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Depending on the piece, indeterminacy and improvisation can be the same thing, however are not always. To clarify it is necessary to look at how these terms are typically defined. According to the “indeterminate music” entry in The Oxford Companion to Music, “[...] the composer has to some degree relinquished control, perhaps by leaving some aspects to chance or to the performer's decision. All music falls within this definition, since musical notation, however detailed, can never prescribe a performance with complete precision; but the term is normally reserved for cases of a conscious abstention from creative choice.” The entry goes on to describe various forms of indeterminacy. Several definitions make comparisons with aleatory, but “specially the principle by which a decision of the performer of a composition replaces a decision of the composer.”Aleatory seems to be a shared component between the two concepts, appearing as one of the Grove Music Online's definitions of improvisation: “Aleatory or indeterminate features of modern works are of an improvisatory nature.” Within the same entry, improvisation is also stated to be “[any] performance according to the inventive whim of the moment, i.e. without a written or printed score, and not from memory.” This point of extemporaneousness, without preparation is one of the key distinctions often drawn between works of improvisation and others of indeterminacy. Returning to The Oxford Companion to Music, the “improvisation” entry further emphasizes this detail:The implication is that improvisation is the freest kind of creative activity, in which spontaneity and lack of forethought displace the long and often tortuous processes which compositional acts are traditionally assumed to involve, as well as displacing the painstaking learning and processing of a printed text which performance normally presumes.Here are some situations to illustrate cases of difference between the two terms before examining the Coleman, Lewis, Zorn, and Riley works.It is considered strictly indeterminate music if the composer relinquished creative control to a process of composition, though still fully notating the results, and the performer is not given any special indication regarding interpretation. The Oxford Companion to Music's “indeterminate music” entry focuses on techniques used by John Cage, such as determining compositional choices by tossing coins, or by placing notes on physical imperfections in the manuscript paper, by tracing musical patterns from star maps, and so on. During a performance there are no extemporaneous compositional decisions being made by the musician, and thus, no improvisation takes place.Another case for strict indeterminacy would be if the composer relinquished creative control over an parameter of the music to the performer, but the performer makes a decision about the choice before playing (i.e. not extemporaneously). The examples of this The Oxford Companion to Music provides include the works of Lutosławski and Henze where certain passages may have the performer repeat a fragment an indefinite number of times or choose a rhythm for a given set of pitches. Another option is where composers present fixed material which may be played in alternative sequences. For instance, in the Third Piano Sonata (1955–7) Boulez allows the player to decide the order of movements, and of fragments within them, to omit certain passages, to choose between alternative tempos and dynamics, and so on.[Image via Ornette Coleman - Free Jazz]Free Jazz (1960) – Ornette ColemanIn the article Pitch-Class Transformation in Free Jazz author Steven Block traces the musical sub-genre of free jazz back to this landmark album of the same title. He goes on to call this a “realization of Coleman's ideas about freedom in music to their fullest extent.” Likewise, Jari Perkiömäki, in his thesis Lennie and Ornette: Searching for Freedom in Improvisation, describes Free Jazz, as one of Coleman's most radical, “forceful and occasionally chaotic,” in part due to the two pianoless quartets it employed improvising simultaneously. The 36-minute improvisation constituting the album focuses on, as Block puts it, “nontonal material without the benefit of a fixed meter or fixed entries of the ensemble.” Therefore, the lack of fixed entries could be considered a indeterminate aspect of the piece as a composition. Nevertheless, Free Jazz both as a recording and as a style is primarily concerned with improvisation, particularly improvisation no longer based on chord changes.[Image via Trummerflora Presents Spring Reverb 2007]Voyager – George LewisThe divide between indeterminacy and improvisation becomes quite murky with Voyager, “a nonhierarchical, interactive musical environment that privileges improvisation” according to the composer. In the article Too Many Notes: Computers, Complexity and Culture in Voyager, Lewis describes the roles of the composer and improviser throughout the work.Voyager (the program) analyzes aspects of an improviser's performance in real time, using that analysis to guide an automatic composing program that generates complex responses to the musician’s playing. This implies a certain independence of action, and indeed, the program exhibits generative behavior independent of the human performer. The system is not an instrument, and therefore cannot be controlled by the performer.If you want