FORCE FIELDS

BioArTope

The word field comes from the Latin campus “flat land, plain”, “cultivated countryside, field, land, territory”. This word is the etymological doublet of camp "battlefield, lists, career, field of action, theater", which designates in military terms, a space of land where an army pitches tents or builds barracks for accommodation in order or to take refuge there.

The word force comes from the Low Latin fortia, neutral plural substantiated with the adjective fortis “courageous, firm, brave”.
It designates energy, the power to act as a property of living beings, vital force, vigor, in the literal sense. Figuratively speaking, it is the ability to think, to conceive, to produce, speaking of the mind, the imagination, the genius.

Consequently, the assembly of the two terms gives the expression “force field” which is applied in several fields:
In chemistry, a force field is a set of equations and parameters describing the potential energy of a system of particles.
In physics, a force field is an area where a system of forces, magnetic, electric, gravitational, manifests itself.
In science fiction, a force field is a fictional concept that embodies passive defense technology.

This BioArTope will be more interested in the human imagination deployed in science fiction through these scientific notions :

In fiction, it is an impenetrable or almost impenetrable immaterial wall. Force fields are often a use of passive defense in order to protect oneself. There are many types of force fields in fiction. Their effect, like their name, can vary enormously between sci-fi works :
Some shields reflect projectiles, while others simply absorb them.
Still others can prevent the atmosphere from both sides from passing through, or on the contrary, only block certain things.
Visually, force fields can be visible all the time, or only become visible upon impact on their surface. Their color can also vary, as can their texture.

The powerful metaphors of protection from a looming threat or a targeted attack, and the symbolic notions of the invisible and the distribution of forces which emerge from this famous idea of the sci-fi universe is an axis deployed here in this art-ecosystem.

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