If you are trying to refine a design, you can vary the actual shape.
To decrease soaring and veering, lower the center of mass - weight the tips, narrow the cord of the elbow region, widen the tips, or make a more shallow (geometrically larger) angle. You could use any or all of these approaches in combination.
To cure flutter, raise the center of mass- weight the elbow region, narrow the tips, widen the cord in the elbow region, or make the angle more acute (geometrically smaller). Use any or all in combination.
Of course, weight, shape, air foils all interact to determine the flight of a throw stick. A shape which works in heavy wood may not work in light wood. Air foils which work on one shape may not work on all shapes.
Section 6
Art & Music
Discipline and Meaning
THE MUSIC OF PREHISTORY
By Laurence Libin
* * *
Virtually no direct evidence survives for how archaic "music" was performed, how it sounded, or even when music as we understand the concept, originated. The performance practices and instruments of modern aboriginal peoples might furnish tangible clues, but inferences drawn from comparative studies of cultures tens of thousands of years apart are of doubtful validity. Even a universally acceptable definition of music eludes musicologists, but pitch, tonal, dynamic, and rhythmic inflections of the voice and other body-produced sounds, used for expression and communication among many animals, surely lie at its root. In its most basic sense music prefigures language. Indeed, neurological experiments indicate that human musicality is dispersed among deep-seated regions of both brain hemispheres, whereas language abilities are more centralized in the left forebrain and therefore theoretically of more recent origin. Taking into account discoveries of unexpectedly complex vocalization among relatively intelligent mammals such as elephants and whales, "music" rich in esthetic content may not be a uniquely human accomplishment.
The simplest musical implements—uncrafted, found objects such as sticks and stones, intentionally manipulated to make noise—may represent an early development in human prehistory. Even if any such objects survive more or less intact, their aural function could easily be overlooked by archaeologists not used to thinking in terms of sound sources; after all, we normally ignore the acoustical aspects of caves—startling echo effects and so on—in speculating on the behavior of Paleolithic cave-dwellers. The first sound-producing artifacts doubtless served multiple purposes, of which sound production initially might have been incidental, if inevitable. Examples include eoliths used per-cussively, or log troughs pounded during food preparation (e.g., BPT 1994:1 p. 83), or stretched and plucked sinews (loc. cit., p. 38). Once the sonic potential of particularly resonant substances or shapes was recognized, such objects might have been exploited in, say, signaling, hunting, and courtship, to convey messages, decoy prey, or attract mates either ritualistically or directly.
Improvements aimed at better replicating natural noises or projecting desirable sounds over longer distances could have led to development of utensils specifically designed to optimize tone—the first real instruments. These might well have been zoomorphic or anthropomorphic, as are many non-Western instruments today; it is no mere coincidence that violins, too, have a head, neck, belly, back, ribs, and waist, among other parts more usually associated with living creatures. Their elementary form and nearly universal distribution suggest that idiophones (naturally sonorous solids normally struck or rubbed; notably, resonant stalactites and stalagmites) and aerophones (wind instruments, as simple as a hollow section of bone or cane without finger holes) preceded chordophoes (taut strings) and membranophones (taut skins); the latter types, which were evidently not so widely dispersed in prehistoric times, involve at least minimal technology to maintain the necessary tension of string or skin. It is significant that, with one possible exception, the chordophone family did not exist among pre-Conquest aboriginal American populations so far as is known. The only chordophone believed native (but not exclusively) to the Western Hemisphere is the mouth bow, a plucked type so primitive that it likely predated the hunting bow. (Sounding a string by rubbing it with a separate bow is a very late technique, not known in Europe until about one thousand years ago.)
Although we can never know much about archaic music, vocal or instrumental, its importance throughout human culture is undeniable. Informed speculation about prehistoric music and its tools, guided by ethnomusicology, might enrich our conception of primitive behavior, perhaps leading to fresh interpretations of some objects.
* * *
The first sound-producing artifacts doubtless served multiple purposes, of which sound production initially might have been incidental, if inevitable.
* * *
PAINT WITH PRIDE
By Doug Land
* * *
October 1971, Kaibab National Forest, Arizona. Climbing the rock cliff next to the dry stream bed was one of many small adventures enjoyed that day. The weather was clear and cool, the air dry, the sky a deep blue, a slight breeze blowing, the smell of forested pine, straw grass along the plateau, the quiet calm of nature, and a serene atmosphere that does the soul good. Even being alone in this sparse wilderness for a few days did not cause him loneliness, for nature, in its own simple way, gave comfort and brought forth continual interest. Being ever alert for snakes and other critters for which we have great respect, the climber finally reached a bench midway to the top of the plateau. There, on the wall to his front, he encountered age old evidence of other humans who had once visited this same place, found it to their liking, and left their mark. Indecipherable dots, zigzagged lines, circles, and dashes adorned the wall face and the upper portion of an overhang. Most striking of all however, was the outline of a human hand, done in a dull red pigment, the obvious work of someone who knew that any future visitor could not resist placing his hand within the outline - just as he or she had done while tracing out the fingers and palm. Needless to say, the climber couldn't resist either. When he touched the stone; magic! His soul was forever captured by these spirits and he would run in the company of the "primitive" from that day forth. He had made that special contact which fed the flames of search, the flicker of scholarly interest, and the deep devotion to inquisition in all things primitive or prehistoric.
