audio
23-02-18 00:50
composition for Large European Acoustic Facility, ESTEC Test Centre, Noordwijk, the Netherlands
Maintained by the European Space Agency to test rocket noises, it is a speaker system surrounded by steel-reinforced concrete. It is a speaker no human has ever heard because it will immediately shatter the ear drums of listeners.
composition that utilizes the international date line as a graphical score, either visually, or where several ensembles traverse the actual international date line by sea
writing
23-02-18 00:24
↶ : back-reference (to super-set/parent): <~
⇛ : causal relation : }
⟹ : direct relation (often a predicate) : ==>
⟶ : indirect relation : -->
→ : direct relation as annotation : ->
⇒ : indirect relations as annotation : =>
⟐ : source : *
∴ : therefore (like ⇛) : tf.
∵ : because : bc.
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audio
analog
synthesis
23-02-18 00:21 (imported)
an idealized "black box" smooth-stepped generator
The smooth-stepped generator (originally developed by Serge Tcherepnin) along with the Universal Slope Generator are excellent examples of "patch programmability" in modular synthesis, where highly configurable "function blocks" can be programmed for a wide range of applications.
Below are some examples of patches that I have gathered from across the internet. I do not claim any ownership of these concepts and have done my best to properly cite the most direct source or author. Please contact me if you would like anything to be credited differently or taken down.
The SSG is of course the Smooth and Stepped Generator module. It consists of two sub-modules, the top being the Smooth section, the bottom is the Stepped section. The outputs are tied together with a comparator at the CUPL. jack - this gives a HIGH if the smooth output is greater and a LOW if it isn't. *** CAUTION *** HIGH at CUPL is ~ +10VDC, LOW is ~ -10VDC. This is fine for use as a trigger but be careful when using it as a control voltage.... you won't hurt the Serge but if you're using it to control a VCA for example you may destroy your speakers and bring plaster raining down on your head from shattered walls.1
Correction: The COUPLER goes HIGH if the STEPPED OUT voltage is greater than SMOOTH OUT. The catalog sheds no light on this but that's what my measurements say.
The Smooth section is a VC lag processor with some interesting additions:
Hold input. When this goes high the output no longer tracks the input but is held at the same level that was present when Hold went high.
Cycle. This is similar to GATE on the DSG but not the same thing. It is normally not HIGH but LOW (-10V) The Rate knob determines the rate of lag. At zero rotation the *rate* is low, so that translates to a lot of lag.
The Stepped section is a sample-and-hold, also with interesting additions:
A rate knob. This determines how big each step is at the Stepped output. Full rotation=big steps, zero rotation = very tiny steps.
Cycle jack. This is also normally LOW (-10V). More on this in another installment.
The stepped section can serve as an extremely high quality sample-and-hold --- MOTM's sample and hold claims a droop rate of about 1mv per second - in other words, if you do a single sample driving a VCO at 1 volt per octave, then hold it and just listen without resampling you should be able to hear a VCO's tone drop perceptibly, without any trouble. An informal test I did measured < 10mv droop in 400 seconds on the SSG. Other listening tests bear this out.
First, some simple SSG applications:
Linear Glide1
Patch the output of a sequencer or some other stepwise DC source into the Smooth input, then patch the Smooth output to an oscillator.
See how turning the Rate control varies how fast the glide goes. Technical note: in this application the glide has a linear slope so you will hear a constant gliding rate from the oscillator (for a given Rate setting the volts/second gliding thru will be constant, it won't be faster or slower at the beginning or the end of the glide). In other words, perfectly nice and even.
Exponential Glide1
Same patch as above, but now also run a short patch cord between Smooth out and its VC Rate jack. Turn the VC rate knob clockwise so the control voltage is affecting the Rate to some degree. Now the glide should speed up at the end, depending on the position of the VC rate knob.
VC LFO (triangle) or VCO1
Run a short patch cord from IN to CYCLE. You should see the LED go from dim to bright to dim in a nice smooth progression.
Patch SMOOTH OUT into a PCO or NTO and hear the pitch rise and fall.
Vary Rate to make it faster or slower.
Use VC Rate jack & knob to make the frequency voltage controlled.
Patch SMOOTH OUT into your audio output path, whatever it is.
You can use SMOOTH as a low-end audio VCO. Note that tracking & stability are NOT as good as PCO, NTO or DSG in this application, but it does give you an extra audio oscillator in a pinch. This is a triangle wave.
VC LFO (square) or CLOCK or VCO1
Same basic patch as #3. Instead of taking the signal from SMOOTH OUT, mult a banana plug into the patch cord connecting IN and CYCLE.
This is a square wave that jumps from +10VDC to -10VDC approximately. As in #3 you can use this as an LFO for control voltage applications or as an audio square wave. Additionally it can be used to clock a sequencer or other module that needs a trigger or clock source. Note: if you use it as a trigger for the Stepped module it creates two triggers for every cycle. I don't know why exactly but this is what I've observed. As in #3 you can vary the frequency with a control voltage.
Lowpass Filter/Lowpass Gate1
Same patch as #1. Instead of patching a DC control voltage into the input, patch an audio source in, say, any PCO waveform.
Send SMOOTH OUT to your audio output path. Notice that the sound is more or less intact at 100% rotation of the Rate knob, and as you turn Rate counterclockwise the harmonics and harshness get filtered and Smoothed out. Keep turning Rate counterclockwise, the sound will disappear altogether.
So you can use this to filter harsh harmonics out of audio, or to create an unusual filtered effect. Use the VC rate knob and jack to make this filtering effect voltage controllable. You can employ this effect to create an audio Gate.
What's a Gate? A gate is a general name for a device that lets you either permit or close off an audio signal. That's usually what you use a VCA for, and VCA's are very high quality examples of gates.
You can use this patch, especially under Voltage Control, as an unusual substitute VCA:
First, set the Rate knob at around 10 o'clock to 12 o'clock, just so your audio is no longer audible at the output.
Now send a note envelope from DSG, DTG, or Envelope Generator to the VC rate jack, with the VC rate knob turned sufficiently high. You are creating low quality unusual envelopes where the harmonics are varying with amplitude. Using harmonic rich input, you have an unusual effect. Using purer input such as sine or triangle wave yields a more usual or typical result.
Sample and Hold1
Now we'll use the Smooth section to create a sample and hold effect!
Send a varying signal from LFO or Random Source into Smooth In.
Using a DSG or DTG create a rectangular clock pulse with a 99% duty cycle, that is, mostly 'on,' with a tiny 'off' part.
Send that pulse into Smooth HOLD. Turn Smooth Rate fully clockwise.
Send Smooth Out to a VCO or some other module that needs a control voltage. Play with the DSG rise/fall times and Smooth Rate. While HOLD is low the Smooth section takes a 'sample', when HOLD is high that sample is held. This should be enough to get you going for a while!
Here's a few more things from the SSG trick bag:
Pointy wave generator1
Patch CYCLE to IN on the Smooth generator, then also patch SMOOTH OUT to VC RATE. Mult another banana into SMOOTH OUT and use it for CV or audio. Instead of generating triangle waves with linear sides you're making exponential pointy waves. Vary RATE and VC RATE for different effects.
Straightforward Sample-and-Hold, periodic1
Send the output of any oscillator or LFO to the Stepped section's IN jack. Patch up a clock using a DSG and send its trigger pulse to the SAMPLE jack. Turn the Stepped RATE knob fully clockwise. Patch STEPPED OUT into the CV input of an audio oscillator. Watch how the the STEPPED OUT LED flashes brighter and dimmer in time with the clock pulse. Note how the combination of clock pulse rate and LFO frequency affects the stream of voltages coming out of Stepped.
Straightforward Sample-and-Hold, random1
Use the setup in #2 but instead of using an oscillator or LFO to feed the IN jack, use a noise source or S/H SOURCE. Now no matter how fast or slow you run your DSG clock, you will have random pitches coming out of your audio VCO.
Squashed Sample-and-Hold1
Use the setup for #2 or #3, vary the Stepped section's RATE knob. Note that as you turn the knob counterclockwise the amount of each step becomes less and less. The RATE knob slew-limits how fast the sample-and-hold can change. Given enough time the maximum high and low points will still be hit but each step will be more modest. At full counterclockwise rotation step size is inaudible - I can't hear it, can you? At settings over 50% you can get interesting subtle ultra-microtonal variations.
Merry Melodies1
Patches #2 & #3 are perfect input for a quantizer if you have one. Note that in setup #2 you have interesting repeating patterns but the patterns inevitably have some kind of drift, unless you know the clock and the LFO are sync'd together somehow. A quantizer won't eliminate the drift but will turn it into something melodic. Patch #3 is fun using a quantizer also, but instead of producing pretty repeating patterns you'll get crazy notes all over the place.
Auto Sample-and-Hold1
Well, since you can patch the Smooth section as a square wave pulse generator, you can use that pulse to trigger the SAMPLE input of the Stepped side. Strangely though, for every cycle of the square wave you get TWO evenly spaced triggers .. so the clock rate for the Smooth pulse generator is doubled if it's used as an S/H trigger.
Zero-crossing detector1
Noting that the COUPLER output goes high if STEPPED OUT is greater than SMOOTH OUT, you can use this as a simple spare comparator.
Patch any AC coupled signal into Smooth IN and take the COUPLER out to trigger or do something ... every time Smooth IN goes NEGATIVE, if nothing's going into Stepped IN and Stepped's essentially unused, that satisfies the condition of Stepped being GREATER, and the COUPLER goes HIGH. ..again
PLEASE NOTE that due to the wide voltage swing of the COUPLER output, take great care using it for audio and CV applications! Note also, you don't need to send SMOOTH OUT or STEPPED OUT anywhere in this application.
Up/Down staircase generator1
Patch Stepped's CYCLE to IN. Note that, unlike doing this with a DSG or the Smooth section, you're not getting a repeating cycle.
Now send a clock pulse to SAMPLE. Turn the RATE knob fully clockwise.
You can patch STEPPED OUT to your audio VCO again. It will be a somewhat jerky rising and falling staircase, a staircase that rises stepwise to a maximum then falls stepwise to a minimum. Now rotate RATE counterclockwise ... you will hear the number of steps per cycle increase, and the size of each step decrease proportionately. So you'll be hearing lots of itty bitty steps rising to a peak, then falling off to a minimum. Very cute. At full counterclockwise rotation of RATE the steps will be inaudibly tiny ... it will simply sound like a smooth rising and falling like a nice smooth sided triangle LFO.
Now vary the clock rate going into SAMPLE and see how that changes the output. The size of the steps of the staircase depends on RATE, and the speed of the steps depends on the clock going into SAMPLE. Well, taking the 6 applications in the first installment with the 8 in this one brings us to 14 applications of the SSG - that is, ONE TWO-PART SERGE MODULE. Just think about that for a minute. Now please consider that these are fairly BASIC SSG applications. For the next installment, I will get into some more advanced stuff....
The Serge catalog entry for the SSG describes the coupler section as being related to another module, the Random Source (RS) ... that the RS is in fact a Noise Source internally hooked to an SSG ... and that the SSG can be patched up as a Random Voltage Generator ... but tantalyzingly and oh-so-typically of Serge (and Buchla I think) to not say how it's done... at least not in the catalog.
So what the SSG does is somehow take a random signal and deliver the Random Source's random pulses, random stepped and random smooth signals.
Doing this is a very handy thing for Blue Funstation owners, or anyone who happens to have a Random Source and an SSG ... and has a desire for multiple uncorrelated random signals -- in other words, a slow random smooth voltage controlling one VCO, a rapid stepped random voltage controlling another one at the same time. Or other combinations.
First off, an SSG can't be used as a Random Voltage Generator all by itself, it needs a random signal to feed it. You need the S/H source of a Serge Noise Source or Random Source. Patch it into the IN jack of the Stepped side of the SSG. Now patch the COUPLER to SAMPLE of the Stepped side, mult another patch cord into COUPLER, and patch it into the IN jack of the Smooth side. That's it.
The Smooth random voltages are available at SMOOTH OUT, the stepped ones are at STEPPED OUT, and random pulses are available at the COUPLER (which is also patched to SAMPLE and SMOOTH IN).
With the Stepped RATE knob at full, varying the RATE knob of the Stepped side changes the rate of BOTH the Smooth and Stepped random voltages. This is exactly what the Random Source has. Varying the RATE of the Stepped side changes the amplitude of your Smooth and Stepped random voltages ... so turning the Stepped RATE knob down reduces the amplitude of the signal at the OUT jacks.
Of course, the Smooth RATE and the Stepped RATE can be voltage-controlled via their respective VC RATE jacks & controls too.
The fun doesn't stop here though ... see what happens if, instead of using the S/H source to feed the SSG, you use an oscillator, or a DSG, or a sequencer....
references|further:
1) John Papiewski's invaluable "SSG Hijinx" article⭧
audio
analog
synthesis
23-02-18 00:17 (imported)
an idealized "black box" slope generator
The voltage-controllable slope generator (or Universal Slope Generator as coined by Serge Tcherepnin) is an extremely versatile device for generating and modifying signals at a variety of frequencies.
Below are some examples of patches that I have gathered from across the internet. I do not claim any ownership of these concepts and have done my best to properly cite the most direct source or author. Please contact me if you would like anything to be credited differently or taken down.
VC Transient Envelope Generator1
A pulse at the trigger input will start the envelope, or a gate input will sustain the level and the envelope will fall when the gate goes low. Rise and fall are independently and jointly voltage controllable, with variable linear and exponential wave shapes.
VC Portamento
Voltage is slewed according to the rise and fall times.
VC LFO1
When the cycle switch is thrown, the trigger input is connected internally to the end trigger output, creating a VC clock with variable waveform and independent rise and fall times.
VC Oscillator
While not as wide ranged, or accurate as a dedicated oscillator module, the VCS is still an excellent audio source. The Exp CV input is scaled approximately to the 1v/oct standard. The Output wave can be swept from triangle to saw with linear and non-linear waveforms. End Out also produces a pulse waveform.
VC Non-Linear Audio Processor (Low-Pass Gate)1
If an audio rate signal is slewed, the module responds like a VCF, and a rough VCA. The signal is low-pass filtered down to silence, similar to a low-pass gate.
Envelope Follower1
Positive and negative peak detection envelope follower.
VC Pulse Delay1
Trigger input starts the envelope and a trigger will be produced again at the ”End Out” when the envelope completes its cycle.
Sub-Harmonic Generator1
If a series of triggers are applied to the VCS faster than the total rise and fall times, the module will divide the incoming signal by a whole number. In the audio range the output will be the sub-harmonic series.
Triangle VCO2
8 note sequence from an analog sequencer at the Exp CV input.
cycle = on
rise = 12 o'clock
fall = 12 o'clock
both slopes linear
Skimmed Sawtooth VCO2
8 note sequence from an analog sequencer at the exp cv input.
cycle = on
rise = 12 o'clock
fall = 12 o'clock
vc rise = fully ccw exponential
vc fall = fully cw exponential
Narrow Pulse VCO2
8 note sequence from an analog sequencer at the exp cv input.
cycle = on
rise = 12 o'clock
fall = 12 o'clock
vc rise = linear
vc fall = fully cw exponential
Low Pass VCF + VCA Response2
Analog sequence is now sent to a VCO. Sawtooth output goes to the VCS Input. A slow triangle wave from an LFO goes to the VC Both input.
cycle = off
rise = fully ccw
fall = fully ccw
both slopes linear
High Pass VCF + VCA Response2
Same patch as above, but this time the slow triangle LFO is patched to VC Fall only.
cycle = off
rise = fully ccw
fall = fully ccw
vc rise = linear
vc fall = 9 o'clock exponential
Sync + Low Pass + VCA2
Analog sequence is sent to two slightly detuned VCOs. As above the sawtooth of VCO1 goes to the VCS Input. The squarewave from VCO2 goes to the VCS Trigger Input. The slow triangle LFO goes to the VC Both input.
cycle = off
rise = fully ccw
fall = fully ccw
vc rise = 1 o'clock linear
vc fall = 1 o'clock linear
VC Waveshaper2
VCO Sawtooth to VCS Input. A triangle wave from the same VCO is patched to the VC Both input.
cycle = off
rise = fully ccw
fall = fully ccw
both slopes exponential, starting fully cw
First the VC Fall knob is turned from fully cw to fully ccw. Then the VC Rise knob is turned from fully cw to fully ccw.
Animated Wave2
2 VCOs are slightly detuned, the sine from VCO1 is fed to the VCS Input while the sine from the second VCO is fed to the VC Both input.
cycle = off
rise = fully ccw
fall = fully ccw
vc rise = fully cw exponential
vc fall = fully ccw exponential
VC Slew Limiter2
Standard slew with equal rise and fall times:
Audio source is a VCO pulse wave. Pulsewidth is modulated by the sinewave of another VCO. The Analog sequencer CV goes into the VCS Input. VCS Output is fed into the 1v/oct CV input of both VCOs. Slew time is modulated by a slowly increasing positive control voltage at the VC Both input.
cycle = off
rise = 2 o'clock
fall = 2 o'clock
vc rise = fully cw linear
vc fall = fully cw linear
Same patch as above, but the VCS is in Cycle mode. The voltage at the VC Both input goes from -5 volts in the beginning to +5 volts at the end.
VC LFO2
VCS Output modulates the cutoff frequency of Low Pass Filter.
cycle = on
rise = 3 o'clock
fall = 3 o'clock
both slopes linear
VC Envelope Generator2
Audio source is a filtered VCO pulse wave. The pulsewidth is modulated by the sinewave of another VCO. Filter cutoff is modulated by the VCS Output. The VCS is triggered with each note. A second sequencer row goes into the VC Fall input for increasing the decay time on three of the eight notes in the sequence.
cycle = off
rise = fully ccw
fall = 2 o'clock
vc rise = fully cw exponential
vc fall = 1 o'clock exponential
VC Pulse Delay2
Audio source is a filtered VCO pulse wave. The pulsewidth is modulated by the sinewave of another VCO. The filter is a multimode filter in lowpass mode. Two adsr envelopes are used for cutoff modulation. Every note triggers the first envelope and also the VCS. The second envelope is triggered by the end out of the VCS. In the first half of the recording the filter is modulated by the first envelope only. In the second half you hear a modulation from both envelopes.
cycle = off
rise = 10 o'clock
fall = 2 o'clock
both slopes linear
VC Envelope Follower2
The audio source is an analog drum machine, coming into the system through an external input module. From there the audio signal is fed into the VCS Input and a lowpass filter. The cutoff of the filter is modulated by the VCS Output. A variable control voltage at the VC Both input is used to modulate the slew time of the envelope follower. The voltage is slowly increasing from -10 volts in the beginning to +10 volts at the end.
cycle = off
rise = 9 o'clock
fall = 12 o'clock
vc rise = half past 1 linear
vc fall = half past 1 linear
Slope Generator as Subharmonic/Undertone Generator from Nav of Nav's Modular Lab3
If a series of triggers are applied to the VCS faster than the total rise and fall times, the module will divide the incoming signal by a whole number. In the audio range the output will be the sub-harmonic series.
