Posts Tagged ‘ sequence ’

Hippasus Gurgles: “I am a DJ, I am what I play”

On most Fridays, Michael Carlisle examines the world “outside” sequential art to find… more sequential art. Expect mathematics and a dash of pessimistic optimism.

I spend a lot of time thinking about the difference between sequences of things and the “time series” those things make. I’ve been straying somewhat from the standard ideas of “sequential art” in what I talk about on this blog; I’m not about to stop now.

Even though I’ve already stated that music, as a temporally-based art, isn’t a sequential art, I firmly believe that the careful construction of a sequence of pieces of art is an art in itself, regardless of the type of art being sequenced.

As a species, we’ve been recording sound for about 130 years. From the beginnings, the wax cylinder and gramophone recordA1 allowed the rich, then the public, to have recordings of audio in their homes. It also allowed, with radio, the evolution of a societal position – the Master of Ceremonies – to move from the religious meeting or performance hall into ever-shrinking boxes in people’s homes. The MC could also become the DJ, gaining the power to sequence acts from their recordings instead of collecting them into one room to perform live. The little discs could be swapped in a two-turntable setup which allowed a predefined (or on-the-fly) sequence to be constructed. The art of the DJ is not the music; it is the sequence of music.

I got two turntables and a microphone
I got plastic on my mind….A2

Read more

2009
04/03
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Hippasus Gurgles
TAGS










1 comment

Hippasus Gurgles: Towards a Theory of Adaptation Appreciation

On alternating Fridays, Michael Carlisle examines the world “outside” sequential art to find… more sequential art. Expect mathematics, a bit of madness, and a dash of pessimistic optimism.

“I think that adaptation is largely a waste of time in almost any circumstances.” – Alan Moore666

Non-exhaustive list of forms of the mythos known as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:

  • radio series (1978, 2003)
  • book series (1979-1992)
  • BBC TV miniseries (1981)
  • text-based video game (1984)
  • comics (1993-1996)
  • movie (2005)

Remember the first time you said something to the effect of, “No, they can’t remake [adapt] THAT! I love that!”

If you’re reading this, you probably don’t, since it’s happened so many times you’ve either been worn down, grown accustomed to it, or, possibly, screamed in righteous Fan rage every time.

Part of the notion of “sequential art”, art in sequence, is the idea of a sequence of art. If we consider a piece of art (not necessarily “sequential”) as an individual entity, then a remake or adaptation of that particular work creates (or adds to) a particular sequence of works sharing characters and/or certain other plot elements. This sequence, if it becomes large and/or popular enough, gains its own name: canon19.95.

These two notions2,

  • REMAKE: an art work which heavily shares recognizable plot sequence and elements of a previous work in its medium.
  • ADAPTATION: an art work which heavily shares recognizable plot elements of a previous work in its or another medium, usually with significant stylistic or other changes.

have covered a large share of popular culture over the last 100 years. My
esteemed smurfologist colleague waxed frustrated on this topic recently, in regards to a specific plague of adaptations called the “comic book movie”.

Read more

2009
03/27
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Hippasus Gurgles
Ramblings of a Fanboy
TAGS









Write comment

Hippasus Gurgles: Meta Sequential Art: Infinite Sequences

In my previous installment, I attempted to establish that mathematics is a sequential art. I think it’s already time to get meta: sequential art about sequences.


All of the works you think of when referring to “sequential art” deal with finite sequences. At some point, the panels stop and the comic ends. Let’s talk a little about the loss of intuition, vague sense of the world spinning, and loss of appetite that comes with infinite sequences.
Read more

2009
02/27
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Hippasus Gurgles
TAGS










14 comments

Hippasus Gurgles: Math, Sequence, Narrative

On alternating Fridays, Michael Carlisle examines the world “outside” sequential art to find… more sequential art. Expect mathematics, a bit of madness, and a dash of pessimistic optimism.

by Michael Carlisle

Hi. My name is Mike, and currently I’m an academic.

(“Hi, Mike!”)

Some day I hope to get out with a Ph.D.

In mathematics.

Already you’re wondering, why is this guy here?

I want to share an idea with you. What are the sequential arts? These are, in the McCloudian sense,

mccloud_defn

Yes, there’s argument about this definition. However, I’m a mathematician, and so I, like the esteemed Mr. McCloud, like to start with understandable (and general) definitions.

I will now proceed to give a most unmathematical argument.1
Read more

2009
02/06
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Hippasus Gurgles
Ramblings of a Fanboy
TAGS



2 comments
 
Better Tag Cloud