#posing and composing are a very very complex and big topics

[franeridart]

hi!!! first of all i adore your art so much!!!! like daddy jesus, it gives me life. u draw rlly good poses, so maybe u have some tips? or any good places to find references cuz i can only find pretty stiff looking pictures and thats sad :((((

Tips! Yes! I have those, since it’s a thing I’ve always struggled a lot with too, so I ended up hunting down and hoarding tips like an artist dragon with fancy pictures of gold - disclaimer, even though I know of these tips it doesn’t necessarily mean I’m good at following them. Because I’m a mess. SO! TIPS!

 - When trying to decide on a pose, try to picture the whole action behind it instead of just the single instance! If we were to talk in animation terms, I’d say try to picture the whole sequence instead of just a single, specific frame of it. What is your character doing? Picture in your head the whole movement, and then pick a frame that’s smack in the middle of it - this is because generally the stiffer moments through an action are the beginning and the end of it, so drawing the middle will give your pose a lot more life! If you’re unsure about exactly which moment of the action would work best, draw thumbnails of a few different “frames” of it and pick the one that flows best for you

 - Related to that, when looking for references generally I prefer looking for videos instead of pictures, specifically to get a better sense of how the whole movement flows and where it would be best to stop it. In the same vein, I’ve made a habit of at least partially always keep an eye out for body language while watching movies/tv shows/cartoons&anime, because while real life is just as much a good source of reference as anything else, actors and animators tend to exaggerate movements to make them more captivating and eye-catching, and that’s what we’re looking for when drawing too! It’s all in the drama of it, look for the drama

 - “A real life person wouldn’t do that/move like that/bend like that”, that’s okay, this isn’t a real life person! Exaggerating the shapes and lines is a good way of increasing the flow of your pose, as long as you don’t make it grotesque then pushing on the shapes and curves is always a good idea! Unless you meant to go for grotesque, in which case push all you want, who’s to stop you. In this specific area action lines are your best friends, so if you feel your pose is stiff or lacks life, try finding the action line in it and push it more - you can find a lot of youtube tutorials on action lines and gesture drawing, in case you want to look more into that! Only god and my youtube history know how long I’ve spent doing just that

 - Talking about youtube, if you want to work on your flow a good way is to try out the one minute figure drawing exercises - they give you a pose, you have one or two minutes to sketch it out depending on the video, then it moves to the next pose. It’s a good way to loosen up your lines, in my experience! This is a nice playlist for that, in case you wanna give it a go!

 - Rewinding a bit and going back on body language, if you want your pose to feel alive and be realistic while at the same time conveying a specific mood or feeling, maybe you’ll want to look into how people express themselves through body language! I always see this suggested to writers to set the mood without explicitly stating the emotion, but it’s a wonderful tip for artists too the way I see it (mostly so if you’re drawing a comic, actually!). A good list is this one, give it a skim!

 - More than a tip it’s a trick, really, but giving a prop to your character can help make the pose more interesting - there’s only a finite number of things a character can do standing alone by themselves with nothing to occupy them with, an object or an animal or a second character to interact with really do make finding an interesting pose easier!

That was a lot of theory there, wasn’t it, let’s go for some practical tips too (featuring Horikoshi’s pencil sketches, because I love them and he’s very, very good at this whole posing thing)

 - If you picture your character as standing in an open space and the eyes of the viewers as a camera, moving the camera around them to find an interesting angle adds a lot of depth to the pose. It can be really, really tempting to just draw them from the front and eye level, but sometimes even just raising or lowering the camera the smallest bit helps with giving the drawing life - perspective! I know, I hate it too orz but we’re working hard to overcome that problem, because look at Horikoshi’s latest Kirishima sketch!

so alive! So beautiful! The pose in itself isn’t all that special, but the angle he decided to draw it at sure helps give him life. A thing I do often is to draw a thumbnail of the scene I’m trying to draw from the most boring angle possible, to make sure of where everything is, and then metaphorically move the camera around to try and find a more interesting angle to portray it from - it helps! At least, it does for me haha

 - Keeping it asymmetrical makes the pose dynamic! Let’s look at Toga over here

Her legs and arms are an obvious example of this, but specifically I marked for you the hips line and shoulders line to show you how they aren’t paralel either, because that’s a little thing that’s generally a good idea to keep in mind when you want to give a bit more of movement to your posing! It’s true in photography too, actually. If you want a full body selfie to look good, try keeping shoulders and hips on non-paralel lines, it makes the whole thing look a lot more professional 

 - Keeping that Toga pic as our set example, hair and clothes give a lot of movement to the pose too! If you draw someone in the middle of an action, their clothes and hair are (possibly, if the clothes are loose enough and hair long enough) going to move with the action too - they show the direction of the motion, so keep that in mind when drawing them. Additional tip! If your character is just standing still, wind is a thing you can always make use of to give a bit more movement to the whole set-up!

