Need, Want, Desire & The Material Ages
Our DESIRE to experience and improve our outcomes is often the major drive behind our inventions and discoveries. This “WANT” to satisfy our many senses also influences the progression of our culture’s MATERIAL AGES.
In this piece, I will discuss how materials stack and how our historical material ages overall act as one big loop of resonance. What is it that allows for an idea such as the bikini, the polymer age, or the ice cream sundae to become real?
— — —
We use the words “generate”, “generator” and “generation” interchangable with the words “create”, “creator” and “creation”
Starting Point:
Why Do We
Organize Our
Material Ages?
We seem to categorize our historic ages based on either one of the following:
What materials were discovered or invented during a certain time period
What materials and thought processes were the most widespread during an era
Note, the discovery or invention of a material does not necessarily occur during its most popular time of usage.
We Group The
Periods of
Our Generation
Capcity into
into Material
Ages
The most classic material time periods that come to mind are the ages of stone, iron, and bronze. There are additional eras that forced us to think beyond and walk through different doorways, such as:
The Era of Electricity - We are still in this one. Our culture’s awareness of electric power has been around for a while. The primary goal was to figure out a modern electric solution to lighting our homes. Alessandro Volta’s download of the modern battery in 1799 kick-started many inventors’ thought processes about what could be done, resulting in inventions such as the light bulb by Edison & Company and the fantastic work of Nikola Tesla.
The Information Age - We are currently in this era as well. During this time period, we have been able to increase physical information storage, which has opened up a lot of technological possibilities for us. The first computers occupied a room and used the storage of 5MB. Today, we can fit more than 5MB in something smaller than 1 x 1 cm. Internet 1.0 and internet 2.0 (the internet you are using to read this), cellphones, software programming, and algorithms are also a part of this era.
The Industrial Revolution (the first part) - This era is all about water and steam-powered machinery. In the late 18th centuary, the textile industry was one of the early adopters of this download. Manufacturing wool and cotton into fabrics became much easier and faster. “Industrialization” gained popularity.
The Polymer Age (plastic) - The principal part of this download began because of the billiard industry. They used to carve billiard balls from ivory. When the elephant population was hunted nearly extinct, they could not fabricate the billiard balls like before. A U.S. billiard manufacturer offered $10,000 to anyone who invented a material to replace ivory. Celluloid, which originated in 1856, became the material that solved this problem in 1869 (the inventor was never paid). When I think of plastic, I always associate the material with 1950s-1970s interior design and kitchen tools. It seems that after WWII, there was a huge push to get housewives to use this “weird material” of which they were highly skeptical of. Despite polymer’s invention in the 19th century, it took almost 100 years for the development of “plastic” to become something of regular commercial use.
All these ages are according to the western clock. There are additional historical systems that segment materials, ideas, and techniques in other ways, such as the porcelain era in China during the 10th century.
There Is a
Pattern to
Generating
an Invention
or Discovery
There Is a Spark: a Need, Want, or Desire - Often, we form generations (creations) as a response or reaction based on our desires and necessities (actual needs). Sometimes we form a generation to experience it with our senses.
The Creative Imagination - Once we acknowledge the resonance frequency we want to experience, the creative imagination experiments with the questions “What if?” and “How can this become real?” These thoughts often lead to some Do It Yourself (DIY) testing.
A Form: The First Invented Solution - When the DIY invention has gone through further testing and prototyping, we arrive at “the first version” of the invention/discovery.
The Encouraged Imagination Feels Validated and Continues to Expand - The generative process and creative juices flow more intensely because we have a physical verification of what could be possible. This is where we build upon the imaginary portion of our idea even more.
All these steps form loops, and each time, they build more energy through the laws of resonance.
The more energy an idea has, the more physical and real it can become.
The First Official Release - The next step is to formulate the Minimal Viable Product (MVP) that we then can see as the first official release. This version has the potential to move the culture through a material or technological doorway. But this can only happen if the culture develops interest and accepts the presented version as a staple.
Larger equations and ideas require that there are two or more people that are “into it” for the new physical version to sustain itself.
The Contribution of the Culture - Because two or more people wanted to experience this idea in the physical, the culture joins in and contributes additional improvements to the MVP version. This is how we form a supportive environment to anchor the invention or discovery. The supportive environment for a printer could be ink, various paper-types, third-party printing software, electricity, a laptop, a case to carry the printer in, etc.
Micro Segments
of Our Culture
Can Generate
Shifts for the
Overall Culture
We also experience material evolutions in smaller segments. These are moments when a generation or download is great for a minor sector, making the energy spill over and impact the overall culture. Here are some generations that most of us have experienced or interacted with in some way:
Prussian Blue Pigment - This synthetic blue pigment powder was accidentally made in a lab probably around 1706. Painters in the 18th century were having problems displaying a particular blue color. The recipe for the Egyptian Blue pigment was basically lost, and the pigment made from the mineral lapis lazuli was too expensive. Because of this, the newly invented Prussian Blue pigment took off. This pigment has inspired painters all over the west as well as laid the ground for Japan’s “Blue Revolution”. Some notable paintings generated with this pigment were Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” and Hokusai’s “Great Wave”. However, this pigment is highly toxic and not really used for painting anymore.
