Friday, January 1, 2010

sinusoidal potential

The idea that any sound can be resolved through analysis into constituent sine waves should be thought of in terms of Manuel Delanda’s concept of “virtual structure.” There are no little sine wave generators to be found scattered throughout the actual metric world, but there is perhaps sinusoidal potential in the realm of the virtual topological, to be found at the heart of the sonic process.

In Delanda’s reading of Deleuze, virtual structures drive intensive processes whose end result is material forms. This is the process of actualization. “End result” is of course poor choice of language as this process of actualization is without end. Also it must be remembered that this process works both ways, or as a cycle. Virtual structure is in a constant state of becoming constrained by the actual state of matter and the space of possibilities these material structures allow. Think of this in terms of (re)sonance for a moment: energy is applied to a sounding object. The virtual structures that have something to do with the voice of the object change in response to the object becoming set into motion. In one sense resonance is the name for this change in state. An example might be: one characteristic of a superior violin is that less energy is required to accomplish this change of state, for the violin to “speak” and so one can play with greater subtlety of tone.

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