FINAL thoughts

S * n * o * w * m * e * n



One interesting note to note:



As I read the poem, the line that read




“don’t become molt-balls”

I read it to be

“don’t become moth-balls’



A prime forking experience – in that what I have read before, as on the blog referring to Slave Moth, I had subconsciously been thinking about it. It is very interesting to note how our mind makes connections and jumps to conclusions based on assumptions,

1. That we are given
2. Or
3. That we make



The infinitely limitless connections our mind makes (logical or not) is surreal. One wonders how many actually connections are made on falsity. Then if we were to relate this to the number of actual correct observations one were to make in a given day, maybe this could lead to a realistic gauge of to what extent a person ‘lives in his own world’. This is very interesting to think about because your mind actively censors and alters and dynamically molds your perceptions to its liking. In this sense, subconsciously, one’s perception is {regardless of choice} subjective and limited.





Good or Bad? Depends how you look at it.












SUPER glue

Another side to this discussion is how the human eye works in conjunction with our brain.




http://jumbotronics.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/eye1.jpg







MOTION Bllurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr




(From http://www.daniele.ch/school/30vs60/30vs60_3.html)
“One of these tricks is the property of motion blur. We cannot get away from the phenomena because it is so important to the way we perceive the world. In the visual cortex we can theorize the existence of what I call the motion blur filter. Because the eye can only receive so much information, and the visual cortex can only process so much of that, there needs to be a way to properly visualize the world. This is where it gets tough.
Take for example a fast moving object. The faster it goes, the more it blurs (be it a snowflake or a train). Why does this happen? Let's take the example of a snowflake. At any time it has a fixed position in the universe, no matter what speed it goes at (unless it starts to get relativistic, then we go into some strange physics, but something that is not applicable to what we are talking about). Lets say at 5 mph, we see the snowflake in perfect detail as it falls to the ground. Now we hop into a car and go 55 mph. Can we see the detail of the snowflake? No, it is just a streak to us. Has the snowflake changed itself? Of course not. If we had a really fast camera with a fast shutter speed, it would see the snowflake in perfect detail. Now due to the speed in which our eyes/visual cortex can process information, we cannot see the snowflake in detail. A bird such as an eagle would be able to see more detail and not so much of a streak because it only has rods (it is color blind) and the distance from the eyes to its highly specialized visual cortex is 1/16th the distance of ours. This leads to more information being pumped into the visual cortex. So what would look like a streak to us would look like a fast moving snowflake to the eagle.



If we didn't have the ability to produce motion blur, we would see the snowflake pop in and out of existence at high speeds. We would first see it one place, then it would disappear and pop into existence several feet beyond depending on the direction it is going. Is this a good thing? No, we would have a hard time figuring out the direction of the snowflake and have many problems with perceiving movement in three dimensional spaces. With motion blur we get the impression of continuity where our hardware cannot distinguish fine detail while the object is moving at high speeds.”





This seems fascinating to me. Our visual cortex actually ‘glues’ together images and dynamically strings the images together. UNREAL!




Snowmen

While I have made snowmen, and put them in immature and amusing positions (acts), I have never thought about the implications. Every snowman which I have considered to be beautiful has been symmetrical. Not only at the macro level, and the micro level. The snow had to be just right and consistent across the timescale of the project. This further implies that there was symmetry in the physical and chemical bonds between the hydrogen molecules in h20 molecule. AMAZING!


Also it interesting to think about the impactions of the statement:
“human-built extension of humanity decidedly articulated with brevity in those areas associated with temperature fluctuations that hit and/or exceed a melt point (consistent with prevailing situations)”






What extensions would be rendered extinct with every level of temperature variation?
(Think- 1. People in Alaska/Hawaii and 2. Hobbies.)












O THE CONNECTIONS!

After reading about Zeno’s paradoxes – I cannot help but to think about my previous post (Snowmen). I veered off on the fork which dealt which the mind and the visual cortex with its amazing superglue powers.


Think about his final paradox. The arrow in flight, and how it cannot actually be moving, rather simply be in different points of space (x, y, z) with respect to time (t) – the fourth and final dimension, if you will. It seems our forks have been temporarily aligned in the infinite possibilities of forks (that in itself is quite improbable). The visual cortex makes us perceive this to be possible. Mathematically it may be quite improbable, but nature [evolution] has overcome (yet again), and once again proved to be ingenious.

( sidenote –



As I write this blog,
I’m sitting here in the fishbowl,
and look over and see this kid studying for a calculus final
my thoughts wonder…
I would like to be studying calculus.


