ABSTRACT
Matter, Ivan Illich reminds us, has its own history. The understandings of form, of space, and of “stuff” have not been constant over history (Illich 1986: 4). Air, water, and earth are intimately linked in the symbolic landscape, and intervention, or neglect in one domain has inevitable effects in another. Air, unlike water and earth, lacks an evident, intuitive presence as “stuff” and even more readily accepts invisible properties, associations, and symbolic values.
