Media archaeology-based Visual Music

This article describes the intersection of Media Archaeology and Visual Music in my artistic practice that repurposes obsolete devices to investigate new connections between light and sound. I revive and hack tools from our analogue past: oscilloscopes, early game consoles, and lasers. I am attracted to their aesthetic difference from the ubiquitous digital projections: fluid beam movement, vibrant light, infinite resolution, absence of frame rate, and line-based image. The premise behind all my work is the synthesis of both image and sound from the same signal. This strong connection envelopes the audience in synchronous audiovisual information that reveals underlying geometric properties of sound. In this text I describe the practice and the aesthetic potentials connected to few analog and digital hybridized systems to generate new sonic and visual experiences.

Performing Analysis, Performing Metal

Light shows at contemporary rock concerts generally create an immersive, multi-sensory experience. In their most sophisticated forms, however, they provide a visual analysis of the music as it unfolds. This paper presents a case study of what I call the analytical light show, by examining how the intricate light shows of extreme metal band Meshuggah contribute an interpretive layer that not only promotes multi-sensory engagement, but also actively guides listeners through songs’ formal structures. Meshuggah’s light shows, created by lighting designer Edvard Hansson, are exhaustively synchronized to the rhythmic patterns of the guitars and drums. Meticulous use of color, brightness, directionality, placement pattern, and beam movement provide additional information about gesture, articulation, and pitch. These analytical light shows provide a three-dimensional visual score that dramatizes rhythms while guiding listeners through each riff. Through this lighting, spatial and bodily metaphors of musical movement—high and low, moving and holding still—are transmuted into visual representation. By presenting analysis and performance simultaneously and as each other, Meshuggah combines technical virtuosity with rock authenticity, and provides another example of what I have called “coercive synesthesia” (Lucas 2014), as the lighting becomes an inextricable part of the musical experience. Beyond the confines of metal culture, I study the analytical light show as an expression of vernacular musical analysis that combines specific analytical and technical expertise with the intuitive, embodied knowledge that experienced music listeners possess.

Microstructure and Microsegregation Characterization of Laser Surfaced Remelted Al-3wt%Cu Alloys

Solidification rates during laser remelting of solid metals occur under solidification conditions that are far from equilibrium conditions. The microstructural evolution and microsegregation behaviors are affected by these conditions. This study comprised an experimental characterization of the ultra-fine microstructure and microsegregation in laser surface remelted regions of a hypoeutectic Al-Cu alloy. The laser scan speed, which controls the cooling rate within the remelted region, was observed to have a significant effect on microstructural features and microsegregation. Dendrite arm spacing was determined to decrease with increasing scan speed and depended on location within the melt pool. A transition of the dendrite morphology was also observed in the melt pools. This transition, which is attributed to the grain orientation change influenced by the laser beam movement, was experimentally characterized. The measured microsegregation profiles show decreasing microsegregation as cooling rate increases which is typically of increasing undercooling and non-equilibrium solidification.

Forced laser nanostructuring of the surface of alumina-oxide ceramics

The possibility of creating quasiperiodic nanostructures on the surface of articles made of ceramic materials based on -Al2O3 under the action of a laser beam moved by a two-coordinate linear stepping motor (LSM) is shown. It is shown that the cause of the arising non-uniformity of heat release and convective instability of the molten layer are electromagnetic surface waves at the "conductor-insulator" interface, while the "conductor" is the melt layer. The discreteness of the laser beam movement due to LSD makes it possible to create a regular wave-like relief on the melt surface, which plays the role of an input diffraction structure for gen-erating a surface wave of TM polarization.

Repeatability of Sheet Material Formation Results and Interchangeability of Processing Modes at Multi-Pass Laser Formation

Laser shaping of sheet materials is a flexible process and is carried out without force contact on the material, it allows forming, among other things, brittle, elastic and difficult-to-deformed materials. It is known that the main parameters of laser shaping are the beam power, the size of the focus zone and the speed of beam movement along the surface of the workpiece, however, the range of variation of these parameters is not unlimited, but due to the characteristics of a particular equipment. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an approach to selecting processing modes that can be selected from the range available on the equipment and at the same time obtain a predictable result. There is also a need to investigate a reproducibility of laser shaping results with a lot of pass-through processing. Actually, this study is aimed at solving these issues. In particular, the article formulates a provision on complex formation parameters that allow determining interchangeable modes of laser molding processing and varying parameters in ranges available on equipment. For this, the basic processing mode was chosen, formation was carried out with a fixed number of passes, after which, using complex parameters, alternative modes were determined and formation was carried out under these conditions with the same number of passes. The article also presents the methodology and results of experimental studies of checking the interchangeability of formation modes and the repeatability of formation results during processing along parallel and multi-directional trajectories. It was experimentally found that the deviation of the strain value obtained in alternative modes, compared to the base, and did not exceed 2.46% for a three-pass cycle and 5.8% - for a nine-pass cycle. And the repeatability of the formation results during laser shaping is quite high; the discrepancy in the deformation value did not exceed 5%, and, preferably, was lower.

