The Dream Machine

For anyone who would like a prototype of a dream machine in it's beta version. But first, a few guidelines:

1. This can cause Photosensitive epilepsy in some people, (it also depends on the frequency chosen.) BE VERY CAREFUL! If you can't handle it, PRESS STOP OR CLOSE OUT AS SOON AS YOU CAN. I am being very serious. I cannot tell you how many times I've gone into seizures by fucking with this frequency... The lowest setting is 1hz and the highest (I believe) is 25hz, when you open the link it will not immediately start until you press "START" so be ready. You can also change the hz before you press start as well, I recommend you start at 2hz and slowly work your way up.

2. For a proper effect sit rather close to the monitor, and remember to close your eyes. If you don't, well, it can cause pretty severe seizures and/or hallucinations. It will still work but it's cooler if you close your eyes.

3. Monitors are not as bright as light bulbs, so turning off the room lights, and making the monitor the only light can help too. Actually, it helps quite a bit if this is the only thing you're registering in the entire house. shut off all electronics and noise, all lights out, close your eyes, and relax...

last but not least, More info about Dream machines and the like, ask me and I'll provide links.

Enjoy, but enjoy responsibility. Also, please put feedback in the comments below. I'm also glad to answer any questions you might have.

God

This is just as good of a representation of God as any other... :)

Language is like fuel...

I think of things like the Bible. I remember first reading it, thinking to myself, what is this?? God can't speak. God can't talk. If he could, it would mean he had lips and a tongue to shape the words. But then he would have to have a throat and a larynx to distinguish sounds. At that notion, that people of the Bible believed in this God, this man of the sky, I deemed myself as an atheist.

Suffice to say, I came back to the Bible years later after thinking up a "God of my own" and I understood the Bible much better than I had earlier in life. What other words could they use to talk about God? Some ideas just have no words to describe them yet. It's like... reaching for the stars. You can't get to the star without crossing an infinite amount of planes to get there. Perhaps that's what God is. God is that infinite process of evolution. The more things we can describe as living, the more God encompasses. I like this current move towards technology, it signifies a higher capacity for abstraction.... for some people. And then again there are still people who believe God is a man in the sky. But then again, perhaps God IS a man in the sky for those people.

Language is so important to learn. I don't mean it in the sense of other languages, of course. Let me restate that notion: Words are so important to learn. If we don't have a word to express an idea, how can we connect it to other ideas? There is no process of obtaining a higher consciousness without language!

I think of it like a highway. You fuel up your car in Concord, New Hampshire and you're headed southbound. You've got a full tank. By the time you get to Connecticut, you're tank is on empty and if you don't refuel, you're staying put. To me, each word is like a gas station. It's what makes our mind travel to new places. So if we don't learn new words, we stagnate.

This string of a tangent came to me after listening to the latest Radiolab podcast titled "What Does Technology Want?" Robert Krulwich has a problem with this word usage... "want". The guy makes a good point, what other word shall I use?? So yeah. Give it a listen to, guys. Good stuff!

What Does Technology Want?

Semantic Web

“Student Kate Ray interviewed a flock of researchers, entrepreneurs and other innovators for her 14-minute documentary, Web 3.0. Ray is a journalism/psych major at NYU who has done extensive research on the semantic web. Her subjects include World Wide Web creator Tim Berners-Lee, Hunch.com CEO and inventor Chris Dixon, and a host of other semantic web experts.”

 

I came across this on GoogleReader and just had to post it. It relates somewhat to what we were talking about over the weekend and it’s just a really interesting, albeit brief, documentary.

 

Web 3.0 from Kate Ray on Vimeo.

Music Notes from 4/20

Musica Mundi: Harmony entity of the world

Pythagoras: Laws of music

Musica humana: Cult of personality

A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G G# Flat is the step down

Octaves 12

Half note system

Diatonic scales:

Key C major: A B C D E F G

0-------51----------99

C C# D

C Dd D

----49-----------------

^ was changed to 50/50 (equi-tempered)

Accidental notes: Modulate between keys, goes against the melody, ‘adds a little spice’

Eastern music sounds disharmonic because of the 24 notes instead of the 12. (In general see Eric’s note below)

Eric: There are several Eastern tunings, and also many earlier Western tunings which sound dissonant to us because they divide the octave in different ways from our equal temperament. It is not always 24 vs our 12. There is not one "Eastern" tuning.

