Journal articles on the topic 'Health aspects of Overhead electric lines'

Assessment of overhead transmission lines is a crucial task in the asset management of electric power infrastructures. Any assets have different life spans and require proper assessment and maintenance actions. Disruption of the power supply may cause national problems. Therefore, it is essential to ensure that the distribution and transmission of electric power from the power plant to end consumers is achieved without fail. This paper presents a proposed framework of health index of the transmission line using a condition-based method. This study refers to previous methods in determining the health index of electrical power assets, mainly transformer and transmission line. Three main indicators contributed and need to be considered in determining the health index. The indicators are structural, electrical and environmental aspects. The health index of these three indicators with 14 items was calculated, and the overall health index of the transmission line determined. From the case study conducted for this study, the specific location, tower and item can be acknowledged that cause the failure and the service interruption of energy supply to the consumer. It is found that the implementation of the health index calculation gives a more accurate description of the health status of a transmission line. The health index can be used for the prioritizing of maintenance, refurbishment or replacement to avoid disruption.

Introduction. Electromagnetic safety of power grid facilities staff requires the exclusion of electromagnetic fields (EMF) harmful effects. EMF is evaluated by 50 Hz electric and magnetic fields (EF and MF) values in the framework of working conditions special assessment, and very rarely the analysis of the electromagnetic environment (EME) is carried out in depth. The aim of the study - EME hygienic assessment of power grid EHV facilities personnel workplace with adequate 50 Hz EF and MF levels evaluation as well as the analysis of EF and MF in the frequency range from 5 Hz to 500 Hz amplitude-frequency characteristics. Materials and methods. 50 Hz EF and MF values assessment was carried out on open switchgears (S) of substations and within sanitary breaks of 500 and 750 kV overhead power transmission lines (OTL). Measurements along to OTL trasses was performed using matrix-based method. Measurements and analysis of EF and MF values in 5-500 Hz frequency range amplitude-frequency characteristics were performed in the territory of 500 and 750 kV S. Results. Power frequency 50 Hz measurements results at 500 and 750 kV S ground-level personnel workplaces showed the presence of an excess of permissible limit values by EF intensity and the absence of an excess by MF. The measured EF values within 500 and 750 kV OTL sanitary gaps require limiting the working time of linemen due to the excess of the hygienic norms for full work shift, while the MP levels were almost completely within the standard values for persons not occupationally connected with electrical installations maintenance. MF and EE frequency range from 50 Hz to 500 Hz spectral characteristics analysis showed that 3rd harmonic percentage does not exceed 2.5% for EF and 6% for MF of the main level, the level of the 5th harmonic does not exceed 1% for EF and 3.5% for MF, the level of the 7th harmonic does not exceed 0.2% for EF and 0.8% for MF. These data show despite its low levels the contribution of MF different harmonics in a possible adverse impact on humane than EF corresponding harmonics. Conclusions. There was the confirmation of the previously justified use of the "matrix" scheme for of EF and MF values measurement along OTL routes. The relevance of to EF and MF all frequency components expos ure assessing possible health risk in extremely high voltage S territories and under OTL, based on international recommendations due to the lack of sanitary regulations in the Russian Federation for >50 Hz-30 kHz EF and MF, is shown.

This paper presents a method for determining optimal arrangements of parallel independent overhead power lines aimed to decrease electric and magnetic field emissions. The Genetic Algorithm (GA) is used to find the optimal placement of conductors. The Monte Carlo approach implemented in GA allows consideration of uncertain phase shifts between independent overhead power lines. The results and practical aspects of the proposed methodology are illustrated on two different configurations of both independent 400 kV singlecircuit and double-circuit overhead power lines.

In order to minimize the electric and magnetic fields generated by Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA) overhead power transmission lines, the optimal phase arrangement techniques were applied for 3-circuits overhead power transmission lines (69/230 kV). In this paper, the mathematical model was formulated using a MATLAB program which validated by comparing the simulated results with the measured results where the South Thonburi power transmission lines at Rama 2 Road (outbound side) were evaluated with the same conditions. Finally, it can be concluded that the optimal phase arrangement techniques can minimize the generated electric and magnetic fields lowering than that of the limitation given by the World Health Organization.

