Crystal structure
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In mineralogy and crystallography, crystal structure is a unique arrangement of atoms or molecules in a crystallineliquid or solid. A crystal structure is composed of a pattern, a set of atoms arranged in a particular way, and a lattice exhibiting long-range order and symmetry. Patterns are located upon the points of a lattice, which is an array of points repeating periodically in three dimensions. The points can be thought of as forming identical tiny boxes, called unit cells, that fill the space of the lattice. The lengths of the edges of a unit cell and the angles between them are called the lattice parameters. The symmetry properties of the crystal are embodied in its space group.
Footnote 1 from Robert Smithon's essay The Spiral Jetty (1972).
Originally published in Arts of the Environment, Gyorgy Kepes, ed. pp.222-232
Reprinted in Robert Smithson: The Collected Writings, Jack Flam, ed. pp.143-153
From UBU, a bootleg film document from 1972 of Robert Smithson lecturing at Univ. of Utah on photographs he shot at his hotel in Palenque, Mexico in 1969.
PDF of the complete transcript and slides from the lecture.
Fabric (geology)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In geology, a rock's fabric describes the spatial and geometric configuration of all the elements that make it up.[1].
Types of fabric
Primary fabric – a fabric created during the original formation of the rock e.g. a preferred orientation of clast long axes in a conglomerate, parallel to the flow direction, deposited by a fast waning current.
Shape fabric – a fabric that is defined by the preferred orientation of inequant elements within the rock, such as platy or needle like mineral grains. It may also be formed by the deformation of originally equant elements such as mineral grains
Crystallographic preferred orientation – In plastically deformed rocks the constituent minerals commonly display a preferred orientation of their crystal axes as a result of dislocation processes.
S-fabric – a planar fabric such as cleavage or foliation, when it forms the dominant fabric in a rock, it may be called an S-tectonite
L-fabric – a linear fabric such as mineral stretching lineation where aggregates of recrystallised grains are stretched out into the long axis of the finite strain ellipsoid, where it forms the dominant fabric in a rock, it may be called an L-tectonite.
Penetrative fabric – a fabric that is present throughout the rock, down to the grain scale.
Verb
(transitive) To rumple; to press into wrinkles by crushing together.
(transitive) To cause to collapse.
(intransitive) To become wrinkled.
(intransitive) To collapse.
The assignment of something to a period of time that precedes it.
The representation of something which has occurred before its time. I'm a dead man.
(rhetoric) The anticipation of an objection to an argument.
A grammatical construction that consists of placing an element in a syntactic unit before that to which it would logically correspond. That noise, I just heard it again.
A philosophical concept used in ancient epistemology to indicate a so-called "preconception", i.e. a pre-theoretical notion which can lead to true knowledge of the world.
After an incredibly challenging process and satisfying TILT Brass show on the previous evening, I was very excited to witness the inspired resurrection of the Italian Futurist Luigi Russolo's Intonarumori (Noise Intoners) instruments at Town Hall. 13 composers were (enviably) asked to compose new works for the 16-piece Intonarumori, several of whom are close colleagues including Joan La Barbara, Jenny Walshe (w/ Tony Conrad), James Fei, Elliott Sharp, and Nick Hallett. The Magik*Magik Orchestra traveled from the Bay Area to offer their totally committed, engaging performance of these works, all under the steadfast and cheerful guidance of conductor (and composer of one of the evenings most compelling scores) Luciano Chessa. As I told some friends and Maestro Chessa himself, this was a capital "I" important event on the New York calendar. Beyond the sublime answer to the curiosity around what these infamous things sound like, the evenings importance was supported by the shear number of NYC musical avant garde Illuminati in attendance. It was quite a hang next door afterward!
I have one complaint that had nothing to do with the performance itself, but made me very uncharacteristically angry. First, a heartfelt thanks to Performa for having the will and follow through to make this show happen. Many local presenters should take serious note of your boldness in this regard. However, it was a major oversight to not list the members of the Magik*Magik Orchestra in either the printed program or on the event page of their website. This is totally unacceptable! These people poured their spirit and musicality into this music and the absolute least that should be done is recognize them in print. Obviously, my perspective on this skews toward the performing musicians, but regardless of your station in the hierarchy of presenting this event, failing to give them proper credit is shameful and tone deaf to the musical art form.
