A Triangulation: Hegel, Schopenhauer, Quantum
It is easy to understand why with no evidence whatsoever to change their views on cosmology, many philosophers of the 19th and 20th centuries restrained their discourses in areas of human consciousness to the way it relates and intersects with the realm of the physical universe. Yet even with the addition of physics to the mix of human knowledge, there still exists an insufficiency. Schopenhauer himself says that even though our world should be explicable by means of physical causes, two imperfections emerge– first, that the beginning of the chain of cause and effect can never be reached, and second, that wholly original qualities of things are inexplicable (Schopenhauer V2, 196).
Much certainly remains to find its way into human thought processes as we move forward in time. Idealism seems a valuable avenue of philosophy to retain when one considers not only the current inadequacies of physical science, but newly emerging paradigms which seem to push science into alignment with the salient possibilities that idealism offers. Hegel and Schopenhauer in particular both offer views on relationships between mind and nature which can be brought into correlation with one of these new paradigms, this despite the fact that these two philosophers are not wholly in agreement with each other.
The intention here is not simply to contrast the differences between these two philosophers, but to establish a framework by drawing upon some of their ideas. This framework can then be utilized as a kind of scaffold or incubator to purposely inform and better drive a more unique avenue of thought, one which is in large part founded upon what is currently an emergent paradigm– what Hegel might call a new flavor of zeitgeist, or maybe a new thread within such a spirit– though not yet fully clarified. This avenue of thought which I want to expand upon by means of Hegel and Schopenhauer is not entirely new, it appears originally in Hindu thought systems and has been brought to light again recently through the work of people such as the visionary quantum physicist Amit Goswami. Simply put, it is the idea that consciousness itself forms the substrate of reality rather than matter. In other words, consciousness forms a primacy which prefigures matter. This is not an argument for an intelligent design of our world, rather it is a way of seeing the phenomena of our world in terms of a deeper kind of physics. This deeper physics can offer unique new insights through verifiable and duplicatable experiments. By using some of Schopenhauer’s ideas of the universe as will and presentation, and some of Hegel’s ideas of what could be called transpersonal thought among members of society, it seems possible to synthesize a new orientation. This orientation might be a fertile ground for new possibilities, where deliberate intentions, Hegel’s natural mind, and Schopenhauer’s will and presentation can form a new conglomerate of sorts.
In the second volume of his great work The Universe as Will and Representation, Schopenhauer classifies realism and what is deemed as fact a “castle in the air that overlooks or denies the most fundamental fact, which is that everything we know lies within our consciousness” (4). He states that whatever we call objective is in fact conditioned by the mechanism of its presentation to us, which is our own consciousness. True objectivity cannot really exist for us. This becomes the basis for a further statement later in the book, where Kant is placed in a superior position to Plato, who described all learning as recollection, since it comes from within. Kant realized the very basic thing which by its simplicity is easy to miss– that the space we live in is subjectively conditioned (36). Schopenhauer then immediately takes an interesting turn, and says that time and space are the mode and manner of our mental non-apprehensions of objectivity, or what he calls apperceptions (37). This is somewhat curious, coming from one who also states as fact (on the same page) the presence of a vital force, which along with other natural forces forms a foundation for natural laws to rest upon. Is this natural vital force a part of the “castle in the air” he mentions previously? By alluding to something which is on deeper levels than we can perceive, he automatically allows for the possibility of even deeper levels of reality. This mention of the vital force can connect us immediately to Hegel.
Hegel calls for an essence to function as the Spirit of this world, and says that this essence is permeated by a self conscious, which knows the essence as an actuality which confronts it (Hegel, Phenomenology, 297). Is there a way that the essence Hegel speaks of could not be the vital force that Schopenhauer mentions? This depends on whether consciousness as Schopenhauer defines it is a function of natural forces or natural laws which rest on those forces.
Since Schopenhauer clearly states that matter is the permanent substrate upon which rests all transitory phenomena (Vol. 2, 348), the only conclusion that can be drawn is that forces consist of matter. By the same token, Hegel’s description of spirit as an essence containing self consciousness implies that his essence consists of a material which can contain consciousness. Certainly here too Hegel implies the possibility of finer levels of reality which we are not able to apprehend physically. Hegel calls for a connection between self consciousness and spirit. In fact, at (at least) one point he calls spirit “the individual that is a world” (Hegel, Phenomenology, 265). For Hegel, there then exists the possibility of spirit to consist of a varying number of self conscious entities somehow sharing the same essence which contains the self conscious. Yet matter as a substrate for consciousness cannot exist and then not exist to suit consciousness as people are born and as they die. So then in the case of Hegel, the essence which is permeated by self consciousness must somehow contain a force which unifies the self conscious, yet allows for variation at the same time. How can this be achieved? Here we can go back to Schopenhauer, who places space itself within the confines of subjective conditioning as his reasoning for the superiority of Kant’s position over Plato as mentioned above (V1, 34). While proclaiming himself a materialist via his position that matter is the substrate of all reality, Schopenhauer nevertheless allows for deeper levels of reality which he does not delimit. Hegel has a more transpersonal view of the same thing– consciousness recognizes itself vis-a-vis the reflection of the conscious essence of others (Phenomenology, 429). Yet Hegel also allows for the ideality of the soul, which can exist independently of space (Philosophy, 103). A strange kind of entanglement emerges here between mind and matter. For Hegel, this entanglement is resolved by his use of reason as a transformative universal force in its own right which he calls the natural mind (Philosophy, 49). For Schopenhauer the entanglement is resolved by matter being no more than the bond between the will and presentation of intellect (V2, 349). Both Hegel’s Spirit and Schopenhauer’s bond can only exist in concrete terms– neither could deny this based on their own writings, yet the subtle dichotomy between the views of these two philosophers might be expressed in a way which might allow for wider and more practical applications of idealistic thought beyond the dualism which both philosopher’s writings imply.
The quantum physicist Amit Goswami says that paradigms are brick walls. He talks at length about matter and consciousness in the movie “The Quantum Activist.” Dualism in his words requires a mediator, since mind and matter have nothing in common. Dualism is thus not an answer to the question of consciousness because there is no such mediator. Goswami gives a brief definition of quantum physics, stating that it is the physics of possibilities– possibilities for consciousness to choose from. Echoing both Hegel and Schopenhauer, Goswami points out in his discourse that since we are conditioned by the here and now and our ego (recognition of self) in ordinary reality, we make conditioned and predictable choices. There are however, according to Goswami other states of consciousness where quantum possibility comes more directly into play. In other words quantum physics is not related to simple intention, because quantum possibilities do not operate within ordinary states of consciousness. Here we are in new territory with the implication that consciousness has multiple or variable states, though evidence of this clearly exists in our world as evidenced by the use of biofeedback and other objective tools used during meditative states. For choices to be made even if outside of ordinary states of consciousness, there must exist possibilities. Goswami postulates that possibilities travel in waves, and that these are collapsed by consciousness into events. These waves of possibility which are also called quantum objects by physicists, have another wavelike feature, which is that they may possess more than one facet at the same time. These various facets are actually possibilities occurring at the same time, and may show up differently with different observations (Goswami, Creative, 31). Quantum objects exhibit wavelike properties, and are acted upon directly by non ordinary states of unitive consciousness. Since consciousness is acting as a force upon possibilities which are then expressed in the world, there is a parallel here to Schopenhauer’s albeit materialistic writing when he talks about natural forces which can function as containers for natural laws. This also connects to Hegel’s notions on the value of prevailing religious thought, but without the paradox of duality that religious thought entails. Higher states of consciousness also have parallels in the human physical body, and Goswami points to energy meridians used in the science of acupuncture and chakras as evidence of this. Within our gross body is a subtle body, governed by subtle energies which Western medicine ignores but which nonetheless are real. It begins to become apparent when following this path of thinking that artificial distinctions between science and metaphysics may be inappropriately divisive, despite Schopenhauer’s writing of the need for metaphysics. God and science, especially if one thinks of God in the way that mystics do, which is as a cosmic consciousness, can by following this way of thinking be reconciled, though that avenue of pursuit is beyond the interest of this writing. It is the leveling ability that quantum thinking has by placing consciousness in the primary mode that is of interest here, along with its potential to offer a gateway to deeper physics aligned with a more universal kind of idealist philosophy. It is worthwhile therefore to continue looking at how quantum physics and philosophy can be reconciled.
It has been determined and scientifically verified that electrons will behave differently when they are observed than when they are not observed, and also that when electrons change their orbits, they emit light and make what is called a discreet quantum jump; they never physically move through the intervening space between the two orbits (Goswami, Creative, 35). In quantum physics, a choice is needed to convert possibilities into actuality, and it is our observation of quantum facets within possibility waves which collapse one of these facets into a unique event which we experience. This is called downward causation, and its agent is the consciousness of a human being. This is agreed upon by quantum physicists (Goswami, Creative, 31). Goswami mentions that this might seem too subjective to qualify as science, but then discusses the properties of consciousness as it converts a quantum wave of possibility into an actual event:
- Consciousness is the ground of all being.