The present report deals with economic issues of selecting means ensuring the capacity adequacy of electric power systems. Cost analysis of various engineering measures ensuring the capacity adequacy has been performed, namely: construction of backup generating facilities, erection of new power transmission lines, or increase of transmission capacity of existing power lines. The cost-based analysis has been conducted based on investment programs and regulatory acts in place. Recommendations on developing computational models of power systems have been given based on the results obtained in order to assess the capacity adequacy parameters, with account made for the cost of various engineering measures to be taken for their improvement.In prevailing practice of calculation of capacity adequacy parameters, the structure of electric power systems transmission network is presented as a transport model which makes an aggregate of reliability zones and tie-lines between them of a given transmission capacity. The main objective of calculation of capacity adequacy parameters is to determine the required generating capacity redundancy level, i.e. the values of the capacity margin and its location within electric power systems to ensure a required level of capacity adequacy. With that in mind, when evaluating and accordingly when forming transport models, it should be useful to take into account the transmission constraints only for those power grid segments, whose cost of transmission capacity increase is comparable with that of construction of new generating facilities.On the basis of calculation data, one may state that for overhead electric lines of short or average length the cost of 1 kW of its transmission capacity will be considerably lower than that of installed capacity of a new generating facility, with the above costs comparable only with the length of the line close to its critical value. When forming transport models of electric power systems, it is useful to take into account not only the distance between electric power system nodes, but also their potential need of margin capacity. As far as remote nodes are concerned, if these are of low need in margin capacity, it should be reasonable to separate them as specifi c reliability areas.

The health maintenance of linemen working at overhead transmission lines under induced voltage requires compliance of these voltages’ limit values. To ensure compliance with these requirements have been developed algorithms for calculating of currents and voltages distribution along the grounded phase/cable of disconnected power line, induced by the electric field of operating three-phase overhead power line without transposition, with full and incomplete complete phases transposition section .

The paper deals with the towers of electric high voltage overhead lines. The target is a relatively simple suspension tower (tension support) made of hot rolled angles. The main aspects of structural design and the structural details are given due to the newly introduced design codes and the former Hungarian ones. The fundamental aim of the paper is to point out the changes according to the new developments. As an important design aid, a set of interactive programs developed by the authors is also shortly introduced.

The main problems of overhead and cable transmission lines with voltage >=110 kV electric and magnetic fields general public protection are presented. It is shown that it is necessary to develop regulatory requirements for these lines’ sanitary protection zones organization, taking into account the magnetic field component, because its possible health risk factor, up to carcinogenic.

Introduction. The real electromagnetic situation in a residential area in the process of power supply network operation and health status assessment of population living in the vicinity of overhead transmission lines (OTL) of various voltages and transformer substations (TS) are of current interest. The effect of 50 Hz electric fields (EF) and magnetic fields (MF) on human health has not been sufficiently studied. Material and Methods. Measurement and assessment of 50 Hz EF and MF levels generated by 35, 110 and 220 kV OTL and by 6 kinds of closed-type transformer substations were carried out. Chronic overstrain index was used to assess population health status. Questionnaire study data among residents in the vicinity of 110-220 kV OTL were used for calculation of chronic overstrain index. Results. Closed-type transformer plants don’t generate EMF or exceed 50 Hz EF or MF health standards (HS). Electric field intensity levels exceeding HS were registered under 110 and 220 kV OTL. EMF health standards were not exceeded at a distance of 2 m from 110 kV OTL and 10 m from 220 kV OTL. Magnetic field induction levels did not exceed maximum allowable levels. Significant levels of chronic overstrain were revealed in residents living at a distance of under 300 m from 110-220 kV OTL. Conclusions. Closed-type transformer substations do not generate 50-Hz EMF exceeding health standards. Compliance with the electrical safety requirements of overhead transmission lines (overhead line safety zones) provides compliance with the maximum allowable levels of 50 Hz electric and magnetic fields. Population health risk assessment study among the population in the vicinity of OTL is relevant.

In this paper the analytical calculus and the experimental measurements of the electric and magnetic field around a high voltage 400KV electrical overhead lines has been analyzed. There have been analyzed the possible influences of the electromagnetic field on the health of the human beings. The calculus has been done using the Mat Lab medium, the experimental measurements of the electric strength have been done using a spherical dipole.

Abstract The paper deals with specific aspects regarding the current development trends of electromobility in the context of road freight transport. The current system of electric vehicles for road freight transport and the relevant investigations are based on the experience with operating trolleybuses, which have the same power supply of traction motors from the overhead traction line by means of traction pantographs. As for the future, it has not been decided yet which electromobility-related power system will be used in practice, whether the supply of electric motors from traction lines or battery packs. In the introductory chapters, the manuscript discusses the fundamental information regarding the electromobility, current projects dealing with this issue, individual aspects and attributes related to these existing power systems, and their advantages and disadvantages in terms of their usage. In the most important part of the manuscript, the adequate evaluation is performed, as well as very recommendations for future research in a given topic are proposed.