The VCS has the benefit of an AC-coupled output, but I feel Maths offers finer control over the settings. As this patch relies on the rise time, Math's EOR pulse can be used to provide an even beefier sub signal.
The technique simply involves patching a mult of your principal oscillator to Maths' trigger input and mixing either the envelope or EOR with the main VCO in a filter etc. Set the response to linear, fall to fully CCW and then gradually increase the rise time. Additionally altering the fall time will give you more control over the timing and hence sub-divisions.
AR EG4
Patch a Gate or Trigger signal into the "TRIG IN" jack. A attack-release (AR) voltage envelope is generated at the "OUTPUT" jack with its attack and release times controlled by the "RISE" and "FALL" pots respectively.
ASR EG4
An attack-sustain-release envelope is implemented by routing a Gate signal into the "INPUT" jack. The resultant EG output will sustain as long as a Gate is present. Again, the attack and release times are controlled by the "RISE" and "FALL" pots respectively.
HINT: The above envelopes are linear envelopes. For an exponential response, stack a banana cable on the "OUTPUT" and patch it to the "VC IN" jack and adjust the "VC" pot positively to taste. The "RISE/BOTH/FALL" switch selects which part(s) of the envelope become exponential.
HINT: Complex envelope shapes can be created by mixing the outputs of more than one Slope Generator together into a single signal with a voltage mixer like an ACPR, MPRO or a PRC. For instance, if driven by the same gate, you could have one half a DSG doing the "AD" portion and the other half the "SR" portions of an ADSR envelope with unique control possibilities.
One interesting thing to note is that when an envelope finishes its cycle, the "GATE OUT" jack generates a new gate - which leads into the next use of a DSG - LFOs.
LFOs4
Low Frequency Oscillators are relatively easy to make. Lets start by patching the "GATE OUT" jack to the "TRIG IN" jack just below it. The DSG will start to oscillate all by itself with its frequency determined by the "RISE" and "FALL" knobs. Watch the LED for a visual reference of overall frequency as well as the rise and fall times. To obtain a square wave, stack another banana cord on the "GATE" jack. To obtain a triangle wave, patch a cord into the "OUTPUT" jack and you'll have a triangle or saw wave. One nice feature of this waveform is you can control its shape by adjusting the "RISE" and "FALL" knobs. A short rise and slower fall gives a regular Saw waveform, a slow rise and quick fall gives a Reverse Saw and equal rise and fall times result in a Triangle. You can modulate the /shape/ of this waveform by patching a CV into the "VC IN" jack and setting the modulation target with the "RISE/BOTH/FALL" switch.
HINT: Complex composite LFO waveforms can be created by mixing the outputs of more than one Slope Generator together into a single signal with a voltage mixer like an ACPR, MPRO or a PRC.
HINT: To "soften up" a triangle or square waveform (or even a more complex composite LFO waveform), run it through an available 1/2 DSG patch-programmed as a Slew Generator (see "Directional CV Glide" below).
Audio Oscillator4
Let's speed things up a bit, shall we? Everything we learned about using the DSG to make LFOs is applicable here for audio oscillators as well - all we need to do to the above patch is to route a CV of choice into the "1V/OCT" input jack to drive the pitch of the oscillator. The TKB or various Sequencers are a great source of preset CVs.
The DSG doesn't track so hot in the higher registers (and won't track at all above a certain pitch) but is an excellent source of bass and mid-range tones with lots of character.
HINT: To "warm up" your oscillator, try running it through the top section of a Wave Multipliers function block with its switch set to "HI", you'll get a soft-clipped sound similar to a tube amp.
HINT: When mixing audio oscillators, sometimes it helps to invert one or more of the signals to help avoid "cancellation" issues, especially if you have a lot of feedback going on - unless that's the effect you're going for.
Trigger/Gate Delay4
Here's another deceptively simple patch that makes a great building block for more complex patches. Patch your Trigger or Gate signal into the "TRIG IN" jack and take your delayed signal from the "GATE OUT" jack. The amount of delay is set by the sum of the "RISE" and "FALL" knobs. You may need to invert the output depending on whether you need a rising edge or falling edge for your application.
Subharmonic Generator4
This patch works in a similar fashion to the Gate Delay patch above. What we're doing is setting the DSG to be re-triggered by the incoming signal like before but this time the source signal will be an audio signal and the DSG's output will be an audio rate square wave that will be a subharmonic of the original signal. Patch your signal into the "TRIG IN" jack and take the output from the "GATE OUT" jack. This patch will take some tweaking to "tune" to taste.
HINT: Square up the audio signal with a comparator first (or simply use a square/pulse wave oscillator) so the DSG's "TRIG IN" receives reliable triggers.
Envelope Follower4
Patch your audio signal into the black "INPUT" jack and set the "RISE" knob very fast (clockwise). Begin with the "FALL" knob set very fast but slowly bring it down (counter-clockwise" until the signal at the "OUTPUT" jack is following the peaks and valleys of the audio signal's volume envelope. This is another patch you will have to "tune" by ear - have fun!
Directional CV Glide4
Patch your CV into the "INPUT" jack and your slewed version will be available at the "OUTPUT" jack. The "RISE" and "FALL" knobs will set the slewing up or down of the original CV respectively. An obvious implementation of this is to patch a CV destined to control an oscillator's pitch through here to create "glide" or portamento - with the added trick that your portamento doesn't have to be bi-polar, you can have glide only on upward pitch changes, only on downward pitch changes or even have /different amounts of glide/ on up and down pitch changes. Of course you're not limited to "pitch CVs" alone but can process /any/ CVs this way.
HINT: The above patch has a linear response. An exponential response can be created by stacking a patch cable from the "OUTPUT" jack to the "RISE/BOTH/FALL" VC in jack and adjusting the curve to taste with the "VC" knob.
HINT: Patch an audio signal in place of the CV and set both "RISE" and "FALL" knobs relatively fast and the patch becomes a lo-fi Low Pass Filter. Patch a CV into the "RISE/BOTH/FALL" jack to make the filter voltage-controllable.
Lopsided Recursive Waveform Generator4
Patch a couple of Triangle/Saw LFOs using both halves of a DSG then patch the waveforms of each into the "RISE/BOTH/FALL" CV input jacks of the other. Adjust to taste. Tap the waveform out by stacking a patch cord on one of the outputs and route it somewhere that needs a lopsided, recursive waveform.
references|further:
1) Seth Nemec's Voltage Controlled Slope page via Bananalogue Site⭧
2) Ingo Zobel's Slope Patches originally submitted to the Bananalogue Site⭧
3) Nav's Modular Lab⭧
4) James D. Maier's Notes on patching the Serge DUSG⭧
Serge DUSG Patching Techniques via Muffwiggler Forum⭧
An interesting article by Kassutronics⭧ on a DIY USG-inspired slope generator
learningmodeling
23-02-18 00:10
- expertise is a process of building mental representations1
- expert musicians can memorize a whole page of sheet music at a time faster than a page of random notes; chess players , an entire board position1
- both sheet music and chess positions have structure that makes them look different from pure informational noise1
- these entities have lower perplexity than random noise1
- Zenna Tavares and Armando Solar Lezama argues that mental representations are distribution-sensitive data structures2
- we exploit regularities in the usage patterns of representations to reduce time or space complexity2:1
- we introduce probabilistics axiomatic specifications for extending abstract data structures ==> inference
- we reforulate the synthesis of these data structures as continuous function approximation problems ==> convergence
- most critical property of a system of representations is compositonality:3
- these systems contain primitive symbols and symbols that are complex
- the latter inherit their syntactic/semantic properties from the former
- compositionality is powerful because it enables a system of representation to support an infinite number of semantically distinct representations via combination
- mental representations can be modelled as a sort of data structure that inherently composable, not by virute of it's primitive type, but by that of the abstractness of any of its data types. -> it does so by defining an abstract class of representations as abstract data types and impose invariants or axioms that any of its constituent data types must adhere to.
Axioms are universally quantified - for all numbers, sets, points, etc - while humans,in contrast, are not uniformly good at manipulating numbers of different magnitude (Hyde, 2011;Nuerk & Willmes, 2005; Dehaene, 1997), rotating geometry of different shapes (Izard et al., 2011),or sets of different cardinality.
- Don't just type out code examples, or copy passages directly, etc..1
- Koppel suggests the "Benjamin Franklin Method":
- taking some group of writings, reading them over and over, say over the course of a week, and then after the week, attempting to complete one paper at a time by oneself after only having started with first few lines, etc.
- Koppel uses the example of reading through a programming book, when hitting a code example, reading it, then closing the book and trying to replicate it
references|further:
1) James Koppel - The Benjamin Franklin Method of Reading Programming Books ⭧
2) Zenna Tavares and Armando Solar Lezama - Learning Approximate Distribution-Sesitive Data Structures⭧
3) Fodor and Lepore - The Compositionality Papers, 2002
K. Anders Ericcson - Peak
software-usage
23-02-18 00:01
I don't use linux particularly often, but here are some things I'd like to remember exist
Linux tools I use:
- neovim
- tmux
- alacritty
- zsh
- nnn
- lynx
- zathura
To cat a webpage to the terminal:
- ensure lynx is installed
- $ lynx -dump
- you can then write that to a file with:
- $ lynx -dump > // to append contents if file already exists
or
- $ lynx -dump >> // to overwrite contents
From@aral@mastodon.ar.al:
Running git 2.28 or later? Take 10 seconds and enter the following into your terminal to set the default branch in new projects to main not master:
git config --global init.defaultBranch main
To repeat arguments: Alt - >
- prevents from having to type in long paths
unlisted
23-02-17 23:45
Does this even work? What do you think?
Hopefully, yeah!
list
23-02-13 20:40
-
acid horizon (theory)
-
machinic unconscious happy hour (theory)
-
song exploder (music)
-
podular modcast (eurorack fetishism)
-
zizek and so on (theory/psychoanalysis)
Lacan is a hack
-
the array cast (APL/j/k)
-
level (vgm)
-
le meme young podcast (music prod.)
-
almost viral (art/music)
-
art+music+technology
organization
23-01-09 7:14
I really like the Hobonichi Techo planner, but I'm not into paper planners, and I'm not much of an analog person to begin with, so I need a spot to keep some of the design details.
list
computing
programming
22-12-25 08:49
I often like to have a queue of problems when I'm learning a language. Here are problem sets or snippets to translate.
Adrian Neumann - Simple Programming Problems↗︎
Dylan Araps - Pure Bash Bible↗︎
Project Euler↗︎
list
RSS
22-12-27 21:09
Read Later: 2021 - 2022 via Raindrop↗︎
list
22-12-20 16:55
Present &
Correct↗︎
abstraction
computing
highlights
software-culture
22-12-14 01:48
Software is at once a field of study, an industry, a career, a process of production, and a process of consumption—and only then a body of computer code. It is impossible to separate software from the human and historical context that it is situated in.
Code is always addressed to someone. As Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs puts it, “programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute” (Abelson et al. 1996). We do not write code for our computers, but rather we write it for humans to read and use. And even the purest, most theoretical and impractical computer science research has as its aim to provoke new patterns of thought in human readers and scholars—and these are formulated using the human-constructed tools of mathematics, language, and code.
Soviet philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin wrote that “the single utterance, with all its individuality and creativity, can in no way be regarded as a completely free combination of forms of language … the word in language is half someone else’s” (Wertsch 1991, 58-59). Any code that we write, no matter how experimental or novel, owes a piece of its existence to someone else, and participates as a link in a chain of dialogue, one in reply to another.
While Wertsch and Bakhtin were concerned with human language, we can just as readily apply their insights to software: “the ambiguity of human language is present in code, which never fully escapes its status as human writing, even when machine-generated. We bring to code our excesses of language, and an ambiguity of semantics, as discerned by the human reader” (Temkin 2017). Whose voices do we hear when we experience code? At the syntactic level, every keyword and language feature we use is rented from the creators of the language. These keywords and grammars are themselves often rented from a human language like English, and these voices too are present in our code.
Shepherding is “an invisible property of a programming language and its ecosystem that drives people into solving problems in ways that are natural for the programming language itself rather than ways that are considered ‘better’ in some sense” (Pakkanen 2020). We internalize the voices of our social relations, and these voices mediate our action. Every time we dive into a codebase, speak with a mentor, take a course, or watch a conference talk, we are deliberately adding new voices to the little bag of voices in our mind. This is not purely a process of consumption: in internalizing voices, we form counter-words, mentally argue with them, and ventriloquize them through our own work—in a word, we engage in a dialogue.
At a higher level, the patterns and strategies we use to structure our code, which we think of as independent of programming languages, such as algorithms, design patterns, architectures, and paradigms, are rented too. Some algorithms are named after famous computer scientists like Dijkstra, Kruskal, and Prim, and these clue us into the rich ensemble of voices speaking in our code. But at the same time, the process of naming obscures the multitude of other voices speaking through these algorithms. Dijkstra’s algorithm is a weighted breadth-first search that uses a priority queue—but the name alone would not tell you this, and in fact, the names “breadth-first search” and “priority queue” obscure still more voices. By attributing the entire history, the chains of dialogue, and the chorus of voices that speak in the algorithm, all to that single name Dijkstra—by seeing one where there are many—they are killed, and the signifier Dijkstra takes their place. This is the process of abstraction.
Every piece of software that we interact with, every company, every project, every product—from your computer’s operating system, to the SaaS vendors your company relies on, the libraries you use, and the routines running on the microcontroller in your refrigerator, hides just as delightfully complicated of a history of production, and this is what brings all of software development together. Marx described this common substance “a mere congelation of homogeneous human labour, of labour power expended without regard to the mode of its expenditure. All that these things now tell us is, that human labour power has been expended in their production, that human labour is embodied in them. When looked at as crystals of this social substance, common to them all, they are—Values” (1867, 48).
Watch as a neural network, initialized from random chaos, trains itself to play Atari Breakout. Watch the tiny machines—the nodes of the network, their connections and conjunctions, break-flows and back-propagations—and watch them converge: at first random contingencies that, in a feedback loop, crystallize into structure. These are machines reproducing machines. These are tiny capitalists. “Universal history is the history of contingencies, and not the history of necessity. Ruptures and limits, and not continuity” (Deleuze & Guattari 1983, 140).
In the modern world, our social interactions, our devices, governments, and markets, are circulations and flows of the same realities under the same rules. Our software creates new problems—problems that we’ve never had before, like fake news, cyberbullying, and security vulnerabilities—and we patch them over with yet more layers of code. Software becomes quasi-cause of software. These are echoes of the same voices in a positive feedback loop, growing louder and less coherent with each cycle—garbage in, garbage out, a thousand times over.
Instacart bots are just the most recent reincarnation of a long tradition of using the speed of software to gain an edge against humans. In the 2000’s, when concert tickets first started to sell over the Internet, scalpers built bots to automatically purchase tickets to resell them at a higher price. And capitalism, in its infinite flexibility, adapted and welcomed this development with open arms and invisible hands, spawning companies like TicketMaster, which institutionalized and legitimized the practice. But Instacart and TicketMaster are mere symptoms of the problem. We saw the same patterns in the arms race of high-frequency trading. At first, the robots beat the humans. Next, the robots became part of the game, and the robots played against each other. The profits from high-frequency trading dried up, and yet using it became a necessity just to keep up.
Where did it all go wrong? At some point, capital became the answer to every question—what to produce, how to produce, for whom to produce, and why. When software, that ultimate solution in search of a problem, found the questions answered only by capital, we lost our way, caught in capital’s snare. But we can break this pattern; we can find our own answers to those questions, and if it’s up to us, the answer does not need to be that answer we’ve been taught, capital. Software is a tool with revolutionary potential, but that is the extent of what it can give us. “Science demonstrates by its very method that the means that it constantly elaborates do no more than reproduce, on the outside, an interplay of forces by themselves without aim or end whose combinations obtain such and such a result” (Deleuze & Guattari 1983, 368).
Original Article: https://blog.jse.li/posts/software/
computing
HCI
highlights
22-12-13 09:30
Ideas carry meaning and take on meaning of their own
The principle: creators need an immediate connection to what they create
How does code work? You write into a text editor, and try to imagine what it produces. But if there's an error or you want to make changes, you have to re-compile. This goes against this principle.
One remedy is a side-by-side interactive editor. And this allows us to change variables by doing something other than typing text.
So much of creation is discovery, and there's many aspects of a work that you can't discover when re-compiling on change.
Having an immediate connection with the creation allows for ideas to develop that couldn't before.
You have to be able to try ideas as you think of them.
Ideas start small, weak, and fragile. And in order for them to grow stronger, you need an environment that promotes this immediate connection.
If creators are manipulating time, their environment needs to map time to space, so they can see time, and work with it interactively.
Two golden rules of information design: show the data, show comparisons.
When you have a new media, you are afforded new ways to program that media. Text-definition based programming comes from FORTRAN and ALGOL, when you had to run punchcards through a compiler.
Ideas are precious. And when ideas die, it's tragic - a moral wrong. Bret feels a responsibility to help people express their ideas.
Larry Tesler - mid 70s - PCs weren't quite around, but modal software was rampant
Created a principle: No person should be trapped in a mode.
In response, Larry invented modern WYSIWYG text editing, as well as Cut, Copy, and Paste. Most folks who had never used a computer could get up and running in a half hour.
Bret asks: How would you describe what Larry did?
