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Man sues company for celebrating his birthday

<p dir="ltr">A man has been awarded $US450,000 ($A611,000) after his colleagues threw a birthday party, despite him asking not to due to his anxiety disorder.</p> <p dir="ltr">Kevin Berling was working as a lab technician at Gravity Diagnostics in Kentucky when his fellow employees threw a celebration for his birthday on August 7, 2019.</p> <p dir="ltr">The 29-year-old suffered a panic attack following the celebrations and was eventually fired from his job. </p> <p dir="ltr">Mr Berling then filed a compensation lawsuit, seeking damages and compensation for lost income.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Managers started giving him a hard time for his response to the birthday celebrations,” his lawyer Tony Bucher told local TV news outlet WKRC.</p> <p dir="ltr">“They actually accused him of stealing his co-workers’ joy.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Mr Berling specifically told his boss in 2018 that he did not want any celebrations for his birthday at work due to his anxiety. </p> <p dir="ltr">His employer claims to have “forgot” about the request which resulted in a panic attack on that fateful day in 2019.</p> <p dir="ltr">It took Mr Berling almost an hour to recover from the awful ordeal in his car, which was then questioned the following day.</p> <p dir="ltr">Following the interrogation, Mr Berling suffered another panic attack. </p> <p dir="ltr">A week later, he was fired from his job with his manager being “worried about him being angry and possibly becoming violent”.</p> <p dir="ltr">Mr Berling was awarded a $US450,000 ($A611,000) judgment against the company by a unanimous jury.</p> <p dir="ltr">The settlement included $US120,000 ($A163,000) in lost wages and benefits, $US30,000 ($A40,000) in future wages, and $US300,000 ($A408,000) for “past, present and future mental pain and suffering, mental anguish, embarrassment, humiliation, mortification, and loss of self-esteem”.</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: Shutterstock</em></p>

Money & Banking

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Fans go wild over Georgie Parker’s gravity-defying gown

<p dir="ltr">A staple of most women’s wardrobes, the little black dress Seven presenter and former Olympic hockey player Georgie Parker <a href="https://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/seven-presenter-georgie-parker-aflw-gravity-defying-dress-075404317.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wore</a> has proved why it’s a fashion must-have.</p> <p><span id="docs-internal-guid-ebf1a38f-7fff-e387-6952-64811052ba2b"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">Parker stunned fans with the strapless, form-fitting dress she wore to the AFLW Awards in Melbourne in April.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cb_xS7wPyzb/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cb_xS7wPyzb/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Georgie Parker (@georgie_parker19)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">The $316 dress from Maison Femalien features a cut-scalloped neckline, dramatic thigh-high split on one side, and goes from cinching in at Parker’s waist to grazing her ankle as a pencil skirt.</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-a5d0ce55-7fff-0455-8d82-579ffd186594"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">Parker shared her look on Instagram in a mirror selfie, joking that she was “sponsored by Hollywood tape” and receiving a flood of compliments from fans.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cb_sI5mFUxt/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cb_sI5mFUxt/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Georgie Parker (@georgie_parker19)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">“Looking gorgeous babe xx,” one fan gushed.</p> <p dir="ltr">“STUNNING 🔥😍,” another wrote.</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-154308c6-7fff-227a-7d8b-f4c9a3013b51"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">“Omggggg how hot are u 🔥🔥🔥,” a third said.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/tv/CbyARYeB6jo/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/tv/CbyARYeB6jo/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Fitzy &amp; Wippa on Nova (@fitzyandwippa)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">The sister version of Parker’s dress was spotted just a week earlier, when <em>Married At First Sight</em> favourite Ella Ding wore the frock to the Fitzy and Wippa <em>Married At First Sight</em> dinner party.</p> <p dir="ltr">Appropriately called the ‘Ella’, Ding’s dress differed in that it was considerably shorter than Parker’s and made of a ruched fabric, but shared the same eye-catching neckline.</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-1e991872-7fff-3940-abe1-47f6a0827d6f"></span></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: @georgie_parker19 (Instagram)</em></p>

