Welcome to the Music, Math, and Motion homepage. (updated 6 Feb. 2009)

Here's the Catalog Program Description. For daily details, please see our Moodle site. (Moodle is a secure site, available to registered students who have completed the week 1 workshop.)

Fall end-of-quarter description (for transcripts of students finishing the program), complete with credit equivalencies. Winter credit estimate

Music or sound? Signal or noise? Is there a difference? How can we tell? What are elements of music? Harmony and rhythym, patterns in tone and time? Need music be meaningful or pleasing? To whom? What are the social functions of artists and scientists? (How) can scientists and artists offer each other new resources for their creative processes? These are some of the questions that will guide our inquiries fall quarter.

Acoustic waves permeate the physical world. Some systems resonate with particular frequencies, and some systems interact to drive oscillations in each other. What are the nature of oscillations, especially acoustic oscillations? What can drive, sustain, damp, or transform acoustic oscillations? How can we describe them mathematically? How can we use mathematics to create acoustic patterns, from noise to music? Inquiries such as these will motivate our physical and intellectual explorations and performances.

Winter SCHEDULE

Please check Syllabus and Moodle at least weekly
for details and updates

Weekend-Monday

Read solo and work with teammates (pre-seminar, HW, projects)

Tuesday
Everyone: 1:00 Lecture / Discussion in COM 110
3:00-5:00 Arun's seminar in COM 110
3:00 - 5:00 Zita's Seminar in SEM 2 D1107
Wednesday

Read solo and work with teammates (pre-seminar, HW, projects)

Thursday
Group C: 1:00-5:00 Computer Music Workshop in Computer Center (ACC) in Lib (Grotto)
Group P: 3:00-5:00 physics help session in CAL (1st floor Lab II)
Friday
Group C: 1:00-5:00 Computer Music Workshop in Computer Center (ACC) in Lib (Grotto)
Group P: 1:00-5:00 Physics of Music workshops in CAL (sometimes 3:00 seminar moves to 2207 Lab II)

Adjustments may be made in the 3:00-5:00 block of Thursdays and Fridays for seminar or special activities - see Syllabus and Moodle for details

Evolving Winter Syllabus
This syllabus evolves in response to student and faculty needs and inspiration, and to special opportunities that may arise. Further information, including further assignment details, will be posted on Moodle, our secure, interactive site.

Notice that the first week, midquarter, and the last few weeks of the program may have unusual schedules and/or meeting places. Otherwise, please refer to the SCHEDULE above for meeting times and places.

Week 1 - Week 2 - Week 3 - Week 4 - Week 5 - Week 6 - Week 7 - Week 8 - Week 9 - Week 10 - Week 11

Week 1
Tues. 6 Jan.
Introduction and logistics in COM 110
Seminar on Finkel reading/writing/learning community (handouts available in class)
Wednesday 7 Jan.
Field trip to Seattle Art Museum (12:00)

Thursday in Com 209

1:00 - 5:00

Read Benjamin Lee Whorf:
* On the Connection of Ideas
* An American Indian Model of the Universe
* The Relation of Habitual Thought and Behavior to Language
* Languages and Logic

Read Larry Richards: * Definitions of Cybernetics

Read Articles from Cybernetics of Cybernetics:
*Norbert Wiener: Cybernetics
* Ross Ashby: What is New

Friday 9 Jan
1:00 class in ACC (Lib)
Week 2
Tues.13 Jan.

1:00 Overview of Physics of Sound
Presentation regarding 1st performance project (due week 3) COM 110

3:00 Seminar (read these in advance and come prepared with 3 Key Points and 3 Significant Questions on each)
* Thomas Kuhn: Structure of Scientific Revolutions - Preface through VII (p.76) and
* Marianne Brun: Paradigms: the Inertia of Language (article)

  Wed.14 Jan Finish reading Kuhn (through through XII and Postscript)
Thursday 15 Jan.

1:00 Computer Music workshop in ACC for Group C: Arun is sick - come to Zita's workshop in CAL at 3:00.