to hear the program play in a certain way, you figure out how what you want to hear is organized, and you start playing that way yourself. Te result is two parallel streams of music generation that of the computer and that of the human, each informed by the other’s music-all improvisational, subject-subject model of discourse, rather than stimulus/response. The software that performs on this recording considers at least thirty different musical parameters as it works on accepting input and generating output. Te input information is passed to a number of analytic processes that deposit their outputs into a block of variables that amount to the state of the input at a given moment. Volume, sounding duration, octave, register, interval width, pitches used, volume range, frequency of silence, and articulation are checked and averaged over time.All of this is passed to the music-generating processes. Many of the same parameters found in the input are passed to the output, such as frequency of silence, volume, sounding duration, octave, register, interval width, volume range, and articulation. Other important musical choices are generated internally via random numbers. These processes provide much of the “personality” of the system, and include melody and harmony, orchestration, ornamentation, pacing, transposition, rhythm, and internal behavior options, such as whether and how to react to input, or how quickly to change parameter and which should be changed. In the absence of all input, all needed parameters are generated using random numbers.[…] What the work is about is what improvisation is about: interaction and behavior as carriers for meaning. On this view, notes, timbres, melodies, durations, and the like are not ends in themselves. Embedded in them is a more complex, indirect, powerful signal that we must train ourselves to detect.If hard lines were to be drawn, the role of the composer in creating the Voyager software could be understood as indeterminate music. The composer is intentionally relinquishing some creative decision making, and transferring the role to the computer. In a way, this is a more modern take on generating pre-compositional material than John Cage's chance procedures. The composer is still in control of some parameters, as Lewis is writing the program and knows the possible ways that Voyager could react to input. He is also choosing the orchestral sound libraries, albeit the manner in which they are combined in textures is up to the software. Once a performance begins, the intention of the piece lies in improvisation, particularly the interplay between human and machine.Aspects such as the exact number of musicians, instrumentation, and duration of the piece as a whole are left as indeterminate.[Image via John Zorn Cobra, North Sea Jazz, Rotterdam / NL, 2009]Cobra (1984) – John ZornThe concept behind Cobra is to take the Ornette Coleman style of free improvisation and apply it to a larger ensemble through a “game.” There is no published score for Cobra. Rather, according to Dylan van der Schyff in the article The Free Improvisation Game: Performing John Zorn's Cobra, the piece is conveyed through a stack of cardboard cue cards with handles taped to the back of them. On the front of the cards are large letters (SX, CT, D, T, E, B, and so on), numbers (1,2,3, I, II, III) and other symbols. Schyff further details the game, stating:We were each given a sheet where the function of each cue card was described. The sheet contained more symbols in the form of hand gestures. We were also given headbands. As Zorn explained how the system of symbols and gestures worked I realized why the piece could not be published in the traditional way. For one thing, there is no proper score––the piece consists of a set of events cued by symbols on the cards as well as by the catalog of hand gestures on the cue sheet; the content of each event is entirely dictated by the musicians performing it.Furthermore, there is no conductor––the initiation of events is brought about by the ensemble members themselves via the ‘prompter’ who stands facing the ensemble (back to the audience) with the cue cards on a table in front of him; the ensemble is arranged in a semicircle facing the audience, the prompter and each other. In performance the prompter is bombarded by various cues from the ensemble, with each musician trying to get the prompter to display the symbol he or she wants to initiate the next event. And while it is impossible for the prompter to be completely impartial, it is largely for the musicians to decide which type of cue will provide the most interesting continuation of events.For example, one musician might hold one hand over his mouth while displaying four fingers with the other hand, meaning that he wants the ‘sub crossfade’ event to take place. If the prompter notices him first the ‘SX’ card will be displayed to the ensemble and those who are playing fade out while those who are not playing fade in. Another musician, hearing something she likes, might place one hand on her head and hold up one finger with the other hand cueing the prompter to display the ‘1’ card. This card initiates the ‘sound memory 1’ event where musicians are to remember what they are playing at that moment and be able to immediately reproduce and repeat it for an extended period the next time the ‘1’ card is displayed. A myriad of other possible events may be cued, such as duo and trio