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One-page summary of the main concepts in the book Waves and Forms
ZIMMERMANN, Basile
ZIMMERMANN, Basile. One-page summary of the main concepts in the book Waves and Forms . Université de Genève : 2015, One-page summary of the main concepts in the book Waves and Forms
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http://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:79030
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One-page summary of the main concepts in the book Waves and Forms
Imagine an engraved seal is used to make an imprint on a piece of wax, and then on a piece of soap. On the basis of this example (here I recycle a famous metaphor from Aristotle [De anima, 424a, Book II], but this is another story), we consider the following aspects of materiality:
– The matter-atoms structure of the seal, the wax, and the soap. Atoms are located inside each of these physical objects. Each atom is unique, and each of the objects is physically unique. Atoms cannot be destroyed, as Lavoisier once said: "Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed";
– The shape of the seal which is transmitted to the wax and the soap. In a similar way that matter is made of atoms, we consider that the shape is made of lower-level elements which we call waves (what is exactly a
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As illustrated by the transfer of the shape of the seal to the wax and then to the soap, waves can be replicated,
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transformed"). For instance, variations creations/disapearances of waves account for small differences between the wax and the soap imprints.
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*'/#+0241$.'/9+6*6*'016+101(%7.674'+56*#62'12.'#66'/26616#.-#$176A:'&'06+6+'59*+.'-019+0) that these entities are multiple and have varying borders and varying contents. For instance, we try to to speak
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However, if we reformulate culture as the circulation of forms, it becomes perfectly valid to consider that
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transmitted etc. From this perspective, we don't need to refer to conceptual failures (e.g. one can write "I will discuss the forms of... and describe how they circulated from... to... ").
In a nutshell, two features of the framework make a difference with the way scholars usually discuss materiality:
– The notion of shape enables us to speak about a same thing being present at several places at the same time;
– The concept of wave allows for things to be created, dissipated or conserved.
And the concept of form'0#$.'57561&'#.9+6*9*#6+552'%+A%#$176*7/#0$'+0)59*'0+6%1/'5619#8'5 circulation, and with the issue of human subjectivity.
The core idea in the book is the notion that a design is a displacement. It is illustrated with the sand castles on the cover: the same sand can take a different shape by a different hand or culture. For instance, either a dribble/
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Zimmermann, Basile. Waves and Forms: Electronic Music Devices and Computer Encodings in China. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2015.
http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/waves-and-forms