- The choosing consciousness is unitive, objective, and nonlocal, and its choice is ‘communicated’ without using any signals, also it is the same for all of us.
- When a quantum collapse happens, we receive a sensation of the manifest object along with an experience of a self- a subject which senses the object as separate from itself (Goswami, Creative, 32).
This last characteristic seems very Hegelian, especially in conjunction with the second characteristic above, yet in the context of quantum thinking, there is now an even more primary state of unitive consciousness which Goswami calls quantum consciousness. Goswami points out that if someone is familiar with esoteric spiritual traditions, they know that this unitive kind of consciousness is also called God-consciousness (32). Based on this, Goswami goes on to observe that God-consciousness and quantum consciousness are the same thing, and that this is the agent of downward causation. “Downward causation” is a term based on a consciousness within us that is higher than normal “ego-consciousness.” Upward causation is the existing paradigm which is based on pure materialism and genetic determinism (Goswami, Creative, 33).
Non local quantum activity can be proven with experiments. If two people meditate for twenty minutes with the intention of establishing a non local connection, they can then be separated by any distance and placed in Faraday chambers. Faraday chambers are sealed containers which allow no electromagnetic frequencies of any kind to penetrate them. Following the twenty minute meditation, the subjects are placed in their separate Faraday chambers, and one of them is shown a sequence of colored lights while in the chamber. Simultaneously, the brain of the other subject produces the same pattern of recognition that the other subject is shown. This experiment can be duplicated anywhere (Goswami, Quantum Activism). This is clear proof that brains can communicate non locally. If non local quantum consciousness produces actual events which we experience in our normal states of consciousness, it would follow that by intentionally achieving these levels of consciousness among groups of people, we could bring about the kinds of changes we want to see in the world. Perhaps the power structures in the world today are based on the idea of preventing this from happening, as hegemonies over segments of the population would cease. It certainly does seem that with control of the media along with the mechanisms of finance and the military by large corporations (fascism), the ability of groups of people to unite with like minded purpose has decreased in the world, though this could certainly change. Goswami says we should begin to use quantum dynamics en masse, he says in this way that heaven can be manifested on Earth, a culmination which Hegel might agree with in principle, along with the idea of God consciousness. Based on quantum thinking, we are all in fact connected in a non local way. Though a central tenet of Schopenhauer’s thinking is violated (that of pure materialism), there is certainly a resonance between his statement that consciousness prevents objective realization, and the idea that thinking in ordinary states of consciousness is not what will resonate on a quantum level. According to Goswami, intentions can come true by the use of non local cosmic consciousness. This can be achieved by what he calls “do-be-do-be-do,” an alternation between doing daily life in “ego mode” and spending time resonating with cosmic consciousness. In what may be considered the point of departure from quantum physics as pure science, that of the idea of a cosmic consciousness acting as a mediating force between the brain and the mind (Goswami, Quantum Activist), there is nonetheless factual data which proves that observation does indeed have an effect on outcomes in the physical world– it has been proven time and again by experiments in quantum physics. Suddenly both Schopenhauer and Hegel are shown to be correct on certain points, Schopenhauer on the idea that perceptions of reality are conditioned by consciousness, and Hegel on the idea of a natural mind which prefigures rational evolutionary thought. Consciousness as a substrate of the physical world removes many barriers between these two philosophers by allowing for both higher levels of transpersonal awareness along with an ability to effectively leverage what appears to be scientifically confirmed. It would certainly be worth further experimentation to attempt bringing about desired results on various scales using the intentioned non locality meditation technique which Goswami talks about.
There are many areas in the writings of Schopenhauer and Hegel which seem to revolve around some of the concepts Goswami talks about, particularly non locality. Hegel speaks to the idea of non locality in his section “Anthropology, The Soul” in his Philosophy of Mind:
“Space pertains not to the soul but to external nature and this externality, in being apprehended by the soul, ceases to be spatial, since, transformed by the soul’s ideality, it remains external neither to itself or to us. Consequently, when free intellectual consciousness sinks to the form of the merely feeling soul, the subject is no longer tied to space” (103). Oddly in this case consciousness sinks to the form of the soul, while quantum thinking points to a higher consciousness, yet this higher consciousness is called a downward causal agent by quantum physicists. Schopenhauer’s discussion of will also seems to hint at a higher and non local consciousness:
“Just as a magic lantern shows us multiple and manifold images, while it is but the selfsame flame that imparts visibility to them all, so in all the manifold phenomena filling the world in juxtaposition, or successively displacing one another as events, that which makes its appearance is yet but the one will whose visibility, objectivization of all this is, and which remains unmoved in the midst of those changes: it alone is the thing in itself, while all objects are its phenomenon “ (V1, 197).
While both of these philosophers have expanded their thought systems to include larger areas of the world and nature, so has Goswami. It is fascinating to note that Goswami and Schopenhauer completely agree on the point of subjective consciousness as the conditioning element for our perceptions. According to Goswami, this is why we are not aware in ordinary life of our connection with God-consciousness (Creative, 33). For creative individuals all over the world whether they are artists or not, perhaps an effort to rise above manifestations of conditioned limits toward the freedom that quantum dynamics offers would be a worthwhile combination of philosophy and practicality. Here is where the inherent imperfections of Schopenhauer’s materialistic apprehensions of the world are dissolved.
Word count: 3,158
Works Cited:
Goswami, Amit. Creative Evolution. Wheaton IL: Quest Books, 2008.
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. Philosophy of Mind. Transl. W. Wallace & A.V. Miller. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2007.
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. Phenomenology of Spirit. Transl. A.V. Miller. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977.
Schopenhauer, Arthur. The World as Will and Presentation Vol. 1. Transl. E. Aquila & David Carus. New York: Pearson Longman, 2008.
Schopenhauer, Arthur. The World as Will and Presentation Vol. 2. Transl. E. Aquila & David Carus. New York: Pearson Longman, 2008.
Ri Stewart and Renee Slade, Dir. Amit Goswami, Cast. The Quantum Activist. Intention Media Inc., 2009. Netflix. Web. 10 Nov. 20011.
Thoughts on Tolstoy’s “What is Art”
Early in his essay, Tolstoy states that art should not be content with a definition for itself which places it within a construct of pleasant beauty which doesn’t evoke desire– we should reach higher than this. Forming a better definition of art is critical to moving beyond Tolstoy’s contemporary situation, which he describes as one where theoretic inventions allow for the sanctioning of all manner of artworks by members of upper class societies, no matter how crazy the artworks may seem. Tolstoy says that a better understanding of art will be found when society moves beyond the simplistic ideas of beauty and pleasure. He uses the analogy of food, saying that if food were only understood in terms of the pleasure it affords us, we would never come to an understanding of the real value of food. In a similar manner, the use of the pleasure principle in tandem with conceptions of beauty in the art world will prohibit true understanding beyond the contrivances which are used to validate the acceptance of certain artworks by certain types of people.
Tolstoy mentions the frameworks of some modern definitions of art which include human propensities for play and sexual desire, external manifestations of formal elements, and/or activities which give enjoyment to both artist and audience without derivations of personal advantage. For various reasons, Tolstoy finds these definitions all far from exact, mainly because they can all be applied to activities beyond art per se, and because they do not focus on the purpose which the various activities may serve. Considering art as part of the human condition and an essentially communicative element, Tolstoy goes on to say that art creates relationships based on the transmission of feelings and the ability of humans to sympathize with each other. But simply being sad because someone else is crying does not mean that art has been created– art requires in intermediary of some sort, and this can be sound, paint, words or other artistic mediums. Art is thus a means of providing unity to people, who without the ability to experience the feelings of innumerable others whether in their own times or from times past, would be much like animals. Though this unity can be brought about by all manner of human artistic activity which transmits feelings, art itself is an activity designated as having special significance. Echoing Plato,Tolstoy does not believe that patronizing all art based on these ideas alone constitutes worthwhile activity– there must be healthy skepticism toward creative works which may corrupt us. Since determinations of good and evil come from religious thought, and since religious thought for Tolstoy represents the highest level of human thought which best contributes to the betterment of humanity, he concludes that ‘good art’ in a historical sense is always in alignment with the predominant religious currents of the time in which the art is created. According to Tolstoy, good art which is not ‘counterfeit’ promotes joyful and spiritually sound unity among people, destroying separations among the people partaking in the art. The degree with which art is infectious and unifying for people in Tolstoy’s view is based on individuality, clarity, and sincerity. Art, like speech for Tolstoy, is a communicative element which should strive to move humanity toward ultimate perfection, since it connects us with our predecessors and can speak to possibilities for a better future.