Piano Forte: Soft, Loud

Pitch: Sine wave

Eric: Pitch is related to a sine wave, but pitch is subjective and a sine wave is objective. The frequency of a sine wave determines its pitch, yet the pitch scale is linear and the frequency scale is logarithmic. For example, every doubling of frequency yields a higher octave of the same pitch. (440 Hz is the standard tuning A, and 880 Hz is an A an octave above that and 1760 is an A an octave above that.) It may seem like niggling to bring this up, but it is important to keep in mind what is subjective and objective. The parallels to this with other facets of music are timbre and loudness. Timbre is the subjective interpretation of the frequency spectrum at any given moment (ie the respective amplitudes of all sinusoids present) Loudness is the subjective interpretation of amplitude, or sound pressure levels. Loudness varies depending on the frequency of a sound. For example, we hear a sine wave at 1000 Hz as louder than the a sine wave at 50 Hz, even when they have the same amplitude, due to our ears are more sensitive at the mid-range of the audible frequency spectrum.

Over tones: Are overlapping sine waves

Eric: This is correct in a limited sense. They are overlapping and whole number multiples of the fundamental frequency that you are starting from. A non-harmonic partial (meaning not a whole number multiple of the fundamental) is not usually referred to as an overtone, yet it is overlapping.

Registrar Sound: Pure pitches overlaid

Noise: ‘White Noise’ every pitch possible,

Eric: Again this refers to the subjective interpretation, and this definition is broader than white noise. The definition of white noise is all parts of the frequency spectrum with equal power per frequency unit in a probabilistic sense. Pink noise is similar, but it has equal power per octave probabilistically. (White noise has higher power at the higher end of the frequency spectrum, as there are more frequency units at the higher audible end(because the frequency spectrum is logarithmic.) Pink noise sounds has a lower sound overall)

Panasonic

Rhythm: ‘Sound in silence arranged in time’ timing

Timbre: Unique sound of each instrument

Volume: How loud or how soft

Melody: Linear pattern

Harmony: Multi played notes at the same time.

Monody: Whistling one note at a time

Organum: two people singing but one is at a higher octave

Eric: Organum began this way, (but always allowed for more than two singers) but later allowed

fifths and further dissonances as it progressed.

Counterpoint/ polyphony: Canon, Roundabout, same sound different times

Dissent : C C# clashing notes

Assent: Notes that work together

_____________________________________________________________________________________

According to Jon the accordion is the worst instrument because it is equal tempered so and easily to transfer when people were taking over countries therefore people started to make their instruments equal tempered.

Eric: Accordions can be tuned in different ways. It is not always equal tempered. It does allow one to bring in and force equal temperament in an imperialistic fashion, but so do most other western instruments. The fretted guitar, the clarinet, I would think most instruments with frets, valves or keys is set to its particular tuning system. Perhaps this is the history of the instrument, but it is accidental to the instrument itself.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Homophony: Independence lost, one melody, mere accompaniment (opera)

Polyphony: Canon, Roundabout, same sound different times

Homophony: Same sounding

Heterophony: (Free Jazz) characterized by the simultaneous variation of a single melodic line

Tonal complexity: Self organization through noise

Home Key: Start Key

Tonic- Subdominant, Returns to home key

Tension/ Resolution: Subplots where music strays from home key to enter subplots.

Polytonal: More than one key at the same time (Artist: Blonde Redhead)

Polyrhythmic: Different Rhythm, different tempo, (Artist: King Crimson)

Math rock: Polytonal, polyphony, polyrhythmic

Check this out

1st to Tenth Dimension

I thought this would be really helpful in understanding what we talked about tonight (3/02)

-Ben

Found a great site!

Hey guys,

Just wanted to share a pretty good site I've come across:

KurzweilAI.net

Happy Web Surfing!

See you Tuesday...

Veronica

Cellular Automata

Here's a 1D CA generator:

To use it, change the rules (top half) and the starting state (top row of grid) by clicking. The resulting iterations will be generated.

Unfortunately, it seems like neither of these are working very well. If you have problems (or don't) let me know in a comment or email. I can mess with it to see if I can get it to work.

-Nick