The Dot and the Line

 September 29, 2012

Chuck Jones/MGM's classic 1965 Oscar-winning short film based on Norton Juster's 1963 book The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics inspired by Edwin Abbott Abbott's 1884 novella "Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions."

The story details a straight line who is hopelessly in love with a dot. The dot, finding the line to be stiff, dull, and conventional, turns her affections toward a wild and unkempt squiggle. The line, unable to fall out of love and willing to do whatever it takes to win the dot's affection, manages to bend himself and form an angle. He works to refine this new ability, creating shapes so complex that he has to label his sides and angles to keep his place.

The dot realizes that she has made a mistake: what she had seen in the squiggle to be freedom and joy was nothing more than chaos and sloth. She leaves with the line, having realized that he has much more to offer, and the moral is presented: "To the vector belong the spoils."




Rotisserie Theremin

 September 21, 2012

Source: dennisppaul.de/an-instrument-for-the-sonification-of-everday-things/

An Instrument for the Sonification of Everday Things from Dennis P Paul on Vimeo.

An Instrument for the Sonification of Everday Things
by Dennis P Paul

This is a serious musical instrument. It rotates everyday things, scans their surfaces, and transforms them into audible frequencies. A variety of everyday objects can be mounted into the instrument. Their silhouettes define loops, melodies and rhythms. Thus mundane things are reinterpreted as musical notation. Playing the instrument is a mixture of practice, anticipation, and serendipity.
The instrument was built from aluminum tubes, white POM, black acrylic glass, a high precision distance measuring laser ( with the kind support of Micro-Epsilon ), a stepper motor, and a few bits and bobs.
A custom programmed translator and controller module, written in processing, transforms the measured distance values into audible frequencies, notes, and scales. It also precisely controls the stepper-motor’s speed to sync with other instruments and musicians.

Playing the Instrument is a mixture of practice, anticipation, and serendipity.

Source: dennisppaul.de/an-instrument-for-the-sonification-of-everday-things/


B.F. Skinner's teaching machine

 September 18, 2012

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