project 40/

THE REVEALED STRUCTURE OF THE AIR ENVIRONMENT

I. Bazenov, Astronomer, Moscow

There exists a completely traditional and seemingly self-evident assertion that all complex forms of "real" life in nature and human society exist only on the surface of the Earth and are formed from its matter: mountains, hills, sandy valleys, water surfaces and gigantic ravines - and also everything that man has acquired from the materials, taken from the depths - metal deposits and gas. The life of Earth, according to this assertion, is infinitely rich and diverse as opposed to the sky surrounding the earth, the enormous space of the atmosphere which seems simple in its structure, consisting entirely of gases and water vapors. Free, not encountering any obstacles anywhere, flights of letalin apparatuses only reinforce this assertion about this world, that this is only an ''empty sky." But from a different, more perceptive point of view, the structure of the sky is no less complex and rich, moreover, in a well-known sense it is just as "material" as is everything "earthly," only this matter is many times finer and more specialized then what has been well studied on the "earth." And this "other matter'' can in no way be confused with the atmospheric phenomena so well-studied in science - the wind, storms, in general the movement of the air. The nature of the heavenly topography is even more complex and sophisticated, and so far can be revealed and "seen" only intu- itively - only in the future will instruments suitable for study- ing it appear.

But in can already be noted that this space, to a certain degree, is replicated by the earthly worlds: there are mountains there, its own valleys, numerous plateaus moving upward in ter- races with cities and perhaps populations living on them. So far only small sections of this gigantic world disappearing upward infinitely above the surface of the Earth has been "seen" and sketched, but it can already be noted that these sections are completely different above each territory on the earth.

THE REVEALED STRUCTURE OF THE AIR ENVIRONMENT

1. Prepare a wooden stand 110 x 95 x 35 cm.

2. Take two pieces of glass 66 x 81 cm and draw a sketch on one of them with a thin blue line (3 mm thickness) the motifs which are shown on the sketch (page No. l or page No. 2).

7. Put the pieces of glass together so that the sketch is between them.

4. Put the glass into a double frame and screw together both halves of the frame.

5. Make the relief of the landscape with a house and tree on both sides of the glass at the lower edge of the frame (cf.

Sketch) and paint them in "real" colors.

6. Erect the frame with the glass on the stand and cover both the frame and the stand with dark lacquer so that it has an antique, "museum" appearance.