 - It’s a good idea to keep all the noise in your pose on one side, to give it a bit more balance and make it less chaotic - let’s use Jirou here as our example

the lines on the right side are a lot more simple and straight than the ones on her left, as I tried to very roughly mark for you - all details and “noisy” bits are all on the same side too, so that your eyes can easily focus on what’s important in the pic without getting lost all over the canvas. Balance and asymmetry! Again! It’s an easy way to make poses interesting, after all!

 - That said, it’s not like you can never keep it symmetrical - the human brain actually likes that symmetry a whole lot, finds it compelling! It has to be perfectly symmetrical, though. Let’s look at Bakugou, because why not, always a good time to look at Bakugou

if you drew a line in the middle of his face and down his body, you’d see he’s pretty much perfectly symmetrical - that’s nice! That works! ...why does it work, though? This goes a bit more into composition and less into posing, but this has to do with the rule of thirds: generally and very simply, the rule is that for a picture to be well composed it needs to be set so that the main focus isn’t smack in the middle of the canvas. Some examples with the pics I just posted up there!

The way the bodies are positioned and the way in which the empty spaces are used respect the rule of thirds pretty dang neatly, and that helps make the pictures look less stiff too, between the others things! It gives balance to the whole composition, and makes it more lively! (The reason why it works with Kirishima is that the focus of the drawing is less him as a whole and more his face and right fist - so very neatly positioned! I’m in awe, ngl)

Bakugou’s case is a bit different thoguh, and that’s why the symmetry works there!

when you want to go for the symmetrical look you sort of need to forget about the rule of thirds, as far as I’ve been thought - symmetrical means tidy, and it’s only really tidy if it’s symmetrical based on a line traced right in the middle of the canvas, so Bakugou’s center is right along the median axis, and his pose works even if it’s pretty stiff, by all means.

(this goes into the rules of making a good portrait work, actually, but the lack of empty space all around him helps with keeping it looking well composed and tidy, too. There’s a lot of little tips and tricks that help make a pose work when it comes to composition, really!)

(Also, to be fair this last bit about the rule of thirds wasn’t exactly necessary or particularly well explained, I’ll be real, but while browsing Horikoshi’s twitter I realized how neatly all his sketches follow the rule and I needed to gush about that for a sec, it’s how being a fan works haha hope it was useful at least a bit to you, though!)

[passionate-reply]

Whether you’re a Superman, a judge, a mom, or a dad, we can all appreciate the avant-garde genius of Laurie Anderson, the topic of this week’s installment of Great Albums! Find out what made Anderson’s breakout hit the most unlikely chart smash of the 80s, and what the rest of this amazing LP has in store, by watching my video or reading the full transcript below the break.

Welcome to Passionate Reply, and welcome to Great Albums! Today, I’ll be discussing one of the most unique and unforgettable albums around: Big Science, by Laurie Anderson. It’s very possible that you may not necessarily recognize her by name, but this album’s big hit has been riffed on and re-used many times throughout Western popular culture, so when I play it for you, it just might seem hauntingly familiar.

Music: “O Superman”

Put simply, “O Superman” is not your conventional pop hit, by any stretch of the imagination. It features little more than a sparse, barren electronic instrumental, and Anderson’s eerily vocoder-treated voice, not so much singing as acting out a one-woman stage play. It has much more in common with the avant-garde, minimalist works of 20th Century “modern classical” composers like Philip Glass and Steve Reich than it does anything you would hear on pop radio in the 1980s.

While you might assume that it entered mainstream consciousness through being used in some art film, it actually was a bona fide pop hit--particularly in Great Britain, which has always had a pronounced affinity for surprisingly weird chart entries. While the single was initially given only a small release, like most of Anderson’s earlier work, the prominent British radio DJ John Peel discovered it...and fell in love with it. And thanks to his frequent playing of it on the air, a lot of other people fell in love with it too, propelling it to #2 in the UK charts. I think it’s a testament to just how different the media landscape used to be, once upon a time in the 20th Century. Nowadays, the radio doesn’t really have room for idiosyncratic tastemakers like Peel, and the independent DJs who remain certainly don’t have the reach that Peel did. I suppose it’s the 20th Century version of sea shanties and other oddities becoming trends on social media.

