The Incredible Shrinking Man is a speculative project that investigates what it would take to downsize the human species to better fit the Earth (see: coefficient of art).
It has been a long established trend for people to grow taller. As a direct result we need more energy, more food, and more space. But what if we decided to turn this trend around? What if we use our knowledge to shrink mankind? The project is devised by Arne Hendriks in response to the current trend for a taller population, which he claims is no longer “a desired result in an age of increasing scarcity.”
Initiatives undertaken as part of the Incredible Shrinking Man project include investigative workshops, exhibitions, and the creation of a Disproportionate Restaurant that serves portions tailored to the 50-centimetre-tall customer of the future (see: cross-pollination).
“If your height increases by 20%, your body grows proportionally in all directions (1.2 x 1.2 x 1.2 = 1.73). That means your weight actually increases by 73%. All that extra weight needs extra food, extra water, extra energy. From an evolutionary perspective being taller at some point in history undoubtedly represented an advantage. In this day and age however it’s a burden, on ourselves and on the planet. (…) At 50cm we’d only need about 2% to 5% of the resources we need now, and although it is an extreme goal it’s also familiar because most babies are born this size.” (source: the Incredible Shrinking Man website)
The report presented in the exhibition consists of eighteen entries from the Incredible Shrinking Man archive, produced as a cube by the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw. Courtesy Arne Hendriks.