The Bikini - In 1946, the two competitors, Louis Réard and Jacques Heim, each launched their separate version of what we today call “the bikini”. The story goes, women were suntanning in the French Riviera with homemade costumes to make the sun hit as much skin as socially acceptable. These designers noticed the trend and invented their separate solutions: Atome and Le Bikini. The atom bomb testing in Bikini Atoll at the time inspired the names of both designs. Almost immediately, the bikini was declared a no-no and became banned for public use in several parts of Europe, the U.S., and other countries. Today, this swimwear is almost everywhere there is a beach or pool. Creativity and social impact opened up the space for the design to exist. The design then encouraged creativity further—in this case, creative usage—and the feedback loop formed a larger effect.
Ice Cream Sundae - There are several places in the U.S. that claim that the first ice cream sundae originates from them. The reason for this can be that the church, in general, was getting upset that people were congregating on Sundays to partake in the activity of “sucking sodas”. A blue law was passed prohibiting pharmacists from selling sodas on Sundays. Voila! A new solution was generated: ice cream served with syrup instead. The Sundae was born.
Each Material
Age Is Us
Building Energy
and Resonance
We can see material ages and cultural shifts as measurements of our understanding of frequencies and how well we, as a culture, oscillate.
In part 1 and part 2 of this series, I defined the words “oscillation” and “resonance frequency”. I also stated that everything is made from energy, and because of this, everything oscillates and forms its own resonance frequency.
The accurate resonance frequency is a position where an object finds its most potent state while spending the least amount of energy. Everything has its own resonance frequency; this includes all elements, and all materials in existence are made of elements. Therefore, I see material ages as an expression of oscillation (vibration) and resonance frequencies.
Now, I will make another statement: When…
…we revisit most of the material ages, we can observe a pattern of stacking. Because we honed one material and its resonance frequency, we culturally leaped and understood how to do things better with another material and so on.
We transfer over the knowledge that we learned in the previous age to make it smoother to move through the development of the next age and energetic level. This forms larger loops of energy that build resonance!
In my eyes, this kind of material stacking follows alongside our increased oscillation capacity. For example, there is an interplay that happens between us and the environment (Earth) that we can’t deny. When the oscillation increases, we either understand that “we’re doing something optimal here; let’s stay on the path and improve it” or that “we aren’t doing something optimal here; this must be improved”.
It goes in both directions of human and Earth (nature). When Earth’s environment changes, it forces us to adapt how we live life and what we generate to express that position. The same goes the other way around.
The law of resonance states, “When object A vibrates at the same capacity or lower than object B, object A becomes attracted to object B.” This means that when we hold more power within ourselves (become more vibrant), we are attracted and attract materials that match this understanding. We can observe this all throughout our culture.
When we are sad, we gravitate toward foods that match that oscillation. And when we want to feel healthy and invigorated, we eat foods that match that particular oscillation. We find ourselves in certain environments when we are down and in others when we are happy. Also, we seek more potent environments when we need “a boost” of energy, such as going for a walk in nature.
The interplay between generation, oscillation, and resonance is something that we can increase or decrease our compatibility with. This is why I stated in the beginning that there are new materials already available to us that we are not using but can. When our oscillation is increased these possibilities become more apparent to us.
“We can see material ages and cultural shifts as measurements of our understanding of frequencies and how well we, as a culture, oscillate.”
- Kissey Asplund
words, photo & artwork by Kissey Asplund
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Kissey Asplund is a creative consultant specializing in the process of generation & creative subatomic energy. She is the founder of the creative wellness hub Generation Watts, and has gained international recognition as a music producer, multi-disciplinary artist and DJ. Her journey of researching how to use meditation to enhance creativity began at 17. Today, she teaches others how to connect to their inner superpower and hone their creative-mastery. Learn more about her virtual creative consulting service: The Equation Sessions™
read more from this series:
< Resonance Frequency: The Real “Law of Attraction” (pt.2)
Material Generation: Our Actions & Energy are Key (pt.4) >
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series summary:
Our understanding of materials is based on our generative capacity (creative capacity) of vibration. The more we understand our personal energy, the more masterful generators (creators) we can become.
Throughout this series, A Perspective on Material Evolution and Human Creativity, I will discuss how our cultural understanding of vibrations and material evolution relate to each other.
This is a multi-part series, you can read all the parts here. Each supercharged observation is published every other Wednesday.
-Kissey Asplund
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