combinations or different types of endings; donning the headband signals that the musician has decided to temporarily do as they please––a renegade action that may elicit reactionary responses from the ensemble.Like Voyager, where Cobra lies on the indeterminacy/improvisation continuum is hazy. Each of the cue cards is composed, despite the nontraditional text and symbolic notation. The conductor, or rather, 'prompter' is also the composer, therefore the order that the events take is not necessarily random, otherwise it would not be much of a game. Furthermore, the game is rehearsed. The rehearsal process likely solidifies certain musical responses to specific cue cards from each player. During the concert, what an individual performer is player may not be improvised, if he or she had galvanized that response throughout rehearsals. It is, however, nevertheless indeterminate because the order of events is not revealed and the resultant sounds from various orchestrations are constantly changing. Lastly, it could very well contain a great deal of improvisation, as the above article suggests. The 'prompter', though not making any sound, could effectively be improvising. The players have not rehearsed the transitions and exact timings, plus without written parts there is bound to be differences in performance even among those with solidified musical responses to each symbol.Aspects such as the exact number of musicians, instrumentation, and duration of the piece as a whole are left as indeterminate.[Image via 80 Jahre Terry Riley]In C (1964) – Terry RileyThe balance between indeterminacy and improvisation with In C is similar to Cobra, only achieved through more traditional means. Unlike Cobra, there is a score, albeit laid out in an open, modular way. There is no conductor per se, however, the the straight 8th note high C's of the pulse for a piano or mallet instrument functions in a similar way to a conductor. Furthermore, the current (2005) edition of the score Riley publishes contains the following instructions:All performers play from the same page of 53 melodic patterns played in sequence. A group of about 35 creates a rich full overlay but interesting performances have been created with many more or many less.Patterns are to be played consecutively, with each performer having the freedom to determine how many times he or she will repeat each pattern before moving to the next. There is no fixed rule as to the number of repetitions a pattern may have, however, since performances normally average between 45 minutes and an hour and a half, it can be assumed that one would repeat each pattern somewhere between 45 seconds and a minute and 1/2 or longer.It is very important that performers listen very carefully to one another and this means to occasionally drop out and listen. As an ensemble, it is desirable to vary dynamics as well as create group crescendos and diminuendos.Each pattern can be played in unison or canonically in any alignment with itself or its neighboring patterns. One of the joys of playing IN C is the interaction of the players in polyrhythmic combinations that spontaneously arise among patterns. Some quite fantastic shapes will arise and disintegrate as the ensemble progresses through the piece.It is important not to hurry from pattern to pattern but to stay on a pattern long enough to interlock with other patterns. As the performance progresses, performers should stay within 2 or 3 patterns of each other. It is important not to race too far ahead or lag too far behind the main patterns sounding.[…] The tempo is left to the discretion of the performers. Extremely fast is discouraged. When a performer is not playing, she should be conscious of the larger periodic composite accents that are sounding. When she re‐enters she must be aware of what affect [sic] the entrance will have on the overall flow.The ensemble should aim to merge into a unison at least once, but preferable [sic] often during the course of a performance. If all patterns seemed to be played too much in unison a player should try to offset his pattern by and [sic] 1/8th note or other value so as to create a feeling of shifting alignments. It is OK to transpose patterns. Take care when transposing, especially with patterns in running 16th notes. This can create a very muddy sound. Also all instruments should aim at a blend at [sic] no one instrument should stick out except momentarily. Rhythmic augmentation of patterns can be effective.Players may omit patterns that are too difficult or unsuitable for their instrument.Amplification of instruments is allowed to help achieve a balanced dynamics Electronic instruments are also welcome.This is more indeterminate than improvisation. The parameters of extemporaneousness include dynamics, octave, individual tempo, and repetition to say within 2-3 modules of the group. However, a number of these parameters are limited naturally due to each instrument's capabilities. The indeterminate parameters are plentiful. The composer relinquishes the above listing (dynamics, tempo, instrumentation, duration, repetition); yet retains pitch, order of events, and rhythms. What separates In C from the other works is the sense of group improvisation towards a common goal. Cobra is made up of a group of improvisers, but each player has his or her own vested interests. In C is more about working together to create a tapestry rather than competing against each other in a game.

