Invisibility

The September issue of Smithsonian magazine has a really delightful special section on invisibility. 

Now, in truth, invisible is about my least favorite place to be, as I have mentioned earlier in this blog. So, when I read the question that begins the opening article of the section, “Who hasn’t wanted to be invisible?”, I had an immediate response. (You can imagine this coming from a small child, frantically raising her hand from the back of the room.) “Me! I haven’t!” But let me put aside my own issues with invisibility and share the really fun stuff I found in this magazine.

As I read the introduction to this section, I became curious, even eager to consider invisibility from a different perspective. So, I read on, beyond that first outrageous question: “For thousands of years, invisibility has embodied a unique contradiction, warning us of the consequences of unaccountable power while raising our awareness of those among us who are made to feel powerless.” Now this was getting interesting! So I headed into the articles that followed.

These articles give new dimensions to the concept of invisibility (can invisibility have dimensions?). They cover topics from gorillas to parasites, secret codes to earthquake-proof buildings. But before I get all engrossed in the range of topics, let me get to the part I most want to share with you all. The story of an artist.

Liu Bolin is a Chinese artist whose shop, along with many others, was shut down by the Chinese government. To protest the government’s attempt to make him and his art invisible, Liu Bolin turned their censorship on its head—he created a whole body of work that uses art to makes him invisible in plain sight. The story about Liu Bolin includes a number of photographs of his works. After you see those, check out this video showing the painstaking process of creating these scenes—including the contributions of many other artists.

This gives invisibility a whole new place in the world … invisibility as a visible tool of protest. I have to say, this leaves me scratching my head. I think I have to ponder a bit on how my own struggles against invisibility might be turned around to become a celebration of invisibility itself. More on that another day—although your thoughts on the matter are, as always, most welcome.

Meanwhile, the other articles were also great reading. So let me show you the list of topics covered under the umbrella of “invisibility” so you can pursue them at your leisure.

·        “Gorillas in the midst” – research on how easily we can literally fail to see a gorilla walking across the room

·        Scientists’ attempts to locate the “invisible” parasite that causes malaria

·        A 1963 New Yorker book review that launched the war on poverty by making the “unseen” poor visible

·        An earthquake-proofing technique that makes buildings “invisible” to earthquakes.

·        A voracious jellyfish that's invisible to its prey, allowing it to devastate whole populations

·        (Imaginary) hidden codes that are frequently “discovered”—in the pyramids, in paintings, in crossword puzzles—largely because human beings are so adept at finding/creating patterns in anything they see.

Who knew invisibility could be fun? 

So, I ask myself, how do I feel about invisibility now? It’s pretty predictable, actually. Whenever I look at something from a frame of reference other than my own, it takes on new meaning, has a different impact. This is not a promise that I’ll stop cringing when someone says “invisible,” but I do promise to think about how I might.