It would be an injustice to say just that he invented Cut/Copy/Paste or that he invented modeless text manipulation.
The problem that Larry solved only existed in his own head. That's how many great social changes take place.
Other folks in computing that made these changes:
- Doug Engelbart (invented interactive computing)
- Alan Kay (ran Xerox Parc, invented OOP)
What is your principle?
In social work, it might be encouraged to have a personal crusade, but not in technology. Instead, they teach you to define and develop a skill. That's why there are "software engineers." That is the path of the craftsman, and there's nothing wrong with that.
The only other path your really hear about is the path of the problem-solver, i.e. entrepreneurship and research. That can be worthwhile too, but Larry Tesler wasn't on either of those paths. He didn't chose some open problem to solve. He chose a problem that was only in his head. And instead of defining himself by his craft, he defined himself by his cause - by the principle he chose.
You can choose this life - to be lead by a principle. But it can take time to find a principle, because it's essentially a form of self-discovery - you are choosing what you want your life to be about.
Bret would get little glimmers throughout his twenties, but it wasn't clear until afterwards what his principle was. And in order to find it, he just had to do a lot of things. Building up a corpus of experiences and trying to make sense of it, trying to figure out - why? What is the secret ingredient in all these experiences that I'm reacting to so strongly?
If you choose to follow a principle, it can't just be any old thing you believe in.
A big one right now is that everyone wants to make things simple, but that is too vague to be actionable. Tesler wanted to make thing simple, but he had a concrete ideal. And this ideal gave him a new way of seeing the world.
If your guiding principle embodies a specific insight, it will lead you, and you'll always know if what you're doing is wrong and right.
There are many ways to live your life. Every aspect of life is a choice, but there are default choices. You an choose to accept the world as it is, but you don't need to.
If you have a vision of a better world, you can find your guiding principle, and fight for a cause.
recipe
22-12-13 21:13
Every design work to
recipe
22-12-13 18:49
Ingredients:
2 cups rice unrinsed
4 cups water
1 can fire roasted tomatoes with garlic
2 tablespoons fajita seasoning
2 tablespoons taco seasoning
1 ounce olive oil
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
2 tsp hot sauce
Directions
In large pan, brown rice in olive oil with onion and garlic powder, and hot sauce
When browned, pour rice into pot (or rice cooker)
Combine with water, tomatoes and the rest of the seasonings
Cool and stir til ready!
list
writing
22-12-12 02:26 (imported)
Dali and Signification
Look up dan golding's tweet on 7/6/18 about Dali description
somehow encapsulates the way people write about music describing the signs vs describing the signifier
A Pattern Language and Concept Design -> they sound cool but what are they?
The Lindy Effect doesn't apply anymore
Physical records as proto-alphabets
Ititamats - Yakama Time Balls1
Quipus - String and Knot Records2
Actually, the whole dataphys3 site is great.
Describing speedrunning techniques as "tech". Maybe hardware and software are inanimate and the real technology are the ways in which we use them?
What is the best way to define a reasonable time horizon for a large-scale reading project/lit review? 4
Why does learning about YC and the surrounding community make me feel like vomiting through my pores?
Simondon, "Technical Objects", Hypertext, Tools for Thought, Word Processors, Text Editors, Pens, Technology in General - Potential to fold into AA
conversation-avec-le-système, emergent systems, solo RPG, an information store at capacity gains a new role
Rules as Tools
relates to subjects like Solo RPG rulesets, is the ruleset an actual tool, what are the differences and distinctions?
Woke NYC Intellectual/Sound Artist with PhD at Ivy League/The New School in Philosophy or CompLit or some shit - A Reading List
The relationship (if one exists) between Lotic's record power and Speaker Music's Black nationalist Sonic Weaponry or just in general talking about Sepaker Music's record in the context of black nationalist movements and Steve Goodman's Sonic Warfare
Geometry and History
I just listened to Okakura Kakuzo's The Book of Tea (1906) which struck me not only as an interesting essay on the evolution of Teaism, but as a great lesson on historiography. Would be a great thing to go on a syllabus, not sure what it would be next to. After looking this up on wikipedia, I can see that the text is part of a set of texts called "tea classics" - treatises on ceremony, culture, aesthetics, and philosophy. What an interesting example of making the material object the method of cultural inquiry. I'm not sure I'm going to get into tea classics, but I really did enjoy this text. This could be a cool course to go down with Gitelman's texts. Very interesting. On the other hand, I wonder why this text is so well known (it was originally written by Kakuzo in English) and how the orientalism surrounding the text manifest itself. Certainly grounds for further ~research.
Simondon, standards documents as technical objects, the proprietary nature of ISO standards, obfuscation and elaborate technicality as political tool.
- looking at texts on technical writing
- looking at texts on language standards
looking at open source standards (there must be some)
related:
1) http://dataphys.org/list/yakama-time-ball/
2) https://www.si.edu/newsdesk/snapshot/quipu
3) http://dataphys.org/list/
4) https://youtu.be/ehtAl1RMrfI?t=224
map
22-12-12 02:14 (imported)
Github Arctic Code Vault↗︎ stores code↗︎ in Svalbard on little strips of film?
Why keep software?
Whats needed to run software in the future?
The encoding is in binary, but why is it even presumed that that could eb read in the future?
Who tf wants to preserve Gatsbyjs?
The Svalbard Treaty
What are the socioeconomic-political implications of a sovereign archive?
Link to English Translation of Treaty↗︎
Piql Film (pronounced "Pickle" as in, to preserve)
What makes film last?
What are examples of film having not lasted?
The machine can be assembled based on instructions that are printed onto the film. It bootstraps itself.
How much data is compressed into a seed?
What are the implications of format that is both readable by computers and humans in the same format?
Demilitarization
Weather/Climate/Temperature
Containers
Storage Specifications and Standards
Are locks an indication or proprietary? Why isn't the most valuable and longevitous form of storage a decentralized format?
Also, see Dave's "pixelquipu"↗︎
Read: *Wright - Cataloguing The World*
Microsoft is putting data centers↗︎ on the ocean floor
What about infections in storage? How do viruses infect archives? Is biology more sustainable? A lima bean somehow seems more universal than node.js.
writing
maps
22-12-12 02:08
Grenville - Writing from Start to Finish
Hayles - Comparative Textual Media
Hayles - How We Think
Jacobs - A Complete Guide to Writing and Selling Non-Fiction
Kirschenbaum - Literary History of Word Processing
Lehtimaki - Poetics of Non-Fiction
Miller - Tell It Slant
note‑taking/pkm
22-12-12 01:45 (imported)
Andy Matuschak claims there is little the book does to assist its reader in understanding its concepts. ==> Should authors be more intentional about the creation of book-replacements.
Kara Kittel claims that books are primarily written by the type of person who writes books for the type of person who reads books, and expresses possibility in the space of hybrid forms and immersive experiences.
Anne-Laure Le Cunff claims that books are a passive medium which doesn't provide the critical element of immersion which can help readers remember contents. How can we make readers participants?
Toby Shorin states that the type of knowledge that games transmit is not "text" ==> We need to find ways of assembling knowldge which helps keep society running.
Kittel claims that while there is a lot to be gained from books, there is still a high barrier to entry inherent in books.
Adam Wiggins claims that traditional office software is "authoring tools". His organization, Ink & Switch, explores how computers can help people be more thoughtful.
Matuschak starts with the "deeply powerful ideas... and question framings" and lets that drive his research as opposed to trying to make an app that does X better --> says that can often lead to "incremental progress" which is implied isn't what he is after.
Shorin claims that there is a bunch of "semiotic landgrabs" floating around all over the internet, esp. in Twitter where everyone is trying to create their own language to attract people to their Patreon. No matter where you sit in the network graph, there is gonna to be people "tyring to pwn you with their language."
Matuschak mention's Braben's Scientific Freedom as an interesting exploration of some of his grifts with academic inquiry. He claims that HCI is not really being pointed in any particular direction and most of the literature in the field comes from students whose papers we're seeing are first and second projects.
original talk↗︎
related:
Kittel: McLuhan - Medium is the Message
Shorin: Vygotsky - Mind in Society, Keegan et al - Communities of Practice
Le Cunff: Huxley - Collected Essays
Matuschak: Deutch - The Beginning of Infinity
Wiggin: Maker Biographies (as a genre) Sid Meier, Obsessive Genius (on Curie)
Gabriele: Invisible Cities
meta
22-11-15 01:08
I don't do any tracking or analytics here, so the best way to support me is by striking up a conversation! I love feedback, and I am always happy to answer questions or provide further explanation where possible.
If you have found my work especially useful, feel free to make a donation. These proceeds help support my efforts to expand electronic music research and education.
Thanks for reading.
visual
22-05-24 14:00 (imported)
220525
Need to slow things down a bit, but I liked experimenting with the cornerpins. Also keying between two signals is nice.
220524
First time working with video synthesis in a while. Always takes a few session to get away from the Windows Media Player stuff.
210316A
rush
210314A
shift
210313C
png
210313B
hsb
210313A
lines
210312D
gradient
210312C
blending
210312B
recursion
210312A
rotation
210311A
first
audio
22-11-14 15:25 (imported)
The Emu Systems SP-1200 originally produced in Santa Cruz, California, 1987
meta
list
22-11-14 14:34
capitalism eats itself... always
prolonged success is impossible when the definition of success is impossible
volume of work begins with an atom, so quality of work begins with a quality atom
when starting a project, don't wait
when publishing, wait for no one
when citing, be exhaustive and non-dependent
when interacting, be kind and gentle
when theorizing, do not hesitate
when editing, empathize with the reader
when reading, empathize with the writer
when writing, be patient with yourself
when annotating, recognize the kernel of thought
theory
22-11-14 13:16
This is in no way comprehensive, and is very much a document in progress.
Jacques Derrida
It strikes me that there are several levels to understanding post-structuralism:
I am particularly interesting in understanding the projects of:
- Deleuze
- Derrida
- Foucault
- Baudrillard
(regardless of whether or not those thinkers are representative of post-structuralism)
Whose core works consist of:
Deleuze (differential ontology):
- Difference and Repetition
- Logic of Sense
- ATP
- AO
Derrida (deconstruction):
- Of Grammatology
- Writing and Difference
- Dissemination
- Margins of Philsophy
Foucault (biopolitics):
- Madness and Civilization
- Discipline and Punish
- The Order of Things
- History... Vol. I
Baudrillard (simulation):
- The System of Objects (1968)
- Seduction (1978)
- Symbolic Exchange and Death (1993)
- Simulacra and Simulation (1994)
Reading question: could difference be the basis of abstraction?
The relations between the three:
- Deleuze - Difference and Repetition (1968)
background reading list
- Derrida - Writing and Difference (1967)
which includes an essay called
Derrida- Cogito and The History of Madness
- which possibly prompted Foucault to write:
- Foucault - The Order of Things (1966) and
- Foucault - The Archaeology of Knowledge (1969)
Deleuze wrote about Foucault in:
Deleuze - Foucault (1986)
where he deals with:
- Foucault - The Archaeology of Knowledge (1969)
- Foucault - Discipline and Punish (1975)
Deleuze on Derrida:
Cisney - Deleuze and Derrida (2018)
Patton - Between Deleuze and Derrida (2003)
Protevi - Political Physics (2001)
Of course there are others, but at some point a target for understanding must be listed.
The subsequent generation (not sure here actually):
- Malabou (student of Derrida)
- Meillassoux (student of Badiou)
- etc. etc. (insert)
Providing the foundation for the main three thinkers are the Germans (idealists, materialists, phenomenologists):
- Hegel
- Marx
- Freud
- Nietzsche
- Husserl
- Heidegger (student of Husserl)
Readings on Heidegger
Some sort of intermediate french group providing the foundation for the main three(subject to further categorization):
- Bergson (the division point between 19c and 20c french theory)
=> pioneered the French movement of scepticism towards the use of scientific methods to understand human nature and metaphysical reality
-> against positivism
-> Deleuze wrote Bergsonism and Cinema 1 and Cinema 2 to develop Bergson's ideas
After Poincare created a rift between himself and Russell and Frege, French philosophers started work on philosophy of science:
-> includes Batchelard, Cavailles, Vuillemin, Canguilhem
->> all of which would be an inspiration to Foucault
- Canguillhem was especially huge for Foucault, who claims he was the primary inspiration for Althusser and the 20c French marxists
- Bataille (influenced by Nietzsche)
- Kojeve (lectured on Phenomenology of Spirit in 30s Paris, Marxist and Hegelian) -> these lectures were attended by Lacan and Batailles
- Hyppolite
- de Gandillac (Bergson student and Deleuze's professor)
- Alquie (Bergson student and Deleuze's professor)
- Levinas
- Althusser (structuralist equivalent to Marxism that Lacan was to psychoanalysis)
-> worked with Balibar, Establet, Ranciere, and Macherey
-> taught Derrida
- Merleau-Ponty => phenomenologist influenced by Husserl
-> associated with existentialism
The French feminist pioneers:
- De Beauvoir
- Irigaray
- Kristeva
- Cixous
- Ettinger
The psychoanalytic thread (keep enemies closer):
- Freud
- Lacan
- Jacques Alain Miller (Lacan's stepson & most devoted follower)
- Guattari
- Zizek (because it seems difficult to touch psychoanalysis without reading him)
Would love additional feedback/corrections/guidance/etc.:
contact
computing
language
PL
22-11-14 02:29 (imported)
an illustration of an abstract Turing Machine
I am not a programmer. There are lots of far better resources on programming language theory than this. I'm interested in how programming languages can be conceived of as abstractions which point to mental models of possible ontologies and concepts approximating cognitive grammars.
Turing Machine - Formal Definition
M = (Q,Σ,Γ,δ,q0,B,F)
Q: The finite set of states of the finite control
Σ: The finite set of input symbols
Γ: The complete set of tape symbols; Σ is always a subset of Γ.
δ: The transition function. The arguments of δ(q,X) are a state q and a tape symbol X. The value of δ(q,X), if it is defined, is a triple (p,Y,D), where:
1. p is the next state, in Q.
2. Y is the symbol, in Γ, written in the cell being scanned, replacing whatever symbol was there.
3. D is a direction, either L or R, standing for "left" or "right," respectively, and telling is the direction in which the head moves.
theory
reading
phenomenology
22-11-14 02:01 (imported)
Primary:
-
Heidegger - Introduction to Metaphysics
-
Heidegger - Being and Time
-
Heidegger - Basic Writings
-
Heidegger - Poetry, Language, Thought
as a potential alternative start -
Derrida - Of Spirit
- references the entire Heidegger corpus
- requires understanding of both Heidgger's oeuvre and Derrida's central concepts -
Also potential for reading Plato's Phadrus followed by Derrida's Plato's Pharmacy
-
Derrida's Differance may also be a good starting point
Secondary:
-
Mitchell - Heidegger Among The Sculptors
-
Braver - Thinking of Being
-
Apparently, there's a debate between Cacobianco and Sheehan on the interpretation of Heidegger in modern circles.
-
There is also Richardson - Through Phenomenology to Thought which may be a nice introduction to Heidegger's work.
note‑taking/pkm
22-05-22 17:20 (imported)
writer Arno Schmidt with his zettelkasten
"zettelkasten" => german: 'slipbox'
a system for keeping track of information|research by:
- creating small notes on a single topic (should generally respect the principle of atomicity => 1 note = 1 idea thus no link ambiguity)
- groupings of notes can be implied through links or made explicit through "structure notes" or "hub notes" which serve as outlines of content
- assigning a unique identifier to each note
(perhaps a number, timestamp, word, or collection of words)
- linking notes to each other
benefits of the zettelkasten system:
- these links created groups|subsets of notes
- these groups create the building blocks for writing or project documentation
- eventually, the system becomes dense enough that searching through the zettelkasten allows for surprising|emergent|conversational results
- the zettelkasten system is largely attributed to Niklas Luhmann, a german sociologist and systems theorist known for amassing a large collection of notes over his prolific academic career (published 60 books and ended up with 90,000 notes in his system)
related:
digital gardening
concept mapping
maps of content
references|further:
Marvin Blum's excellent write-up on Luhmann's zettelkasten↗︎
Luhmann's Zettelkasten digitized and hosted by Bielefeld University↗︎ => an excellent example of an analog hypertext work
Christian Tietze and Sascha Fast's incredible resource on the Zettelkasten Method↗︎
Luhmann's essay on the method↗︎
Sonke Ahrens - How To Take Smart Notes↗︎
note‑taking/pkm
22-11-14 01:47 (imported)
two key problems for those who want to communicate knowledge:
-
- the problem of structure
-
each concept is made up of "knowledge elements"1:p2 which are structured in a a way that will best communicate a given idea
-
-> making sense of a concept requires the reader to understand the structure of the explanation
-
->> visual representations can help lower the reader's input energy requisite for comprehension
-
- the problem of multiple knowledge levels
-
does it though? not sure I buy this
=> "knowledge has hierarchical structure"1:p2
-
-> "complex explanations need multiple connected levels organised by detail and importance"ibid.
-
->> differentiated levels of details more effectively helps a diverse range of learning with a diverse range of learning needs/goals
potential solutions:
- providing visual representations of knowledge structures using diagrams, tables, etc. alongside category names and descriptions
- include in those representations explicit differentiation of existing knowledge levels
->> encourages "at-a-glance" understanding, allowing for learners to easily choose what at content they would like to engage with, and at what level of detail
related:
concept mapping -> a practice where these solutions can be applied
maps of content -> a potentially useful framework for differentiating levels of details
references|further:
1) Francis Miller - organising knowledge with multi-Level content↗︎
list
22-11-13 14:22
This is a list of the pieces of media that are the most important/influential to my worldview and process. It is a metaphor/facsimile for an IRL shelf in my studio that contains physical copies of many of these works.
Actress - R.I.P. (2012)
Likely my favorite record of all time, extremely influential on my conception of electronic music, expression, and creativity.
J Dilla - Donuts (2006)
A work of art that represents a dense and vast legacy of hip-hop's greatest producer.
Burial - Untrue (2007)
Encapsulates several decades of British electronic music aesthetics in a masterful demonstration of sampling technique, and deeply personal record.