The patterning toolbox FIB-o-mat: Exploiting the full potential of focused helium ions for nanofabrication

Focused beams of helium ions are a powerful tool for high-fidelity machining with spatial precision below 5 nm. Achieving such a high patterning precision over large areas and for different materials in a reproducible manner, however, is not trivial. Here, we introduce the Python toolbox FIB-o-mat for automated pattern creation and optimization, providing full flexibility to accomplish demanding patterning tasks. FIB-o-mat offers high-level pattern creation, enabling high-fidelity large-area patterning and systematic variations in geometry and raster settings. It also offers low-level beam path creation, providing full control over the beam movement and including sophisticated optimization tools. Three applications showcasing the potential of He ion beam nanofabrication for two-dimensional material systems and devices using FIB-o-mat are presented.

Determining the Minimum Scan Step of an Electronically Scanned Antenna

Introduction. Electronically scanned antennas (ESA) appeared about a century ago. Although the methods of their design and production have been sufficiently studied, some individual parameters are yet to be revealed. One of such parameters is the minimum step of movement, along with a related parameter – the accuracy of beam alignment in a given direction. From the electrodynamic problem of radiation, it is obvious that the step is associated with the number of radiators and the accuracy of phase adjustment in analogue phase shifters, or with the quantization step in the case of using phase shifters with a discrete step.Aim. To discover a connection between the design parameters of ESA and the step of beam steering; to investigate the dependence between the step and the parameters of the phase shifter and types of beam forming phased array circuits; to create a mathematical apparatus for calculating the minimum step of beam movement for the sum and difference radiation patterns.Materials and methods. Analytical relations were determined for calculating the step depending on the geometric dimensions and location of the radiators. A software application was developed for calculating radiation patterns. A software and hardware complex was designed for beam control of an experimental C-band ESA.Results. A method was developed for calculating the minimum step of ESA scanning. Mathematical relations for calculating the minimum step and accuracy of the ESA beam setting were obtained. A comparison of the experimental and theoretical data on the minimum step of movement of the sum and difference beams of a C-band ESA with the ratio D/λ=10 in the X coordinate and D/λ=5 in the Y coordinate showed good agreement.Conclusion. The created mathematical apparatus makes it possible to calculate the minimum step of electron beam scanning with sufficient accuracy. The experimentally measured steps of the beam movement for an array of 144 elements confirmed the obtained analytical relationships. In an ESA with a small number of elements (N < 10), the minimum step of movement can be variable. The theoretically achievable minimum step of beam movement is determined by the phase shift of the least significant bit of the phase shifter and the electrical length of the antenna aperture.

CONTROL OF THE ELECTRON BEAM DEFLECTION SYSTEM OF AN ELECTRON BEAM INSTALLATION

This paper explores patterns of electronic beam movement by controlling the transverse axis of the bundle of the uniform magnetic field generated by the coils of the electronic gun. For electron beam processes, the type of process, the technological mode, the design dimensions of the electronic gun, and the shape of the machined parts determines beam motion. The free and precise movement on random trajectories determines the possible applications of the electron beam process in performing various scientific experiments on material processing.

Selective Laser Melting of Magnesium

Magnesium-based materials find their use mainly in manufacturing light-weight constructions in motor-car, airspace industries, and biomedicine due to the low density. This paper provides an overview of introducing magnesium into SLM technology and describes searching experiments to prepare samples of magnesium powder МPF-4 (Russian State Standard 6001-79) conducted in the Laboratory of Yurga Institute of Technology. The study has determined appropriate parameters to synthesize a compact structure: laser output power 100 W, laser beam movement velocity 200 mm/s, scanning pitch 0.1 mm, modulation frequency of laser irradiation m = 2500 Hz, linear energy density Е=5 J/mm2, the process is to be carried out in argon shielding medium.

А New Method of Personalized Training of Logging Machine Operators

The paper presents a new method of personalized training for an operator. The method based on mathematical model of interaction between an operator and production equipment and offers an evaluation for a person's rate of making an operating decision. The key idea is to define typical acts of logging machine operator. The defined acts are presented in form of special test, which represents a simplest task. The training process is described through three main steps: watching, recalling and doing (WRD). In this case, the task result is time delay for motor and sensory layers as in real professional case. The model of interaction between operator and production equipment is represented in form of transfer functions. The transfer functions are a sequence of connected standard dynamical elements, which include a rate of information perception and decision making, and the means accuracy of controlling actions. The imitation model shows that during four seconds of the control action the beam moved by 1.281 m and a delay of the beam movement start after the control signal start for 0.578 sec. Therefore quality of operator's control is definitely determined by the following parameters: a time constant that means a response time of a neuromuscular system and human adaptive abilities and describes a rate of control action development; a ratio of human internal feedback and describes accuracy of the control action development, and an operator's response delay time.