No offense to this course,

But my brain thoroughly enjoys finite-ness. )




Reading, taking in, analyzing these poems is an experience. Tainted with a task, I feel as if I approach the poems differently, and thus, I clear my head of such objective, and experience the poem as the author intended: as a form of expression, artistic.




One poem in particular strikes me.
Sujata Bhatt - Search for my tongue
Maybe because I am Indian. Maybe it’s because I can read a little bit of the language – I am not sure if it is Sanskrit or Hindi. I was actually taught to read/write/speak from my parents, and enjoy trying my hand at first-hand interpretations [again which are influenced by our past forks and our mind).



My father and I frequently have discussions (mostly 1 sided- think about that surface (1 side…a plane? No – planes can have 2 sides? 1 side is mathematically impossible…where did that expression come about?) about this issue of losing our mother tongue.



Indians by nature have very strong cultural roots – different from Americans. Hinduism is more than a religion – it’s a culture. As first generation immigrants, my parents wish to pass on cultures and traditions to us (first generation children).



This poem and its surface – a section of translated text, and then the actual Indian language and pronunciation) is unique. [Unique in the sense that it allows interaction with the original text itself – the original ideas – the original thoughts] In the meanwhile however, it allows a suggestive interpretation. If I were to read the poem different ways, I could derive different meanings from it.



It is imperative to explore these different fork-worlds; all are valid, all are real. The mind makes it real. (Full-circle to Zeno!)



(Also a side note about blogspot – The image upload function is super annoying, and you can’t really customize the experience).





Symmetry Hunting



Symmetry and opposites and opposites as a force of symmetry --
Symmetry is inherent in every facet of the known universe. It provides not only structural integrity, it provides aesthetic value. For some reason, our brains like patterns. We are attracted to them. They are beautiful. The body itself is symmetric – from the initial embryo and blastula state, to the full grown adult state, we are symmetric. Our brains are symmetric – left hemisphere and right hemisphere. Its actually quite fascinating, to the point where one could easily be obsessed with finding the universes infinite symmetries. For some reason, one that pops into my mind is the black hole – perfect conical helix!





http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Black_Hole_Milkyway.jpg




As for opposites – they are symmetric. Light and dark. They structure provides the dichotomy which gives rise to the symmetry. It’s cool to think that you need one for the other – ying and yang if you will. Everything has it. So in essence, one could make the argument, everything has some plane of symmetry – you just have to look hard enough.



I am thinking of the painting which has birds in white and black, and the negative space also creates an image – however, I can’t think of the name, so I can’t locate the picture online.


Also – fractals are not only an aestethic ‘obra de arte’, but are functional tools in everyday life [and the formation of]. It is also the basis for most {if not all} models trying to estimate volume, surface area, or any calculus really.





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal




Looking at the two pictures in the post (from Van Gogh), and relating them to the pictures in Supervision, they are high symeetrical – in that they show similar characteristics. There exists a certain symmetry which can match up the painting, and on some level, merge them.
As for the play (Samuel Beckett), one word some up: allness (everything sums everything up). This was the first word which struck me as soon as I watched the clip, and I let my mind run with this notion. There exists a pattern to the ladies, and this pattern can be considered the symmetry. However, I do not I would consider this symmetry outside the realm of forking. It was a cool experience though. Again, when I considered my task, I decided to first not concentrate on it, and just experience ‘feel’ the video for what is was made for.




Finding symmetry in the poems in our books proved to be very easy. Me and Dmitri had a conversation about this task and its forking implications. We concluded that pretty much everything could have symmetry. Even if I picked a random poem from both books, I would be able to locate symtetty @ SOME LEVEL. We came up with Accidental Culture and Letter to Her Brother. The symmetry occurs with the connection to Arab culture, and the proximity of death …(metaphorical entity). CooL!




On another note: FIRST GARAGE BAND COMPLILATION!!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5js0hzNFo4







frame style: preparing to expect the unexpected



This was an interesting experiment. For my MRI project, I was going to pick six images which could somehow tie into the project and provide certain motifs which I wanted to represent throughout the virtual ‘thought experiment’.



The problem with this however, was that I wanted to pick the images on a later date when I actually came to the juncture of putting the project together in FLASH. However, this never came – I did not have enough experience with the program to use it by myself, and after asking around at the 3D lab, I was out of luck. This made me extremely upset, because all of this work had gone into this project. I wish I had recorded the dozens of conversations I had with Professor Smith and Professor Moss. These conversations would have nicely shown the evolution(S) of my project and the final streams of thought which had morphed from the amorphous blob of my ideas.