The necessity to have reliable and quality power distribution is increasing, and hence there is great scope for research on automation of distribution system. There are signs of increased research in the work on condition monitoring of insulators during the last few decades. The possible failures can be predicted before they actually occur by using the condition monitoring of cables or any electrical equipment on-line. Those assets such as towers, conductors and insulators which are on the threshold of failure have to be replaced or repaired, so that forced outages reduce. Traditionally the workers who inspect these lines check them in close proximity by going for foot-patrolling and pole-climbing. With an incredible expansion of power distribution network even to remote areas, previously mentioned methods do not seem to be viable. In developed countries aerial patrolling has been adopted to monitor the insulators as an alternative. The development of an efficient method of condition monitoring by using image processing followed by machine learning techniques is found to be a suitable method and thus emerging as a feasible option for real-time implementation. This review paper covers overall aspects of automatic detection of defects of insulator systems of electric power lines and classification into different classes by using vision-based techniques.

This article proposes a methodology for monitoring the structural stability of each tower of an electric power transmission line through sensor measurements which estimates the different situations that may indicate the need for intervention to prevent the structure collapsing. The extended Kalman filter was adopted to predict the failures, considering sensor fusion techniques such as the displacements of the upper central position of the tower above certain limits. The load of the stay cables is calculated from the natural frequencies, which are determined by the accelerometers connected to the cables. The average value of these forces, which must be higher than a normal limit, were calculated to predict a failure. All guyed towers of a power transmission line thousands of kilometers long will be individually monitored considering the methodology described in this study, which makes this article one of the first relevant research studies in this area. Typically, guyed towers must often be manually inspected to ensure that the stay cables have acceptable pretension to prevent a lack of stability in the transmission line towers.

Electromagnetic interference in high voltage transmission lines has been an interest topic due to its effect on human health, plants, electrical and telecommunication equipment. Extremely high voltages (EHV) in transmission lines are reasons of electrostatic effects, while short circuit currents and line loading currents are responsible for electromagnetic effects. The aim of this research is to analyze electromagnetic fields in high voltage transmission lines in theoretical study and calculating its level in overhead T. L and therefore estimated the EMI produced, by employing a mathematical model of 230 KV tower double circuit configurations of high voltage transmission lines. The calculation is based on computer aided analysis (CAA) by using fields and corona effects software (FACE). It's found that the overhead power lines of general frequency (50 Hz) generates a highly intense magnetic field, the electromagnetic fields depends on the distance from sources and the type of line configuration. They decrease as the distance increase from the tower and conductors and increase with a high current. The strength of an electric field is proportional to the voltage of the line and the magnetic field strength is proportional to the current in the high voltage transmission lines. Distribution line with a high current load may produce a magnetic field that is as high as those produced by some high voltage transmission lines. Some techniques of reduction of the effects of electromagnetic interference have suggested such as rearrangement conductors of transmission line, and distance from phase conductor and grounding system. The study recommended to keep safety distance operation in high voltage transmission lines with the necessity for engineer to take into account the effect of electromagnetic interference in the design stage of high voltage transmission power system, and to avoid any addition cost may be occur due to neglected effects of electromagnetic interference that produces by high voltage transmission lines

The electric grid system is the basis for functioning of the Unified electric power system of Russia and technologically isolated electric power systems. One of the most serious problems in the electric power industry is the aging of the fixed assets of already built and operating power grid facilities. The second problem is to clarify the seismic hazard of the territories of the Russian Federation in the direction of its growth. As a result, the number of power grid facilities fall into the zones of increased seismic hazard. In the zone of 7 points or more, approximately 30 % of the entire length of electric networks and transformer capacities are located. Information is provided about the characteristics of seismic load and how the objects respond to an earthquake. The experience of earthquakes testifies to the high vulnerability of the overhead power lines, cable power lines, substations, power transformers, relay protection equipment and automation under intense seismic loads. Information is provided about massive damage to the power grid during earthquakes in the territory of Russia, Armenia, and other countries of the world. Frequently occurring short circuits during earthquakes in electrical networks, at transformer substations, in electrical equipment elements of power grid facilities lead to fires. It is determined that power grid facilities have less seismic resistance than electric power generation facilities, than buildings and structures where electrical equipment is located. The problem of insufficiency of the current regulatory framework for ensuring seismic resistance of electric power facilities was also identified. Possible measures to prevent accident rate and increase the resistance, reliability, and seismic stability of power grid facilities in case of earthquakes are considered. The development of normative regulation will allow to take measures to ensure the seismic stability of power grid facilities in operation, and to ensure that control and supervision activities are carried out at a higher level.