Christian Lee Hutson - Beginners (2020)
A gorgeous record by a musician I have an immense amount of respect for. Representative of a new listening method taught to me by my wife.
list
22-09-28 21:52
Can't get a tattoo because it might get infected.
list
reading
22-08-09 10:35
Sites I check in with on a daily basis:
-
https://longreads.com/
Hacker News↗︎
-
Not super into the tech takes as they don't really apply, but some of the more random articles are nice reads/news.
Sites I am considering checking in with on a daily basis:
web
22-08-08 01:17
Some resources advocating for, or exemplifying, small + maintainable websites:
synthesis
audio
22-08-06 12:34 (imported)
A modern Serge-style modular synthesizer designed by Loudest Warning Modular
Modular synthesizers are electronic sound generating devices consisting of separate single-function modules that must be configured to generate tones through the use of patch cables, similar to a mid-20c telephone switch operator. Originally developed by German engineer, Harald Bode in the late 1950s, analog modular synths made large technical advancements and gained popularity throughout the 1960s and 1970s through the work of Bob Moog, Don Buchla, Serge Tcherepnin, Alan R. Pearlman, and the Korg and Roland Corporations. These engineers also had confidents, investors, and supporters who made their initial systems possible, among them, Herb Deutsch who helped Moog add the keyboard interface to the Moog system, and Morton Subotnick who commissioned the initial Buchla system, and first exposed Serge to the early Moog instruments.
Each of these designers had unique ideas about what a synthesizer should be, and how humans should interact with them. Moog's concept of voltage-control, multi-oscillator mixing, and his low-pass ladder filter were central to Moog system users' sound shaping capabilities. Buchla, unlike Deutsch and Moog, did not think that synthesizers, unfamiliar instruments, should have have such a familiar interface in the musical keyboard. Buchla's complex oscillator and low-pass gate modules helped to create the signature sound of his system. Serge (mostly referred to by his first name), wanted to build something that was more accessible to students, and would allow the users of his systems more flexibility. Serge's concept of "patch-programmability", his revolutionary alternative to Moog's envelope, the "Universal Slope Generator", and his emphasis on the waveshaper as the tonal centerpiece were just a few of his groundbreaking takes on modular synthesis.
Throughout the complex history of modular synthesizers, it remains an excellent example of how musical instrument designers make claims about what music is, and how communities can leverage diversity of thought to develop more enjoyable vehicles for sonic exploration.
Some research questions:
-
- what were the less heard of attempts at synthesis post-Trautonium (maybe after 1950?)?
-
- how exactly did the first designers bring their products to market?
-
- is it possible to track down the name(s) of the original designers of the Roland System 100m and the Korg MS series?
A link between analog computing and modular synths is that one of the major analog computer manufacturers in the 50s was George A. Philbrick Researches, who at some point in that era (mid-late 50s?) employed Alan R. Pearlman1. After working for GAP/R (as it was known), Pearlman would go on to found ARP Instruments, Inc. in 1969. ARP was one of the leading American synthesizer manufacturers in the 1970s, developing the popular 2500, 2600, and Odyssey. The ARP 2500 was famously used by Eliane Radigue, french composer and student of Pierre Schaeffer. After experimenting with both Buchla and Moog systems, she settled on the 2500 which defined her signature sound.
related:
- 1) Vintage Synth Explorer Forum
- la synthèse humaine => a more praxis-oriented approach to Serge Modular systems
- analog computing => for more on early sound experimentation and the machines that would inspire modular synthesizers
list
22-08-05 21:55
Topics to explore:
-
Groove-Stylus Interface
-
Cartridges and Transducers in general
-
DSD vs. PCM (might just be hocus pocus)
-
Sound Studies
Also see:
terms
frustrations
SRS
---
ABC
123
DEF
456
What is the capital of Montana?
Who knows?
audio
synthesis
22-07-28 14:00
a list of topics for tutorial sessions, articles, workshops
workflow
- visual organization
- bouncing/resampling
- sample rates + buffer sizes
- sample organization
- general file management
- backing up/archival
- plugin management
sequencing
- melodic
- rhythmic
- arrangement
- instrumentation
- generative/stochastic
- physics-based/collision
- probability
synthesis
- subtractive
- additive
- frequency modulation
- phase modulation
- amplitude modulation
- ring modulation
- wavefolding/waveshaping
- wavetable/wavelet
- east coast v. west coast
- modular sequencing
- envelopes
- LFOs
- stage/segment-based modulation
- synth patch design
sampling
- finding sounds
- sequencing
- shaping (vca/vcf)
- layering
mixing
- equalization
- compression
- limiting
- aux sends
- reverb
- modulation effects
- delay
- stereo imaging/mid-side
- distortion/saturation
mastering
- equalization
- compression
- dynamic range
- loudness
- metering
- A/B comparison
remixing
- loop preparation
- warping/pitching
- adding original material/layering
- developing arrangments
audio
- accumulators
- delays
- inversion
- multiplication
- filters
- wavefolders
dialogue editing
- project organization
- asset management
- repair/de-noise
- breaths
- plosives
- pauses
- cadence
- vocal mixing
- mastering for stream
learning
22-07-27 21:30 (imported)
some general tips/notes on learning:
- sharpen the axe => research about the learning process of a given topic
- use crutches to optimize focus => minimize activation energy of task, minimize distractions
- find opportunities for immersion
- figure out what your weak links are
- test yourself => use active recall
- get intense feedback as often and as quickly as possible
- overlearn i.e. learn to think about a topic from first principles
I think maybe "first-principles" type stuff is overhyped. Not sure yet.
- spaced repetition => flatten the forgetting curve
- teach what you learn
synthesis
sound-studies
22-07-27 20:39 (imported)
"The Dynamics of Ecological Crisis", figure from pg. 499, Bateson's Steps Towards an Ecology of Mind (1972)
"La Synthèse Humaine" => a concept developed by Guy Hobsbawm/Emil Zener (formerly Gunnar Haslam) that provides for a cross-disiplinary trajectory involving modular synthesis, patch programmability (a la Serge), cybernetics, and Marxism
"There's no right way to patch a modular synthesizer" -> "they are toys"1
As synthesists, our imaginations are actually far less interesting than the emergent or accidental results of an expressive palette
"The Human Use of Human Circuits" (which it sounds like he later phases out) => inspired by father of cybernetics, Norbert Weiner
Cybernetics deals with systems of motion, movement, and control, etc.. It can be framed as a proto-artificial intelligence, or perhaps an artificial type of heuristic navigation than can create complexity. The central tenet of cybernetics is feedback1
Hobsbawm claims that Weiner's general premise in "The Human Use of Human Beings" was to reorient creativity as the primary activity of humanity, as opposed to simple productivity
references:
Please consider supporting Guy's Patreon↗︎
1) The Bunker Artist Salon 002: Gunnar Haslam "La Synthèse Humaine Pt 1"↗︎
language
listlearning
22-07-27 14:15 (imported)
Readings:
-
- Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Language
-
- Lycan - Routledge Contemporary Introduction to Philosophy of Language
-
- Soames - Princeton Intro to Philosophy of Language
-
- Martinich - Philosophy of Language
copyright/IP
22-07-27 14:10 (imported)
minidiscs, credit: Archillect
What even is the definition of intellectual property? What makes knowledge proprietary?
WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization, states that:
"Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the mind – everything from works of art to inventions, computer programs to trademarks and other commercial signs. This booklet introduces the main types of IP and explains how the law protects them. It also introduces the work of WIPO, the global forum for IP services, policy, information and cooperation."
In response to "Why does IP matter?":
"The progress and well-being of humanity depend on our capacity to come up with new ideas and creations. Technological progress requires the development and application of new inventions, while a vibrant culture will constantly seek new ways to express itself.
Intellectual property rights are also vital. Inventors, artists, scientists and businesses put a lot of time, money, energy and thought into developing their innovations and creations. To encourage them to do that, they need the chance to make a fair return on their investment. That means giving them rights to protect their intellectual property.
Essentially, intellectual property rights such as copyright, patents and trademarks can be viewed like any other property right. They allow the creators or owners of IP to benefit from their work or from their investment in a creation by giving them control over how their property is used.
IP rights have long been recognized within various legal systems. For example, patents to protect inventions were granted in Venice as far back as the fifteenth century. Modern initiatives to protect IP through international law started with the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (1883) and the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (1886).
These days, there are more than 25 international treaties on IP administered by WIPO. IP rights are also safeguarded by Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."
references:
World Intellectual Property Organization site⭧
meta
web
22-07-27 12:00
The format for each "page"/"note" of this site is a simple HTML article tag:
<article id="format">
<h2><a href="#format">TITLE</a></h2>
<margin><a href="#tag-tagname"><tag>tagname</tag></a>
<a href="#tag-tagname2"><tag>tagname2</tag></a><br>
<date>YY-MM-DD time(24hr)</date></margin>
CONTENT
</article>
By switching the CSS visibility attribute of article tags, this site emulates paging in the browser without breaking up the site content into multiple files:
article {
display: none;
}
article:target {
display: block;
}
For more info on formatting, see: Style Reference.
computing
HCI
22-07-27 11:30 (imported)
Bill English, inventor of the mouse, at Xerox, c. 1968
- computers are vehicles for abstraction
- computers help humans create real and fictional models of their world and experiences
- we live in one of many possible schemes of human computer interaction
references:
-
Douglas Engelbart's 1968 Demonstration at the ACM/IEEE↗︎
-
Texts in HCI and The History of Computing:
-
Royal Holloway Dept. of CompSci Reading List
-
Turing - On Computable Numbers
-
Erickson ed - HCI Remixed
-
Fiormonte - The Digital Humanist
-
White - Laying The Foundation in Digital Humanities
-
Punday - Computing as Writing
-
Edward - The Closed World
-
McDaniel - Handbook of Magneto-Optical Recording
-
Hey - The Computing Universe
-
Goldstine - The Computer from Pascal to Von Neumann
-
Sellen - The Myth of Paperless
-
Myers - A Brief History of HCI
-
Bret Victor's Bookshelf
-
Wirth - Algorithms + Data + Structures = Programs
-
Brooks - The Mythical Man Month
-
Schorr - Meta II
Some sources on recommendation from Joe Armstrong -
Ableson & Sussman - Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs
-
Sutherland - The Sketchpad Thesis
-
Minsky - Computation
-
Georgia Tech HCI Reading List (1)
-
Sutherland - The Sketchpad Thesis (2)
-
Minsky - Computation (2)
-
Minsky - Semantic Information Processing ?? (2)
-
Schorr - Meta II (2)
-
Yngve - A Programming Language for Machine Translation (2)
-
Irons - Experience with Extensible Language ?? (2)
-
Hewitt - Planner (3)
-
Moore - Cramming More Components Onto Integrated Circuits (2)
-
Koestler - Act of Creation
"By the time the software engineering of a language gets in good shape, the language has become obsolete in 'needed expressiveness'" - Kay (2)
Bacon's Novum Organum was the philosophical structure that underpinned the invention of Science, according to Kay (2)
1) http://omscs6750.gatech.edu/summer-2019/required-reading-list/
2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhOHn9TClXY#action=share
3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planner_(programming_language)
list
22-07-27 9:20 (imported)
Many of these require some degree of rephrasing to be closed-ended achievable milestones, not processes (i.e. "learn x")
3 Month:
-
- Develop tertiary backup redundancy
-
- Sort library
-
- New round of client prospecting
-
- Formal business plan
6 Month:
-
- complete first draft of reading guide
-
- complete first draft of writing guide
-
- develop a small set of scripts in sed/awk/grep/perl that analyze this set of notes
-
- learn "the language of vim" => basics
-
- learn to touch type
1 Year:
-
- learn "the language of vim" => controlled basics/intermediateNot sure I jive with this after years of trying
5 Year:
-
- read 250 books
-
- learn conversational and reading level frenchwhy though?
-
- have written three longform essays
Completed:
-
22-05-14: Married!
-
22-03-01: Template file formats for new instances of a given type
-
22-01-01: Develop relatively stable file ID format
-
21-06-15: Went full time as an audio engineer+editor
-
21-01-09: Started a business!
-
21-01-01: Completed 240 blocks of worked time
Deprecated:
-
22-07-27: learn Basic Scheme ProgrammingNot sure that I'm interested anymore
list
22-07-27 9:15 (imported)
This page serves as a list of painpoints that can generate topics for further learning/critique. Some of these are trivial at best. Others underpin the nature of the global market.
-
American healthcare system
-
American higher education system/student debt crisis
-
Private equity market
-
top-down music production education
-
reproducible humanities research
-
how to sift through an entire philosophy canon
-
accessibility of music production hardware/software (computers in general) in economically disadvantaged regions
-
the international standards market infrastructure (ISO, etc.)
note‑taking/pkm
22-07-27 9:00 (imported)
"evergreen notes" => permanent (non-transient) notes which "are written and organized to evolve, contribute, and accumulate over time, across projects"
proposed by Andy Matuschak who keeps an incredible set of notes↗︎
Matuschak claims that a potentially useful output metric of knowledge work is the evergreen note, and that effective research revolves not around better note-taking, but better thinking/insight-making
standards for good evergreen notes:
-
- should be atomic => pertain only to a single topic
-
- should be concept-oriented
-
- should be densely linked
-
- they prefer associative ontologies to hierarchical taxonomies => viz. should allow structure to emerge organically
abstraction
visuals
22-07-25 4:45 (imported)
Johann Purkinje - Subjective Visual Phenomena (1819)
Carme Pinos - Parti Diagrams
Stan Allen - Field Conditions Diagrams
Heinrich Klüver - Form Constants
Iconos de Proyectos - Galvez and Algeciras
web
22-07-25 4:45 (imported)
UI tricks
In Firefox, go to url: about:config, set "full-screen-api.ignore-widgets" to true to get fullscreen frames that respect window width, instead of screen width.
useful extensions:
Singlefile: xports webpages as a single HTML file, extremely useful
- much of my instapaper/raindrop usage has been mitigated by singlefile
Simple Mass Downloader: great for bulk pulling assets
Ghostery: decent ad blocker
Stylus: add custom CSS to sites with a given domain
unlisted
22-06-28 13:45
| date |
note |
|
| 23-2-13 |
In order to get a refill on albuterol, had to go in for another appointment. Admitted to doc I wasn't regularly taking fluticasone (due to possible infection of broken tooth), and was then prescribed another generic for Symbicort. Doc's intention to use albuterol less and steroid inhaler more. Breathing trouble seems to have subsided 50%, still moderate wheezing, especially after duress and sleep. |
| 23-1-4 |
Cough still isn't gone so I went into the doctor again. Prescribed fluticasone. Seems to be getting better, but I have on and off days. WOrst is right when I wake up, I presume because I haven't used the inhaler in eight hours, or with the sleep I've been getting lately, more like 4 hours. |
| 22-12-18 |
Weird doctor appt. They made me stay in the parking lot in case I had RSV or COVID (I think). Diagnosed with Bronchitis, prescribed albuterol inhaler. |
| 22-12-13 |
It seems that over the last few months since I got COVID, I've had a cough and it's been developing steadily, especially since we got back from our honeymooon. RSV is going around so it may be that. Dr appt to find out more soon. |
| 22-10-24 |
Contracted COVID. Tested positive for 9 days and isolated for 14. No cough, just nausea. |
| 22-06-30 |
More pain in my back, slightly upwards of usual spot, discomfort/tightness in legs. Tightness along spine in lower back. Queasy. Sensitive skin, esp. on neck. Forearms are very tight, slight pain. |
| 22-06-26 |
Rough headache in the morning. Subsided with 800mg Ibuprofen. Partner has COVID but I've had five negative tests in a row. Still feeling quite a bit of sluggishness and congestion/headfog. |
list
22-06-24 18:45
Thing's I'd like to know more about:
stream elements
move transitions
shader effects
streamers who use OBS well:
tripptoomuch
DamnJuice
list
22-06-22 23:00
Sonifying the Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction
Using the International Date Line as a graphical score
A piece for the Large European Acoustic Facility (LEAF) - a speaker so loud, it will immediately rupture the ear drums of the listener. A piece which can never be heard
grants
unlisted
22-06-12 19:00
This is a grant application to the July/August cycle of the residency at Avantwhatever.net
What occupies you? Tell us about yourself, your life and/or your practice.
I'm a mix engineer, sound artist, and music educator. I run a post-production sound studio tucked away in the forests of the Sierra Nevada Foothills on the west coast of the US. My commercial work is primarily focused on helping non-profits turn engaging conversations into stream-ready podcasts. My artistic practice is focused on helping visual and mixed media artists provide a sonic component to their installations and gallery shows. And my (para)academic interests lie in cultivating the history of electronic and computer music for richer understandings of the materiality of sound media and the expressive possibilities of computational substrates. I frame much of my life practice as playing a support role to help others achieve their creative goals, hence the name of my studio, tone.support. I am deeply fascinated with learning and want to share that fascination with others.
Where are you located?
I am based in Northern California, USA.
What is your timezone and when would you be typically available for online meetings?
I generally operate in UTC -7:00, but am happy to be available for online meetings in all timezones.
How do you exist online currently?
Currently, I run a commercially-oriented website at https://tone.support/. Informally, I post as "inscript" on the Merveilles community Mastodon instance. Merveilles is a collective of creatives and developers who explore the ways in which we can better ourselves and our surroundings through constant creation. Many of us (myself included) are interested in the handmade web, permacomputing, and longtermism. I also maintain my own small collection of HTML/CSS notes and writings at https://log.tone.support/ and belong to the XXIIVV webring run by Devine Lu Linvega.
What makes you curious to undertake a server residency?
While most of my commercial clients and artistic collaborations are in major American cities or abroad, I'd like to begin directing more of my educational practice to foster a local interest in electronic and computer music. I grew up in Montessori classrooms and got my undergraduate degree in Audio Technology through an alternative "living-learning" program at the Johnston Center for Integrative Studies in Redlands, California. Alternative, hands-on, practice-oriented methods were central to my own education and led me towards a deep care for learning. I'm interested in implementing some of those same methods in the context of electronic music production and developing music technology curricula for youth aged 12-18. As an Avantwhatever.net resident, I'd like to explore different hardware and software platforms that may lend themselves to this same sort of hands-on classroom environment. This exploration would help benefit my own short-term future efforts to offer a number of brief workshops, but I also hope to develop a resource for other music technologists, and music educators interested in doing the same. Financial components of the grant award would help fund a few of these hardware and software platforms. Also, given my relative geographic isolation from an arts "scene", I look forward to engaging with fellow residents over the duration of the residency.