While Tolstoy’s views on the necessity for the betterment of humanity are admirable, I can’t help but wonder about a few things. One cannot of course simply assume that humanity has been on a linear continuum of religious progress. It seems to me that the religious current of our time now is greatly flawed. On some levels, religion today is involved in a Faustian bargain with the science community. Religion cannot tread the ground of materialistic science, while materialistic science is fearful of crossing religious lines. Of course this is not the complete picture, and there are many capable thinkers in the world today who are not trapped in this silly paradigm, but it is prevalent, and until these barriers are crossed, I don’t believe we can ever have the kind of unity which Tolstoy promotes. In times past, humanity contained societies which may have been privy to vast knowledge systems subsequently lost through religious wars, inquisitions, crusades, and other forms of hegemonic and collectivist religious control. Perhaps it is not always best to focus on the religious current of our contemporary society as the only way to promote unity. Sometimes history is a better teacher than the present. Too much unity might also be a bad thing. For example, the creation of the Eurodollar was a ploy by bankers to maintain their system of fractional reserve lending– what was once called usury and severely punished, but today used as a means of siphoning wealth with fiat money systems. The destruction of European economies has resulted from a lack of economic diversity based on local constraints and opportunities within localized systems. This diversity has been replaced by a system of corrupt economic practices imposed over widely varying financial ecologies with disastrous consequences. In the country where I live, an imperialistic war culture has completely drained the national treasury in an attempt to maintain axes of military control over the natural resources of other lands in conjunction with greedy corporations, all under the guise of ‘protecting our freedoms.’ It may be that too much unity could undermine nature’s modus operandi– mutual cooperation among diverse systems.
Some Thoughts on Hegel
At the end of his treatise on the fine arts, after systematically defining a hierarchy for the arts in terms of intrinsic value, Hegel makes clear that the various forms of these arts are expressions of beauty as it evolves over time. This is an elegant end to an essay which creates a poetic scaffolding for the arts as Hegel knew them in his time, while allowing for points of departure which may occur as beauty further evolves. Around the time that Hegel was writing his philosophy on the fine arts, the romantic composer Frederic Chopin was expressing his own form of beauty, made possible only by the strange perfection of sensibilities and mental aptitudes he alone possessed. His music exemplifies the freedom of spirit expressing itself unfettered by neither the concreteness of poetry and defect-prone abstractions of symbolic architecture, nor the abstract formal alignments of spirit and form found in classicism, as described by Hegel .
Can poetry reach the heights and depths of spiritual expression that the music of Chopin does? This is not a question which Hegel seeks to answer, as he speaks of poetry as a singular expression in the evolution of beauty, one which encapsulates the freedom of spirit within linguistics. As all of the hundreds of strings in a piano work together as demanded by the performer, there is a kind of parallel in Hegel’s description of a religious temple, where the hundreds of worshippers act according to their individual expression’s of a god’s demands, in a supreme orchestration of spirit by means of individual voices .
The assertion by Hegel that symbolic art finds its supreme expression in architecture, particularly religious architecture as a container for beauty as spirit, seems to present a problem when thinking in terms of contemporary art, for instance the style of art known as symbolic expressionism, which found its way into the world in the 20th century. Yet the naming of art forms as they evolve in various periods of time cannot seek always to be in alignment with and transparent to the idioms of the various systematic thinkers, as designations of terms are subjective among individuals and cultures. This is a stumbling block when trying to understand and contextualize the thoughts of others from different cultures, and we should make no mistake— Hegel speaks to us from a different culture.
It is tempting to say based on this idea that philosophy is thus a kind of poetry, since as individuals may have unique expressions within their own cultures, cultures and derivative systems founded within those cultures will have unique expressions within various historic locations. Poetry, along with drama, history, music, sculpture, and other forms of human expression shift and squirm within their definitive boundaries over time, and are always given the benefit of any doubts. The elegance of Hegel is the idea of spiritual expression aligned with beauty as a discreet and evolving concept, or maybe even a multi-dimensional entity, such as the idea of the (‘holy’) spirit in Christianity, which Hegel apprehends within his philosophy of fine art as an ideal only when coalesced into human form. This allows for a recalibration of systematic dimensions, certainly something which Hegel would not be opposed to if say, the length of his life was quadrupled. Hegel himself determined that beauty must follow its own evolutionary path, and coalesce as its need sees fit into the material world. The recasting of beauty in various and violent ways since Hegel first began to delineate and valuate it in its various forms, would certainly call for volumes of extended re-thinking.
It is my opinion that if Hegel were still alive today, he would have no choice but to relinquish his writing for music, which existed before humanity and will exist after— not completely free of the ever-changing teleologies of human disciplines in general, yet able to exist outside of them.
Some Thoughts on “Taxi Driver” and “Bladerunner”
Listening to Herrmann’s soundtrack for “Taxi Driver” is like getting an inventory of organs from a dissected creature. It is easy to see how all of the pieces could belong to the same creature, but impossible to imagine the real living thing until you experience the complete integrated product. It is much the same with Vangelis’ music for “Bladerunner”.
Based on comments from both composers, the music has a symbolic purpose, particularly in the case of Herrmann, who told Scorsese that the use of the jazz theme in “Taxi Driver” was to show where the character Travis Bickle was led by his fantasies about women (Smith, 352). One can only draw the same conclusion when listening to Vangelis’ sultry love theme while watching the love scene between Deckard and the replicant in “Bladerunner”, and at the same time one can easily see a forcefulness in the characters of both protagonists, expressed in different ways. This forcefulness intersects a dystopian environment in the case of both protagonists, one which both are at odds with in various degrees at various times. It is this very forcefulness that carries both Bickle and Deckard through their respective struggles with ideals and mortality during the long nights in which their respective tensions reach breaking points.
Certainly the work of both composers moves easily in tandem with these struggles by means of its cellular structuring which aligns easily with the fragmentation brought on by moments of explosive violence. In terms of their musical vocabularies as agents within the film industry, Vangelis is certainly atmospheric and textural with a more distanced sense of human drama, while Herrmann is more direct with his human drama and especially in the case of Taxi Driver– more nihilistic (Smith, 350). Yet nihilism is not absent in the case of the music for “Bladerunner”, which uses musical cycles as parallels to longer character cycles, especially in the case of the dangerous replicants, who are nihilistic at their core in much the way Travis Bickle is- they all struggle deeply with the meanings of their existence, and become violent during the course of this struggle. It is interesting to note that during the sequence of events leading to violence, both composers employ ascending sweeps of harp tones, albeit synthetic harps in the case of Vangelis. In terms of this cyclical and spiral-like effect seen in the music of both composers, Vangelis is known to be philosophically influenced by Lao Tzu (DeClair, 1), who saw sequences of events in terms of spirals. Certainly this can also be seen in the work Herrmann did for Alfred Hitchcock, as well as “Taxi Driver”.
During the sequences near the beginning of “Bladerunner”, and at the very beginning of “Taxi Driver”, Vangelis utilizes two and three chord sequences with marked decrescendos at the end of each pair or trio, floating above quiet and synthetic strings, while Herrmann uses two chord sequences, also with decrescendo, but marked sharply with repeated snare drum hits. These contrasting sequences occur during scenes containing the transportation of Bickle and Deckard within cars, and give a good indication as to the overall differences between these two scores, simultaneously presenting a symbolic separation of both main characters from the mainstream societies which they operate within.
Both composers give their music a place of transcendence in the real world, reminiscent of many composers such as the German Romantics who had a big influence on the music of Herrmann (Smith, 4), and this seems to fit the characters well. Herrmann maintained that he was a composer working in film, as opposed to a film composer (Smith, 2), while Vangelis maintains that business and music don’t mix very well, because business wants to repeat the same thing over and over, while the composer is always moving forward, and that “music existed before mankind” (Vangelis interview).
This transcendent viewpoint on the part of the composers points to their respective intents to remain true to what comes from within themselves, thus in conversation they are able to clearly express intimacy with the music. For example, in the case of Vangelis, he talks about synthetic music as a metaphor for looking at the music “with either a microscope or a telescope”, and in the case of Herrmann, Scorsese mentions that for a sting image near the end of “Taxi Driver” Herrmann recorded a glockenspiel, which didn’t sound quite right to the director. “Play it backwards”, suggested Herrmann, which made it fit the moment perfectly (Scorsese). It is this sting moment which is paralleled in “Bladerunner”, also toward the end, when Deckard sees an origami figure on the floor near his apartment, left there by the assistant to the police chief. There are glockenspiel-like sounds here also; they are not in reverse and here the moment is extended, however in both cases they encompass a portent of cyclical recurrence.
Both of these films contain scenes of unadulterated violence, yet the audience watches with more of a sense of detached and cool fascination than with a visceral heat. This can only be attributed to the fact that the music employed in both of these films connects on a deep level with the psychology of the characters being portrayed.
The characters of both Roy (Rutger Hauer) and Sport (Harvey Keitel) have almost mythic dimensions, and operate in an environment which although purely dystopian in nature, seems to receive them graciously after their (arguably)unfair deaths at the hands of both immediate and insidious agents of liability. It is the music in both of these films which provide this kind of diaphanous paradigm– one which can be seen justly from the side of either protagonist or the antagonist. Though this music in a functional sense could be considered from the dry perspective of a Gorbman or a Timm (or others), it is resistant to this kind of analysis because of its non-derivative and heart-felt power.
Works Cited:
Academy of Art University. “GS 618 - OL1: Film Music History: The Art of the Film Score”. Academy of Art University. AAU. n.d. Web. 01 Aug. 2011.
