#interdisciplinary

[vsthepomegranate]

Amplified Body, Laser Eyes and Third Hand (1985)

by Stelarc

[the-fermi-system]

Plurality resource time!

If you deal with career indecision because your headmates have a variety of interests, we recommend looking up "multipotentialite", "generalist vs specialist", "interdisciplinarity", "Renaissance person", and "polymath".

These are singlet labels for those who have a wide range of passions and skills. Communities focus on embracing that wide range of passions and finding fulfillment without feeling trapped on one path forever.

Despite being geared towards singlets, we've found them to be very helpful in the context of plurality.

Note: If your system is closeted, calling yourself a multipotentialite or polymath can be a good way to explain changing interests.

Puttylike in particular is a great place to start. It's got some great articles on career planning, and the founder has a book on multipotentiality if you're willing to pay.

If you're still in school, you might also like this guide (though it needs updating.)

[cauchyfeelings]

you guys don't know how much i love recursion. how everything remains connected yet loops back into itself. how code is just mapping things back and forth. how math aims to find invariances across space and time.

house of leaves. godel escher bach. strange loops (attractors).

how identity emerges from memory. a continuous self-referential system.

memory is the story we keep telling ourselves.

is this psychosis? have i gone mad?

[calcifiedred]

the first five pages of "love letter", my hand-bound accordion book :)

[wholesome-sharks]

What Do Sharks Hear? BYU Students Measure Sound Inside Shark Tank

MY ALMA MATER DID A SHARK RESEARCH PROJECT WITH MY FAVE AQUARIUM jkl;fas ;asfd;fdsakj;sdfa

From the description:

How loud is life behind the glass? BYU study measures sound in shark tanks Sharks at the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium in Draper, Utah, glide silently behind glass walls — but just how silent is their world? A team of BYU researchers set out to discover how much of the aquarium’s daily bustle filters into the shark tank, and whether that noise is affecting the animals who call it home. The aquarium welcomes nearly one million visitors each year. While facility managers carefully control visitor noise and background music, the aquarium has never been able to accurately measure how much sound passes through the glass and water. The uncertainty posed a real question: Could even well-managed human noise still disrupt the natural environment of aquatic animals? “While we have tools for measuring sound in the air, the behavior of sound underwater is totally different,” Ari Fustukjian, the vice president of zoological operations at the aquarium, said. “We want to really understand how sound works in this space and interacts with the animals.” In collaboration with the aquarium and the BYU Acoustics Research Group, led by Professor Traci Neilsen, BYU student researchers confirmed that although noise does travel into the fish tanks, the sound levels remain well within a healthy range for the animals. To measure sounds within the tanks, BYU researchers couldn’t use standard microphones, which are designed for air. Because sound travels faster and more intensely in water, they used specialized hydrophones that detect sound pressure in liquids and convert it into electrical signals. “A hydrophone is an underwater microphone. These were placed very close to the acrylic walls and then in the water. On the other side, we had sound level meters that were reading the level in the rooms that could then be compared to the levels in the tank,” Neilsen explained. BYU students placed hydrophones at various locations in the tank to track the distance sounds traveled underwater. They played a variety of noises in the viewing area — from white noise to high-pitched chirps — to see which sounds carried into the habitat. Fish don’t hear the way humans do — and sharks are especially unique. They detect lower-frequency sounds and “hear” with their whole bodies. A network of sensory cells along their sides enables them to detect vibrations and movement in the water. “With their unique hearing, sharks can detect animals in the water from miles away,” Madilyn Randall, the lead student researcher, said. “Because of their heightened senses, they would be the first animals to key into any disruptive sounds.” Randall and her team found that sound from both the viewing area and the tank’s maintenance system did, in fact, travel through the water. Their hydrophones primarily picked up lower-frequency sounds, suggesting that higher-pitched noises don’t make it into the tanks. Interestingly, the low-frequency sounds that traveled best through water lie within the same range as human speech and the sharks’ natural hearing range. With few aquarium-based studies that have been done, Neilsen recognized that this was a unique opportunity to partner with the aquarium. “Our findings were a tool that the director of the aquarium was able to use in building a new, large tank in their new facility. He was able to use this as evidence that the filtration system in the new tank should be higher quality and have a lower background noise level,” Neilsen said. Fustukjian says the goal of the project wasn’t just to congratulate themselves for maintaining safe noise levels at the aquarium, but to gather insights that would help them continue raising the standard of animal care. “At our heart, we are an educational organization,” Fustukjian said. “It is our mission to facilitate education and pursue scientific investigation. This type of scientific collaboration with groups like BYU is really the whole point.” That collaborative spirit also opened doors for BYU students like Randall, who was one of the few undergraduate students nationwide to present her findings at the 2025 Acoustical Society of America Conference. “I hope that in my future career I can continue making an impact using acoustics,” Randall said. “Acoustics crosses over into almost every type of science. It affects how we feel — how happy we are.” The research was sponsored by the College High Impact Research Proposal Funding (CHIRP) and College support for the undergraduate research assistants provided by generous alumni donations.

Follow along using the transcript.

[k00331082]

The Printing onto Fabric Process!

Printing onto fabric was just like printing onto paper- only you do have to consider the thickness and texture of the fabric to ensure the block will print nicely.

I rolled out the ink until it was a good thickness on the roller and then rolled it onto the block- this went well because I'd already learned how to do it from the printing elective.

Des got me to work with the stamping machine, which basically works the same as the ordinary presses. You cover the plate, roll it under the press; only with the stamper, you have to pull a lever across 2-3 times to cause it to press down. You then roll the plate out and the print should be done.

One thing I did struggle with was the fact the block had to be centered when I was rolling it under the stamper. Because the fabric was quite large, and I was printing in the corners, I had to make several adjustments to the positioning of the block, the fabric, and the newsprint under them. However, I got used to this quickly so it wasn't too difficult.

I also had to print kind of unorthodoxly because of the fabric. As the last print couldn't be seen through the fabric, I had to print the block face down onto the fabric instead of placing the fabric on top of the block. This was to ensure accurate placement. However, I made sure to layer under and over the block to stop anything getting damaged.

Overall , the experiment went really well and I can't wait to print on the large sheet of fabric after reading week.

[adastra-sf]

The arts and sciences are avatars of human creativity. It's our attempt to influence things - the universe internal to ourselves and external to us.

- Mae Jemison (physician, engineer, and astronaut)

[jstor]

Here's another open access book on JSTOR y'all might find interesting:

Sugar, Spice, and the Not So Nice 

This title offers a wide-ranging and geographically diverse book-length treatment of girlhood in comics. The various contributing authors and artists provide novel insights into established themes within comic studies, children's comics, graphic medicine, and comics by and about marginalized ethnic or cultural groups. It will appeal to students and scholars of childhood studies, comics scholars and creators, and those interested in addressing gender identity through the prism of comics.