* * *
"Rock Graphics"
By Steve Watts
Pictograph:
A pictograph pay created by any number of application techniques using a wide variety of pigments, but is essentially an image painted on a rock surface. It may be a single image on a pebbie, slab or free standing boulder... or it may take the form of a multi-imaged panel on a cliff face or canyon wall.
Petroglyph:
Petroglyphs are images formed by cutting into the surface of a re/KHCusing one or a combination of techniques. The resulting image might be shallow or deep.. .made by scratching, grooving, drilling or (as most often) pecking. Once again, the number of images may vary from one to many and the size from pebble to cliff face panel
Petroform:
Petroforms are images formed on the surface of the earth by the placement of stones in a pattern. These images may be simple outlines or massive placements/resulting in effigy mound formations.
"Neither in body nor In mind do we inhabit the world of those hunting races of the Paleolithic millennia, to whose lives and ways we nevertheless owe the very forms of our bodies and the structures of our minds. Memories of the animal envoys still must sleep, somehow, within us; for they wake a little and stir when we venture into wilderness. They wake In terror to thunder. And again they wake with a sense of recognition, when we enter any one of those great painted caves. Whatever the inward darkness may have been to which the shamans of the caves descended in their trances, the same must lie within ourselves nightly visited in sleep."
The Way of the Animal Powers
Joseph Campbell
* * *
"Phosphenes"
By Steve Wat
ts
Certain images (circles, spirals, crosses, grids, etc.) seem to crop up again and again in aboriginal art. Is this merely coincidence or is there something else at work. Some have suggested that these images reflect the "hard wiring" of the brain... actual visual representations of the inner life by peoples intimately familiar with that interior landscape...
"phosphenes"
"Phosphene comes from the Greek work for "light shows ", and they are produced by excitation of the retina. Everyone who has received a severe knock on the head has seen flashes of light that seem to originate within the head. Such light patterns can also be seen when falling asleep or meditating with eyes closed. Airplane pilots report seeing similar apparitions when flying across expanses of empty sky. Astronauts have reported viewing phosphenes so tangibly in outer space that they were first believed to be caused by heavy light particles. Phosphenes appear when the opened eyes have had nothing to see for an extended period of time. Delirium tremors, fasting, high fever, hyperventilation, migraine headaches, and simple eye pressure can produce variations on the basic set of fifteen patterns., From a scientific point of view, what are these inner light shows? Phosphenes are believed to originate primarily in the retinal-optical track and the brain. Scientists think they are images reflecting neural firing patterns in the visual pathways, which makes them very important cognitive images.
Voices of the First Day
Robert Lawler, 1991
One version of the fifteen phosphene forms.
From: "Phosphenes", Gerald Oster,
Scientific American. Feb. 1970.
ABORIGINAL AIRBRUSH
By Wylie Woods
* * *
My father came to visit me a few months ago. When he arrived I happened to be spitting diatomaceous earth against a wall, making a stencil of my hand. I tried to greet him, but my mouth was coated with microscopic silica exosk-eletons and I could not speak (due to the fact that my severe grimace would not allow my lips to move correctly). I managed to choke out a "Hello." My father then told that he thought there was a better way to do what he thought I was trying to accomplish. He said that he had once observed a fellow blowing pigments through several tubes, thus creating a sort of "aboriginal airbrush".
While at the Rabbitstick Rendezvous in Rexburg, Idaho, I started asking people about this sort of device. I got a few ideas and decided to experiment. I began using different lengths and widths of bamboo. No luck, the diameters were too large and due to the chain-smoking of that day, my lungs were inadequate to expel the liquids in the device. I then tried some smaller pieces of Phragmites for the tubes and achieved success.
Here's How It Works
The diameter of the tubes is very important. Select materials which have a hole around 1/4 inch in diameter or smaller. Larger ones require more air pressure. In caves in Europe, such as the Lascaux site, colors were blown through bone tubes, possibly using this technique. Any hollow or pithy plants could be used such as rivercane (Arundinaria sp.) or elder (Sambucus sp.) [Bird bone is also an excellent tube material].
The vacuum tube (see diagram) needs to be rather short. If it is too short, the paint will splatter and gurgle up. If too long it won't work at all. A working length is around 4 inches.