Is there anything we could provide that would help you undertake the residency, beyond what's outlined here?
While I maintain a relatively low-impact website at https://log.tone.support/, I am not sure how I can embed audio (and perhaps video) examples on the web in a way that isn't dependent on large corporate conglomerates/hosts that constantly seek to monetize and track user behavior. It would be wonderful if Avantwhatever staff could point me in the direction of some resources that would allow me to host non-text content on the web in a way that is free, open, and is mindful of preventing linkrot.
list
listening
22-05-31 13:00
analog
computing
22-05-30 11:30 (imported)
Deltar 1 computer (Delta Tide Analog Calculator), photo taken 1972
The Netherlands seems to have a long history with analog computing. The specialization arose from the need to measure and predict the region's complex water system, along with the industrial advancements made by Philips (founded 1891 in Eindhoven), and as a byproduct, became home to one of the cultural centers of early electronic music - The Institute of Sonology (a.k.a. Sonology).
Of particular note within the Institute of Sonology (founded 1967 in Utrecht, moved to the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague in 1986) is its staff of pioneers in the field of electronic and tape-based composition and electronic sound synthesis1. Among them, Dick Raaymakers, Frits Weiland, Ton Bruynel, Konrad Boehmer, Gottfried Michael Koenig, Rainer Riehn, Jaap Vink, Kees Tazelaar2. In the 1980s, Sonology began some of the first known experiments with digital computer control of analog sound generation equipment, specifically using the PDP-15 computers4. In the present day, Sonology maintains an entirely analog electronic music studio called BEA5, managed by Tazelaar. In addition to a fairly robust array of Studer tape machines, BEA5 has some very unique equipment including their custom voltage-controlled function generators5, their D&R Vision mixing desk (released 1993) and their multiple simpulataneous output Bruel & Kjaer third-octave band-pass filter (midcentury).
references|further:
1) Sonology Timeline↗︎
2) listing of former staff at Sonology↗︎
3) Joost Rekveld's essay "The Analog Art"↗︎
4) Kees Tazelaar's video footage↗︎ of Sonology in 1986, featuring many faculty
5) Kees Tazelaar's video demonstration↗︎ of BEA5's VC Function Generators
music compilation from Sonology↗︎ via Sub Rosa Label (Belgium)
Joost Rekveld on Dutch Analog Computing (video lecture)↗︎
Joost's courses on art and technology'↗︎
list
learning
maps
22-05-23 20:30 (imported)
A course of reading in models, analogies, patterns, and systems... MAPS.
Alexander - Timeless Way of Building
Alexander - A Pattern Language
Langacker - An Introduction to Cognitive Grammar
Langacker - Discourse in Cognitive Grammar
Salingaros - A Theory of Architecture
Salingaros - Anti-Architecture
Meadows - Thinking in Systems
Schmidhuber - Algorithmic Theories of Everything
Deleuze
22-05-29 21:00 (imported)
background:-
- Deleuze's monograms on other philosophers?
-
- Dialogues w/ Parnet > reading guide↗︎
-
- Deleuze - Nietzsche and Philosophy (for introductions on vocabulary)
-
- Deleuze's Philosophical Lineage - ed Jones and Roffe (vol. I and II) (I is v)
-
- Schrift - Twentieth Century French Philosophy (Key Themes and Thinkers) (v?)
-
-> especially part about Hyppolite
companion:-
- Somers-Hall - Introduction to DR (v)
-
- Hughes - A Reader's Guide to DR
-
- Protevi's suggestions of secondaries on DR:
-
- Hughes - Deleuze's Difference and Repetition
-
- Bryant - Deleuze and Givenness
-
- Williams - Gilles Deleuze - Difference and Repetition
-
- Beistegui - Truth and Difference: Philosophy as Differential Ontology
-
- Duffy - The Logic of Expression
-
- Somers-Hall - Hegel, Deleuze, and The Crisis of Representation
-
- Smith - Essays on Deleuze
-
- Daniel Colucciello Barber - Deleuze and the Naming of God: Postsecularism and the Future of Immanence
computing
language
22-05-29 17:00 (imported)
Symbolic Systems is a program at Stanford University which examines "the interdisciplinary study of cognition, information, communication, and language"*
*Stanford Symbolic Systems 1 Course Syllabus↗︎
Some of the foundations questions discussed in the introductory course:
- What are minds?
- What is computation?
- What are rationality and intelligence?
- Can computer be truly intelligent?
Some of the readings in the intro course:
- Nilsson - Human-level AI? Be Serious!
- Flanagan - Minds and Bodies
- Clark - Meat Machines
- Hillis - The Pattern on the Stone
- Turing - Computing Machinery and Intelligence
- Newell and Simon - Computer Science as Empirical Inquiry
- Dennett - Why The Law of Effect Will Not Go Away
- Searle - Minds, Brains, and Programs
- Dennett - Fast Thinking
- Nagel - What Is It Like to Be a Bat?
- Dennett - Quining Qualia
- Bernard Baars - Global Workspace Theory of Consciousness
- Libet - Unconscious Cerebral Initiative
- Dennett and Kinsbourne - Time and the Observer
- Palmer - Vision Science
- Lettvin et al. - What the Frog's eye tells the frog's brain
- Shephard and Metzler - Mental Rotation of Three Dimensional Objects
- Wolpert and Ghahramani - Bayes rule in perception action and cognition
- Simons and Rensink - Change Blindness: Past, Present, and Future
- Cowey and Stoerig - The neurobiology of blindsight
- Chun and Wolfe - Textbook (?)
- Sperling - The infromation available in brief visual presentations
- Dahaene et al. - COnscious preconscious and sublinimal processing a testable taxonomy
- Grice - Logic and COnversation
- Christian and Griffiths - Explore/Exploit
- Kahneman - Maps of Bounded Rationality
- Gigerenzer and Brighton - Home Heuristicus
- Dreyfus and Dreyfus - Makinf a Mind versus Modeling the Brain
- Levesgue - On Our Best Behavior
- Dennett - Cognitive Wheels
- Dreyfus - What Computers Can't Do
- Lake et al. - Building Machines that Learn and Think Like People
list
22-05-29 00:30
"hopepunk"
list
listening
22-05-24 22:00
2022:
Basically everything from Yoshi Wada
detroit stuff (from shamana):
krispy life
babyface ray
ya gramz
rio da yung og
otl beezy
nutzo thugin
veezev
https://dewaalit.bandcamp.com/album/land-is-talking
artists like actress:
terrence dixon
patten
moire
surgeon
johnny ripper - aesthetics of disappearance
pepe braddock - acid test
nonplus records
From listening to cliqhop:
Vektordrum
Kiyo
Milieu
Infantjoy
Murcof
2021:
https://bjornmossa.bandcamp.com/album/aurelia
Caterina Barbieri - Fantas Variations
Stuff found in 2019:
halcyon veil
weyes blood
label: Terrain Ahead
label: moun10
label: Opal Tapes
https://califato34.bandcamp.com/
best of 2017 - needledrop
sinjin hawke - first opus
alvays - anti socialites m
ibibio sound machine - uyai
gorilla toss - gt ultra
richard dawson - peasant
iglooghost - neo wax bloom
xiu xiu - forget m
perfume genius - no shape m
algiers - the underside of power
blockhampton - saturation
father john misty - pure comedy m
best of 2017 - deep_cuts
jlin - black origami
jasss - weightless
arca - arca
ryuchi sakamoto - async
colin stetson - all this i do for glory
chino amobi - paradiso
king krule - the ooz m
ghostpoet - dark days and canopes
hannah peel - mary casio m
oxbow - thin black duke m
somi - petite afrique m
top electronic albums of 2017 - pf
actress - azd
nidia minaj - nidia e ma, nidia e fudida
umfang - symbolic use of light
davy kehoe - short passing game
sophia kennedy - sophia kennedy m
karen gwyer - rembo
four tet - new energy
call super - arpo
midland - fabriclive 94
equiknoxx - colon man
errorsmith - superlative fatigue
dj sports - modern species
dj python - modern compania
visible cloaks - reassemblage
laurel halo - dust
mount kimbie - love what survives
fever ray - plunge
best of 2017 - NPR
waxahatchee - out in the storm m
kaitlyn aurelia smith - the kid
thundercat - drunk
estoniain philharmonic chamber choir - moorland elegies
torres - three futures m
the national - sleep well beast m
sylvan esso - what now m
the war on drugs - a deeper understanding m
ifriqiyya electrique = ruwahine
ife - iiii+iiii m
danish string quartet - last leaf
moses sumney - aromanticism m
vijay iyer - far from over
aldous harding - party
hurray for the riff raff - the navigator m
sampha - process m
big theif - capacity m
top 10 idm - all time
various artists - artificial intelligence (warp)
squarepusher - big loada
autechre - LP5
jan jelinek - loop-finding jazz-records
four tet - rounds
boards of canada - geogaddi
aphex twin - richard d james
autechre - tri repetae
boards of canada - music has the right
aphex twin - selected works
jefre Cantu ledesma - in summer
Taylor deupree
Pauline Anne strom
houndstooth label
posh isolation
pan
trilogy tapes
Damien dubrovnik
pan daijing
demdike stare
paperbark - last night
Daniel avery - drone logic
Brett naucke
Meyers - struggle artist
war harmonizer
roland kayn
Andy bey - experience and judgment
Leo's Top 2018
1. Sophie - Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides
2. Let's Eat Grandma - I'm All Ears
3. The Body - I Have Fought Against It, But I No Longer Can
4. Sons of Kemet - Your Queen Is A Reptile
5. Primitive Knot - Thee Opener of the Way
6. Makaya McRaven - Universal Beings
7. Tierra Whack - Whack World
8. Zuli - Terminal
9. Dominique Dumont - Miniatures de Auto Rhythm
10. Eli Keszler - Stadium
11. Kelman Duran - 13th Month
12. Jpegmafia - Veteran
13. Erdve - Vaitojimas
14. Sleep - The Sciences
15. Michael Beharie + Teddy Rankin Parker - A Heart from Your Shadow
16. Panchasila - Panchasila
17. Playboi Carti - Die Lit
18. Gevurah - Sulphur Soul
19. Anenon - Tongue
20. Weigedood - De Doden Hebben Het Goed III
21. Park Jiha - Philos
22. Ichiko Aoba - qp
23. DJ Healer - Nothing to Lose
24. Gouge Away - Burnt Sugar
25. Glenn Jones - The Giant Who Ate Himself And Other New Works for 6 + 12 Strings
26. Lingua Ignota - All Bitches Die
27. Karg - Dornenvogel
28. Spectral Wound - Infernal Decadence
29. Laurel Halo - Raw Silk Uncut Wood
30. Mid-Air Thief - Crumbling
31. Sarah Louise - Deeper Woods
32. Nine Inch Nails - Bad Witch
33. Skee Mask - Compro
34. The Myrrors - Borderlands
35. Julia Holter - Aviary
36. Kikagaku Moyo - Masana Temple
37. Maria Davidson - Working Class Woman
38. Thou - Magus
39. Jessica Moss - Entanglement
40. Demdike Stare - Passion
41. Nu Guinea - Nuova Napoli
42. Peder Mannerfelt - Daily Routine
43. Solar Temple - Fertile Descent
44. Nathan Salsburg - Third
45. Earl Sweatshirt - Some Rap Songs
46. Vile Gash - Nightmare In A Damaged Brain
47. Lonker See - One Eye Sees Red
48. Korridor - End of Cycle
49. Debit - Animus
50. Khruangbin - Con Todo El Mundo
From Thea Ballard via bird
loraine james - for you and i
organ tapes hunger in me living
felicia atkinson - the flower and the vessel
oli xl - rogue intruder, soul enhancer
leo svirsky - river without banks
ulla straus - big room
visible cloaks with yoshio ojima and satsuki shibano
serenitatum
tzusing a name out of place collected
martina lussi diffusion is a force
acronym and kali malone - the torrid eye
amazondotcom - mirror river
puto tito carregando a vida atras das costas
"blue" gene tyranny out of the blue (reissue)
klein - lifetime
leif- loom dream
trjj - music compilation "12 dances"
malibu - one life
why be - vacant violation
ellen arkbro chords
die reihe 106 kerri chandler chords
emiranda - my face
theodore cale schaefer - patience
meta
22-05-24 22:00
log: for updates on notes, posts, and other site changes (once/month)
Leaving space here just in case...
learning
22-05-23 20:00
listening...
Bauer - The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had
Part I: Beginning: Preparing for Classical Education
Ch 1: Training Your Own Mind: The Classical Education You Never Had
For centuries, people undertook a less intense sort of learning - reading, taking notes, discussing books and ideas with friends - without subjecting themselves to graduate school/teaching
Any literate person can rely on self-education to train and fill the mind. All you need are a shelf full of books, a congenial friend or two to talk about your reading with, and a large amount of free time
Contemporary critics would add that PhD don't necessarily fill the mind in any case
Limited to the learning they could acquire after a brief period of formal education, 18 + 19c women kept journals and commonplace books chronicling their reading
Intelligent and ambitious adults feel that they are unprepared to take on any serious course of reading
No matter how incomplete your education, you can learn to read intelligently, think about your reading, and talk to a friend about what you've discovered
Sustained, serious, reading is at the center of the self-education project
Reading alone allows us to reach out beyond the restrictions of time and space, to take part in the "great conversation" of ideas (a term from Mortimer Adler)
But schools don't teach reading and writing properly, and with the advent of the web, print culture is becoming doomed
computing
video‑lecture
22-05-24 16:00
A computation is what a computer does.
The world's first computing device was the escapement clock.
Our computers have clocks in them, and these clocks actually don't need to measure real-time, which allows us to abstract away the notion of time, and see the clock as a set of states.
So clocks compute these states, but how do we describe devices which compute many states?
There's many ways to describe computer hardware and software, and programming languages. Some may desibe computation in terms of a "next-state" relation. But all these approaches obscure the fundamental nature of computation. Everyone get's hung up on the language.
In the beginning, numbers used to be quantifiers (2 goats, 1 sheep, etc.). Mathematics was born when numbers became nouns, and operators (such as equals) became verbs. Those nouns and verbs make up equations. Mathematical logic was born when equations became nouns and equals became an operation that combines nouns to form other nouns.
Mathematicians are sloppy and use "=" to mean mathematical equality and linguistic equality, and you have to figure out which is which based on context.
Quite interesting, I lose him here for a few minutes of proofs and then he comes out with a mathematical description for a computing device that outputs two clock states by configuring "next-state" expressions that can only be satisfied as a result of v0 and v1.
Complex computing machines are developed by refining simpler ones. Refinement is an act of mathematical substitution.
list
learning
note‑taking/pkm
22-05-23 20:00
-
Ultra Learning - Scott Young
A Mind for Numbers - by Barbara Oakley
The Well-Educated Mind - Susan Wise Bauer
How to Read a Book - Mortimer J. Adler
The Art of Learning - Josh Waitzkin
Make It Stick - Peter C. Brown
The Polymath - Waqas Ahmed
Lost in Thought - Zena Hitz
Discover Your Genius - Michael J. Gelb
Hunt - Pragmatic Thinking and Learning
Hamming - The Art and Science of Doing Engineering
meta
22-05-23 12:00
contents
notes
topical
chronological
22-05-22 17:00 (imported)
visualizations of the relationships between ideas/concepts
also referred to as "mind maps" (I think any distinction is likely due to trademarks/IP); they both visualize webs of concepts
concepts are defined as “perceived regularities or patterns in events or objects, or records of events or objects, designated by a label”1
often the language of graph theory becomes useful where:
"Nodes" are the dots to be connected
"Edges" or "arcs" are the connections between those dots
concept maps:
- connect concepts through "branches" without a singular "root" topic
- provide meaning and context for the links between concepts
- useful to brainstorm, hypothesize, and find solutions
- leverage human ability to visually process information (far quicker than text)
- in particular implementations, can promote collaboration (anecdotal, I reckon)
It may help to label edges using linking phrases or relying on propositional structure (i.e. using predicates or verbs to add information to links)
references|further:
1)Miro Blog Post on Concept Maps⭧
2)Lucidchart Blog Post on Concept Maps⭧
22-05-22 17:00 (imported)
origin: california, united states
currently: california(northern), united states
11+ yrs: digital audio mixing + mastering
9+ yrs: 20c philosophy + critical theory
7+ yrs: technical writing
5+ yrs: grantwriting + non-profit organizing
4+ yrs: running a post-production audio studio
3+ yrs: managing this little collection of notes
interests: music tech, sound studies, techno, critical theory, formal systems, human-computer interaction, geometry, hypertext
languages: lua, scheme, forth
analog
computing
22-05-21 22:00 (imported)
The EAI TR-48 desktop analog computer, released in 1962
A paradigm of computing marked by manipulating continuous voltages as opposed to stored digits, modelling systems as opposed to declaring a program, where programs are often built connecting electrical components with patch cables. Through the work of a number of engineers and designers, the analog computer would go on to inspire the commercial modular synthesizer.
In fact, an intersting question here is between what came first: analog synthesis or analog computing. According to Mark Doty, "devices that employ synthesis using analog technology predate devices that employ analog technology for computing."1 I believe it may be less a question of internal implementation, and more so, a question of the patch panel as the primary programming interface. Joost Rekveld provides quite a bit of evidence of the link between the two.2 In the field of video synthesis, Dan Sandin refers to his Sandin Video Processor as a "general-purpose, patch-programmable, analog computer". Interestingly enough, Serge Tcherepnin used the term "patch-programmable" to a describe a number of his function block modules, though I am not sure he went so far as to refer to his synthesizers as "computers".
