The Sound Archive of the Library of Babel

Image taken from:
http://jubal.westnet.com/hyperdiscordia/library_of_babel.html

The Borges short story is also posted here.

Software, Composition, Aesthetics, Analysis, Artificial Intelligence

Entropy and Phase Space

A phase space is one in which individual points each represent the complete state of a given system, and where such points are organised according to their macroscopic similarity. So, for instance, a room filled with gas would be represented by a phase space, the vast majority of which would comprise points representing the gas in a state of thermal equilibrium. Tiny proportions of the space would represent the gas in highly unusual states, such as entirely occupying a small space in one corner of the room. Effectively, such conditions can only arise due to some previous 'event' or 'circumstance'. Once entropy has occurred the state of the room rapidly enters larger spaces, closer to that of thermal equilibrium and the chance that it can return to the original space reduces to near zero.

Sound File Format Links

In order to investigate the nature of the Sound Archive, we need to know how to construct and manipulate sound files in a variety of file formats.

Syntrillium Audio Course

http://fileformat.virtualave.net/
http://www.artbytes.net/webpub/formats.htm
http://www.hyperstudio.com/resource/hyperfest98/handouts/soundz/Soundz2.html
http://www.wotsit.org/
http://www.epanorama.net/pc/sound.html
http://www.lightlink.com/tjweber/StripWav/WAVE.html
http://www.nanotech.wisc.edu/~ebrodsky/sndlinks.html Sound Programming Resources
http://www.harmony-central.com/Computer/Programming/ Audio Programming
http://www.svb.nl/project/harmonica/Deliverables/D363.htm ACCOMPANYING ACTION ON MUSIC INFORMATION IN LIBRARIES

http://www.opensound.com/ossapps.html Applications for Open Sound System

http://synthesis.fap7.com/synshare.htm
http://music.utsa.edu/tdml/conf-II/II-Lipscomb.html The Personal Computer as Research Tool and Music Educator
http://www.wam.umd.edu/~cpbrown/ a model for synthesizing sound in three dimensions
http://www.awl-he.com/titles/0201419726.html
Programmers Guide to Sound, A

http://www.csounds.com/ezine/Summer1999/EcoCMask.html
Using CMask in ecological modeling

http://stripe.colorado.edu/~drumhell/4131sp01.html: MUSC 4131 ADVANCED SYNTHESIS - SPRING 2001
http://www.neuroinformatik.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/ini/PEOPLE/heja/sy-list.html
SY Archive

http://www.troikaranch.org/geekpage.html
MIDI Sensors

http://fargo.itp.tsoa.nyu.edu/~dano/physical/physical.html
Physical Computing

Noise Reduction

As the overwhelming majority of all sound materials in the archive consists of noise, clearly, one approach to its filtering is the use of noise reduction algorithms. Indeed, it is, arguably, the only possible approach to searching the archive.

Links

Noise Reduction Algorithms: www.vislab.usyd.edu.au
Noise Reduction Algorithms: www.vislab.usyd.edu.au
Tracer Technologies
On Noise Reduction in Iterative Image Reconstruction Algorithms for Emission Tomography: Median Root Prior, Sakari Alenius
Nonlinear Prediction and Noise Reduction
Quantum Level Noise Reduction
Wardlabs
Noise Reduction Systems
MegaSpider
Parrot Noisetamer
A novel iterative signal enhancement algorithm for noise reduction in speech
Physical and analogue noise reduction techniques
Gramofile Source

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REFERENCES

C.f. Hofstadter and Dennett, The Mind's Eye
Penrose, The Emperor's New Mind, 1989
David Deutsch, The Fabric of Reality, p113, 1997
Keats, Ode to a Nightingale, 1820
Interview in Omni magazine (June 1986), quoted in 'Penrose Tiles to Trapdoor Ciphers', Martin Gardner, 1989
Dennett Consciousness Explained, 1991, p94-95
Jorge Luis Borges, 'Labyrinths' 1962
Daniel Dennett, 'Darwin's Dangerous Idea', 1995
Dawkins, The Extended Phenotype, 1982
Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker, 1986, p162

NB This page has been constructed automatically from a text file and as such may contain certain errors.