The blow tube length does not seem to be that critical. A good working length would be one that allows you to see what you're doing, while holding and directing spray easily. The one I use is around 9 inches.
The pigment container can be just about anything. I tried stone mortars, bamboo, and a cooking pot. Anything that holds liquid works. Something that can be held in one hand with a few fingers free to hold the blow tubes is most desirable [small gourds work very well],
The angle that the blow tube is held in relation to the vacuum tube is slightly over 90 degrees. For ease of operation, I cut the tubes so that the blow tube can rest on the edge of the pigment container and touch the slightly taller vacuum tube at this angle for ease of operation (see diagram).
These are just guidelines and it is possible that other combinations of lengths and diameters of tubes will work also; so experiment. If you want colors from hematite (red) limo-nite (yellow) kaolin clay, gypsum, chalk, bird droppings (whites), and charcoal or manganese (blacks); mixed with hide glue, animal fat, blood, urine, or water, and you don't want to gargle with it, then try out this device. You will quickly find out the best techniques which work for you.
At Rabbitstick '95 Adam Mclsacc carved a northwest-style mask, and he painted it with blue ochre, red ochre, and charcoal. We then sprayed it with a mixture of pine pitch and alcohol in order to fix the paints. The idea was to mix the paints with water so that they would be easy to use. If they dried while the painting process was still in session, then it would be convenient to simply add more water. When it was done, we would then spray this lacquer on it to set the paint and waterproof it. With a little practice, and a few beads of sweat (the paint job could have easily been ruined), we tried it. Our attempt was successful. It is feasible that a more primitive finish could be used, but this one was readily available to us.
On a related matter, Steve Watts told me of a primitive-felt-tip-marker which he once made. He took a rather pithy eider branch and peeled back the wood, leaving a large section of pith exposed. He than mixed up a watery solution of pigment and soaked the pith in it. The result, a magic maker.
I was unable to find any information on the primitive airbrush other than the existence of hollow bone tubes with pigment residue in them, and therefore do not know if it is truly a stone-age technology. If you have any information on this device, please write the Bulletin and let us know. Although using this takes the fun out of having a mouthful of charcoal, try it anyway, it is ultra cool.
A Simple Glossary of Musical Instruments
* * *
In the field of ancient music the words prehistoric archaeology are all too literal; there are no records of the music of prehistoric man by definition, and archaeology is left with the instruments that have survived. These instruments are numerous and represent almost all of the major forms of music-making equipment that are used today, pipes and reeds, strings, horns, and rattles and drums.....The tragedy is however, that although we can produce sounds from these instruments we cannot know if they were those actually heard by ancient man, or in the order or intensity in which they were heard, or the occasion on which they were heard. The evidence just does not stretch this far.....The experimental work that has been done on ancient musical instruments is perhaps the most difficult to conduct without inadvertent distortion of evidence. Instruments are not mere objects to be manipulated without feeling, insensitive to the occasion upon which they were produced and played. They require as much honesty in testing as any other object whose precise function is unknown, and they cannot be given the benefits of advanced knowledge in virtuoso playing or in modern additions to the instrument. The flute, described as the voice of humanity, does not lend itself easily to dispassionate scientific analysis.
John Coles, Archaeology By Experiment
DISCLAIMER (NOT!)
Warning ! You are entering an area within the field of Experimental Archaeology that may prove hazardous to your health. Music is the only area in the field that has been responsible for the death of one of your colleagues. That's right, music.
It seems that John Coles reported in his book, Archaeology By Experiment that, "One of the earliest experiments concerning difficult instruments (Irish Bronze Age horns) resulted in the first and only fatality known to experimental archaeology. In the act of attempting to produce a distinct sound on a large trumpet...[the experimenter] burst a blood-vessel, and died a few days after.
So, break rocks, fire clay, explore dark continents for unknown civilizations, even voyage into the voids on boats of grass, but beware the deadly tones of the primitive music maker. Search the pages of this section with caution.
* * *
Idiophone - instruments that are struck, rubbed or shaken.
<
br /> Most common instrument.
Composite - multiple parts or strung objects - bunch rattles of shell, hooves, bones, teeth, cocoons, etc. Suspended on a frame and played or fastened to a dancer (tinklers). Compound containers/vessels may be of clay, rawhide, plant fibers, etc.
Simple - one part or container - gourds with seeds or turtle shells with bones inside.
Sample Instruments -
lithophone - stone bells or chimes
rattle - shaken - (simple or compound) the most wide spread of all idiophones. Gourd with seeds inside, shakere, toe rattles, etc. basket - dampened basket beaten with bundles of small sticks wooden gong/drum - hollowed tree or plank over a hole, struck with feet
Primitive Technology Page 34