Metaphors Navigating the site:
Analogies among architecture, music and machinery for uncovering the common roots of automation and craft.
"My view is that we sometimes--perhaps increasingly-- use machines and other technology in the same way we use music and musical instruments, to interpret the world and give it meaning."
Arnold Pacey, The Meaning in Technology
"we... use machines and other technology in the same way we use music and musical instruments, to interpret the world and give it meaning."
Musical instruments, like an archway, have parts that contribute to a functional whole. You must understand the relation of the parts to the whole an and the whole agglomeration to the means and purpose of the technology, or else you miss the point of tools in shaping events today and in the past.
The parts of an arch are:
A. The keystone both enables and embodies the revolutionary character of the arch which allows a building to enclose an interior space, or span a given distance to achieve the grace and the purpose of sustaining a structure.
B. The parts of an arch:
- keystone
- voussoirs
- impost
- abutment or spandrel
- extrados
- intrados
- centre
- span
- springing line
- haunch or arc
- crown
Comparing parts among architecture, music and machines:
architecture music machinery keystone
tune lynch pin voussoirs
lyrics noise impost
voice drive abutment or spandrel
instruments belts extrados
melody exposed intrados or soffit
harmony internal centre
refrain of gravity span
beat rpm springing line
chords frame haunch or arc
scope chassis climax movement
Roman portable calliope.
"Because music is about life...and especially about the parts of life we do not understand."
Rebecca West quoted in Pacey, Meaning, Singing the World.