De Clair, Dali. Interview with Vangelis. Nemo. N.p. N.d. Web. 26 July, 2011 <http://www.nemostudios.co.uk/vangelis/interviews/ref79/ref79.htm>
Herrmann, Bernard, cond. Taxi Driver (orig. recorded Columbia Studios, December 1975) Arista, 1998 CD
Scorsese, Martin. “On Bernard Herrmann”. Booklet/liner notes Taxi Driver. Arista, 1998. CD
Taxi Driver. Dir. Martin Scorsese. 1976. Columbia/Tri-Star, 1999. DVD.
Smith, Steven C. “A Heart at Fire’s Center”. Berkely CA, UC Press 1991. Print
Timm, Larry M. The Soul of Cinema. Upper Saddle River, NJ, Prentice-Hall, 2003. Print.
Vangelis. Booklet. Bladerunner. Atlantic, 1994. CD
Vangelis. Bladerunner. (originally recorded Nemo Studios, London, 1982) Atlantic, 1994. CD
Bladerunner. Dir. Ridley Scott. 1982. Warner Brothers, 1991. DVD.
Music for the Movies: Bernard Herrmann. Dir. Joshua Waletzky Sept. 2007. YouTube video(originally released by Sony Pictures), accessed July 26, 2011 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX46Z8VAF7E>
Vangelis Interview, 1984. YouTube video (originally produced by Electronics and Music magazine.)
accessed July 30, 2011 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WODrViue4s>
Now they’re calling it Yelenina…
Calling this thing a 'comet' is wishful thinking, at least if you look at the data currently posted by NASA's jet propulsion laboratory. They have a detailed view of the comet's projected path through our solar neighborhood this year and early next year. If you visit this Web page you can verify the following information for yourself: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=C%2F2010%20X1;orb=1;cov=0;log=0;cad=0#orb
On February 27, 2010 there was an 8.8 earthquake in Chile- at the time the largest ever recorded. The very day that that earthquake occurred, 'comet' Elenin was in a direct line with the Earth and the Sun, and I don't remember how far away it was at the time– I'm guessing around 6 AU. Coincidence you say? Well, on September fourth of last year, we had a large earthquake in New Zealand, and again on the very same day Elenin was in a direct line with the Sun and the Earth. On February 27 of this year was the 7.6 earthquake in Christchurch New Zealand, and on March 11 we had the 9.0 in Japan with accompanying terrifying tsunamis. On both of these occasions and to the very day, according to NASA's presumably credible JPL Website, the 'comet' was in a direct line with the Earth and the Sun. This is well beyond coincidence, but it doesn't compare with the likely outcomes that basic extrapolation of data show. Before going there though, it is worth mentioning that the inclination of the comet to the plane of the solar ecliptic is very small– I had wondered how one could consider the alignment to be true if the 'comet' was at a steep incline to the plane of the ecliptic as predicted by Sherman Masters and company at yowusa.com. It turns out that the predictions at yowusa.com are amazingly accurate with regard to possible flyby scenarios. But there the concern is with the return of the ancient 'planet of the crossing', a.k.a. Nibiru, rather than a 'comet', though they do mention milder effects if Nibiru were in fact a comet after all. If this 'comet' is able to produce large scale seismic events from a distance of six astronomic units (1 AU = distance from the earth to the sun), what will happen when, as the JPL Website clearly shows– the 'comet' is .38 AU from the Earth and directly between the Earth and the Sun?
Elenin (or do you say Yelenina– the friendlier sounding name without the ominous ELE, or possible 'extinction level event' acronym at the beginning) is now passing through the thickest part of the asteroid belt. There are some fairly large asteroids nearby which are being tracked, but so far it doesn't look like any collisions are imminent. Likely it will emerge from the asteroid belt in much the same shape it was in when it entered. Beyond all of this is the question on many a human's lips: Is this in fact the destroyer, the winged orb the ancients talk about? When cyclical events are known, it becomes possible to predict the future. Based on effects this object has had on our planet, and the distance from us when the first effects were felt, I would submit that this 'comet' is in fact the dreaded Nibiru, a brown dwarf star, maybe of the 'L' class– a failed star too small to sustain nuclear fission, and with highly magnetic properties. On Brown dwarf stars, it is theorized that it rains liquid iron in the atmosphere. This is something we should all be watching very closely. I myself have wondered if there will be more earthquakes in the days ahead as this object moves closer to us even though not in alignment again until September 25, and as if in answer to my thoughts, there were two earthquakes in the neighborhood of magnitude 6 today and yesterday, one in Fiji and one in Java. I really hope that this could turn out to be just paranoid evidence gathering, but we will all know for sure by the first of November this year. I for one will have to say that it looks like we are in big trouble based on what we are being shown.
Why I rarely Eat in Pancake Houses Anymore
Why I Rarely Eat at Pancake Houses Anymore
Greg Delapaix - Fall of 1999
I can best describe my lifestyle before I stopped eating at pancake houses as one of an experimental nature, one that tended to alternate between periods of discipline and self development and longer periods of reckless abandon and self-indulgence. The intricately woven chain of events leading to my decision not to eat at pancake houses began at the same point in time that I made a conscious decision to dine each day at one pancake house in particular. It was during a lonely period in my life and I had recently moved into a one-bedroom apartment on Chicago's north side. The apartment was the first floor of a gray two-flat coach house. The building in front of mine was also a two-flat and bright yellow. The space between the buildings was smooth concrete, and in the center of this patio was a large gray planter box, which contained heaped dead flowers that seemed to magically rejuvenate into color during spring.
Above me lived a homely but talented young woman who owned a grand piano, which she played daily. She played classical music and composed some thickly textured music of her own, which in my opinion formed an excellent soundtrack to the daily non-grind of my life. I myself owned an old upright piano that I had painted bright orange, and preferred to play late at night, unfortunately making the girl upstairs unhappy on many occasions- especially on some of my uninspired evenings, when she would call me on the telephone and bluntly remind me that it was after midnight. It was on one of those evenings in particular that I had decided to go for a walk after one such call. I found myself wandering out my front door, into the alley strewn with trash, broken appliances, and dark shadows, and out onto the bleak neighborhood street soaked in the dingy yellow overtones of sulfur street lamps. Three blocks away beneath orange and yellow neon was the doorway to a turning point in my life.
An attractive if older waitress, good coffee, comfortable window seats, no tacky décor, open twenty four hours- an excellent place to come every day, eat, place myself on display, and wait for something to happen. Right then I decided that this was where I would eat daily. From then on, illuminated by daylight sunbeams or night light moonbeams filtering through cigarette clouds and curls of coffee steam, I would sit in private dyed-hair and headband splendor allowing the green glass or the orange neon to enhance the colors of my scene. I, the artist, the misunderstood outsider in the silent stage of my booth, resplendent in my self-importance and longing for a friend; would sit for long stretches of time.
A few weeks later I became the piano accompanist for a modern dance class at a university. I greatly admired the female dancers, and playing the piano provided an excellent visual and social vantage point. The dancers wore "tights" which fit almost like a second layer of skin, allowing the shapes of their bodies to be easily seen, in solid color. Blue, purple, red, orange- they moved in rhythm and fantastic flexibility across the wooden dance floor through broad bands of daylight and across the backdrop of trees and buildings beyond the floor to ceiling windows of the dance studio. A feast for the eyes, and understandably other musicians in the school began to stop by because they wanted to "get some experience as an accompanist" also.
This is how my longing for some friends was answered. Within a couple of months I had friends who lived near enough to join me at the pancake house, and my daily "usual" of eggs, hash browns, coffee and wheat toast was suddenly no longer a symptom of a dull rut.
Late one Spring morning during a copious insertion of toast and coffee, as sun rays swam through dissolute cumulo - smoke clouds above the delicately patterned yellow reef of the breakfast table, my new friend Alvin began to tell me about this girlfriend he had in Pennsylvania who "needed some help". I found myself listening intently. Why was I so interested? I was beginning to meet some of the girls in the dance class. There was the cute blonde with long hair and long legs named Susan, Rita with thick red hair and beautiful, intense green eyes (contact lens enhanced but who's subtracting points for that?) and although I wasn't "Mr. Suave" himself I did have a certain confidence in my ability to deflower at least one of those dancers. As I requested a superfluous sweet roll with practiced casualness I found myself agreeing to let Alvin's friend Tari move in to my apartment as a room mate "on a temporary basis" until she could get a job. We'll call this the first link in a chain of events that ultimately led to my decision not to eat in pancake houses anymore.
Around the time color arrived in the gray planter box outside my apartment, Tari arrived at my front door with Alvin. I was glad to see she was kind of pretty. She had sandy blonde hair and penetrating gray eyes. She was well proportioned, and in my morally flexible and somewhat predatory mind I detected a hint of distance between her and Alvin. Alvin had explained to me a week earlier that he and Tari were planning to get married. Of course, I respected the plans my friend held in his heart, but I also hadn't heard Tari say anything about marrying Alvin yet.