Potential fire on board of the passenger train creates risk for passengers health and passengers life. Using non-flammable materials for producing Electric Multiple Units (EMUs) is not considered to be sufficient as passengers are carrying different types of materials as their luggage and belongings. In case of fire on board of the train, the EMU should stop in a place which is appropriate for passengers evacuation and fire fighting. Not all places along railway lines are considered to be appropriate for such purpose. Especially stopping in tunnels is considered inappropriate. Meanwhile the amount of tunnels on the Polish railway network is growing significantly. This requires application of the Technical Specification for Interoperability regarding Safety in Railway Tunnels (TSI SRT) and set of fire standards EN 45545. Using those requirements is associated with putting tunnels and rolling stock into service under railway interoperability directive 2008/57/WE. Additional analyse is however necessary from operational safety point of view due to growing amount of tunnels and growing diversity of rolling stock. Paper proposes conducting risk analyse in accordance with common safety method for risk evaluation and assessment based on a dedicated European Standard EN 50533 which defines requirements regarding running capability in case of fire on board of the rolling stock. Paper analyses applicability of that approach for group of tunnels and rolling stock fleet comprising different types of rolling stock including Electric Multiple Units.

<p>Since the 1st of July 2016, the Directive 2013/35/ EU on the employees’ health protection in terms of non-ionizing electromagnetic<br />radiations acquired the force of law.<br />An accessible methodology for the characterization of a workspace is proposed here, in terms of exposure to low-frequency electric fields.</p><p>Firstly, the means whereby an external electric field can induce electrical processes in the human body are presented, followed by a comparative summary of differently expressed exposure levels (ICNIRP, European Directive, IEEE-ICES).</p><p>Further on two electric field sensors are presented that can easily be hand-crafted in any laboratory, useful for extending the capabilities of a budget, low-frequency handheld spectrum analyzer. A realistic exposure metric is developed that cumulates the influence of all E-fields in the environment. A case study is presented on the cumulative assessment of exposure to low frequency electric fields produced in a laboratory-class where a network of 16 computers was working.</p><p>A simple numerical approach based on FEMM 4.2 has also been developed for evaluating the E-field produced by overhead high voltage transmission lines.</p><p>This paper is an extended version of the original contribution to the IMEKO TC 4 2016 symposium in Budapest, Hungary.</p>

The Development of Extra High Voltage (EHV) overhead power lines ( SUTET 500 kV) has become a national issue because based on several studies worldwide that shown residents who living next to power lines could increase the risk of their health problems. Therefore, there were huge protests from residents in Singosari and Gresik in 1991. The protest also happened in 2004, in which residents from Sumedang, Bogor, Cianjur, and Majalengka marching to Presidential Palace in Jakarta altogether. As a consequence, PLN and Faculty of Engineering of Gajah Mada University in 2005 developed collaborative research to identify HV and EHV required clearance of distance. This research refers to the WHO standard which determines the maximum of magnetic and electric field allowed, also refers to the Ministry of Mineral and Energy Resources Regulation No.01.P/47/M.PE/1992 which determines the minimum clearance distance between HV/ EVH bottom conductor with the ground as the safety levels concerning human exposure to electromagnetic fields. As the enactment regulation of the Ministry of Mineral and Energy Resources No. 18 of 2018 and its amendment No.2 of 2019, the regulation of HV, EHV, and also HVDC (High Voltage – Direct Current) free space and required clearance distance is determined. This research describes the comparison between PLN-UGM collaborative research with both Ministry regulation mentioned above.