3:00-5:00 Moodle workshop in CAL required for new students, recommended for continuing students

Friday 16 Jan.

1:00-3:00 Physics of Sound in CAL (Ch.11a: 1, 2, 3, 5) for Group P, OR
Computer music workshop in ACC for Group C

3:00-5:00 Seminar: finish discussing Kuhn
Week 3
Monday 19 Jan. due: teams post PIQs on Tuesday readings on Moodle (finish readings and pre-seminar with your team over the weekend)
Monday is MLK day. Volunteer opportunity:Musical Instrument Drive. This is a project to collect, repair and provide musical instruments for underprivileged youth.  Volunteers are needed to help repair and restore donated instruments and teaching youth the basics of the instruments. There will be a brief orientation for volunteers.  Donations of instruments are also appreciated!

To volunteer or for more information: mlkinstrumentdrive@gmail.com

Tuesday 20 Jan.

Inauguration day! Acceptance speech at noon Eastern time (this will be over by the time class starts, so don't miss class)

Film in COM 110: Margaret Mead - A Life
Possible lecture on performance pieces for tonight. Leave by 4:00 for Seattle performance - bring something to eat.
Seminar Reading for today:
* Margaret Mead: Cybernetics of Cybernetics
* Mead and Bateson: Interview
* Gregory Bateson: The Function of Humor...
8 pm concert in Seattle's Benaroya Hall - San Francisco Symphony plays (meet vans immediately after at 4:00 in C lot - bring food and drink)
*Aaron Copeland: Our Town
*Alban Berg: Three Pieces for Orchestra
*Johannes Brahms: Symphony #1
Thursday 22 Jan. 1-5: Computer music workshop in ACC for Group C
3-5: Physics help session in CAL for Group P (Ch.11a HW due tomorrow: see Moodle for details)
Friday 23 Jan. 1-3: Physics of Sound in CAL (Ch.11b:6,7,8,9) for group P
HW 11a due before class (HW=homework)
3-5: Seminar on Margaret Mead: Sex and Temperament. Everyone read Introduction, Part 4, and Conclusion, plus one additional chapter (see this link for your chapter assignment).
Week 4
Mon.26.Jan. due: teams post PIQs on Tuesday readings on Moodle, after your preseminar meeting
Tuesday 27 Jan.

COM 110: Lecture/Seminar Readings: Gregory Bateson, Steps to an Ecology of Mind
* Why Do Things Get in a Muddle
* Style, Grace, and Information in Primitive Art
* Double Bind
* The cybernetics of ``Self": A Theory of Alcoholism
* Cybernetic Explanation
* Form, Substance and Difference

Thursday 29 Jan. 1:00 Computer Music workshop in ACC for Group C
3-5: Physics help session in CAL for group P
Friday 30 Jan. 1:00 Physics of Sound in CAL (Ch.11c: 9,10,12,13) for group P
HW 11b due before class
1:00 Computer Music workshop in ACC for Group C
3:00 Film: Battle of Chile, Part I, probably in COM 110
Saturday 31 Jan. Peer evaluations due by noon to your seminar faculty (via email please)
Week 5
Mon.2.Feb. due: teams post PIQs on Tuesday readings on Moodle, after your preseminar meeting
Tuesday 3 Feb.

Com 110: Lecture/Seminar Readings: See Moodle Week 5 for new assignments from Arun
Ludwig Wittgenstein: Tractatus Logico Philosophicus

Articles by Heinz von Foerster from Cybernetics of Cybernetics:
* on constructing a reality
* Personalities, Affinities, Genes and Happenings
* Memory Without Record
* On Self-Organizing Systems and Their Environments

Thus. 5 Feb. 1:00-3:00 Group P: Midterm conferences with select students
1:00-3:00 Group C: Computer workshop
3:00-5:00 Battle of Chile, Part 2, Com 110
Fri. 6 Feb. 1:00-5:00 Group Performance 1
Week 6
Mon.9.Feb. due: teams post PIQs on Tuesday readings on Moodle, after your preseminar meeting
Tuesday 10 Feb.