Another aspect of analog computing is that it points to, if not an intermediary, an alternate rung on the ladder of abstraction. How did the history of computing go from physical scale models, like the dutch Waterloopbos, a hydrological laboratory computing outcomes as a function of like material and conditions to smaller and smaller devices which no longer model problems as a function of scale, but of mathematics?
advantages of analog computing:
- parallel => does not run into any chase conditions
- often far more energy efficient than modern digital computing
I'm particularly interested in historical/cultural and technical centers of analog computing, among them:
The Netherlands
references|further:
The Analog Museum's "Introduction to Analog Computing"⭧
The Analog Museum's Library⭧
1) Vintage Synth Explorer forum thread⭧ on the relationship between analog computing and analog modular synthesizers
2) Joost Rekveld's essay "The Analog Art"⭧
note‑taking/pkm
highlights
22-05-21 21:30 (imported)
I listened to this over the course of a few days commuting so notes are sparse. Additionally, these reading notes are from a legacy format so I won't be using the usual highlighting, but will retain the tag for the sake of organization.
Everyone writes, especially in academia.
We write when we want to remember something, or when we want to organize ideas.
Every intellectual endeavor starts with a note.
Two categories of books about writing
- those that teach the formal requirements
- those that teach the psychological process
However, there aren't any books that focus on the organizational process of writing.
Writing never starts from a blank page, it starts from within the note-taking system.
The Zettlekasten method (way more straightforward that I had expected):
- Read with a pen
- Mark major themes and page numbers when reading on a notecard
- number the notecard
- link to other related concepts on other notecards
- compose notecards that bring together other notecards by topic
- arrange those topic (structure notes) notecards into the outline of argument
- pull those topic notecards and their linked/referenced notecards into a pile and synthesize into a manuscript
It's GTD applied to writing. You don't have to stress about forgetting something because it is in your system, and the system makes it easier to do the work of putting together academic writing
abstraction
22-05-21 21:30 (imported)
These are some loose notes and open-ended questions about abstraction.
I feel like PL type strictness reflects a lot of the divisive undercurrents in 20c philosophy. A lot of early 20c "analytic" work shares the aesthetics of type-theory proofs.
I think a lot of the post-structuralist rhetoric is trying to justify a category-theoretic approach to writing/psychoanalysis/political economy.
Much of the vocabulary developed in Deleuze & Guattari seems to be working toward some set of primitive types with which to construct an operable higher-level layer of abstractions to speak (back|against) to contemporary "paradigms".
What is the difference between a code and a language? After all, computers only understand binary at the lowest-level.
recipe
22-05-21 21:00 (imported)
Ingredients:
200g extra firm tofu
3 pieces garlic
small piece ginger
3 tbsp chili oil
1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1 1/2 cup leftover basmati rice
1 tbsp curry powder
10g Thai basil
Directions:
1. Pat dry the extra firm tofu and place into a bowl. Mash the tofu with a fork into a crumble.
2. Finely chop the garlic and ginger
3. Heat up a nonstick pan to medium heat. Add the chili oil.
4. Add the garlic, ginger, and tofu. Sauté for 5-8min.
5. Add 1 tbsp soy sauce and dark soy sauce. Sauté for 2min.
6. Add the rice, curry powder, and the remaining 1/2 tbsp soy sauce. Sauté for another 1-2min.
7. Add the basil, turn off the heat, and fold the rice into the basil
recipe
22-05-21 21:00 (imported)
Sauce Ingredients:
1/3 cup peanut butter
small piece ginger
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp cane sugar
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 tsp chili powder
splash of lime juice
Dish Ingredients:
200g red cabbage
250g nappa cabbage
100g carrot
1 apple (Fuji or gala)
2 sticks green onion
120g canned jackfruit
1/2 cup edamame
20g mint leaves
1/2 cup roasted peanuts
Directions:
1. Blend the dressing ingredients in a blender on high until smooth
2. Shred the red and nappa cabbages. Slice the carrot and apple into thin matchsticks. Finely chop the green onion
3. Squeeze the liquid out of the jackfruit and flake into a very large mixing bowl
4. Add the cabbages, carrot, apple, and green onion into the bowl along with the edamame and mint leaves
5. Heat up a frying pan to medium heat and toast the peanuts for 3-4min
6. Pour in the dressing into the slaw to taste and mix well
7. Plate the slaw and top with some toasted peanuts
games
highlights
22-05-19 16:30
Joy is Important. It is a complex and multi-faceted phenomenon, but it is also delicate, and we can’t always predict how or why it happens.
In the same way that we can use game design principles to help coax fun out of a set of rules, there are tactics we can use to try and design for joy that are useful, productive, meaningful.
The foundation I have always found to provide the most stable is to begin from the other end: to design the experience that people like you need now. That is a vantage point that is fruitful, and that only you can bring to the table.
Good and bad play are different for every person, even within a person’s lifetime. The things that evoke good and bad play aren’t limited to one genre, media, context, or difficulty level — or even “good”-ness or “fun”-ness of the game at its core.
So what are the through-lines? If the surfaces are all different, can we find any meaningful similarities on a more embodied level?
The experiences that people tend to categorize under “good” involve a level of safety and support; of feeling pulled to participate; of wanting to play more; of feeling energized or new or part of something larger afterwards. Think of the rush of being part of a team that has somehow, silently, on instinct and training, just maneuvered to score an excellent goal; or the improv team that anticipates each other’s moves just so, making brilliant callback jokes and setting each other up for success; or even the solo player up against a nearly-impossible level designed by a devious game designer, failing constantly but chipping away and feeling themselves learning and getting better every single time. (The experiences that people tend to categorize under “bad” tend to feel quite the opposite: embarrassing, alienating, and shameful, making them want to quit; feeling worse after than when they started.)
That is: after good play, whatever that means to us, we tend to feel different: more alive, more energized, happier, more creative, more capable, closer to each other, and larger than ourselves — a process described by the wonderful game designer and author Bernie DeKoven as “co-liberation”, defined as “what happens when we work or play extraordinarily well together. Like on a basketball team or in an orchestra, when we actually experience ourselves sharing in something bigger than any one who is present.”
DeKoven believed that you could experience co-liberation through what he called a “well-played” game. “Well-played” doesn’t necessarily have to do with winning, or skill levels, or the beauty of the game design on paper. To him, a well-played game was a time when we had fun, and that fun was created together, collaboratively. To paraphrase DeKoven, his notion of a “well-played” game includes game we modified, or cheated at,¹ or otherwise changed the rules for, until it felt fun for us, together.
There is a wonderful alchemy happening in these experiences anyway: an attunement and an aliveness — which is only happening because people are playing the game — that, I would argue, is just as worthy a goal as designing a perfect system in the first place.
So how does joy tie into this? Well, in the same way that co-liberation can expand out of play, we can think of joy as a similar process of attunement and increased capacity, to ourselves, each other, and the world around us. This process not only affects us: it helps counter the stultifying forces in the world around us, providing new ways to think and do and be, on a level that can be revolutionary. This link between joy and revolution/resistance is one of the core theses of carla bergman and Nick Montgomery’s incredible book Joyful Militancy.
Their definition comes from Spinoza: “joy means an increase in a body’s capacity to affect and be affected. It means becoming capable of feeling or doing something new; it is not just a subjective feeling, but a real event that takes place. This increase in capacity is a process of transformation, and it might feel scary, painful, and exhilarating… It is the growth of shared power to do, feel, and think more.”
This allows us to carefully peel “joy” away from “fun” or “happiness.” The things that feel familiar to us, or that make us feel temporarily happy, may not actually make us feel joy — they may ultimately be stultifying and disempowering.
Furthermore, joy is not just aesthetically or emotionally important — it is politically important. We live our lives in the context of Empire: a shorthand they use to describe “the organized destruction under which we live.
What can possibly counteract the totalizing crush of Empire? The transformational process of joy. bergman and Montgomery posit “the process of becoming more capable” as “fundamental to undoing Empire,” seeping in at its cracks and edges. “This feeling of the power to change one’s life and circumstances,” they say, “is at the core of collective resistance, insurrections, and the construction of alternatives to life under Empire.”
As game and play designers, we are professional situations-creators. The rules and contexts we design give our players excuses to do unusual things, to behave with new relations to themselves and others, to imagine other possibilities and become something new together, to create such room to breath, to create cracks in Empire.
How on earth would rules —which are, by definition, meant to constrict us and our behavior — provide opportunities for freedom, joy, mastery, growth, and creativity? Why do we eagerly embrace some constraints and reject others? Why on earth do we stand in the hot sun and hit golf balls with weird sticks from very far away, instead of just driving to the damn hole in a nice little car and dropping the ball in?
Regardless of the game, we ultimately play because we find something exciting, satisfying, and compelling about living within the bounds of a good ruleset.¹ It gives us an excuse to play; a framework to relate to each other (whether competitively, collaboratively, or something else); and a push to be creative within its requirements. A good ruleset acts less like a cage and more like a catalyst, prodding us to experiment and combine strange things to discover moments of genius.
As game designers, one of the primary things we do is shape and define sets of rules. We define what players can and can’t do; the goals they should be aiming for; the things they want to avoid; and the contexts (courts, equipment, players) all the above happens in. Ultimately, players may or may not respect all of these diktats — sneaking in a house rule or a cheat here or there — but ultimately, we are in the craft of designing boundaries that coax out and facilitate these unpredictable, emergent, hopefully joyful experiences.
Games can be stubborn in their temporality: the time they take to play, or the possible times they can be played at all. (What does it mean if we can’t play Keeping In Touch because there are no trees near us? What would it mean to commit to planting trees in currently-unplayable areas?)
Games also let us do things that we can’t safely do in real life. They can provide a safe space to embody power and assert agency that may not exist in regular life, which can provide its own kind of catharsis and joy.
Rulesets allow us to unlock new parts of ourselves. They function on multiple levels: as excuses; as temporary relations; as set-aside spaces to play with our own creativity (whether logical, physical, artistic, emotional, or otherwise) and spur the creativity of others; and as places to take on new roles and shake up the way that we view and interact with the world. This shaking up is important on personal and political levels: it can disrupt the hold that the everyday has on us, creating cracks through which we can see new possibilities and grow into something new.
We talked about the Surrealists (Exquisite Corpse, etc.), and not too long after them came the Situationists. Influenced by Surrealism and Dadaism, the Situationist International (also called the Internationale Situationist, or SI) was a movement in the 1950s comprised of avant garde artists, intellectuals, and political theorists. They were committed to, as Art Story summarizes: “the disruption and reimagining of the systems which govern everyday life[. I]t was anti-capitalist, and left-leaning, but was also committed to the disruption of the hegemonic politics of Europe in the late 20th century through artistic praxis as well as political agitation.”
The enemy of the Situationists was the “spectacle,” a term outlined by Guy Debord to refer to the tactics of distraction and pacification used by capitalism to obscure its own oppressive nature. In more concrete terms, Tiernan Morgan and Lauren Purje of art magazine Hyperallergic describes the spectacle as “the everyday manifestation of capitalist-driven phenomena; advertising, television, film, and celebrity.” That, “It can be found on every screen that you look at. It is the advertisements plastered on the subway and the pop-up ads that appear in your browser. It is the listicle telling you “10 things you need to know about ‘x.’” The spectacle reduces reality to an endless supply of commodifiable fragments, while encouraging us to focus on appearances. For Debord, this constituted an unacceptable “degradation” of our lives.”
The key takeaway is that the spectacle alienates us from our own lives, our own desires, and our own authentic experiences. We no longer directly live our lives: we deal only in representations. We decline, as Debord says in his book The Society of the Spectacle, from “being into having, and having into merely appearing.”
Importantly, one of the skills of the spectacle is to snatch up anything meant to challenge it, chew it up, digest it, and barf out its own toothless version to make a profit — a process called “recuperation.”
Our desires are reshaped, interpreted, and simplified to fit into what capitalism can offer us. If the spectacle can’t channel it into profit it — or recuperate it for profit — then it is is worthless.
We are distracted and pacified from revolution thanks to a continual flood of images that “manufacture[] new desires and aspirations.” Plus, “[s]ince the pleasure of acquiring a new commodity is fleeting, it is only a matter of time before we pursue a new desire — a new “fragment” of happiness” — fed to us by the spectacle.
Our authentic social lives get replaced with representations.
The more a person accepts the spectacle, Debord says in The Society of the Spectacle, “the less he understands his own existence and his own desires. [H]is own gestures are no longer his but those of another who represents them to him. This is why the spectator feels at home nowhere, because the spectacle is everywhere.”
“The way out” for the Situationists, says Peter Marshall, “was not to wait for a distant revolution but to reinvent everyday life here and now.” He continues: “To transform the perception of the world and to change the structure of society is the same thing. By liberating oneself, one changed power relations and therefore transformed society. They therefore tried to construct situations which disrupt the ordinary and normal in order to jolt people out of their customary ways of thinking and acting.”
This was done through the construction of Situationist games. Play was seen as the opposite of the alienating work demanded by modern society — the essence of human freedom itself.
Debord: "The situationist game is distinguished from the classic conception of the game by its radical negation of the element of competition and of separation from everyday life. On the other hand, it is not distinct from a moral choice, since it implies taking a stand in favor of what will bring about the future reign of freedom and play."
So what really is the situation? It’s the realization of a better game, which more exactly is provoked by the human presence. The revolutionary gamesters of all countries can be united in the S.I. to commence the emergence from the prehistory of daily life.
The situationist game is distinguished from the classic conception of the game by its radical negation of the element of competition and of separation from everyday life. On the other hand, it is not distinct from a moral choice, since it implies taking a stand in favor of what will bring about the future reign of freedom and play.
For example, the dérive: essentially, an unplanned journey through some landscape (often urban) in which people rid themselves of their everyday relations (errands, typical paths, etc.) and let themselves be drawn by various attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find.
Another form of play was the détournement: the appropriation and recontexualization of symbols — especially of capitalism — to interrupt the smooth flow of the society of the spectacle (e.g. vandalized ads in public places, using the aesthetic of advertising to communicate subversive messages).
Through the use of détournement, situationists sought to show that the powers that be can never fully recuperate created meanings as well as expose and draw attention to the spectacle that pervades our lives. By doing this they hoped they could bring about a proletarian revolution that would result in people doing activities for the sheer joy it brings them, rather than capitalist interests.
(from alternative unknown source)
Ultimately, the goal of all of this play was to facilitate a new culture that, as the Situationist Manifesto said, introduced total participation, organized directly lived moments, increases dialogue and interaction, and, ultimately, lead to everyone becoming an artist/situationist.
! Nicklaus Bourriaud - Relational Aesthetics
theory
highlights
22-03-21 23:30
Introduction by Joseph Minich
The tradition of phenomenology always struck me as asking the right questions and providing some helpful insights, but I was shocked when reading Julian Marias to discover that I was swimming in his thought rather than chopping my way through it. He writes with a clarity and degree of insight that is rare among European philosophers. Moreover, he writes (as I have come to known) as a persuaded Christian who is nevertheless brutally honest with the motions of his mind. His intellectual flavor is not that of a philosopher retrofitting philosophical nomenclature to pre-fabricated dogma, but rather as one journeying through vital reason through the concrete with with absolute and unfeigned honesty.
But very few people read Marias aside from his history of philosophy, even though he has so much to say about so many things. I thought this was in need of urgent correction. It turns out I am not the first to think so. More than anyone in the last century, Harold Raley has been seeking to introduce Marias to the English-speaking world. He has published two books on Marias, as well as translated some of his works (importantly, his Biography of Philosophy, which is distinct from the history).
The Ortegan Propaedeutic: The Theory of Radical Reality
The philosophy of Julián Marías (1914-2005) incorporates and extends the metaphysical system of José Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955).[1] From an early age until shortly before his death Marías wrote copiously on many topics: philosophy, history, literature, cinema, biography, sociology, religious questions, and geopolitical matters, including books on countries and cultural analyses, particularly the origins and originality of Spain and the salient features of Western civilization.
Although he differed with some Ortegan hypotheses and applied the system to areas untreated by Ortega, including history and religious themes, Marías never wavered in his conviction that the Ortegan metaphysical system of “radical reality” was the most comprehensive method for understanding human life.
He points out that the reasons for this omission are, first, deficient methods of presenting the problem of human reality and, second, a lack of adequate categories for treating the human person without falling into biologism, on the one hand, or phenomenological idealism on the other.
For seven decades the creation and application of dialectical remedies to these and related deficiencies had been his untiring quest, a task implicit and imperative in the metaphysics he inherited from Ortega. As he neared the end of his life, Marías declared that having done what he could to develop a coherent philosophy of the human person he must now leave it in God’s hands to do with it as he would. In due course we shall return to Persona to extract certain results of his efforts.
Western thought, he tells us, has always marched in step with the assumption that man is a thing: organism, animal, ego, psyche, consciousness, spirit, and similar designations, all of which are “things” in a physical or ideal sense. This assumption informed the age-old question, what is man?, a question which, in turn, presupposes a definition.
But if man is not a thing, but a reality of a totally different kind wherein these things appear, as we learn in Ortegan metaphysics, then the presupposition is invalid and can lead only to error. For Marías, what? presupposes things, objects, and abstractions, and for that reason cannot apply to persons. The proper interrogative for the latter is Who?, which sends Marías in another direction entirely. We shall retrace and summarize his dialectical journey in this writing.
Marías calls Ortega the “discoverer of a new continent of philosophy,” and describes his own role in their association as “filial”: “inexplicable without him; irreducible to him.”[4] But this relationship should not be mistaken for subservience. The “empirical theory” of personal reality that informs his mature writings complements and completes the “analytical theory” of life in Ortega. Although there is no mention of the “empirical theory in the Ortegan writings, their combined philosophy constitutes a challenge to both the cerebral reality of the phenomenologists and the materialist doctrines of the realists.
The transition of Marías from disciple to creative philosopher centers on this doctrine of “radical reality,” which is circumstantial human life itself. It consists not of things, nor a sum of things, as the realists plead; nor is it the mind or ego and its cognitions as the idealists hold.
Phenomenologically, I may discover things perceived to be infinitely remote and much greater or smaller than I: from stars and galaxies to quantum particles or waves; others appear to be intimate and real, though free of material form: love, faith, and friendship; similarly, still other things manifest sensorially or psychologically as pains, intuitions, dreams, dreads, hopes, doubts. Probably nearly everyone has pondered the unimaginable magnitude of the Cosmos and the physical puniness of mankind. But as Marías reminds us, the reverse is also true: the Cosmos is also in me as a part of my circumstance.