Introduction. Based on the urgency of the problem of workers and general public risk of malignant neoplasms due to power frequency (PF) electromagnetic fields (EMF) impact, which led to research on its role in leukemia development expansion in all countries, the data of 4 similar studies of the Institute of occupational health are summarized. The aim of the study is to assess the risk of hemoblastosis in workers and general public under EMF occupational and non-occupational exposure. Materials and methods. 4 analytical epidemiological studies were performed: 2 cohort studies and 2 case - control studies. Results. Cohort study of 500 kV electric grid facilities personnel mortality, taking into account the electric (EF) and magnetic field (MF) exposure values, showed that the standardized relative risk (SRR) of death from all causes was 0.61; from cardiovascular diseases - 0.54, malignancies - 0.89, accidents, injuries and poisoning - 0.95. At the same time, from leukemia, SRR was increased by 2 times compared to the control (2.03), but statistically insignificant (95% CI 0.23-7.31). Retrospective case - control cancer-epidemiological study aimed at assessing the relationship between hemoblastosis various forms development and PF EMF occupational revealed to statistically unreliable increase of leukemia developing relative risk (OR) (1.64). MF mainly exposed personnel were found to have an increased risk of lymphomas developing (2.92), which was statistically significant (χ2 >3,84). Cancer-epidemiological case-control study to identify a causal relationship between parents occupational EMF exposure and childhood hemoblastosis development revealed the tendency to increase the risk, more pronounced in case of fathers MF exposure as well as high-voltage equipment EMF exposure (OR=4.6 95% CI 0.6-35.0 and OR=2.7 CI 0.9-7.8). In the study of mortality of living in the vicinity of 500 and 750 kV substations and overhead transmission lines population, due to low mortality from all causes of death, there was standardized risk of death from leukemia statistically nonsignificant increased (SR-1,3 95% CI 0,2-7,0). Conclusion. The results of studies showed a tendency to increase the risk of dying from hemoblastosis against the background of low mortality rates from other classes of diseases, which coincides with the main conclusions of most foreign publications on the problem.

Pantograph-catenary system provides electric energy for the subway lines; its health status is essential to the serviceability of the vehicle. In this study, a real-time structural health monitoring method based on strain response inversion is proposed to calculate the magnitude and position of the dynamic contact force between the catenary and pantograph. The measurement principle, calibration, and installation detail of the fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors are also presented in this article. Putting this monitoring system in use, an application example of a subway with a rigid overhead catenary is given to demonstrate its performance. The pantograph was monitored and analyzed, running underground at a maximum speed of 80 km/h. The results show that the strain response inversion method has high measurement accuracy, good data consistency, and flexibility on sensor installation. It can accurately calculate the magnitude and location of the contact force exerted on the pantograph.

Overhead power lines are one of the largest sources of the low-frequency magnetic fields. Such magnetic fields occur the harmful effects on human health and other biological objects. The current size of the security zones doesn’t provide a safe level of the magnetic flux density outside them. Therefore, the task of reducing the magnetic flux density value of the overhead power lines outside the security zone is urgent. Some overhead power lines have sections where two lines pass parallel to each other at a short distance. For such lines the method of phase wires hanging order optimization can be applied. For efficiency comparison of different hanging orders was chose two types of electricity pylons: portal (PB330-7) and triangular (P330-3). The cases both lines done by the same pylons were investigated. Analyze of different hanging orders efficiency was performed by mathematical simulation using MATLAB software. The magnetic flux density computation inside the security zone and outside it was done by a specialized simplified methodology of power lines electric and magnetic fields calculation. It is shown that in case of identical phase wires hanging order and the same currents direction of two parallel lines there is a significant increasing of magnetic flux density value at the border of the security zone and outside it for both types of the electricity pylons. It is determined that with a certain hanging order it is possible to achieve a significant reduction of the magnetic flux density value. For lines with electricity pylons of a portal type (PB330-7) the most efficient is the mirror order. It allows to obtain a decreasing of magnetic flux density more than 30 percent at the security zone border and more than 50 percent outside it. For pylons of a triangle type (P330-3) the most efficient is the nonsymmetrical order. It provides the decreasing of magnetic flux density up to 20 percent. In case of opposite currents direction, the most efficient is the same hanging order for both types of electricity pylons. It is shown that optimal phase wires hanging order allows to decrease the magnetic flux density value outside the security zone border, to reduce the distance to border of the area with safe level of the magnetic flux density, to increase the phase current value at which the magnetic flux density value reaches the safe level within the security zone.