From August 1991 to September 2002 I and my family lived in the interior Himalayas.The nearest road was about 2 miles uphill and the nearest settlement with electricity was about 8 miles further on that road. Neither the road nor the electric lines were reliable. Monsoons would wash away everything and for months it would remain in disrepair.The government of India has an organization called NEDA (non conventional energy development agency) who started a program of supplying solar lighting systems for such rural non-electrified areas.The system consisted of one 35W monocrystalline solar panel, and a 40 AH car battery in a metal box with charge controller. Two low voltage 9 watt CFL units were included - the CFL units used an inbuilt high frequency driver for efficiency.The unit cost Rs 4500/- at the time and the actual cost would have been about 20000/- so this was a massive subsidy from the government.We obtained four of these units in 1995 and rigged up four 120 AH batteries to go with it and a 1.5 KVA inverter to run powertools with.When a panel is rated for X watts, it doesn't mean it will actually be able to deliver that much all the time. There are many factors which affect the output :Angle of the sun - radiation falling on a flat panel is proportional to the cosine of the angle of the sun rays measured perpendicular to the panel.Season, temperature and cloud cover - Winter sun is sharper than summer sun, probably due to the clear atmosphere. Colder ambient temperature leads to higher power. Extremely thin cloud layers (in winter) actually improve the output, because perhaps they filter out IR and lower frequency radiation and let more UV through (this is not the "edge of cloud" effect, and I can't see any information about this effect online)Impedance matching between the panel and the battery - If this is done correctly, you get more outputPanel temperature - pouring cold water on the panels improves the output - the silicon which is black in color easily reaches at least 60 degree centigrade in the sun, and that causes internal resistance to increase.All in all, Getting 30 watts of charging from a 35W panel was a rarity - The average on sunny days was more like 24. Cloudy days, no significant charge.After 4 years we got another 2 panels and added 4 180 AH tubular batteries and upped the inverter capacity to 2.5 KVAFrom October to December we would get 4 hours of solid sunlight everyday.Between April and July, summer meant 6 to 7 hours of sunlight. The remaining 5 months probably less than 2 hours of sunlight a day if at all.Some of the batteries lasted for the whole 7 years due to the constant monitoring and mollycoddling. One of them I "fixed" by cutting open one of the dead cells and shorting across, making a 10V battery.There were no days when we had no light, but many a day when there was not enough juice to run power tools for more than a few minutes. Many a day when the computer could not be run too long or at all.The last 4 years we had a kerosene generator and we'd rigged up a small 4 AMP charger to boost charge the batteries when we used it.It needed gasoline to start, which was not easily available. We pioneered the technique of using propane propellant from a bug spray can to get the engine started when we were out of gasoline.That generator was a life saver on many a rainy day.We needed a 2.5 KVA inverter to handle heavy loads, but that meant it would have been inefficient running small loads.Nowadays I stare at a tachometer and a speedometer, those days the ammeter and the voltmeter dominated my attention.After this whole experience, now that I live in the city with unlimited electricity, I am a solar skeptic.I use about 11 KWH a day here (which is 75% of the average in my country) - For this I would need 100 panels at least even on the sunniest day. Not to mention 25 batteries, to last a week in rainy weather. Not a viable proposition at all!If you live in the 1st world, you probably use up to 10 or 20 times as much as my household.In terms of cost, complexity, maintenance, solar is not ready for prime time. It can work if scaled up massively, or work on the very small scale in rural areas where some little energy is better than none.I keep running into people who tout solar PV madly - They are either:Rich enough to be able to throw money into it for the feel good factorWeak at arithmetic, electronics and physicsReceivers of heavy subsidies for PV materialsProfiting from sale or manufacture of such systemsPeople in positions of power who want to look environmentally responsible by sanctioning government projects related to PVSimple-lifers or villagers who are willing to live a basic lifeTo all who would like to go full solar, I'd say :Caveat EmptorEih Bennek, Eih BlavekYour money is better spent, and energy better conserved buying low energy lighting, turning down the thermostat and living less wastefully.Also do support your nearest nuclear scientist.