A couple of friends were due to come over later so I decided to take a walk and let Alvin and Tari be alone for a while. It was about eight in the evening and the sun was sinking down and illuminating twisted bands of pollution-intensified orange and violet. The city was not yet dressed by spring and bleak perspectives of the streets in winter did not foster warm thoughts. My mind wandered. I thought about this girl Tari. She seemed a little strange. The look in her eyes made me think that she might be on some kind of secret mission, with some kind of dark agenda, and as my thoughts began to tangent into refracted and sexist fantasies of intrigue and espionage, I found myself in the pancake house once again. My favorite waitress Kathy was there, in a yellow apron and her red shirt with her name embroidered on it in gold cursive. Her dark brown almost black hair was tied with a red bow and she wore brown jeans. "How ya doin?" she said after flashing her entrancing smile. I could never figure out why a woman in her late forties would wear a bow in her hair like that, nor could I figure out why it was so hard to initiate a conversation with her. There were actually a lot of things I couldn't figure out back then, and in my youthful folly I ignored the role diet might play in my life. Food was just another prop in the unwitting exposition of my egomania, and I was indestructible. My bodies need for water was met only with coffee, and all other nutritional requirements were met with potatoes, toast, eggs, and the occasional sweet roll. These fuels conspired to fragment and reform my thinking patterns into disconnected and obtuse motives, and somehow even then I knew it - yet I welcomed the ever emerging new twists in the plot of my intrepid existence that were caused by such smug oversights.
When I arrived back at the walkway to my front door, it was dark out. Rows of backward facing kitchen windows graphed long pale rectangles onto the short rust toned grass of unmanicured back lawns and the noisy ongoing metal torrent of the freeway nearby masked the incidental sounds of my neighborhoods nocturnal preparations. Alvin was of African - American descent, so I wasn't completely sure if it was him standing by the planter box as I made my way toward the front door. I was reassured by the glint of silver on the black boots that he always wore, but when my eyes scanned over his dark clothing and up to his face, my assurance wavered. I hardly recognized Alvin. His mouth moved as if to mouth some words, but nothing came out. He was kind of hunched over somehow, as if he'd just swallowed a suitcase, and in my coffee induced destruction of mental inertia I imagined him turning around to reveal a butcher knife or some such implement protruding from his back. But he just laughed in a kind of pained, short and self effacing guffaw, and then informed me that the woman he was ready to pledge his life to had just told him she was engaged to someone else. Some guy in Pennsylvania. Just then Andy showed up with Lucy. Andy was a Saxophone player who was part Chinese and part Cuban. He wasn't good looking, but he had a terrific sense of humor. After a quick humorous comment and comically insincere hello from Andy, Alvin just turned and walked away toward the front gate between the shoeboxish buildings with kitchen lights. I had a difficult time concealing my wicked joy as I explained to Andy and Lucy what was transpiring, and in a dark recess of my mind I remembered the look Tari had given me as she first arrived in the apartment.
It was a look that I suddenly realized betrayed a desire to possess. That's it! She wanted me. She was one of those psychotic nymphomaniacs I had heard about. She had made a ruthlessly quick, cold and calculating decision to drop Alvin and go after me. She must be crazy. Suddenly I liked her, despite the way she had ‘ripped my friends heart out’, and suddenly the value of friendship lost it's first chair standing to the lusts of spring in my inner orchestra. But what about the guy in Pennsylvania? My optimism was quickly tempered as my mind alighted on that question, and I turned to Lucy. "Um, do you guys want to go get dinner?" "Well, I guess I can just get some coffee," said Andy. This was step one in his routine to get a free dinner. Andy was always broke. It was his worst handicap, but Lucy, who held some kind of mid-level secretary job downtown, was willing to pay for our form of dry burlesque. For that reason I was always glad to see her coming along. She could afford it. "C'mon Alvin, let's go eat". I stepped into the apartment to find Tari sitting in a chair writing. She smiled. I made sure Alvin had showed her around and told her we'd be back soon. She said "take your time", and I was immediately impressed by her self-assuredness.
Dinner at the pancake house led to a decision to take an exploratory trip to New York City a week later, something I would later regret in no small way. There was a spring break coming at the school soon, and Andy had found a way to get there cheaply by delivering a car for someone. We could split the cost of gasoline four ways. Throughout dinner attempts were made to revive Alvin's spirit, but it was parched beyond coffee's hope, his appetite following suit. When he finally announced his departure, we were all a little relieved. When the three of us finally returned to the apartment, Tari seemed happy to see us. She was listening to Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" on a tape player. When the tape ended, the girls were subjected to a forty minute jam session by Andy and I. Music was the way we loved to converse, and it allowed us to create an atmosphere that a lack of trappings prevented the apartment from producing on it's own, even if ours was somewhat tonally and rhythmically disjointed. Alvin and I had rearranged the furniture two days earlier, placing my bed in the living room, and placing a mattress with sheets and blankets in an otherwise empty bedroom for Tari. The apartment was lined with dark walnut colored paneling, a ceiling of large soft off white tiles with an occasional water stain, and a floor of brown linoleum. There was a gray trimmed living room window near the gray front door. At the start of a short hallway leading off to the kitchen was a bathroom door, also gray. Two large rust colored overstuffed chairs angled the windows and the small television which sat atop an old trunk I had rescued from the alley and spray painted black. On the other side of the room the orange piano with the front panels removed provided the only real focal point of interest, the room divided laterally by my bed. Though somewhat stark, the space offered great potential. "All you need is a woman's touch" said Tari, and I smiled as I reminded myself that that is just what we were going to get.
By the time Andy and Lucy left, Tari and I felt at ease around each other, so much at ease that our conversation eventually turned to her relationships with Alvin and that guy in Pennsylvania, and I found myself being told that she was breaking it off with Steve (the guy in Pennsylvania). She told me she was going to inform Steve of her decision by mail, Because "long distance is too expensive". Wow. It was all I could do to keep from offering to run the letter out to the mailbox right then and there. We liked each other. My sorrow for Alvin easily turned to private gratitude.
Seeing Tari the next morning without makeup, hairstyling and flattering clothing had a great tempering effect upon my desire to become more intimate, though knowing her transformational abilities prevented the complete removal of my desires. We got to know each other better over the next few weeks, and I found out just how aggressive she could be. Within those three weeks, she was hired as a lighting technician at a major business hotel and convention center, she had carpeted and added more furniture to the apartment, put curtains on the windows, and started sleeping in my bed as though she now had a right to make me her own. Of course, I didn't protest too strongly, though there was something about this girl that bothered me. After a month she was talking about marriage. That really bothered me. It was like she didn't have any brakes, and it seemed she could lead us both on a high-speed emotional crash course. In my casual and pacifistic approach to life, I didn't realize I had stepped onto that course the minute Tari had stepped into my apartment.
Springtime in the nightclubs of Chicago is pure exhilaration. Dark and hazy like a great oceanic depth, the immense pressure replaced by great globs of bass, compressing yet somehow loosening one's thought processes a little more with each beat. Layer after layer of drums, guitars, and assorted sounds woven into the sonic tapestry of Zeitgeist. Young people looking their best, beautiful women with the incredible scents of pure fantasy. Lots of adornment. Lots of black. Lots of looks. A lot of ways for a guy to get into the kind of trouble he craves. On a cool spring night I met Stephanie. We had begun talking at the bar, and found each other's company entertaining. She was much taller than I was which somehow imparted a mutual platonic understanding and resulting lack of sexual tension. Eventually we went to the pancake house for breakfast, and then to her apartment. Stephanie was great fun to talk to. Her friendship was offered with such innocence as to magnify any potential intimacies to the status level of pure sin, which was something I didn't want anything to do with (especially after being raised as a Catholic). Anyway, Stephanie offered to let me sleep on her couch, and since Tari was after all my room mate, I felt obligated to let her know where I was, even if it was four o'clock in the morning, and I kept the conversation brief thinking that it would be easier for her to go back to sleep after being awakened.
The following morning brought clouds and a little rain. In the dance studio the girls were vibrant as ever, and I realized with dismay that this was because they probably went to bed at a decent hour, and probably ate vegetables, two things that were not much a part of my life at that point. Andy was even there, and we had a wonderful time playing some blues along with several other musicians and rhythmically inclined people. The class loved it. The teacher even seemed very happy with it. After the class Andy and I spent the whole day playing music in the dimly lit practice rooms that were in a portable building on the college campus, taking frequent cigarette and coffee breaks. We talked about our forthcoming trip to New York and what we would do there, but mostly we played music, inspired by our performance in the dance studio earlier. Life was good. In the evening we found ourselves at a pancake house near the university, having more coffee and cigarettes, and then I decided to call Tari.
As I pushed open the thick green glass door, the elevated subway tracks groaned with the approach of a graffiti coated dark green subway train. It seemed to absorb all sunlight that shone on it, reflecting none. The side of it was like a giant test pad from a marker display at the drugstore, covered with strange angular and cryptic signatures. It's wheels gave flashes of dull blue light as they sparked along the creosote soaked track base, and whined as they pushed against the tracks, loud enough to drown out all other sounds for a brief period as I picked up the receiver in the baby blue phone box, itself looking like a smaller test pad for the same people with the same markers and spray cans. Suddenly my life changed again. My thoughts drifted free as the train moved away with its noise. A man answered. My thoughts raced. Had I possibly dialed the wrong number? No, because Tari was suddenly on the other end, telling me that I should find somewhere else to sleep that night.