Beauty & Style

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New designs have been revealed for an incredible hotel in space

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A Californian company known as </span><a href="https://gatewayspaceport.com/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Gateway Foundation</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> has released plans for the </span><a href="https://gatewayspaceport.com/von-braun-station/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Von Braun Station</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, which is a cruise ship-style hotel that floats among the stars.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The aim is to get the hotel off the ground by 2025 and fully operational for travel in 2027.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Tim Alatorre, senior design architect at the Gateway Foundation, says that the rotation wheels would create a simulated gravity, which would likely be the first commercial space construction project in history.</span></p> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"><iframe class="embed-responsive-item" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vTNP01Sg-Ss"></iframe></div> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"The station rotates, pushing the contents of the station out to the perimeter of the station, much in the way that you can spin a bucket of water -- the water pushes out into the bucket and stays in place," he tells </span><a href="https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/space-hotel-designs-von-braun-station-scn/index.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">CNN Travel</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">However, getting to space is an expensive journey. The Von Braun hotel is hoping to make the journey into space and a stay at the hotel the equivalent of “a trip on a cruise or a trip to Disneyland”.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The station is aiming to sleep 352 people and has a maximum capacity of 450, with plenty of recreational activities on board.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"We're going to have a number of different recreation activities and games that'll highlight the fact that you're able to do things that you can't do on Earth," says Alatorre. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"Because of the weightlessness and the reduced gravity, you'll be able to jump higher, be able to lift things, be able to run in ways that you can't on Earth."</span></p> <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/B2uwMJPDU1d/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="12"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <p style="margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;"><a style="color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B2uwMJPDU1d/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank">Soon, you could vacation in space 🌌 The Gateway Foundation released plans for the Von Braun Station, a cruise-ship-style hotel floating among the stars. The aim is to get the hotel off the ground by 2025 and make it fully operational for travel by 2027. The hotel will initially cater to those with money to blow, but the foundation is hoping to eventually make the cost equivalent to a trip to Disneyland. (📸: Courtesy Gateway Foundation)</a></p> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by <a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/cnn/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank"> CNN</a> (@cnn) on Sep 22, 2019 at 3:37pm PDT</p> </div> </blockquote> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The goal of the Gateway Foundation is to create a “starship culture” where people eventually want to live and work in space.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"People will want to go and experience this just because it's a cool new thing and they've never done it before," he admits.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"But our goal -- the overall goal of the Gateway Foundation -- is to create a starship culture where people are going to space, and living in space, and working in space and they want to be in space. And we believe that there's a demand for that."</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And if you’re more environmentally conscious, you can relax on a trip in space as everything will be recycled.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"On the station itself, it's going to be about the most environmentally friendly vacation you'll ever have. Because we're recycling everything," says Alatorre.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"There's no amount of water or trash or waste that is going to be discarded, everything will be recycled, reused, stored, converted to some other form.”</span></p>

Technology

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Gravity lends weight to cinema – and always has

