THE GRID

O

okzharp

Well-known member
shiels said:
Music of the Grid:

A Poem in Two Equations
_________________________

The masses of particles sound the frequencies with which space vibrates, when played. This Music of the Grid betters the old mystic mainstay, "Music of the Spheres," both in fantasy and in realism.

LET US COMBINE Einstein's second law

m=E/C^2 (1)

with another fundamental equation, the Planck-Einstein-Schrodinger formula

E = hv

The Planck-Einstein-Schrodinger formula relates the energy E of a quantum-mechanical state to the frequency v at which its wave function vibrates. Here h is Planck's constant. Planck introduced it in his revolutionary hypothesis (1899) that launched quantum theory: that atoms emit or absorb light of frequency v only in packets of energy E = hv. Einstein went a big step further with his photon hypothesis (1905): that light of frequency v is always organized into packets with energy E = hv. Finally Schrodinger made it the basis of his basic equation for wave functions-the Schrodinger equation (1926). This gave birth to the modern, universal interpretation: the wave function of any state with energy E vibrates at a frequency v given by v = E/h.

By combining Einstein with Schrodinger we arrive at a marvelous bit of poetry:

(*) v = mc^2/h (*)

The ancients had a concept called "Music of the Spheres" that inspired many scientists (notably Johannes Kepler) and even more mystics. Because periodic motion (vibration) of musical instruments causes their sustained tones, the idea goes, the periodic motions of the planets, as they fulfill their orbits, must be accompanied by a sort of music. Though picturesque and soundscape-esque, this inspiring anticipation of multimedia never became a very precise or fruitful scientific idea. It was never more than a vague metaphor, so it remains shrouded in equation marks: "Music of the Spheres."

Our equation (*) is a more fantastic yet more realistic embodiment of the same inspiration. Rather than plucking a string, blowing through a reed, banging on a drumhead, or clanging a gong, we play the instrument that is empty space by plunking down different combinations of quarks, gluons, electrons, photons,... (that is, the Bits that represent these Its) and let them settle until they reach equilibrium with the spontaneous activity of Grid. Neither planets nor any material constructions compromise the pure ideality of our instrument. It settles into one of its possible vibratory motions, with different frequencies v, depending on how we do the plunking, and with what. These vibrations represent particles of different mass m, according to (*). The masses of particles sound the Music of the Grid.
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yeahs.

recalls that amusing little Herzog bit when he's stuck in the jungle, talking about how we need to get accustomed to the idea of a profound lack of order. "The harmony of overwhelming and collective murder" ha

what do we do about B flat minor? did B flat minor exist before it was described?

a 'dark' key favoured by composers reaching for a mood of euphoric bittersweet contemplation. Mozart never completed any pieces in this key, Tchaikovsky said it captures "the feeling that you get when you are all alone, but together with yourself". and B flat minor frequencies are everywhere in the lived environment and our own human biology. Waterfalls and glaciers are both in B flat. Unborn babies heartbeats are in B flat. The built environment tpo, like steel structures have an optimal vibrational frequency of B flat minor. Toilet U bends generate B flat resonances. Most industrial and domestic electricity hum resonates in B flat minor at around 60Hz.
 
woops

woops

is not like other people
okzharp said:
yeahs.

recalls that amusing little Herzog bit when he's stuck in the jungle, talking about how we need to get accustomed to the idea of a profound lack of order. "The harmony of overwhelming and collective murder" ha

what do we do about B flat minor? did B flat minor exist before it was described?

a 'dark' key favoured by composers reaching for a mood of euphoric bittersweet contemplation. Mozart never completed any pieces in this key, Tchaikovsky said it captures "the feeling that you get when you are all alone, but together with yourself". and B flat minor frequencies are everywhere in the lived environment and our own human biology. Waterfalls and glaciers are both in B flat. Unborn babies heartbeats are in B flat. The built environment tpo, like steel structures have an optimal vibrational frequency of B flat minor. Toilet U bends generate B flat resonances. Most industrial and domestic electricity hum resonates in B flat minor at around 60Hz.
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amazing post. i remember reading that key signature specificity had been debunked. some guy made a piano that could appear to play in a key other than the piece performed assembled musicologists all claimed to spot the clef much to their presumable chagrin.
 
sus

sus

Moderator
I've never believed in scales sounding different but I want to believe. Woops you're not being serious? I'll go play at my piano for a bit, improvise around, see if it seems lonelier than any other key.
 
sus

sus

Moderator
I messed around with Bb minor it's pretty solemn. Tho is it more solemn than other minor keys? I haven't answered that yet

I do remember learning a funeral march by Chopin in that key, when I was a boy. It is very glum stuff. I revisited it and sat in silence for a while after.
 
0

0bleak

Well-known member
I don't think key alone is going to necessarily exert the greatest influence.
It probably goes without saying, but the timbres, rhythms, etc. will great influence how something sounds.
I'm current working in Dm, for example, and some of the stuff I've been experimenting with in the same key sounds pretty different in the way it feels to me.
 
mvuent

mvuent

Void Dweller
sus said:
Since you are now Chicago's leading Wake scholar, what do you think the Wake has to say about grids and schemas?
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sus said:
I think I saw this attitude first in Maggie Nelson's Argonauts, when I encountered this view, back in college. That language (and 'structure' more broadly) was poisoning or corrosive. Not just a limited power, as all powers are limited. Not a capacity that enables us to do lots of stuff but is maybe sometimes inappropriately overused. But as something actively corrosive. "The fall is in language." The way we (and many others) seem to talk about e.g. smartphones here.

It seems related too to the anti-boundary, cosmic consciousness aspect of counterculture. Dissolve the borders, which are only ever oppressive. Language being in some ways "discrete" technologies, versus body language which is "continuous" and therefore does not provoke countercultural ire.

In many ways, I think this pro/anti attitude toward boundaries is the best synopsis what separates mainstream from counterculture
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my experience so far is that the wake rebels against the language grid without forgetting it entirely. the association-overloaded portmanteu language it employs makes words difficult to plot at one exact meaning. sure, there are cases (like "penisolate" har har) where you could argue that the affixed words sort of imply the same thing. but then there are others where two opposites seem to merge together in yin yang fashion ("huroldry" for example, heraldry and cuckoldry). and even more disorienting, invented words (like "aeropagods") that seem to imply many different words, inventions that can be interpreted enough to be felt, but are too protean to pin down. plus, even the seemingly clearer cases can become murkier on closer inspection. according to descartes, you know you're not dreaming if you can remember how you got to where you are. in other words, if you're oriented. if you know where you are in the grid. in dreaming, ariadne's thread slips out of your grasp, you become lost. so the wake simulates that even on the level of its words.
 
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luka

luka

Well-known member
AI Overview



+8
A phalanx is a military formation composed of heavily armed infantry, typically arranged in a tightly packed, rectangular formation with spears and shields. It was famously used in ancient Greece and later adapted by Macedonians, like during Alexander the Great's conquests.
 
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