Convenience can bring a lot of trouble. Habits can bring ruin. My habit of making decisions at my favorite pancake house bathed in the aromas of coffee and smoke and all things grilled and fried, had led to several bad decisions, but one in particular. It involved having lunch one day with Tari, when after a brief discussion about my life as an artist, she had offered to pay the rent. Sure, the rent was real low. That was because I was renting from the grandmother of one of the girls in the dance class. Little did I know that Tari had already made friends with the grandmother. My anger rose to a fever pitch as I reentered the restaurant, even to the point of engulfing my financially challenged friend. We both went back to my apartment.
The front door was locked. I beat it with my fist. Tari!! I shouted. No answer. Without thinking I made my way around the planter box overflowing with flowers and weeds, along the other side of the building, the side always ignored, with weeds, faded wrappers, faded graffiti tags and the bedroom window, recessed in cracked concrete. I banged on the window. "Go away", a female voice said. My rage was now uncontrollable. "You have ten seconds to open the front door or I'm smashing it in!" I yelled, through thick dust, dirt, cobwebs, and unseen closed curtains. In the blur of moments and words that followed, I found myself inside the apartment, having somehow agreed to calm down and just talk. I stood facing a young man about my age, who I recognized from a previous visit to Tari's workplace. His name was Peter, and he was refusing to leave my apartment, though I saw fear in his eyes. When Tari said "It's not your apartment, I pay the rent now", I ripped my coat off, pushed Peter (who was smaller than I was) out of the way and tore the exhaust pipe from the gas heater that had been my best friend the previous cold winter. As a large, thick cloud of gray dust and smoke settled around the three of us I somehow emerged from the enraged state I had been in. I exited the front door and slammed it so hard that the wood splintered as yet another wave of anger washed over me.
That night I slept on the hardwood floor of Andy's house. He didn't have an extra pillow or mattress, and only one extra blanket. Luckily, I had worn my jacket that day. It was miserable. In one day we would be leaving for New York, and I figured that I could go just as I was. Though inconvenient, I had also seen what convenience could do.
There were a lot of good things that happened on our trip to New York City. As a matter of fact, I could probably write a book about that trip, but for this narrative, there is one fact that completely overshadows all the others. I received a near fatal dose of e.coli bacterium somewhere between Chicago and New York. It was a nightmare that I'll always remember because I'd never before been in such agony, and haven't since. The fact that I no longer had an apartment of my own and was forced live at home again didn't matter, because I spent two months lying on the couch with impossible abdominal pain and bloody diarrhea. As the sickness subsided, I had time to look back on the previous three months. Each decision made in the hazy theatres of pancake house booths had affected my life in a negative way; each coffee, smoke, and grease infused decision had somehow joined with others to work against me. I now have more respect for possibilities, and don't treat them quite as lightly as I used to, and I very rarely eat in pancake houses anymore.
Transforming Agriculture With Soil Modeling and GIS
A complete analytical breakdown of the process used within a GIS based modeling of solute transport in soils can reveal areas where alternative or improved measures can be taken to enhance accuracy. During the process of this breakdown it is worthwhile to also ascertain various definitions of terms and frameworks for defining modeling processes and results. For instance, what are the best and worse case scenarios in the context of the model and what are the best and worst case scenarios in the context of the real world? There is no better way to ascertain the accuracy of a model applied to specific areas than by actual field testing as an initial control and comparison of end results. In this regard, it is essential that all units of measurement are consistent across components of the model and the real world. It is also imperative that modeling does not make false assumptions, such as the assumption that irrigation water is free of the very solutes being transport-modeled, and that they do or don’t already exist at some level in the soil. Intimate understanding of chemical processes which occur in soil along with it’s more salient aspects should of course go hand in hand with careful equation building. This is by nature an interdisciplinary approach. In model building efforts undertaken before the digital age arrived and before digital GIS tools were available, there were no translations of dimension and scale required beyond quantification into real world analogs. Thus the problems of scale and granularity were of a one to one basis between the model and the real world, unlike the more contemporary digital modeling, which introduces new dimensions of translation such as granularity and scale. Because of this, in comparing the effectiveness of various models it may be worthwhile to consider some of the more direct abstractions of the real world produced by scientists such as van Genuchten, Nielsen, and Jury, working in the 1970s and 1980s. How might these equations compare to the more modular equations used in GIS based models? Of course, newer developments should also be looked at when seeking to improve on older models, these can include not only new kinds of real world abstraction but hardware technologies as well, such as laser based remote sensing. By means of all of this breakdown and analysis work along with more general research, it would seem a foregone conclusion that the variables which have the most direct effect on producing viable models would eventually present themselves in all of their subtle glories. It is the orchestration of these variables within well structured models which can produce valuable results, and begin to inform a workable new system applicable to various locales. In beginning to delineate this system, I therefore think it best to work through a qualitative reverse engineering of existing models, highlighting liabilities, synthesizing additional viabilities, and (most importantly) hunting down active variables. Following this, before “forward engineering’ an improved implementation, a look at older models more purely mathematic in nature is warranted, if for no other reason than to be exposed to potentialities of stronger quantitative reflection. To extract a new approach will require harvesting ideas from past and current models both abstract and physical, all the while considering real world counterparts and field analysis tools and methodologies.
A model which has exhibited a fair amount of fidelity to the real world though not without limitations (it is after all nearly twenty years old!), is that established by Wilson et al in 1993 and greatly improved upon in 1996 with the accounting for of variable data granularities and scale. The operative kernel of this model in both cases relies upon an abstraction termed ‘chemical movement through layered soils’ CMLS) combined with another identified as the weather generator (WGEN), working in conjunction with prepared data, additional input variables, and certain assumptions. The CMLS model is designed to calculate the amount of pesticide and it’s depth in the soil at user specified time intervals. Perhaps other useful variables would include water table information which would help indicate levels of environmental hazard at certain depths. As an algorithm based on the modeling of soil layers and their constituents acting as the transport medium of specified chemicals, it is simplistic on many levels, yet it offers a foundation on which to build more flexible tools by thoughtful extrapolation.
The original stand-alone version of CMLS was designed by others, as was the WGEN model, thus the overall study produced by Wilson et al is in fact a synthesis of existing models and datasets. It requires the same dataset as input for each location analyzed. This is certainly a limiting factor, as the natural constant of variability is eliminated. In any type of model, the assumptions required can also be quite revealing. Assumptions listed in the first study by Wilson et al include the following two: all of the water in the soil area redistributes instantaneously to field capacity and all of the water participates in the transport process. In other words the amount of water is fixed and uniformly distributed for each model cycle. Other assumptions are that the evaporation rate of the water is in direct proportion to the amount of water in each layer. Based on previous assumptions the evaporation rate of the water and its effect on the movement of solutes in the model is at best two dimensional. As the main component of transport in soil, the activity of water deserves a more thorough treatment, one which new developments in both modeling and GIS can allow. Examples might include ph balance and it’s effect on leaching of chemicals, and DEM and slope for more accurate determinations of solar effects, though this last might more appropriately be a part of the WGEN model. Additional assumptions include half life of chemicals as a constant in all soils; the fact that the creators of the model (Nofziger and Hornsby) address this separately is proof of its shortcoming, though apparently only in certain less prevalent situations. Temporal elements of this model are acceptable on the surface, as time intervals can be specified by the user as variables, though their min and max values are not given.
It would seem that if the necessity for combining multiple constituent models can be ameliorated, especially in a non-object oriented programming environment, a more robust and self-contained model might ultimately be produced, one which can accept whatever amount of data is required in order to return an accurate analysis. Perhaps this is unrealistic on certain levels, yet it is a valid goal to pursue, since its retention as a guiding force produces a more flexible tool. Ideally it would be more efficient as well. Ultimately, at least in this writer’s mind, a system which requires only input variables, especially those produced in real time, to produce valid and useful results is the ideal modeling quest, at least from a practical standpoint. It would seem that with the right combination of variables and algorithms, much is possible. It is the determination of these which is challenging, but the challenge is also lessened by the efforts of those who have made the initial attempts. In regard to an object-oriented development environment, it would seem the best choice for a modeling project such as this, especially if a GIS component can be included. In an abstract sense, all of the data brought together to be used in the synthetic model developed by Wilson et al can be thought of as variables, even those derived from a GIS, thus even when superseded their work will remain invaluable. Based on our current levels of technology, we have three components for this kind of work: A GIS for mapping and developing input data/variables, the hardware/software system for inputting variables and running the model algorithm, and the various sensing and validation tools to be used in the field. Perhaps the GIS and model platform could be incorporated into a single tool, though it would still require manipulation of mapping tools to produce input variables.
