A Short Lesson on Perspective

Powers of Ten is a short American documentary film written and directed by Ray Eames and her husband, Charles Eames in 1968. This film gives us a spacial scale of the universe by expanding and collapsing our perspective by powers of ten.

We live in a world of and created by numbers and models of reality built on these scales. A billion looks like this 1,000,000,000. That's a thousand millions or a million thousands depending on your perspective. Multiply that number by 6.9 and you have the estimated current World's population.

This formula explains how we define the radius of an electron.



See that 10 with the -15 super-scripted? That's scientific notation or a short way of writing this number so that it fits neatly on the screen of a calculator...

0.0000000000000028179402894(58) meters

Powers of Ten further elaborates to us just how incomprehensible these numbers actually are to the human mind.

If I were to look at you from 300 yards away with a telescope I would be unable to hear you, smell you, touch you, and my visual framing would exclude everything outside of my scope of vision. My understanding of you would therefore be superficial and poor at best. How valuable would my opinion of you really be?

Yet, this is more or less what we are forced to do given the complexity and the amount of control we all exert over our world. "The scientific Lifestyle" as David Byrne might say. Context and depth is truth and definition. Should we compromise our definition of our world in order to increase our scale of living?

We think asking this question is more important than avoiding it. Now without further ado, Powers of Ten.




Oh and if you still have more space in your brain, here is your extra credit video on perspective called, "Did you Know?" This is a more recent video which is at least 2 years old now about the progression of information technology and our world as perceived through it. This was created by Karl Fisch a High School Teacher in Centennial, Colorado. This is version 1.0 and there are 3 more updated versions since this one. Point being, this is weird stuff and the message is as confusing as the numbers themselves.

I personally recommend watching this video without sound and to keep in mind that this information is more than 2 years old already!

Pataphysical Vibrations/I believe in Sunshine K-Okay Radio Spot!

What you might not have known already is that Pataphysical Vibrations was originally a specialty Radio show hosted by the University of Washington's Rainy Dawg Radio. The full title being, "Pataphysical Vibrations: A Child's Guide to the Psychedelic Unknown!"

Well for old time's sake and in order to support our friends at "We are Here, this is Now" and K-Okay Radio in Oakland California. We made this little 16 minute radio spot featuring I believe in Sunshine & 3 tracks including a sneak peak at the new album "Love Peace & Hope" coming out later this year on Pataphysical Vibrations!

Pataphysical Vibrations/I believe in Sunshine K-Okay RADIO SPOT!! by I believe in Sunshine

A Chant to Inspire Growth!

Spring is coming and tonight is the last full moon before the spring equinox! We're excited for the new growing season! !!! (can't you tell?)

Our next magazine issue is about food, gardening, and home economics! So naturally our music theme will be "roots" music!

In the meantime meditate on this...

Check it out!! Our friends built a radio Station in Oakland!!!

That's right it's officially here and you can listen to it from anywhere LIVE!! Even here!!!

Mountainhood will be in the studio today at noon!!! Plus listen in for a special Pataphysical Vibrations Radio show featuring 3 songs from I believe in Sunshine including a sneak preview of the new album "Love Peace & Hope" which will be released later this year.

You can also listen to these shows at your convenience on their radio archive.





from - We are Here, This is Home

With the radio station up and running (K-Okay!, 88.1), we’ve focused our attention on finishing our collapsible home/ radio listening station/ fort.

Triangles!Made out of equilateral triangles of bedsheets stretched over wood, lots of thread, some old clothes, and some hairbands, they can be assembled into infinite home-shapes.

The triangles are looking beautiful, the nights of sewing are getting later, the piles of thread and fabric scraps is climbing higher, and the whole thing keeps feeling a little more magical.

Maybe it’s over-worked, late-night delirium, but here’s our explanation for the magic. It’s a nod to the absurdist-physicist who is sharing his home with us for this month, it is a shout to our amateur geometric mystics a continent away. It’s the lasting intrigue of the Platonic Solids.

Platonic Solids are 3-dimensional convex solids made entirely of matching equilateral shapes. Like a cube. Or a pyramid with a triangular base. There are only five possible Platonic Solids, and three of them are constructed of equilateral triangles.

An ancient cult mathematicians called The Secret Brotherhood, headed by Pythagoras (of Pythagorian Theorem fame), ascribed cosmic meaning to the five solids. Their emblem, the pentagram, lives on into occult eternity. Like modern physicists, they sought to explain the fundamental elements of the universe. Along with a friend, Empedocles, they ascribed an element to each solid, and the fifth, 12-sided solid, represented the entire zodiac and the universe as a whole.

Our equilateral triangle shapes correspond to fire, water, and air.

Your Pataphysical Introduction...

Welcome to our new home.

Make yourself comfortable. Take a look around the place. Read a little more about us.

We currently make a mini-magazine, release music, and believe it or not we make a little magic too.

We bring the Pataphysical World to the Everyday World.

This is our distinction and our magic.

We are always looking for inspired DIY writers, musicians, and artists for contributions. If you would like to submit material for our mini-magazine or for anything else, please feel free to send us a message.

contact@pataphysical-vibrations.org