So instead, I decided to pick six images which struck me and were aligned with my project.

They are: ON THE TOP OF THE POST!









These are all symmetrical ON SOME LEVEL {macro or MICRO}. There are huge connections which I can make from all of these images. I presented many of these our final class presentations.




Re:Beads

Beads are a magnificent way of linking things. When I was thinking about the notes as beads, it was really interesting because I had this thought: what if {actual} beads made music, and depending on the way you intertwined the beads with themselves or even other sets of beads, you would get different end products of music! HOW COOL! This would be a great game. As I think about the obvious connects of beads, they become less interesting.









THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX! FORK FORK FORK.





I love JAzZ. Its such a soothing sound.









PROJECT transforms AND “other ways to see it”



Brian Dettmer – what an AMAZING idea. I simply love it. I would love to see it in person though. It’s cool how many ways there are to dissect a book. It would be a cool experiment to see what different people create from the same books.



This blog is (for some reason) much more interesting for me than the other have been so far. I was thoroughly engaged in this and enjoyed it.



For years now, I have subscribed to the magazine Popular Science. I very much enjoy reading about current events in science and cool projects to do. As I have said multiple times, I am a HANDS on PERSON. So as I was exploring the posts about last minute projects, just for things to during summer, I stumbled across THIS:


http://www.popsci.com/diy/article/2008-03/build-it-smart-ambient-led


I started jumping up and down in the fishbowl. This combines both my love of science, as well as my using my hands for a beautiful final result. As I was still super upset about the FLASH incident, I decided to change venues. (so started a new fork!)




By the way, I wanted to include a sample of the written notes and documentation of the MRI project and my original project dealing with images here:




















NOW ON TO THE NEW FORK! I was super excited to get on this project right away. I started making drawings and potential ideas. I also thought, what a great way to link the 6 images into my project.



As I started to grow on this idea, I was reading about the sound generator from skyfell.org. BAM! Another idea….





PERCEPTION! And how it relates to the BRAIN.



So this was the final project idea. I would put a random timer on the LED’s inside the cube. Each picture would be in black and white, but would be lit up different c0l0rs depending on the color of the LED. Color has so much to do with human perception. It can severely alter what we are seeing/feeling/thinking. Along with this, I would set up the display with the portable boombox playing the sound files created from the images! This would also alter the environment, and thus the perception of these images. I wonder what people will say? Think? What connections will be made?

I picked my images because of their relation to the brain and how science eventually one day will mirror nature’s intracies.


TOO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!













FINAL PROJECT

Many things went into this project. I was able to use my hands and my brain doing all the math calculations. I forgot the joys of geometry! I have made the cube and now it is mooding my room quite nicely. Some of the progress can be seen with the pictures:









BUT I want to leave you {physically} unobstructed to give comments on the final DIGITAL VERSION.

I LEAVE you with one final question: Is the mood cube reading your mood or dictating your mood?


http://youtube.com/watch?v=iBD6xjafZAw


PS. there are many things which I haven't included in this blog because i felt as if they would be taken out of context (wouldn't make sense...) I am referring to things I have done over the semester. Most / if not ALL - of these things, I have told you about anyway!

3 questions on S T Y L E and analysis

1. The actual act of reading can be framed in different ways:

When I’m reading a line, I first read each line independently for individual comprehension, but after reading the entire poem, my understandings of each line felt as if they should be linked into a common theme… Is this appropriate?

2. Engaging Content:

The line: Moreover, they are not deformed by style,
That fire that eats what it illuminates.

3. We read this line at the very end of the poem. If it were the start point of the poem, how would you frame the rest of the poem differently? How would it integrate with the examples differently?

-- SIDENOTE :: For my project, how will viewing the different images in different order affect the total experience of the project (and what will we notice in each image // look for (even subconsciously)

When reading this poem, different ideas of support arise. For instance, many questions even come up before I actually start to read the poem, such as, from which point do I begin to read? The top or the bottom? Or even more interesting, is there a particular point in the middle of poem for which it would be appropriate to begin at? These are all questions dealing with points of entry. The point of entry into any ‘obra de arte’ dictates the experiencing of the art. It will shape and form how the poam is interpreted and what emotions it provokes. The point of entry is crucial in that each point of entry leads to a particular point of exit.

Now comes the actual act of framing while we read the poem: What am I doing when I am reading? How do I begin reading? Should I read and interpret each line individually and then try to piece them together in a logical fashion, or should I read the entire poem first and not think of any individual line before trying to interpret the meaning of the poem in its entirety first? Are there any physical aspects to poem? Is there any [particularly] engaging content, or something that comes out of the poem which draws me in?