IntroductionOn a sunny afternoon in early spring 2014, five researchers were strolling through the streets of Old Aberdeen. They had known each other for only a few days since an event had brought them together. The event was Performance Reflexivity, Intentionality and Collaboration: A Sourcing Within Worksession, convened by anthropologist Caroline Gatt and performer Gey Pin Ang, as part of the ERC Advanced Grant project “Knowing from the Inside,” at the department of Anthropology, University of Aberdeen. This workshop aimed to explore aspects of creative decision-making in performance to assess their relevance to anthropological practice. For three days, participants had engaged in intensive physical and vocal training, seeking to act in ways that felt intuitive and not forced. Five of those participants—Brian Schultis, Peter Loovers, Ragnhild Freng Dale, Valeria Lembo, and myself—unintentionally continued those explorations after the workshop.Our wanderings around the old town took us to the St Machar’s Cathedral. As we were lingering by the graveyard, Valeria took out of her bag a yarn of golden thread. This, she said, was an object of “personal relevance” that she had brought along to the workshop as a prop to work with, following Gey Pin’s instructions. Now she was unravelling it, offering one point to each of us. As we untangled the yarn, we resumed walking. Held from different points, the yarn became a web. Its threads shifted, vibrations reaching our fingertips as we moved. As we entered Seaton Park, which is adjacent to the Cathedral, the threads registered our encounters with the bumpy path, trees, wind, and passers-by as visible, tactile, and kinetic qualities. Pulls, resistances, flows, and gaps triggered a sense of “enmeshment” (Ingold, Lines 11) in a living, breathing world, something greater than ourselves.Walking Threads (henceforth WT), as we retrospectively named the experience, has since developed into a publication (Ang et al.) and a series of invitations extended to larger groups, at conferences and symposia, to walk with the golden thread (walkingthreads.wordpress.com). In our basic WT practice, the yarn is passed around. The thread unravels and we begin to move. No instruction is given to participants, in order to avoid their over-conceptualising the walk. We begin in silence in order to encourage an attitude of “listening,” that is, of opening one’s perceptual awareness to what is happening in the moment. This has not prevented participants from spontaneously using their voice at later stages of the walk, through song, recitation or the exploring of vocal sound.While WT outings are sporadic, the golden thread has continued to be part of my life in subtle ways. Since the last walk in September 2015 at the Beyond Perception symposium in Aberdeen, the thread has repeatedly come to mind. I began to pay attention to these appearances of the thread not as a material object but as a so-called “mental image.” By focusing on the image of the thread, I intentionally recalled some of its properties as a thing that connects, tangles, ties, and is untied, properties that the WT had made salient. By allowing those properties to inform my relationship with my body, the thread turned into a somatic image, a process that I describe in this paper. Thus, this paper continues the WT project’s creative explorations of bodies with threads. This time, however, the thread is not conceived of as a material object but as an image.A few words on my understanding of images are in order. Since 2006 I have been dancing and researching butoh, a dance style that originated in Japan in the post-World War II years. Butoh is a formless dance: it resists codification into a conclusive system of movement, relying on intensified proprioception—the perception of one’s own body—to sustain movement work instead. The use of verbal imagery is widespread among butoh dancers: words act as devices to evoke sensory experiences and “scaffold” (Downey) perceptual attention in order to achieve nuanced qualities of movement. The practice of butoh has informed my understanding of mental images not as merely visual but also as kinaesthetic, that is, engaging the sense of movement. This connection is hardly new; Csordas, for instance, talks of “physical” or “sensory” imagery, rather than merely visual (146–47).While I never intentionally used butoh to relate to the thread, my training and sensitivities as a butoh dancer are likely to have played a role in my relations with this object, as filtered through the WT experiences. Based on my background as a butoh dancer and “thread-walker,” the approach of this paper may be understood as one of anthropology with art: one in which the modes of observation supporting artistic and anthropological inquiries coincide (Ingold, Making 8). An artist’s engagement with materials, tools and things—including the body—is speculative, experimental and open-ended, rather than descriptive or documentary. This type of engagement can question established ways of seeing. For instance, we generally think of objects and bodies as belonging to different domains—the inanimate and the animate, the lifeless and the living. This paper questions this assumption and hypothesises that, through a particular kind of perceptual engagement, which mobilises the somatic and the imaginary simultaneously, objects and bodies can merge. An object can be embodied and, vice versa, a body can become a thing.The paper draws on autoethnographic occurrences of relating to the image of the thread, in the form of short somatic narratives, or narratives “from the body” (Farnell). Each narrative aligns the image of the thread to a particular aspect of somatic awareness: thinking, breathing, and muscle-bones. Far from claiming universal validity, these personal accounts engage a “somatic mode of