My body, or organic being, is also a part of my circumstance. I discover myself in life as a physical being, as “some-body,” already living, already named, and thus already socialized by language and associations with other persons, known and unknown.
All this, and more, is implicit in the Ortegan cogito: “I am I and my circumstance.” It includes my physical person, psychic and somatic states, and the entirety of my possible world, from nearest atom to farthest star. All this implies that my “radical” encounter with all other realities is not passive, but proactive, not a tabula rasa that merely receives or records impressions, but an encounter that is also interpretative, an encounter we call living.
This means that my circumstance and I need each other in order to be who I am and what it is. I know by interpretative perception that an approaching tiger I see may devour me unless I defend myself. Likewise, an artifact at hand may appear to me variously according to circumstances as a religious icon, a work of art, a tool, a cultural relic, or as a weapon to ward off the tiger. My circumstance offers possibilities, but if I would live well, it is up to me to choose or release its superior options.
In an age characterized by regressive human reductionism, Ortega sought to reenchant the world.[8] If existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre dismissed mankind as “a useless passion,” and poet Matthew Arnold described a drear world that offered neither “hope nor help for pain,” Ortega set out on a happier quest with these words: “There is in all things the indication of a possible plenitude. An open and noble soul will feel an ambition to perfect it, to help it achieve that plenitude. This is love—the love of the perfection of the beloved.”[9] His “tactical turn” away from the personal gloom and narrowness of late modernity was to become the foundation on which Ortega—and Marías to an even greater extent—built their more hopeful doctrines.
A parallel movement, the twentieth-century revolt against the idealistic philosophy that had been in vogue in several iterations beginning with Descartes and culminating in Husserl was not simply abandoned in the Ortegan doctrine. Instead it became an instrumental component of a superior metaphysics in Ortega, and Marías.
In 1957 Marías began writing a long book on Ortega’s life and his original contributions to philosophy: Ortega: Circunstancia y vocación (Ortega: Circumstance and Vocation). His chief reason for undertaking a task that took him more than two years to complete was, as he put it, because “Ortega counted on him.”
For Marías, whose succinct definition of philosophy is “Responsible Vision,” Ortega’s contributions, perfected or not, were too important to let slip away. As Marías saw it, to save and complement Ortegan thought was to consecrate an important dimension of Spanish and Western culture.
Ortega: las trayectorias
After his death, Ortega’s scattered papers were collected and published as Volumes X and XI of his complete works. Some, so Marías complains, were not meant for publication, but consisted of scribblings, prompts, random ideas, notes to himself, and annotations taken out of context. Ortega was generally acknowledged as the master prose writer of his generation, who according to novelist Pío Baroja, spoke even better than he wrote. But sporadic bouts of illness, years of exile and censorship, and the exceptional range of his talents and commitments meant that he could not bring them all to fruition.
Marías explains in his books and essays on the Ortegan doctrine that Ortega returned from his studies in Germany in 1912, wrestling with two perplexing problems: (1) the imposing presence of Miguel de Unamuno (1864-1936) and (2) what he perceived to be the shortcomings of Husserlian phenomenology. Unamuno, Spain’s foremost philosopher at the time, passionately opposed scientific rationalism and what he saw as the deleterious impact of modernity on traditional Spanish culture. His major philosophical work Del sentimiento trágico de la vida (1913) (The Tragic Sense of Life), was a formidable challenge to Ortega’s own emerging doctrine.
Although Unamuno had little, if anything, to say in print about phenomenology itself, which at the time was still central to Ortega’s thought, he rejected out of hand its Cartesian ancestry: “The methodical doubt of Descartes is a comic doubt, a doubt purely theoretical and provisional—that is to say, the doubt of a man who acts as if he doubted without really doubting.” He dismissed as “simpletons” the young Spanish “Europeanizers” led by Ortega who were committed to bringing isolated Spain into the European cultural orbit. Nevertheless, the two philosophers were cordial toward each other without being close, and Ortega wrote panegyrically at Unamuno’s death in 1936 that without him “an atrocious silence” had settled over Spain.
Despite their many differences, Unamuno shared with the young Ortega and many other European thinkers of the era an intuition that was to prosper under Marías: the conviction that the human person was emerging as the prime theme of modern, or post-modern, European philosophy. Yet it was hampered not only by the doctrinal errors mentioned above but by the linguistic and conceptual inadequacy of traditional language to express it. Philosopher Max Scheler (1874-1928), for instance, declared that for the first time in the 10,000-year recorded history of mankind human reality had become problematic and more to the point, that the human being was now indefinable, not a definitive reality at all but a “becoming,” a “between,” “a self-transcending being.”
Probably neither Ortega nor Marías would quibble with the gist of Scheler’s statement. The German thinker’s influence on Ortega is well documented. But as master writers who possessed a solid knowledge of German, both Spanish thinkers might well cringe at Scheler’s awkward wording.
Though proficient in both ancient tongues and several modern languages, Ortega and Marías were not cloistered thinkers who wrote primarily for other philosophical specialists, but popular writers whose aim was to communicate ideas with conceptual clarity and persuasive force to all readers.
Marías has much to say on Ortega’s cogito, “I am I and my circumstance,” a doctrine that appears for the first time not in the German thinkers, who progressed no further than the concepts of physical Umwelt and existential Dasein, but rather in Meditations. Let us hear one such comment in its entirety:
'If Ortega had said simply ‘I and my circumstance’, he would not have achieved the philosophical innovation that he does in the Meditations on Quixote. Such a formulation would be acceptable, in the last analysis from a realistic or idealistic perspective, provided one does not lose sight of the fact that the subject refers to an object. When Fichte speaks of the contraposition ‘I and not-I’ (Ich und nicht-Ich), or when the mature Husserl, attempting to extract the final consequences of the idea of Brentano’s intentionality and trying to correct the Cartesian Cogito with the formula Ego cogito cogitatum (I think about thinking), they are left with only an intentional reference.'
They mistake method for reality.
Ortega stated in History as a System that his philosophy does not arise from “Greek calends” but from life in fieri, in its ever preemptory and progressive happening, which properly speaking cannot be detained for static analysis, as Husserl proposed with his notion of reduction, or epoché. The forward movement of life inherent in the Ortegan doctrine corresponds to the forward, or ‘facial,” description of living in the empirical theory of Marías.
As for the notion “consciousness of” as the prime reality in Husserl, Ortega points out that consciousness of reality cannot also be reality itself. If “consciousness of” is equivalent to the ego, or the “I”, then it cannot be inside itself, for life is outside, directed toward the outer world. To claim otherwise would be a contradictory tautology. At this juncture he leaves Husserl and expounds his own doctrine of “radical reality.”
Marías explains that “The decisive factor is the first ‘I’ in the Ortegan formula, the one which does not simply ‘signify’ but which designates or denotes and points to me, to my reality.” He concludes with this bold assessment: “The torso of this submerged ‘iceberg’ on which rests the celebrated theme of Meditations on Quixote, is nothing less than an original presentation of the central problem of metaphysics. It surpasses idealism but does so without falling anew into realism.”
The Empirical Theory of Personal Reality
We said earlier that of all the disciples, colleagues, and associates of Ortega who formed what is commonly referred as “The Madrid School of Philosophy,” Julián Marías remained the most loyal and dedicated not only to Ortega personally but also to his philosophy, particularly his metaphysical doctrine of life, or more exactly, “my life,” the life of each person, as the “radical or ‘root’ reality in which all other realities are rooted.
Unlike Ortega, whose religious beliefs remained something of a mystery, Marías, though ecumenical by his generous spirit toward all Christians because of their common origin, was devoutly Catholic and unfailingly faithful to the Church, its sacraments and dogmas, particularly as they relate to the dignity and uniqueness of persons. But his faith was by no means blind. Quite the contrary; not only did he profess Christianity; insofar as possible and in keeping with scriptural injunctions, he sought to understand it. Intellectually he was persuaded that Christian truth could withstand any human test or doubts regarding its veracity.
For this reason, unlike Ortega, Marías did not hesitate to direct his own critical thinking to transcendent themes of personal creation, death, and immortality. It was Marías who explained how the philosophy of radical reality coheres to a surprising degree with Christian theology and its vision of human life. He suggested that Ortega had little to say on these topics because Unamuno had said so much about them.
Human life has a structure that we discover by means of an analysis of “my life,” in the sense implied earlier, that is, not primarily a formal scientific or philosophical analysis but by the manifold art of living. This analysis of my life, the only life directly accessible to me, reveals the conditions or requisites without which “my life” would not be possible, which means that they must apply in each life and are therefore universal.
To the “radical reality” of human life that Ortega explored in Meditations on Quixote, there corresponds the complementary assertion of personhood that Marías describes in Metaphysical Anthropology (1970): “If now we return to the rigorously philosophical point of view, that is, to the perspective of radical reality, to the intrinsic theory itself, one form of which we call metaphysics, if we attempt to see man from life itself, and strictly speaking, from my life, previous to all interpretations, especially the scientific ones, we see that his life takes place as a man, in the precise way we call humanity. Man, therefore, is not a thing, nor an organism, nor an animal, but rather prior to all this he is something much deeper: a structure of human life.”
Here Marías faced a problem: is it possible to pass directly from the analytical structure to the individual reality of the person as such? The answer is no, as Marías points out by using Cervantes as an example:
This is what has been missing in the doctrine of human life: the zone of reality that I call the empirical structure. To it belong all those features, which, without being ingredients of the analytical theory, are not chance or casual occurrences in the life of Cervantes, but rather empirical elements that are also structural and therefore previous to each individual biography; these features we count on since they function as the underlying assumption of each life.
As Marías notes: “Seen from this perspective, the empirical structural appears as the arena of possible human variation in history.[30] Hence the justification of the title of Marías’ most ambitious book: Metaphysical Anthropology. “Metaphysical” refers to the “radical reality” of human life as metaphysics, or theory of the real, while “Anthropology” is the science of humankind’s empirical structure as modes of lived and possible experience.
“My life” is a gerund, a verb of continuing futuristic action or being, which in principle, and perhaps in fact, continues forever. Living is apprehending reality in its connectedness, which not by chance is also the description Maríias offers for reason in general. In other words, living is the concrete form of reason and the form of understanding my circumstance in order to go on living. This means that as a futuristically-inclined being, I am not merely with things but instead that I am always doing something with them, something we call living. It happens dramatically and dynamically.
Here we must distinguish between installation, which is a biographical concept, and spatial, physical, biological, psychological, or historical categories, which apply secondarily to certain features. It is one thing, for example, to say that we are “installed” in a language and from it we interpret the world in a certain way, and altogether another to point out that language is subject to categories such as anatomy, physiology, linguistics, semantics, and logic. To say that I “live” in my language in a biographical way that precedes all attempts to objectify it, means that the “objective” features may acquire validity only after I “possess” my language biographically.
Life is a matter of time, trouble, desire, and choice, and all of them tug at us with varying intensity. To these competing forces Marías gives the label of vector. Mathematically speaking, a vector is a directed magnitude, which when applied to human life means importance and significance measured in terms of desire. In life there is almost never a single vector or desire but several of varying intensity, and we must choose among the options.
My world is circumstantial, yet not passively so. I incline preferentially to things and they respond by assuming a certain slant relative to my biographical efforts to live my life. World is earth and cosmos extending as horizons, limits, and ideal ranges of my projective enterprise. As such, it is order and not chaos. Other forms of worldhood could, and may exist, other circumstantial realms are possible, but empirically and as far as we know by experience, bodily human life takes place only within this earthly worldhood.
Yet the world is always more than we know, never exhausted, ever opulent in new possibilities for living. Now we acknowledge a singular fact that takes us empirically beyond the abstract designation of “human life.” Our worldly installation occurs in two human modes, man and woman. By reconciling in Metaphysical Anthropology our common experience of “sexuate” and bodily life with the general metaphysical theory of “radical reality” in Ortega, Marías takes full possession of his doctrine and method.
It seems fitting to remind ourselves that his purpose in Persona, and indeed in one way or another in all his philosophy, is to understand “the most important reality of this world, and at the same time, the most mysterious and elusive: the human person.”
It was not that Marías simply wrote, as though in a vacuum, he did so with an image of his readers in mind, anticipating their questions and foreseeing their difficulties. An admired stylist, he acknowledged the inherent risks of writing, but commented in Persona that not to run the risk was equivalent to running away from philosophy.
The trivialization of personal life is anathema to Marías for it means that the person finds no meaning in living, or further, that there is no purpose in life and no reason to continue it, that it is an accident, an inconvenience, a tragedy. Whether there is an ultimate purpose in life is a question in which he has a passionate interest, for himself certainly, but probably more so for those he loves.
Finally, Marías reminds us that as persons we cannot think of ourselves as inexistent. For as we imagine our inexistence, we place ourselves there as living witnesses to our non-being. The notion is contradictory. At another level, he finds it surprising that people who cannot accept the total destruction of anything, can readily admit the absolute annihilation of the highest and most intense reality that we know of: the human person.
theory
22-03-21 18:40
These thinkers are often ignored which is unfortunate because they are important to the history of philosophy.
Unamuno
Unamuno was exiled during the reign of the Junta**need to read some history here, big picture is that Spain experienced two dictatorships (de Rivera, '23 -'20 and Franco, '39 - '75) which made them subject to poverty, division, and isolation. and was basically immediately reinstated when he escaped exile. His most popular text was The Tragic Sense of Life. Unamuno was important during the 20c not just in Spain but throughout the world. Unamuno is primarily interested in what we have in common as humans (originally from Terence c 100AD). He believed that ethical theories reduce man to a single dimension which denies them their very human-ness
-- that while its natural to develop totalizing rational systems of understanding, emotion/feeling have too great an impact on how we think about life to be ignored.
-- that philosophy in the english-speaking world tends to focus too much on logic and reason. It should instead focus on what a given worldview feels like. Thinking as a mode of being is over-emphasized. So, as philosophers, we should be concerned with the human as the central object of our study. Think about the theories, but also think about the person behind them.
There is an entire book devoted to this approach by Paul Johnson called Intellectuals
Unamuno claims that we judge philosophies in part by the lives that their creators lead.
-- focuses on the question/contradiction of why it's worth struggling to live if you are bound to die? While we're aware of the tragedy, we keep going. Unamuno clarifies Kant's categorical imperative: treat each individual person as an end in himself. As a result, leaders have to worry about people, they cannot be sacrificed for some abstract good, or for future geenrations, but must be given respect and kindness in the present.
Ortega y Gasset
Instead of starting from ethics, as does Unamuno, he starts with the conflict between realism and idealism. Ortega says there are hard realtities out there that the individual cannot control, and must confront. But he doesn't like realism very much either, because realism isolates the mind from the world and makes it impossible to understand how knowledge is possible. It's a mistake to think of the mind as separate from the world. They both co-exist and mutually influence each other. The world cannot be understood without appeals to the faculties of the mind. We cannot understand ourselves without appeal to the world. The view results in a sort of "contextualism
-- " I am myself and my circumstance."*seems challenging from a political or colonial standpoint -- in other words, my identity needs to be understood in terms of my connections with the world.
Reason can come to reliable conclusions only when it focuses on life, taking into account both subject and object. -- Ortega u Gasset calls this Vital Reason
This means that thought has to be dynamic, historical. Since we frequently encounter our own limitations, we must constantly consider these boundaries of our freedom and of our interface with the world.
We are free to choose who we are but only up to a point. There's lots of choices which are unavailable to us.
Ortega has a perspectivist view of truth (not Nietzsche's) which he claims, collapses into relativism. We might identify the truth about an object from all given perspectives, but that toality is itself a perspective. There is no way to have all perspectives at once. We inevitably see the world from a human perspective.
theory
22-03-21 13:50
In learning more about Basque country, I've come across some lists of Spanish philosophers which may be interesting to look into further.
- Paul B. Preciado (1970 - pres)
- Ignacio Martín-Baró* (1942 - 1989)*Both Martín-Baró and Ellacuría were murdured by Salvadoran soldiers in last years of the Salvadoran Civil War
- Julián Marías (1914 - 2005)
- Ignacio Ellacuría* (1930 - 1989)
- Miguel de Unamuno (1864 - 1936)
- Xavier Zubiri (1898 - 1983)
- Manuel García Morente (1883-1955)
- Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo (1856 - 1912)
- Seems to be a very influential figure***, translating Kant, Bergson, Spengler, and Brentano. He wrote monologues on Kant and Bergson. ***My read of his influence could be colored by the fact that he's dealing with more familiar thinkers. He took a liking to the neo-Kantians: Cassirer, Cohen and Natorp, as well as enjoying the works of Rickert, Simmel, Scheler and Hartmann, taking sides with the study of axiology.(n) - the study of the nature of values and value judgments
- José Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955)
- Pío Baroja y Nessi (1872 - 1956)****member of the Generation of '98, one of the first modernist novelists along with Ortega
- Julian Marias Aguilera (1914 - 2005)
- Maria Zambrano (1863 - 1952)
- George Santayana (1904 - 1991)
I get the impression that much of Spanish thought after 1000AD was carried out in the context of Judaic and Catholic theology, but the same could be said for French + German philosophy up to the early moderns. Lots of institutionalized bias I have to read past here.
political‑movements
22-03-21 13:35
I've been interested in the Basque language lately, and that led me to looking into the relationship between Spain and French, and of course, I figured I would look into the relationship bewteen French and Spanish Philsophy. While I encountered a listing of prevalent Spanish philosophers, I came across Maria Zambrano, who was a member of Generación del 36/Mouvement des 36, a group of Spanish artists and intellectuals who were working aroud the time of the Spanish Civil War -- a literary movement that was criticized as a result of the poltical divisions left behind by that war.
I've also been interested in the Situationist International movement, which was a group of primarily anachist french-artist/thinkers. Debord identified with this movement for a while and I'm interested in exploring the themes that this group put forth over the course of the mid-20c.
games
digital‑archival
22-03-20 13:00
What happens to long forgotten online worlds after they have been abandoned? How are they preserved and re-shaped to fit new ends?
1994, WorldsChat, sought to model Neal Stephenson's metaverse with interactive avatars, commissioned areas, and a rudimentary 3D modelling tool called "The Shaper" which allows them to build their own spaces and link them to the network. Decades later, WorldsChat has been rediscovered and repopulated by a new generation.