One example which I had a personal prejudice with was the Disney character. I had to edit my thoughts that Disney character falling was negative and not funny, as related to the context. The failure of the imagination is only evident whenst it is noticed. Style destroys the infinite creativity proposed by an author. It limits the possibilities of true unique expression of author because it requires framing from the author as well as framing from the reader. Ultimately, style defines a poam, but inherently destroys it.

Thus à Imagination is key.

Style can be self-supporting

But when u notice it, its failure is INEVITABLE.

La Spirale

S T Y L E

When considering “La Spirale”, we assumed it meant spiral. More specifically, I envisioned a spiral that comes to a tip for the end (sort of like a coned spiral on either end). Therefore it had its limit and structure through the style of spiral. When then taking into thought the idea of our question 2 about the last lines of the poem “Moreover, they are not deformed by style,/ That fire that eats what it illuminates.” If we had read those lines first, would you view the poem differently? How would you frame it? And, how would it integrate with the examples differently? So, in other words, how would a different point of entry affect your framing of the poem in its entire dynamic form?

I decided to try to depict my vision. I used Google’s SketchUp program, which is freeware, in order to create a 3D animation which would explore the spiral [frame] from both angles. It definitely isn’t perfect, but I feel it is a great break thought for me in only 3 hours. I felt significantly more comfortable with this program after using it. Its simplicity in use and free nature make it a very appealing program. I first made two separate animations, and then using iMovie, spliced the clips and overlaid a soundtrack which I felt well accompanied the insight given by watching the POAM. In the future, Dmitri and I plan to overlay our voices over the clip guiding/navigating the ‘experiencer’ through the multitude of frames and the conical helix.

To explore this question in relation to my vision of the tapered spiral, we decided to form a visual representation and record first an orbit of the tapered spiral. Then we would compare that to a spiral that came to its smallest cycle in the middle, and its orbit. It is interesting in comparison when you view both orbits and whenever the spiral is viewed from a top view or bottom view they seem quite similar; similar enough to consider that they were the same figure, when in all actuality they are completely different. When reading the poem, the point of entry of the poem will affect how one views the rest of the poem and the individual lines that are comprehended. In its style and structure it builds up to an overall understanding of the meaning of the poem with previous notions of understanding by individual lines have been misunderstood. à So, it again raises this question of if the point of entry effects your framing of a POAM or poem as well. When in practice this visual representation evidently justifies that a difference in point of entry will account for a difference in framing. When further exploring the spirals, the thought of framing affecting the point of entry also came into mind. If given a specific frame, are you then following the intentions of the maker of that product? Moreover, is that frame the view from only that direction or does changing your angle of viewing direction within the frame (such as shown with the spirals) affect the points of entry you have for exploration of thought provoked by the product of an act of making? It seems as if there is a reciprocal question and answer set forth when analyzing this idea. There definitely is a relationship between the interaction of framing and point of entry within a POAM. Did the maker intend for an exact frame, or is the entirety of the images in a frame open for perception?

Also noteworthy is the ideas of lack of interaction within the poem, “Style”, and its representation in the coned spiral video created and how in both views of spirals they are never fully connected in the middle. The portrayal of this lack of interaction is obvious, whereas we intended for this representation, was that also the intention of Nemerov? In fact, we call them POAMS (Products Of Acts of Making), are all products made with specific intentions?

Where could we apply these ideas and this model in other areas of life?

Back to this ‘bioframe’ however, we can see that any knowledge of the subject of them poem influence our framing of its meaning. For instance, any specific word in the poem elicits a certain feeling (which is completely individual and UNIQUE for every person), and thus, can influence the context of the poem. If I have certain emotions and/or memories associated with the Holy Ghost, then I will think of it [the poem as a whole, as well as the metaphor] differently and it will alter the meaning/reaction I have to the poem. Any new information alters the perception of the poem. Even reading about the author changes things. We are college students, and are taught to make connections between strands of information, whether they are perpendicular or whether they are parallel and have no implicit intersection -- Queue imagination and connections via falsity.

English 340 Final Project Proposal

Spiraling Images

I had this inspiration in class today – when looking at a converging (tapering) spiral, we can see it is composed of many layers. I believe that any image/object can be ‘framed’ this way. Each slice of the spiral is unique, but is an important part to the ‘allness’ of the spiral in more than one way; it contributes structural support to the structure, as well as provides a complete image when viewed from the top. After reading “spirals” on Wikipedia, I learned that actually I am using the incorrect terminology mathematically:

“In mathematics, a spiral is a curve which emanates from a central point, getting progressively farther away as it revolves around the point. The concise mathematical definition is "The locus of a point moving at constant speed whose distance from a fixed point increases at a specific rate."