attention” (Csordas 139) to venture in the potentialities of image-based thinking (Sousanis; Jackson). The exploration finds that, as the materiality of the thread retreats into the background, its image unlocks aspects of self-perception that normally escape conscious awareness (Leder). The image of the thread becomes a perceptual device that, by facilitating access to somatic awareness, reshapes relations with the world and, internally, with the body. It is in this sense that I embody the thread. Beginning with a Loose End: Spinning Thought into Thread-FormAs I begin to write this paper, I witness my thinking taking the form of a thread. It first appears as a loose end. I see it in my mind’s eye, and from a short distance. The loose end of a golden thread floating in a dark space. I cannot see how far it extends. Instead, the gaze of my imagination glides towards its surface as though attempting to grab it. Even so close, I cannot touch it. Still I can contemplate few of its qualities. I meet its reassuring continuity. A glimmer catches my attention: it is a few silver filaments inside the thread, glittering. The thought-form of the thread is a sensation of thin electric current between the temples. I sense the space between my eyes and forehead, their muscles and bones, subtly engaging. The same space begins to narrow down into a corridor. It is narrower and narrower. My thought spins itself into thread-form.In the 1980s, movement therapist Thomas Hanna defined a perspective from inside as “somatic,” that is, pertaining to soma, the ancient Greek word for “living body” (20). The somatic involves the perception of the corporeal from the inside rather than the outside: “to yourself, you are a soma. To others, you are a body. Only you can perceive yourself as a soma—no one else can do so” (20). As a first-person perspective on the body, the somatic involves attention to perceptual processes (Csordas). Yet, in daily life, self-perception is the exception rather than the norm. Being in the world is active rather than reflective (Leder). Otherwise put, being alive requires a mode of engagement that goes “forwards” rather than “in reverse” (Ingold, Making 8).Were we constantly aware of our own presence and actions, this would obstruct their unfolding (Leder 19–20). In order not to inhibit its capacity for being, the body must remain to a great extent “absent” to itself (Leder 19). Some reflective possibilities nonetheless exist. In meditation, for instance, one can attend directly to bodily processes, with aesthetic and contemplative benefits (18–19). The opening somatic narrative presented my visualising of the golden thread as such a kind of reflexive engagement. There, the activity of visualising ceased to be an orientation towards an externally conceived “object” (the thread), becoming itself the end, or object, of perception.One may ask: What kind of sensory perception is mobilised in positing the “visualising” of the thread as “object” rather than as background process? I suggest it is proprioceptively-oriented kinaesthesia or, the perception of self-movement. In this mode of perception, the activity of visualising the thread yields kinetic and spatial impressions. Visualising, that is, is perceived as a movement of attention (Sheets-Johnstone 420–22).The image of the thread, meanwhile, has suggestively merged with the activity of visualisation, in two stages. First, it has guided my attention towards an otherwise-recessive bodily process. Secondly, it has lent its form to an otherwise-indeterminate bundle of sensations. I elaborate on this latter aspect in the following section, where the next somatic narrative posits thinking as a perceptual object, in the form of the image of a web of threads.Seeing through the Veil Walking home one day I noticed some thoughts unpleasantly affecting my mood. In recognising their negative impact, I decided that I should try and detach myself from them. I imagined that the thoughts were like threads woven together. This image of interwoven thoughts developed into another image: a coherent system of thoughts, or worldview, was like a “veil” spread between my eyes and the world. I could, quite literally, “remove” the veil through an act simultaneously of proprioceptive awareness and imagination, leaving my mind uncluttered. As new thoughts rushed in to form a new veil, I could also remove these and so on. As a reminder of this experience, I jotted down these words:If the veil is made of ideasThen thinking is weaving.Sometimes I can see the veilMade of the substance ofMy thoughts.When I see it,When I see the fabricOf thought that forms it,Then it disappears.When I see itWhen I can really see the veil,It’s by a certain way of seeingWhich is in my forehead.To see that way,Really look, with yourEyes as well asWith your mindFor the mind itselfCan attune,Can look, can see through the veil.Leder writes, “insofar as I perceive through an organ, it necessarily recedes from the perceptual field it discloses. I do not smell my tissue, hear my ear, or taste my taste buds but perceive with and through such organs” (14). Similarly, in ordinary conditions, I cannot think about my own mind. To see through the veil of thoughts requires a reflexive effort. It is to attend to the act, not the content, of thinking.This form of awareness can be seen as gestural, as it calls into play the body—a certain way of seeing/which is in my forehead. It is both a stepping back from thoughts, which allows me to see them as objects (a veil), and a removing of them, as though they were tangible things.Weaving the Body into the Night: Breath and Physical Forces as KnotsThe definition of somatic in the previous section anchors it to the point of view of the perceiver. The next somatic narrative describes how, through the image of thread, the perceiving I dissipates into