Jeff Thompson – Blog

Reading “Flatland” recently, I came on the term “transcendental geometry”.  The citation for this comparison is the following quote from the Feb 27, 1885 issue of the journal Science.

The modern mathematician finds the space of three dimensions, in which our visible universe is containled, entirely too contracted for his conceptions, and is obliged to imagine a space of “n” dimensions in order that his fancy may find room to disport itself. But it is a new idea, on the part of the novelist, to make the conceptions of transcendental geometry the basis for an amusing story.

The very short article goes on to compare “Flatland” with “Through the Looking Glass” and their use of geometry as speculative and imaginative.

In trying to find more about this term, it appears that sadly the intelligent design crowd has laid claim to it.  The most I could find (in an admittedly short search) was this related Wikipedia article on “Complex Geometry“:

In mathematics, complex geometry is the study of complex manifolds and functions of many complex variables. Application of transcendental methods to algebraic geometry falls in this category, together with more geometric chapters of complex analysis.

Learned a new term today: voxel.  A voxel (short for volumetric pixel) is, at least in terms of video game design, a slightly out of date technology being replaced by what may be my other new favorite thing “height maps“.

The above image is of a ribosome molecule, though it seems like it could be an enemy from an SNES game.  On a (slightly) related note, here’s a great animated .gif of the ribosome of Haloarcula (a tiny seawater creature) by David S. Goodsell:

After some wrangling with Processing I’ve created a program that writes optical tonewheels in a variety of shapes.  However, I wanted to also be able to include recorded waveforms like optical film sound except in a circle.  The resolution needs to be high and the image scaleable, so distorting a screengrab of a waveform does not work.

Using a little patch I wrote in Max/MSP, I created a list of the average amplitude of a 10-second audio sample.  The result was 10,000 values which were translated into the image above.

Probably not perfect, but at it at least looks really great.

Download the source code (in progress) here.

Through the kind of ambling the internet is so suited for, I went from Laurie Spiegel’s early computer art experiments at Bell Labs to reading that the first image of a nude in the NY Times was the above image*, created on a computer by Ken Knowlton.  This seems to me to merit a more careful analysis, but my initial thoughts are that:

1. The first time?  Hard to believe the paper could be that conservative as to not show a painting of a nude before.
2. We react differently to innovative and flashy technology than we do to traditional craft.

Knowlton tells the story of making the image and then being told by Bell Labs that it could be displayed, but not to associate it with Bell Labs (for fear of it being read as pornography).  When the image ran in the Times, their attitude changed to “You may indeed distribute and display it, but be sure that you let people know that it was produced at Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc.” [ quote from Knowlton's site ]

It took some serious digging, but I did find the original article, published on Oct 11, 1967.  The citation is below, and can be downloaded from library databases (I found this on ProQuest, the NY Times online only goes back to 1980).

“Art and Science Proclaim Alliance in Avant-Garde Loft”, Henry R Lieberman, New York Times, Oct 11, 1967, p 49.

* This claim is made by Billy Kluver of Bell Labs and founder of E.A.T. – I found several references to this but couldn’t find any sources from the Times that back this up, though I certainly hope it’s true.

Sometimes I think I should start a separate blog of just shapes.  This beauty is called a “Great Dirhombicosidodecahedron“, and it is great.  Perhaps there is a dissertation somewhere on why we are drawn to certain shapes like this one and not others (for example, I have no love for the “Great icosidodecahedron“).

Image via: Wikipedia’s “List of Uniform Polyhedra”

Via: TechnologyStudent.com – randomly found while researching ferrous metals

Similar in theory to optical tonewheels are these rotary encoder.  They’re used for position sensing in robots and high-end machinery.  An optical reader can tell the exact position of the motor shaft to a high level of precision.

An amazingly complicated optical tonewheel.  Not sure who this is made by exactly, though it’s either Jacques Dudon, Daniel Arfib, or Patrick Sanchez.  Collectively, this group made over 1,000 different discs as of 2003.

Via: The Process Photosonique (English translation here) – includes information on making optical “comb filters” for interacting with these discs.

Wow:

In 1922 in the port town of Baku in celebration of the fifth anniversary of the revolution composer, performance instigator and music journalist Arseny Avraamov (1886-1944), inspired by the poetry of Alexei Gastev, has staged his best-known creation – the Symphony of Sirens. This bruitist spectacular used the services of a huge cast of choirs joined by spectators, the foghorns of the entire Caspian flotilla, two batteries of artillery guns, a number of full infantry regiments including a machine-gun division, hydroplanes, and all the factory sirens of Baku. Conductor posted on specially built tower signaled various sound units with colored flags and pistol shots.

While I could find no recordings online, there is apparently this book with CD which you can preview here.  The above image is of Avraamov conducting the performance.

Via: Theremin Center

Revision: noticed the other day that the above CD cover looks a whole lot like the tonewheels I’ve been looking at.  Strange.

In researching an upcoming project tentatively called “Mechanically Infinite Devices”, I’ve been spending a lot of time reading about tonewheels.  Most rely on a simple metal disc with spurs (sort of like gears) and an electromagnetic pickup (like in an electric guitar).  The Robb Wave Organ, however, is a slightly different case.  The organ features similar rows of tonewheels, but with patterns cut into the wheel’s surface.

There’s something intricate and careful about this design.  Even the patent application (detail below) is wonderfully designed.