Moving from a qualitative perspective toward the production of a quantifiable tool which can be used for modeling non-specific areas, a proper determination of key variables would be a good place to start, creating an exhaustive list of these from earlier models. In parallel to this should be the development of equations and algorithms for the proper treatment of the variables. Reverse engineering previous models is one strategy for deducing key variables. I would like to go back two decades to earlier solute transport models in order to attempt the extraction of variables, then list variables as they can be determined from the more current models, intersecting them and determining those worth keeping and those worth modifying or eliminating. An overview of how these variables have been used, and how their use might be improved with the addition of more variables could follow, along with a comparison to new models, which could lead to a proposition for even newer models. At some point, it would seem that if a platform could emerge which offered graphic user interface and a well-suited programming language running behind it, people would then have a flexible modeling platform for further and more widely divergent applications. For this kind of platform, an object oriented programming language would be the best choice, as it allows for a ‘divide and conquer’ approach. With this, recursive work such as this particular paper could be constrained to specific components of the emergent technology.
Before beginning the task of harvesting variables and following that with concerns of algorithms, it is the option of the writer to address peripheral processes first, such as the field data testing, both in preliminary and post-modeling phases. I would now like to exercise this option. To start, there are limited elements which are under the control of those involved in modeling and subsequent applications of the results. These are schedules, locations, types and amounts of chemicals applied, and type (based on analysis) and amount of water being applied. These can all be converted to variables to be added to those which are autonomous. As for these, aside from detailed mapping of areas under consideration, which can be accomplished via remote sensing with all its new enhancements, there is the determination of soil types and layers. Thinking in futuristic terms, even this could be automated via the introduction of nanoscale sensory machines dispatched into and retrieved from the soil. If this ever became a reality, it then becomes theoretically possible that the need for modeling would then no longer remain, as both soil and ground cover could then be also modified as needed in real time. Realistically it seems best to use core sampling for soil testing to arrive at the most accurate data. Mobile field labs would be ideal, and could be developed, to be used in conjunction with a receiver for remotely sensed data, and the integrated solute transport modeling hardware/software. This sounds like a somewhat idealistic scenario, but it is based on existing technology, and global food shortages looming on the horizon could render a cost benefit analysis a moot point. On the other hand, more sustainable local farming methods without the possibility of toxic chemicals being dispensed into groundwater would seem a healthier choice, but that isn’t the point of this exercise. On the other hand, at some point perhaps new chemistries more biologically efficacious could arrive which may also leverage these kinds of modeling technologies. Returning to the area of identifying variables, an immediate question is in regard to the data derived from various databases such as the STATSGO and MAPS databases used in the Wilson et al study. Which is the data used by the CMLS model? According to the journal article (Wilson et al, 2) this data includes the number of soil layers involved, and the soil properties of each. These soil properties include texture, density, field capacity, volumetric water content, and organic carbon content (presumably as a percentage though possibly as a specified amount since all layers are assumed to be compositionally uniform). Additionally there are the ‘partition coefficient’ which is derived relative to chemical degradation and organic carbon levels, and cultural variables such as rainfall/irrigation amount, plant root depth, and daily evapotranspiration amounts. One way to further refine the model might include considerations of the assumptions within the model. Can any of these be converted to constants or variables? Rate of water distribution is an obvious example, and one which may vary considerably in various locations. Accuracy of models could increase over time as chemical degradation rates are codified along with rates of water induction, evapotranspiration and downward movement for various types of cultures. Other variables include date, depth, and amount of herbicide being applied, depth to the bottom of cultivated root zones, and weather variables, which are given in the article as daily precipitation, maximum and minimum temperatures, and solar radiation values. Some other weather variables which might have an effect on accuracy could include humidity, dewpoint, barometric pressure, and atmospheric particulate matter in industrial areas. The mapping of soil data is not clearly delineated in the article, but follows a linking process between maps and data as developed by Bliss and Reybold. Perhaps a standardized data dictionary of soil data could at one point be made available for all areas of the globe, or at least the most farmed areas. The data could be made available as satellite downloads. This would be most expedient, especially in mobile field operations where accurate assessments could be made, and it would eliminate the necessity of ongoing sampling of soils beyond occasional updates much like those for datums. Going back to pre-GIS models of soils as transport medium, it becomes apparent that numerous types of models may be needed to account for different types of chemical processes occurring in the ground. Could these all at some point become separate tools within the same application all unified by a single programming language? Identification of the variables in studies such as those produced in the 1980s by van Genuchten and in the early 90s by Simunek, van Genuchten, and Suarez leads to numerous models which on the surface seem mutually exclusive. But it is simply (using that word loosely!) a matter of cataloging the variables, equations, and program sequences within a framework which makes them interactive, much like the toolsets available in software such as Esri’s ArcMap. Within an inefficient operating system such as the Windows OS this is likely not possible. A more efficient system such as the Unix derived Mac OS or even possibly Google’s emerging cloud based OS ‘Chrome’ would seem a better home for an object oriented system of this magnitude. The Visual Basic Studio produced by Microsoft has been gradually shifting to more of an object based environment and may offer a feasible development tool, however the use of tools which remain proprietary to an OS now in the early stage of rapid decline may not be a good idea. With the shifting and collapsing of large swaths of our global market, an open sourced solution seems a better choice- something along the lines of Python, PHP/MySQL & Ruby. Developers who could build soil modeling GUIs for open source technologies would be my preferred choice. These would be marketable without the development costs associated with proprietary systems.
Some of the variables found in equations for earlier generations of soil transport models include dimensionless variables such as concentration amounts along with those for pores and other volumetric considerations in the more structured soils. These are subsumed in more recent equations by means of densities and component amounts– nothing missing there, but one interesting point found in an article by van Genuchten from 1985 is a discussion of solute transport around cylindrical aggregates (van Genuchten, 6). Variables here include the radius of the solids, their coordinates, and solution concentration. The discussion in that article is centered on structured soil and is not directly applicable here, but it does bring to mind the possibility of modeling solute transports in soil which contains more substantial obstacles such as large rocks or architectural structures. These kinds of models would represent a separate development area, namely the modeling of soils containing various sizes and shapes of aggregates and structures. Here also is where more varieties of water movement might be studied. A list of variables from a study done in the early 1990s by Nielsen, Genuchten, and Jury (Nielsen, Donald R., M.Th. van Genuchten and William A. Jury, 3-5) includes water flux, unsaturated hydraulic conductivity, vertical coordinates, and matric potential head. Water flux and conductivity might be determining factors in the movement and leaching of solutes, and there is also a water characteristic curve based on sources and sinks of water within the soil. As one would intuitively expect, this study also describes characteristics and modeling of solutes as extremely complicated. This model includes variables for microbial transformations, dissolved and absorbed concentrations, root uptakes, and solute mass flux. Also it begins to address different model transformations depending on soil types. Convective Dispersive Flow was the cornerstone of modeling equations in the twenty years previous to this study, and it includes reflections of ionic and molecular diffusion arising from the thermal motions of dissolved constituents. In addition, it addresses deviations from averages brought about by different sizes and directions of pores in the soil. I believe this helps to verify what I mentioned early on, which is that first and second generation models address more of the subtleties inherent in solute transport modeling by virtue of the fact that there are no intermittent layers of further abstraction. In some cases these further abstractions no doubt compensate for components within older models in elegant ways, while in others oversimplification may have occurred as in the Wilson et al studies (which were originally designed as learning tools). In addition within the study, various types of structural and fragmented models are enumerated. Though they are not addressed in detail, stochastic models are mentioned in the same sentence which states that erratic results are subject to quantification in modeling. In other words, accurate models are still not in place, though the synthesis of marginally successful components into bigger systematic tools has been shown to be a viable methodology by Wilson et al. With that in mind, the inclusion of variability factors into equations seems to be a worthwhile study as exemplified by Goldberg and Cockburn in their study titled “Improving Geocode Accuracy with Candidate Selection Criteria” from 2010. Though they are not dealing in that study with soil and solute transport modeling, it should be noted that the authors are computer science and preventive medicine specialists, validating the interdisciplinary nature of this kind of work. Their uncertainty function could well be applied to modeling of soil compositions, and discreet uncertainty values could be derived from existing variability among soil types and layers within known environmental mapping areas. The conceptual extension of this idea which the authors describe– assigning ‘mass’ proportional to probability, could be used to extend viability of chemical use for crop yield maximization beyond existing areas of known sample types by translating the conception of known soil features as centroids. Around these at radii defined by probability based on known distributions, would be numerous other more widely varying soil features. Using this gravitation based model to formulate solute transport equations as the authors did for geocoding criteria would be an interesting mathematical challenge for those inclined, and it would seem that since each centroid mass, in order to remain consistent with the gravitation model, would be proportional to the inverse of its area within the model (Goldberg & Cockburn, 11). Because of this, it would be impossible for less prevalent features to become overweighted. In terms of defining soil types along with their likely features, before the advent of more recent numerically intensive statistic methods, various studies have been carried out, based on a 1941 famous equation by Jenny. This equation defines soil types as a function of climate, organisms, topography, parent material(s) and time (McBratney et al, 4). Various subsequent studies have all worked at defining soil types based on the focus of one of these criteria. The upside to all of this is that at some point, soil types among widely divergent ecosystems will be either mapped or subject to a reasonably accurate modeling. Using these maps and models to inform standardized data sets which in turn can be made available worldwide via satellite links for input to soil transport (and other) modeling technologies created in an object oriented environment and wrapped in a highly functional GUIs could transform agriculture as practiced in the world today:
Various models for diverse soil types and environments would require some variation in design, and each of these designs would require their own algorithms and component equations. Each of these in turn will require automated and manual variable input. It is also likely that various types of chemicals with various levels of soil efficacy and toxicity will require specific modeling tools, with requisite equations. These equations would vary considerably, much like toolsets within GIS software. The less assumptions required, the more effective the tools can be. A software architecture sufficiently robust to accommodate all of these would be ideal, as component programming languages would ultimately need to be semantically and structurally re-aligned to fit a single architecture. The following table is of variables which might be common to all applications of soil transport modeling, whether simple or complex, along with the types of equations they might be used in. They are listed roughly according to a spectrum which runs from a lower (‘core’) granularity to a higher (less percentage of key affectation) granularity. Where possible multiple items are indicated they are followed by ‘(s)’:
This is by no means an exhaustive list, also many variables which have previously been used in various models are ‘automatically’ included within various modeling tools, based on soil data and physiology, thus they are no longer required. These include variables such as chemical half-life coefficients and ion transfers, etc.