<p>Cinema’s relationship to gravity is a fascinating one.</p> <p>At the time of its birth, in 1895, cinema was seen as a revolutionary machine that didn’t simply defy gravity through moving pictures seemingly suspended in air, but allowed one to experience the forces of the world directly, sweetly, intimately.</p> <p>The stories of the first movie patrons hurrying away from the screen in case they were run over as <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0000012/">The Train Arrived at the Station</a> (The Lumière Brothers, 1896) flickered before them is a startling – if perhaps mythical – account of cinema’s gravitational grandeur.</p> <p>The awe and wonder of cinema lies in its remarkable ability to visualise and texturise the weight and feel of things, to render movement and velocity realistically, and to create spaces deep, far and wide. The precipice is one of cinema’s favourite environments. Directors turn to it to create a sense of depth and distance, and to enact the experience of falling.</p> <p>An iconic cinematic moment, captured in such films as <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052357/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Vertigo</a> (Hitchcock, 1958) and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114558/">Strange Days</a> (Bigelow, 1995), involves a character looking down from the precipice, to then either jump, fall or be pushed off the edge, with a corresponding cinematography that captures them hurtling, hurtling, hurtling towards the nadir. Then splat.</p> <p>The power and beauty of cinema in part resides in its ability to effectively engage the viewer’s emotions, and to envelop the body in a sea of sensations that are directly felt. Cinema is a sentient machine that awakens the senses in all of us.</p> <p>Cinema can create the conditions for viewers to sweat, feel nauseous, or be aroused. In action sequences or scenes of terror, it can lead to an increase in viewers’ heart-rates and make their pupils dilate.</p> <p>At its most awesome, when we are faced by something extraordinary or perplexing, cinema can take our breath away, render us speechless and powerless before its infinite gaze. Many critics argue that the Star Gate sequence in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062622/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">2001: A Space Odyssey</a> (Kubrick, 1968) is one such sublime moment. The viewer is taken along an unknown colourised vector, without “narrative” coordinates to anchor them, enabling them to experience the existential nothingness of (anti) gravity as they do so.</p> <p>Science fiction cinema is particularly suited to capturing the sensorial qualities of movement and speed. Its special effects and future settings enable it to legitimately defy gravity; to take the viewer through incandescent wormholes at light speed and out into alien environments where objects, spaces, things don’t follow gravitational laws or the iron cage of physics.</p> <p>The expansive space of science fiction creates the sense that gravity is a minor factor in the workings of the universe. When these films are set in outer space, science fiction is able to demonstrate the giddiness of weightlessness, the eerie silence of dark space, and the absolute terror of being untethered from Earth.</p> <p><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1454468/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Gravity</a> (Cuarón, 2013) is perhaps one of the most perfect demonstrations of cinema’s intimate and inter-connecting relationship to the forces of nature and the forces that lie beyond them, nestled as they are amongst the vast, undulating sheets of the cosmos.</p> <p>The film’s unbroken opening “floating” shot, lasting more than 13 minutes, captures the weightlessness and the spinning vastness of space, the distant, rotating beauty of Earth, and humankind’s sense of isolation and isolating melancholy as the astronauts go about their daily, routinised work, as if they have clocked in at an inter-stellar factory.</p> <p>Gravity’s 3D spatial arrangements induce a sense of vertigo, disorientating the viewer, creating the sensation that one is in outer space, beholden by its massiveness, and yet trapped precisely because one is not tethered to anything. Debris shoots out from the darkness; lines dangle; space is not logical. There is zero gravity in Gravity.</p> <p>There is no single or singular precipice in the film: the mise-en-scène combines zenith and nadir. One is constantly falling or climbing, climbing and falling. It is difficult to breathe while watching the movie, and almost impossible to not experience one’s own body as if it is stranded in outer space, without gravitational crampons to hold onto, to root one to terra firma.</p> <p>If newspaper <a href="http://movies.about.com/od/gravity/fl/Gravity-Movie-Review.htm">reports are accurate</a>, then just as the train that arrived at the station created hysteria in those who watched it more than 100 years ago, so today Gravity sends people running down the aisles, too discombobulated to carry on watching.</p> <p>Much of contemporary blockbuster cinema functions simply to activate the senses; to enact and embody the “thrill aesthetic” through its lavish special effects and immersive 3D technology.</p> <p>There is much criticism of this as a cinematic form. Some argue that complex characterisation and serious storytelling are marginalised or juvenilised in favour of the kinetic ride.</p> <p>Thrill, however, is an expansive concept and the senses are not necessarily crude or divisible in the way. Spectacle can create the conditions for profound contemplation, as Gravity clearly does.</p> <p>Gravity releases the viewer into an unknown or unknowable void and in so doing asks, or rather compels, them to consider what it is that makes one human, social, and connected.</p> <p>Lost in space, caught floating and fleeing in the pure realm of the senses, we find out who we truly are and can be.</p> <p><em>Written by Sean Redmond. Republished with permission of </em><a href="https://theconversation.com/gravity-lends-weight-to-cinema-and-always-has-19157"><em>The Conversation</em></a><em>.</em></p>

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