1991, Tim Sweeney launched a game that would become, entirely by accident, the most popular hobbyist game development tool of the 90s. By virtue of it's name, it was the last category on every bulletin and message board. As a tool, it became a simple and free environemnt for amateur game design. User Dr. Dos runs the Museum of ZZT, and works to document, preserve, and curate these worlds. Due to the simple ASCII-style and built-in editor, users didn't need to be graphical artists in order to begin making their own worlds.
2004, Myst Online: Uru Live sought to bring the previosuly successful world of Uru to fans through a multiplayer experience. After multiple failed attempts and cancellations, the game was made open source, which made the platform more sustainable but did not draw in many new users. Despite the lack of new users, players continue to log in, create, and preserve their own worlds. Many players bought into the in-game lore, identifying with the in-game group of explorers discovering and restoring the lost civilization.
There were docuseries episodes on the Doom and SecondLife communities, but I was a little less interested in those.
theory
video‑lecture
Spinoza
22-03-19 21:00
Historians of philosophy often concentrate on historical positions and arguments that they agree with or that they resonate with.
It's common to draw attention to Spinoza's naturalism -- of fully integrating the study of the human mind into the study of nature, i.e. Humans are governed by the same laws that givern nature.
Spinoza is also seen as a liberal and proponent of rdical democracy. Historians find something that they value in Spinoza.
It's rare to see commentators who provide full teleological accounts - of putting forth theories that are jsutified by the ends to which they contribute.
Spinoza has been called "the founder of radical enlightenment" - an abstract "package" of values including the universal right to knowledge, etc.
These two aspects of history of philosophy - our tendency to focus on doctrines/approaches that we agree with, and our tendency to value philosophers based on the degree to which they contribute to our own outlooks - are logically distinct.
Commentators and historians of philosophy have a tendency towards teleological interpretative approaches, looking to past figures as anticipations of ourselves, ignoring the ways in which past philosophical approaches differed from our own.
Another worry of this tendency is that we may misconstrue philosophy as a single. continuous process that works towards progressive values and may bury divergences in values.
Defenders of teleology claim that they can be sensitive to these distortions. Johnathan Bennett did a lot of work in reinterpreting early moderns.
There are anthropological pleasures to take from encountering the "strange" takes of earlier thinkers. There is also the habit of valuing earlier thinkers for the contribution to our own modern discourse.
Epistemologies remind us that we reason poorly, but if that's so, and we want to get some critical distance from the practice of history of philosophy, we'll need to examine the anxieties and desires of early thinkers - but how to reconnect?
For Spinoza, affective dispositions are not learnt, but embedded in our humanity. We are guided to respond affectively to things like us, in other words, we are more likely to develop affects towards and with other individuals, as opposed to things. This provides reason for why we care more for our compatriots than humans at large.
Rather than finding out what people are like, we develop representations of how we imagine them to be, positioning ourselves in an imagined commonality that may or may not exist.
The disposition that Spinoza identifies sustains one of the abuses of which teleological historians are accused - the tendency to homogenize the past, and unless we offset it, we can expect this kind of distortion to continue.
Spinoza: we tend to think of nature as designed to satisfy our purposes. We tend to believe that there is someone else who has prepared the world for our use.
Historians of philosophy are as likely as anyone to project their experience of their own purposiveness onto history. This is deeply rooted in our nature, and if we don't resist, it will continue to create teleological landscapes.
Teleology can't promote/progress/justify the ends of philosophy.
theory
reading
list
(imported)
This is a small pile of small piles of texts that I would like to encounter as a means to pour some energy into this note-taking system. The goal of this list is to be semi-conversant with the average undergrad with some background in theory. This is by no means meant to be comprehensive; my interest in philosophy is primarily to explore discourse occuring in 20c french theory.
Foundation:
- Spinoza - Ethics
- Kant - Critique of Pure Reason
- with Deleuze - Kant's Critical Philosophy
- with Deleuze - Kant: Synthesis and Time (lectures)
- Hegel - Phenomenology of Spirit
- Marx - Capital
- Heidegger - Being and Time
- Freud - Civilization and Its Discontents
- with Deleuze - Spinoza: Practical Philosophy
- Nietzsche - Genealogy of Morals
Frankfurt School:
- Introducing Critical Theory – Stuart Sim
- Introduction to Critical Theory: Horkheimer to Habermas – David Held
- Critical Theory: The Essential Readings – David Ingram
- Critical Theory: Selected Essays – Max Horkheimer
- One-Dimensional Man – Herbert Marcuse
- Grand Hotel Abyss: The Lives of the Frankfurt School – Stuart Jeffries
20c:
- Derrida - Of Grammatology
- Derrida - Margins of Philosophy
- Derrida - Writing and Difference
- Deleuze - Difference and Repetition
- Deleuze - Logic of Sense
- Foucault - The Archaeology of Knowledge and The Discourse on Language
- Deleuze and Guattari - Anti-Oedipus I, II
- Guattari - Schizoanalytic Cartographies
- Guattari - The Three Ecologies
- Baudrillard - Simulation and Simulacra
- Sarte - Being and Nothingness
- Lacan - Ecrits
- Badiou - Metapolitics
- Jameson - Postmodernism or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism
- Alexander - The Timeless Way of Building
I have a hunch that I can throw Alexander in here for some HCI fun for little cost.
- Alexander - A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction
- Alexander - The Nature of Order: An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe
Modern:
- Negarestani - Cyclonopedia
- Some Collapse
- Parisi - Contagious Architecture: Computation, Aesthetics, and Space
- Latour - We Have Never Been Modern
- Turing - The Essential Turing
- Graeber - Debt: The First 5,000 Years
CCRU (non-Land):
- CCRU - Writings 1997 - 2003
- Fisher - Captialist Realism: Is There No Alternative?
- Fisher - Post-Capitalist Realism: The Final Lectures
- Plant - Zeros and Ones
- Plant - The Most Radical Gesture: The Situationist International in a Postmodern Age
- Negarestani - Intelligence and Spirit**Not sure where I got the idea that he is related to CCRU
- Negarestani - Abducting the Outside*
Music:
- Goodman - Sonic Warfare: Sound, Affect, and the Ecology of Fear
- Eshun - More Brilliant Than the Sun: Adventure in Sonic Fiction
Alternative Perspectives:
- Land - Fanged Noumena**yuck
- Meillasoux - After Finitude
- Brassier - Nihil Unbound
- Bostrom - Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies**yuck
- Harman - Tool-Being: Heidegger and the Metaphysics of Objects**yuck
- Bryant - Difference and Givenness: Deleuze's Transcendental Empiricism and the Ontology of Immanence
- Bryant - The Speculative Turn
An alternative approach may be to start with who I would like to develop an understanding of:
It strikes me that there are several levels to understanding post-structuralism. I am particularly interesting in understanding the projects of:
- Deleuze
- Derrida
- Foucault
- Baudrillard
Additionally, I am also interested in works from:
- Lyotard
- Badiou
- Laurelle
- Simondon
- Stiegler
The former's core works consist of:
Deleuze (along with Guattari in some cases) (differential ontology):
- Difference and Repetition
- Logic of Sense
- A Thousand Plateaus
- Anti-Oedipus
Reading question: could difference be the basis of abstraction?
Derrida (deconstruction):
- Of Grammatology
- Writing and Difference
- Dissemination
- Dissemination
- Margins of Philsophy
Foucault (biopolitics):
- Madness and Civilization
- Discipline and Punish
- The Order of Things
- History... Vol. I
Baudrillard (simulation):
- The System of Objects (1968)
- Seduction (1978)
- Symbolic Exchange and Death (1993)
- Simulacra and Simulation (1994)
The relations between these thinkers:
- Deleuze - Difference and Repetition (1968)
- Derrida - Writing and Difference (1967)
- which includes an essay called
- Derrida - Cogito and The History of Madness
- which possibly prompted Foucault to write:
- Foucault - The Order of Things (1966) and
- Foucault - The Archaeology of Knowledge (1969)
- Deleuze wrote about Foucault in:
- Deleuze - Foucault (1986)
- where he deals with:
- Foucault - The Archaeology of Knowledge (1969)
- Foucault - Discipline and Punish (1975)
- Deleuze on Derrida:
- Cisney - Deleuze and Derrida (2018)
- Patton - Between Deleuze and Derrida (2003)
- Protevi - Political Physics (2001)
Of course there are others, but at some point a target for understanding must be listed.
The subsequent generation (not sure here actually):
- Malabou (student of Derrida)
- Meillassoux (student of Badiou)
- Brassier
Providing the foundation for the main three thinkers are the Germans (idealists, materialists, phenomenologists):
- Hegel
- Marx
- Freud
- Nietzsche
- Husserl
- Heidegger (student of Husserl)
Some sort of intermediate french group providing the foundation for the main three(subject to further categorization):
- Bergson (the division point between 19c and 20c french theory)
- Bergson pioneered the French movement of scepticism towards the use of scientific methods to understand human nature and metaphysical reality -> against positivism
- Deleuze wrote Bergsonism and Cinema 1 and Cinema 2 to develop Bergson's ideas
- After Poincare created a rift between himself and Russell and Frege, French philosophers started work on philosophy of science:
- includes Batchelard, Cavailles, Vuillemin, Canguilhem
- all of which would be an inspiration to Foucault
Canguillhem was especially huge for Foucault, who claims he was the primary inspiration for Althusser and the 20c French marxists
Bataille (influenced by Nietzsche)
Kojeve (lectured on Phenomenology of Spirit in 30s Paris, Marxist and Hegelian) -> these lectures were attended by Lacan and Batailles
Hyppolite
de Gandillac (Bergson student and Deleuze's professor)
Alquie (Bergson student and Deleuze's professor)
Levinas
Althusser (structuralist equivalent to Marxism that Lacan was to psychoanalysis)
worked with Balibar, Establet, Ranciere, and Macherey > taught Derrida
Merleau-Ponty: phenomenologist influenced by Husserl, taught Foucault
associated with existentialism
The French feminist pioneers:
- De Beauvoir
- Irigaray
- Kristeva
- Cixous
- Cixous
- Ettinger
The psychoanalytic thread:
- Freud
- Lacan
- Jacques Alain Miller (Lacan's stepson & most devoted follower)
- Guattari
- Zizek (because it seems difficult to touch psychoanalysis without reading him)
list
None on this list, see To Read
meta
This is a set of notes, sometimes referred to as a "slipbox", or "commonplace book". These notes are meant to be self-contained, human-readable, and sustainable.
Self-contained
- Portability is paramount when system environments are unpredictable in the long-term.
- Due to their self-contained nature, these notes contain no javascript, leave no cookies, do not track viewers, and can be viewed offline with all modern browsers. Copies of this document can be downloaded with tools like Singlefile.
Human-readable
- In case of fire, text can be extracted from this document using tools like Pandoc.
Sustainable
- As computing evolves, it's important that the work I do now is viewable, and ideally, browsable in X years.
You Are Here is a good starting point.
I am a sound engineer, artist, and writer based in the Sierra Nevada Foothills. More info here.
Since I don't do any viewer tracking, I have no clue who reads this site. If you would like to provide feedback, start a conversation, or offer a much welcomed correction, feel free to reach out.
meta
This is some text that is meant to be a mock up of a post, which is a longform bit of content that should consist of original prose.11) This is marginalia using the "margin" tag. Posts are included in this group of notes so that they can be interlinked and referenced into a larger chain of thoughts.22) Here is another margin note. These don't overlap so can be placed in-line. I'm not sure how to distinguish shorter-form thoughts from longer-form thoughts, but I suppose I can allow that distinction to arise organically.
Images should be placed in their own p tag:
This is a "capt" tag, for caption. Images can be placed in-line or in a margin tag, but should generally always contain alt-text and an explicit caption (which can be the same or distinct).
Each individual post or note**styling works within the margins! should be contained in an article tag which will provide for accurate formatting. Additionally, each article tag should have an id that can be referenced via anchor link. The article is the "atomic" element of the system, so to speak. Line breaks should be avoided and instead rely on p tags for formatting. This is a blockquote using the "blockquote" tag.
Further, explicit class styles should be kept to a minimum where possible. While this style sheet certainly isn't "classless", it's important to keep those classes to a minimum so as to maintain compatibility with future browser platforms.
For the sake of navigation, each heading should be an anchor link to it's containing article ID.
meta
I conceive of the notes section as more loose, flexible, "fleeting", as some may call it. When it comes to notes, the article should likely contain a chapter of a text, which means there will likely be more p tags in note articles, but all in the interest of being able to constrain the target when highlights are referenced.
As notes are going to be mostly focused on reading, I've added a highlight mechanism to distiniguish between a) non-original and original content, and b) different priority pieces of information sorted in order of proximity to the essence of a text. These are as follows:
Here is some quoted text using the q1 tag, which indicates a highlight, or quote which is of basic**styling can also be used within highlights, and it is permissible to overwrite styles of original quotes in interest of retaining another layer of visual informationmargins can be nested and will wrap based on viewport importance to the text.
Here is some quoted text using the q2 tag which indiciates a highlight or quote which is of medium importance to the text.
Here is some quoted text using the q3 tag which indiciates a highlight or quote which is of high importance to the text, and will generally serve as earmarks when going back to reference a text. In general, the warmer a tone of highlight, the higher essential importance to the text.
The q4 tag is a special highlight used to denote when a quoted author is using an example to illustrate a concept.
The q5 tag is a special highlight used to "escape" the current highlight, as a means of annotating within a highlight.
In general, all quote/highlight tags should exist in their own p tags to maintain consistency with other forms of content.
All reading notes and highlight-oriented notes should contain headings that are formatted as follows:
"Author Last Names (et al. if > 3)" - "Year of Publication" , "Chapter Number" : "Chapter Title"
In the event of book chapters that take more than a day to read/take notes on (and thus may produce multiple articles), it is okay to break those notes up into multiple articles with 1 to 3 words referencing the chapter sub-section topics, replacing the chapter title included in each chapter's first note article heading. This is a citation using the "cite" tag which can be used in-line, but is separated so that it can be hidden or styled independently. Citations should generally link to source or highlight notes.
meta
Again, articles are the atomic element in the set of elements included in this document.
When finishing an article, check to ensure it is relatively self-contained. Examples would be reading notes from a single chapter of a book, original thoughts from a single writing session, or writing on a single topic. Next, ensure that the tag ID for the containing article tag is original. Then, add that ID as an anchor link to the following navigation sections:
- Contents - this is akin to sorting it into a file folder
- Tags - this is a flat structure or cloud, tags have no hierarchies, the tree just contains a list of articles for which a given tag is assigned
- Newest - include a link along with the date* the article has been completed (inside a date tag) straight at the top of the list
*date tags can be made visible or hidden based on the style sheet, but should generally be included in the navigation section when linking finished articles regardless of whether or not they are visible.
- Oldest - same as above except add the link to the bottom
Once linked in the navigation section, ensure that the links funstion properly. Doing this process manually is a means of making sure that metadata is distinct from the main body information, and it keeps the site generation simple and human-capable.
If an article takes more than a single day to complete, include two entries in the Newest and Oldest sections and append [START] and [END]. Generally, this should not be a huge issue as an article should not contain more info than could be produced in a day.
meta
The general idea behind this note-taking system is that chains (logical, causal, non-causal, etc.) of external concepts and original ideas are built up from smaller bits of information -- that notes inspire posts, and posts inspire larger works*. I'm not entirely sure what this category will be called, but it is certainly one of the ancillary goals of this system.
There is a temptation to dedicate an area of this site to a sort of micro-blog. And while I have experimented with this in the past, I'm more interested in forcing the same thoughts that might inspire smaller one-offs into longer pieces. This system is - in some sense - a means of trying to tear away from the trend of "tweet-threads" and force my mind to hold larger systems in contemplation: to keep more on the workbench, so to speak.
portfolio
current:
startup foundry: Spark Wave (NY)
edit/mix the Clearer Thinking Podcast with Spencer Greenberg↗︎
donor advisory: High Impact Athletes (NZ/US)
edit/mix Larger Than Ourselves - The High Impact Athletes Podcast↗︎
charity: Centre for Effective Altruism (UK/SF)
edit The 80,000 Hours Podcast with Rob Wiblin↗︎
wellness group: Effortless Mindfulness Institute (NY)
edit/mix Effortless Mindfulness with Loch Kelly↗︎
radio station: Counterbalance Radio (Chicago)
mix/master for resident artists↗︎
past:
non-profit: Future of Life Institute (Boston)
edit/mix the FLI Podcast↗︎
mixed media artist: Sun Park (SF)
compose accompaniment for A ROOM WITH HOLES: first visit↗︎ (2021)
artist + educator: Felisha Ledesma (Berlin)
support access to their introductory workshops↗︎ (2020)
theatre: Sierra Repertory Theatre (SF)
advise engineers on cue editing + voiceover recording
visual artist: Melissa Harvey (SF)
compose accompaniment for Secret Splitting↗︎ (2017)
record label: Ninja Tune North America (LA)
support streaming operation + digital supply chain
sound creative: Nathen Rennick↗︎ (NY)
co-learn + advise on mixing for large format
portfolio
sublunar/antipodal↗︎
was formed in collaboration with mixed media artist Sun Park during their MFA at San Francisco State University. This collection is a sonic accompaniment to a mixed media installation↗︎ prsenting video projection, digitally printed fabric, ceramic, slime, sand, and soft sculptures entitled “A ROOM WITH HOLES: first visit” initially installed at the Martin Wong Gallery in Winter 2021. This composition is an improvisation for non-linear editor using an array of coastal field recordings as well as recordings taken by Park herself. Ambisonic simulation was employed to highlight the enclosed nature of the 360° camera footage taken from within Park’s sculpture.
quilts↗︎
was formed in collaboration with visual artist Melissa Harvey during her residency at the Community Media Center of Marin. This collection was originally brought to the public in the form of an
audio-visual installation at Harvey's Spring 2017 exhibit, "Secret Splitting"↗︎. These compositions are formed from a series of digitally manipulated loops from vinyl LPs acquired in Harvey’s hometown in Northern California. As a result, this piece seeks to engage in a local ecology of source material - re-interpreting these records becomes a means of unearthing the sonic textures embedded in regional histories.
contact: contact@tone.support