A "spiral" and a "helix" are two terms that are easily confused, but represent different objects.

A spiral is typically a planar curve (that is, flat), like the groove on a record or the arms of a spiral galaxy. A helix, on the other hand, is a three-dimensional coil that runs along the surface of a cylinder, like a screw. There are many instances where in colloquial usage spiral is used as a synonym for helix, notably spiral staircase and spiral binding of books. Mathematically this is incorrect but the terms are increasing in common usage.

A cross between a spiral and a helix is known as a conic helix. An example of a conic helix is the spring used to hold and make contact with the negative terminals of AA or AAA batteries in remote controls.”

I also found a great website dealing with spirals, http://spiralzoom.com//.

I hope to base my final project off this concept of a conic helix. When we view something, particular in nature (I have a particular attraction to the natural elements), we see slices of the helix. We cannot perceive the entirety of the image due to our physical constraints from being human. We can only see a small segment of the electromagnetic spectrum, and can only hear a small relatively small region of the auditory spectrum. In fact, we can only see about 300 nm (waves 400-700 nm in wavelength), which is an extremely small portion of the entire spectrum as you can see on the following figure. With our hearing limitations, we can only hear sound waves with frequencies from about 20 Hz (waves per second) to about 20,000 Hz). See the following figure for more details.

Much remains to be seen/found/uncovered in the other spectrums. For a complete framing of an object, there needs to be an examination in the other portions of helix, primarily portions that are by human means, impossible. To have a complete understanding/framing of an object, we must analyze a culmination of images, which individually examine the object in unique portions of the spectrum and not only our visible spectrum. After assembling these images, we may be able to see a more complete helix that can properly represent the object. We can superimpose the images on top of each other (similar to the construction of a helix) and see what superstructures arise. We may also be able to analyze similarities in the different parts of the spectrums.

I propose the following:

An examination of natural living objects (i.e. plants) in the different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum as well as different imaging techniques we currently use. Technologies, which come to mind immediately, include MRI, ultrasounds, x-ray, infrared, and CT scans. Obviously not limiting the project to these methodologies, they would provide a solid foundation for such an analysis. We could also use scale to examine symmetry in the structures. For example, I envision taking a panoramic picture of a forest, and then zooming in gradually to examine the more intricate structures presented by individual trees and plants and eventually leaves. We could further magnify this to examine cell structure. Furthermore, with the MRI, we could image the water molecules in the actual leaf. This is just an example.

As for the audio component, Professor Moss and I briefly spoke about the possibility of getting our hands on a contact microphone in which we could be maybe pick up endogenous vibrations of materials, which we could then amplify and present as well.

Such an examination would be artistically appealing, and scientifically revealing.

I would appreciate your thoughts/feedback on the matter.

snowflakes

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/01/18/math-model-snowflake.html

surfaces, surfaces, surfaces

Surfaces are unique. Each is significant and conveys the image of its source. Some hide the mysteries which lie beneath; others serve as a portal into the innards of an object. Everything has a surface, from the sun, to humans, to the smallest pebble one could find on the beach. Surfaces are indeed a part of the object itself- yet one could argue that it is a small part. Mapping only a surface only can allow one a superficial image of an object. It’s as if a doctor is imaging your bones with a regular camera. While some surfaces are beautiful, others are unintruiging – however, this conveys nothing about the actual object, in most cases. Surfaces are the exterior shells of all objects.

Surfaces and volume have very distinct properties. For example, for a cube, the surface covers an area equaling = 6*a² , whereas the volume it displaces equals = a³. The volume in a cube obviously grows much faster than the surface area, and as a result, the surface of a cube hides the ‘non-correlational’ (tremendous) volume beneath. While an object might appear to contain little mass, it is quite possible that there lies a giant in the shadows. Another point to think about would be the relative quality of the inner materials versus the exterior surface – “a diamond in the rough” .

This leads me to my next topic regarding confining commentaries to surfaces. The surface of an object is a shell, protecting /hiding/displaying/containing the inner contents which make of the volume of the object. Thus, one should take into consideration the true qualities of an object which inherently lie in the volume of the object, not necessarily the thin exterior we perceive with our sight/smell/touch/taste/hearing. The examination of an entirety of an object is the root of a thorough evaluation.