In gemology, chatoyancy (pronounced /ʃəˈtɔɪənsiː/, shə-TOY-ən-see), or chatoyance, is an optical reflectance effect seen in certain gemstones. Coined from the French "œil de chat," meaning "cat's eye," chatoyancy arises either from the fibrous structure of a material, as in tiger eye quartz, or from fibrous inclusions or cavities within the stone, as in cat's eye chrysoberyl. The effect can be likened to the sheen off a spool of silk: The luminous streak of reflected light is always perpendicular to the direction of the fibres. For a gemstone to show this effect best it must be cut en cabochon, with the fibers or fibrous structures parallel to the base of the finished stone. Faceted stones are less likely to show the effect well.
Gem species known for this phenomenon include the aforementioned quartz, chrysoberyl, beryl (especially var. aquamarine), tourmaline, apatite, moonstone and scapolite. Glass optical cable can also display chatoyancy if properly cut, and has become a popular decorative material in a variety of vivid colors.
Live recording of Last Judgment on Archive.org DownTown Ensemble's Flexible Orchestra Concert
St. Peter's Church, Chelsea, NYC
April 28, 2006
CJM’s Program Note for the April '06 performance of Fredric Rzewski’s Last Judgment: For Trombone Solo or Several Echoing Trombones Not Quite In Unison [1969]
I met Fredric Rzewski several years ago during his monumental performance run of the solo piano work The Road at The Kitchen. We were sitting down for beer(s) afterward with his old friend Steve ben Israel, an early member of Living Theater, and the speaker's voice heard on the original 1971 Opus One recording of Coming Together. At any rate, we were (well, Fredric was) talking about how little New York had changed in 30 plus years. No elevators in the subway, this sort of thing.
Not wanting to go anywhere near a counter-argument with Mr. Rzewski, I switched the subject and mentioned that my group TILT Brass Band had just performed his 1969 process piece Les Mouton de Panurge. This was very intriguing to him, and he said, "well, you know, there's a trombone piece from around the same time. I shall put you in contact with my manager and you should play it." I admire the man's work a great deal, so this concert is my (initial) fulfillment of his suggestion.
Last Judgment does fall well within Rzewski's compositional interests at the time. Like Mouton, and the original concept behind Musica Elettronica Viva, his subtitle of "For Trombone Solo or Several Echoing Trombones Not Quite In Unison" intends an inclusive and non-hierarchical spirit. MEV was (as Fredric put it in an email) "trying, by introducing audience participation into our concerts, to break down the caste differences between 'musicians' and 'amateurs'. So we invited beginners... to play in our concerts and paid them like everybody else. This sometimes produced interesting, though also dreadful, results." He continued, "We used to have a guy in our group, Franco Cataldi, who wanted to play the trombone but couldn't (unlike a gentleman). His ambition was to do the 'Tuba Mirum' solo... so I thought of this piece which is really too difficult even for a very good soloist, but could be done if enough players, both good and mediocre, teamed up together. The idea of the title is that it doesn't matter who gets to Heaven first, because they just have to wait so that we all go in together."
We have no amateurs or mediocre players to speak of in this Orchestra, but the work's frequent meter changes, duration, and range make for a difficult blow to be sure. The decision was made in rehearsal to execute the piece as essentially 10 soloists. Again like Les Mouton, the sound of the group going in and out of unison becomes the aesthetic of the piece itself, creating a novel and quite beautiful sonority.
For the trombonophiles in the audience, the piece does indeed incorporate the opening intervals of Mozart's ubiquitous (at least for orchestral auditioners) Tuba Mirum solo from the Requiem. Using the classic Minimalist additive process, Last Judgment is truly a "fantasy" on both the musical material and apocalyptic meaning behind the Mozart work. It progresses through continually augmented phrases, mutating gradually from one to the next, with contrasted dynamics, and a tremendous finale hovering around the tenor trombone's ringing high B flat's and C's.
I saw Fredric again last Fall and mentioned the Flexible Orchestra's planned performance of Last Judgment. He thought it an excellent idea. Later, after discussion of trombones and trombonist's had continued, I mentioned the parenthetical phrase included above, (like a gentleman). A little Estonian vodka had taken hold of me, and I said "well, Fredric here regards trombonist's as gentlemen!". To which he replied, "Oh, I guess you don't know the old joke then: the man wanted to learn the trombone, but, like a gentleman, he didn't."
SEM micrograph of surface of a colloidal crystal. Structure and morphology consists of ordered crystallites, grains or domains of particles as well as interdomain lattice defects in the form of grain boundaries.