contiguity with the world. Following my experience of perceiving my own thoughts as a veil, I further practised “moving my thoughts” through that image. One night the image of the veil “moved me,” that is, my entire body, in turn.As I cycle back home in the light rain I sense my own presence weaving in the fabric of the night. The fresh air flowing into and out of my nostrils and lungs, my feet pressing against the pedals, pushing my body up from the saddle, my legs looping. Dynamic energy mingles with currents of air passing through my body, and shining asphalt flowing under the wheels. Rhythm, like sowing my presence onto the air. And though the road is steep, tonight cycling up the hill feels effortless. My mind is empty and alert, engaging with the fabric of reality I can see. Is this “reality” or just my imagination? It would not make much difference to me. This somatic narrative reintroduces the image of the veil on a different scale. Now I see the veil as though through a microscope: myriad intertwining threads, and I am part of it. Threads run out of my limbs and lungs: gathering and propelling, pushes and pulls, in- and out-breaths. They weave with the night’s very limbs and lungs: streets, trees, the hill, the breeze, the deep embrace of the sky.For Ingold “every living being is a line or, better, a bundle of lines” (Lines 3). Lines are the movements that living beings perform as they relate—“corresponding,” “clinging,” “tying,” and “untying” (3–7)—to other living beings and the world. Breathing also is a line: “as we breathe in and out, the air mingles with our bodily tissues, filling the lungs and oxygenating the blood” (70). Or rather, breathing is a knot: it ties the inside with the outside. “Breathing is the way in which beings can have unmediated access to one another, on the inside, while yet spilling out into the cosmos in which they are equally immersed” (67).Cycling up-hill, breathing in and out, pushing and propelling, is a weaving of my body, a bundle of lines, with the ebb and flow of the weather-world (Ingold, Lines). This image evokes an outer spatial dimension to the body, an opening. It recalls my being one of multiple people holding and walking with the thread in the WT project. As with WT, feelings of resistance, flux, and being part of something bigger emerge.The image of threads feeds into the somatic perception of body-in-action, and vice versa. Here, engaging in action and imagination are not in contradiction but imply one another. They “correspond” (Ingold, Making): it is because my actions unfold through the imaginary framework of the night as veil that they can flow as they do, sinking in perceptual tracks of extended being.Muscle-Bones as ThreadsFor anthropologist Michael Jackson, metaphors reveal the identity of domains of being that the intellect strives to keep separate, such as the cultural and the natural. “Metaphor reveals unities; it is not a figurative way of denying dualities. Metaphor reveals, not the ‘thisness of a that’ but rather that ‘this is that’” (142, emphasis in the original). Whenever a crisis occurs, which undermines the unity of being-in-the-world, metaphors can be called upon to resolve the impasse and to make people “whole” (149).The final somatic narrative is an example of how an image can restore the unity of the physical and the mental. By imbuing the visceral body with the tangible qualities of a thing, the image of the thread turns the absent body into a sentient, responsive body. This, in turn, helps to overcome the impasse created by physical pain.Lying on the floor, sinking into it. The pain has been with me for years now. When stressed or tired, it spreads through the left side of my body. I have begun imagining the pain’s epicenter as a knot inside the pelvis, between left hip and tailbone. Looking inwards, I try and see the muscular fibres enveloping my limbs, connecting top to bottom. I summon the image of the thread. I make its fibres overlap with my muscle fibres. I want the thread to be the muscles, and the muscles to be the thread. This way I can disentangle the knots and find relief. My body is a deep, dark well. Breath is the rope that takes me down. Breathing in and out creates ripples of movement. They gently undo the knot, ease the pain. In this somatic narrative, my body is, once again, a bundle of threads. This time, however, this image has an anatomical inflection. Instead of generic movements, it is my very muscles that are threads. Early modern Dutch anatomist Ruysch also described muscles as made “of many parallel threads of different lengths,” which fitted with his overall view of the human body as divine “embroidery” (van de Roemer 180–82).In the previous section, a knot was a device for binding and securing life relations to survive a world that is, by its very nature, adrift (Ingold, Lines 67). Breathing enacted one such kind of knot “tying” the inside with the outside. In contrast, now a knot is a place of stagnation, of tension, where movement does not flow as it should. Breathing triggers minute movements throughout the body, which allow me to gradually undo the knot, releasing tensions and bringing relief.ConclusionDrawing on personal experiences, this article has sought to show that corporeal relations with an object can transcend its materiality. By engaging imagination and somatic attention, the thread lived a second life within and through my body.Based on the object’s characteristics and properties, the image of the thread refashioned, albeit momentarily, my relation with my body and the world. It allowed me to fill a perceived gap between body and world, between imagining and being.Finally, in relating to “unthinkable” aspects of being—mental and physical pain—the image of the thread was beneficial and even healing. 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