IONOCRAFT- An alternative to Future Transport System''Imagine an aircraft that is silent, invisible to infrared detectors, has zero emissions and can hover in an eerie manner that helicopters can’t.''SOUNDS WEIRD RIGHT.....!!!!WORKING PRINCIPLE:See when a HIGH VOLTAGE Supply is given between the between the upper electrode and lower electrode, then the upper electrode creates a electrohydrodynamicthrust(ionic wind) in the air between them.If enough voltage is applied, the resulting wind can produce a thrust without the help of motors or fuel.Watch this video for better understanding of the working principle with animationYou can also make your own ionocraft, watch this video for details...Now The History OF IONOCRAFT is very interesting.......!!!!Scientists claim that this technology was used to propel the UFO's.In 1921 while experimenting in his lab, Thomas Townsend Brown discovered an unusual effect while experimenting with a Coolidge tube, a type of X-ray vacuum tube with two asymmetrical electrodes.Placing it on a balance scale with the tube’s positive electrode facing up, when the power was on the tubes mass seemed to decrease. When tube's electrode was facing down the tube's mass seemed to increase.This led him to believe that he had discovered a connection between strong electric fields and gravity, a type of antigravity effect. This phenomenon was later labelled as electrogravitics by him.Instead of being an anti-gravity force, this effect has been found to be caused by ionized particles exerting a force between two asymmetrical electrodes that produces a type of ion drift or ionic wind that transfers its momentum to surrounding neutral particles called as Biefeld–Brown effectBrown used a pair of 18-inch disc airfoils suspended from opposite ends of a rotatable arm.Brown’s discs were charged with a high positive voltage on a wire running along their leading edge and a high negative voltage on a wire running along their trailing edge.When electrified with 50,000 volts, they circuited at a speed of 12 miles per hour.SOURCE:The Lost Journals of Nikola Tesla, "Outside The Box" Space and Terrestrial Transportation and Energy Technologies for The 21st CenturyAPPLICATIONS:•Now by applying different voltages to various parts of the craft ( front, rear left, rear right ) the ROLL, PITCH and YAW movement can be achieved.•Hence they can be used for maneuvering the craft as an helicopter but without any moving parts and silently too.Weather Observation -Ionocraft could sail right into the weather-making air layers, providing valuable information. Being steerable, it will not drift with the wind like weather balloons, but could hold a position over crucial areas, making local forecasts more reliable.They are also used for control of the orientation and position of orbiting satellites (some satellites have dozens of low-power ion thrusters) and use as a main propulsion engine for low-mass robotic space vehicles. (for example Deep Space 1 and Dawn)This is NASA's 2.3 kW ion thruster for the Deep Space 1 spacecraft during a hot fire test at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.Source: Ion thruster•Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit electrifies its wing-leading edge as a means of assisting its propulsion.Air-frame electrification is used in the B-2 bomber to reduce air drag and hull friction.Now u might be thinking how Air-frame electrification can reduce the air drag and hull friction?See when we apply high voltage to the leading edge of the aircraft, a ION SHEATH formed which creates a buffer zone around the craft, by ionizing, repelling and deflecting the oncoming air molecules and also softening or eliminating the supersonic boom thereby preventing them from directly impacting and heating the hull.Hence by pursuing this technology and applying it to the Space Shuttle, the lives of an entire crew can be saved along with the hundreds of millions of dollars that are now going into the wreckage recovery and the cost of putting the space program on hold.SOURCE: Concerning a Technology That Could Help Avoid Another Columbia DisasterPower-boosting techniques are recently used now were The High Voltage power supply is controlled by a square wave frequency generator to pulse the power in short high energy bursts rather than applying steady voltage.You can see from the stats given above that the power required for hovering the Lifter is only 17.72 Watts at 70 Hz Vs 69.58 Watts in DC. (Which is 4 time less than in DC).SOURCE: Lifters Performances Analysis by JL Naudin, The Lifters Experiments home page by Jean-Louis NaudinUnlike the Magnetic-Levitation technology that are currently being promoted as the future of transportation, the lifter does not require a specially constructed and expensive track to operate – this greatly reduces the per-unit cost on the technology.Thus, ionocraft has the potential to transform the current transportation market by offering point-to-point aerial transport without the need for roads or freeways.Some tests conducted in vacuum have demonstrated a thrust in a micro-Newton to a milli-Newton range ( this fact has been fully confirmed in some granted patents from the NASA and others companies ).Hence research in this field is very interesting and worth to be explored and developed deeply because it opens the way towards the future of transportation...!