Com 110: Lecture/Seminar Readings:
* Stafford Beer: Designing Freedom
* Beer: Managing Modern Complexity p.86, CofC
* Richard Herbert Howe: Social Cybernetics

Thursday 12 Feb. 1:00 Computer Music workshop in ACC for Group C
3:00 Physics help session in CAL
Friday 13 Feb. 1:00 Physics of Sound in CAL (Ch.12a: 1,2,3) for Group P
HW 11c due before class
1:00 Computer Music workshop for Group C in ACC
3:00 Film: Missing, in Com 110
Week 7
Mon.16.Feb. due: teams post PIQs on Tuesday readings on Moodle, after your preseminar meeting
Tuesday 17 Feb.

COM 110:Lecture/Seminar Readings from Herbert Brun: When Music Resists Meaning
* The Need of Cognition for the Cognition of Needs
* Drawing Distinctions Links Contradictions
* to hold discourse - at least - with a computer

Video: Bluebeard's Castle
Thursday 19 Feb. 1:00 Computer Music workshop in ACC for Group C
3-5: Physics help session in CAL
Friday 20 Feb. 1:00 Physics of Sound in CAL (Ch.12b: 4,5,6) for Group P
HW 12a due before class
OR Computer Music workshop for Group C in ACC
Sunday 22 Feb.

Seattle Opera Performance (meet vans in C lot at 11:45 am; they will leave at noon and return between 6-7 pm)

Bela Bartok: Bluebeard's Castle
Arnold Schoenberg: Erwartung

Week 8
Mon.23.Feb. due: teams post PIQs on Tuesday readings on Moodle, after your preseminar meeting
Tuesday 24 Feb. COM 110: Lecture/Seminar reading: Mann's Dr. Faustus
Thursday 26 Feb. 1:00 Computer Music workshop for Group C
3-5: Physics help session in CAL
Friday 27 Feb. 1:00 Physics of Sound in CAL (Ch.12c: 7,8,9) for Group P
HW 12b due before class
OR Computer Music workshop for Group C in ACC
Week 9
Tues.3 Mar. COM 110: Lecture/Seminar reading: Humberto Maturana, The Ontology of Observing
Film: Conversation between Maturana and von Foerster
Thursday 5 Mar. 1-3: SUMMARY of Physics of Sound in CAL for Group P; discuss HW 12c
3-5: Rehearsals in ___
Friday 6 Mar. Group Performances of Project 2
Saturday 7 Mar. Peer evaluations due by noon to your seminar faculty (email)
Week 10
Tues.10 Mar. Final Survey due today (on Moodle)
Thus.-Sun. 12-15 Mar. ASC conference: Schedule info on Moodle Week 10
Week 11

17-20 March: Evaluation conferences are required for all students. See Sign-up sheets and portfolio guidelines.
(Plan any spring break travel for AFTER 20 March only.)

Bring to your conference:
* your organized portfolio, with a reflective paragraph before each section
* your self-eval. This may be a draft based on those reflective paragraphs and your survey responses, among other things
* your faculty/program eval, to give to the program secretaries (who will give it to us after your eval is fully processed)

Draft FINAL PROGRAM DESCRIPTION (you need not include any of this information in your self-eval, as it will be part of your transcript)

Workload and approximate credit equivalencies:

* 1 lecture session per week (1 cr)
* 1-2 seminar sessions per week, including PIQs (4 cr)
* 2 performance sessions (4 cr)
* 2 essays and 4 responses (3 cr)
> (subtotal 12 credits)
     And choose between
* 2 Computer workshops per week (4 cr) OR
* 1-2 Physics of sound workshops per week (4 cr)
> (total 16 credits)

Faculty Contact and more Info:

Dr. Arun Chandra 360-867-6077 arunc(at)evergreen.edu COM 308 A
Dr. E.J. Zita
(email is best)
zita(at)evergreen.edu
2272 Lab II
 
Information from Registration, including course CRN 10034 (Fr). 10036