar to an anglepoise lamp, in that notice you can put these lamps in any position, and they'll just sit there. That's their design, the elastic springs absorb the forces and allow the lamps to be suspended in any position in space. With practice you can feel that in your own body, you can feel that support or suspension, in everything you do, without effort. It's hugely liberating. You literally float in your own tissues.