Bibliography
Goldberg, Daniel W. and Myles G. Cockburn. “Improving Geocode Accuracy With Candidate Selection Criteria.” Transactions in GIS, 14(s1), 2010.
Inskeep, W.P. et al. “Input Parameter and Model Resolution Effects on Predictions of Solute Transport.” Journal of Environmental Quality. Vol. 25 no.3 May–June 1996. PDF Reprint.
McBratney, A.B., M.L. Mendoca Santos and B. Minasny. “On Digital Soil Mapping.” Geoderma. vol 117, 3-52, 2003.
Nielsen, Donald R., M.Th. van Genuchten and William A. Jury. “Transport Processes from Soil Surfaces to Groundwaters.” IAHS no. 185, 1989. PDF Reprint.
Simunek, Jiri, Donald L. Suarez, Martinus Van Genuchten. “Modelling multiple solute transport in variably saturated soils.” IAHS no. 25, 1995. PDF Reprint.
van Beinum, Wendy. Modelling Multicomponent solute transport in structured soils. PhD-thesis Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands 2007. PDF Reprint.
van Genuchten, M. Th. “A General Approach for Modeling Solute Transport in Structured Soils” Memoires Int. Assoc. Hydrogeol., Vol. 17 no. 2 513-526, 1985. PDF Reprint.
Wilson, John P. et al. “GIS-Based Solute Transport Modeling Applications: Scale Effects of Soil and Climate Data Input.” Journal of Environmental Quality. Vol. 25 no.3 May–June 1996. PDF Reprint.
Wilson, John P. et al(2). “Coupling Geographic Information Systems and Models for Weed Control and Groundwater Protection.” Journal of Environmental Quality. Vol. 7 no.1 January–March 1993. PDF Reprint.
UFOs and Geologic Proximity
Introduction
For my project, I decided to combine the esoteric with the geological. The project is centered on specific types of UFO sightings in the state of Oregon over the last two years in relation to geologic materials and activities. The impetus for this project is the theory that some kinds of UFO sightings are directly related to geologic materials and seismic events. The idea for the project was sparked from a memory of watching a television show several years ago about a location in Northern Europe where ongoing UFO sightings were under consideration by several scientific groups as having a direct connection with the local geology. It is also known by many scientists that patterns of UFO sightings are generally more prevalent in areas where there exist geologic anomalies and seismic activity zones. Though relatively simple in scope, my study of this using GIS tools may be useful in helping to advance this idea; it may also end up perpetuating it as purely conjectural. Either way, it does provide a valuable learning exercise as well as a possible starting point for more involved studies in this area– leveraging the power of GIS. It is my hope that further expanding the scope of this study may eventually reveal previously unknown and potentially valuable information.
Study Area
I began this inquiry by looking at UFO data accumulated in the state of Oregon over the past twenty four months, in conjunction with geologic data for the entire state. It is my understanding that both before and during the occurrence of seismic events, there are significant releases of electrical energy, this due in part to the effects of extreme pressure upon crystalline materials. By mapping fault zones and geologic substrata, and comparing these with various types of UFO sightings at various times and locations, it may be possible to establish a connection between geology and the appearance of at least some types of visual phenomenon. This study is of course not intended to prove or disprove the existence of extra-terrestrial intelligence, rather to begin to build an expanded field of inquiry as to the nature of at least some visual phenomena. In addition to this, by collecting temporal and attribute data on UFO sightings and analyzing this in relation to mineral deposits and their various locations and types within the state of Oregon, a foundation may be established for further expanding this kind of study and utilizing wider realms of criteria, while at the same time finding possibly relevant connections between geologic data and some kinds of UFOs. At this early stage of this kind of project, it would be premature to attempt to resolve any conjecture as to the nature of UFOs, rather the purpose is to begin mapping relationships between seemingly disparate categories of sightings, events, attributes, and locations. Indeed, the ability to begin to incorporate the UFO idiom, with all of its mystery and social ‘baggage’ directly into a more concrete study by means of GIS, is an inviting prospect from the start.
Data
Data for my project consisted partly of lists of events and locations along with descriptive information. These needed to be converted to table files that could be imported into ArcMap for analysis, and this involved finding decimal degree latitude and longitude coordinates for numerous locations. Sources of the initial lists include the National UFO reporting Center (NUFORC), and the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), neither of which make GIS data available. Outside of these agencies, I have so far been unable to locate UFO sighting information in sufficient quantities to make use of for analysis. The only GIS data I have seen regarding UFO sightings are the Google Earth maps created by an organization called Poly9, who as it turns out are using the same source data as was used in this project. Perhaps one day more UFO data will become available with more specific location and direction information. Multiple locations over time in one city do not provide specific GPS based information which could go far in contributing to clearer proximity distinctions within datasets. For this study it was deemed most expedient to convert location data into geographic x and y coordinates manually, along with attribute data. Google Earth data in the form of .kmz (zipped keyhole markup language files) were downloaded and looked at, but limiting time factors led to favoring the more direct method of data preparation. As a result, the UFO data provided by NUFORC was chosen. Geologic data was obtained mainly from the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries, and the U.S. Geological Survey, which is a subset of the United States Department of the Interior. Data for seismic activity was also supplied by USGS.
My search continues for more substantial UFO sighting data for the state of Oregon and other locations in GIS formats which can be used with ArcMap, along with more specific mineral and geology layer information for specific areas where cities and towns are located. Especially useful would be UFO sighting data which is more accurate with regard to exact locations where the sightings occurred. Some of the geologic data I obtained for use in this project is substantial with regard to file size, so numerous layers were not utilized. As this project expands, more types of data will likely be included, such as atmospheric conditions, orbital object trajectories and related technology such as proximity to airports and launch areas, bodies of water, geomagnetism, etc.
Methodology
After uploading layers of geologic spatial data, I converted HTML tables of UFO sighting data and seismic event data to comma separated text files to upload to the ArcMap server. This data includes coordinates, types of objects sighted (i.e. fireball, black triangle, disk, light, etc.), location by city or town, and dates. The sighting locations unfortunately are only based on the known central or default location points of cities and towns. GPS positions of UFO sightings are currently rare if they exist at all, and would greatly enhance/improve this kind of study. The locations of UFO sightings were correlated with various kinds of geologic information, including seismic zones and fault lines, metallic and non-metallic deposits, and seismic event dates in correlation with sighting dates. These layers of data were analyzed to seek correlations, trends, or commonalities among them. The process began with the creation of numerous map layers, each containing specific information derived through a selection by attribute and export process.
The following is an outline of the project as an algorithm:
Locate all data sources, make usability determinations and download the most useful data
Convert data to format(s) usable in ArcMap
Upload all data to be used to the ArcMap server
Import data into new map
Make determinations for which datasets to export to the database and place as layers in ArcMap
Create and symbolize layer data as necessary
Determine ‘standard’ proximity distances (in this case, 3km and 10 km)
Using location by distance tools, find proximities among data using various source and target layers in ArcMap
Export results to layers, i.e. “Metallic mineral deposits within 3km of sightings”
Further symbolize data as necessary, export maps for results archive
Summarize data in table form and statistically, archive these
Formulate conclusions, refine/develop process
As the work progressed, it became apparent that at this stage it would not be necessary to use buffering, table unions, joins, or intersections, as was originally thought. This was somewhat of a relief after spending a large amount of time preparing the data for uploading! Most of the considerations in this study involved simple proximity analysis between discreet points and lines, although as the study progresses, the use of more complex toolsets such as terrain and raster neighborhood analysis would likely be warranted as more granular distinctions between attributes and aggregations become apparent.