But anyway, setting aside the strange legacy “O Superman” has as the world’s least likely hit single, we can appreciate it perfectly well as a moving work of art. “O Superman” is not really a pop song, but what it is is, perhaps, a desperate plea for comfort and protection. The figure, or concept, of “mother” seems to be the focus of the text, and serves as the apparent “final resort” of its insecure, searching rhetoric. We get this idea in a microcosm in the famous opening line, inspired by an aria by Jules Massenet: “O Superman, o judge, o Mom and Dad.” It’s an appeal to any and all higher powers, but culminates with perhaps the most primal, intuitive authority we can understand: our parents. Towards the end of the piece, the narrator begs to be held in the arms of “Mom,” but they’re described not as soft and warm, but “automatic,” “electronic,” and “petrochemical,” creating an uncanny conflation of innate human connections and the harshly artificial, technological conditions of modernity. Have we made the promises of technology and science into some sort of idol, looking to them for reassurance, and projecting onto them a goodwill or benevolence like a mother has for her children? Themes of high technology, as well as the search for safety and security, are found throughout the rest of the album, as is the stark, minimalist instrumentation.

Music: “From the Air”

Expanding somewhat on the references to aeroplanes found on “O Superman,” opening track “From the Air” is narrated by the captain of a doomed flight, instructing the passengers how to handle the imminent “crash landing.” It’s many people’s very worst nightmare, and plunges us straight into the sense of fearing for our lives, in a situation that’s completely beyond our control. A bold move for the very first track we hear! “From the Air” leads with somewhat plausible suggestions, like a very dated request that passengers “extinguish all cigarettes,” but gradually becomes increasingly surreal, adding to that nightmarish feeling. Anderson delivers her lines with a palpable sense of authority, that stirs you to want to obey her character even as they prove their unreliability. A taut, unresolved saxophone-driven ostinato throughout the track provides a constant sense of tension and anxiety, which certainly suits the mood. Until the end of the song, at which point it abruptly cuts off--presumably to represent the crash occurring, and the sudden deaths of those on board.

I like to think of “From the Air” as a sort of dark counterpart to “O Superman,” the latter of which is the opening track of the second side. While “O Superman” deifies technology as a source of maternalistic comfort, “From the Air” presents us with the ultimate failure of technology: slick and polished until the end, but unable to provide any real hope of meaningful security. That human desire for security is interrogated more directly on the final track of side one: “Born, Never Asked.”

Music: “Born, Never Asked”

While “Born, Never Asked” is much more laconic than tracks like “From the Air” and “O Superman,” it’s no less probing and thought-provoking, presenting us with a world of people who are, fundamentally, “free”--and yet deeply unsatisfied. “You were born,” quips Anderson, “and so you are free.” But we’re all too busy asking for a bigger answer, and some explicit, deeper meaning to our existences, that we can’t appreciate the simple freedom to live our lives however we want to, in the absence of any overt goals. The track begins by establishing a stately, handclap-driven backing, which serves to underscore the plainness or simplicity of its message, and is ultimately overtaken by a mournful violin outro--perhaps the embodiment of our emotional turmoil, as we seek the comfort of clear answers despite the fact that they never arrive. If only the world were as simple and well-defined as it seemed to be when we were children, filled with unthinking and unconditional love for our mothers!

“Born, Never Asked” asks us to question what it really means to be “free,” and whether or not it’s even satisfying or helpful to possess “freedom.” It’s worth noting that all of the pieces that comprise Big Science were chiefly intended as part of Anderson’s much longer magnum opus, entitled United States, which she completed in 1984. In that context, criticism of the value of “freedom” is perhaps also criticism of certain traditional American moral values. While “O Superman” prominently mentions “American planes,” I think the track that has the most to say about being American is the title track of the album.

Music: “Big Science”

The title track of Big Science takes us to a desolate and mostly empty landscape, defined more by its potential to be moulded into something habitable than anything it already, innately is. It’s a frigid perspective on America as terra nullius, a wasteland filled with nothing but ultra-recent and ultra-artificial capitalist “developments” as opposed to any real history or meaning. With its chilling coyote-like howls, and nods to Western movies and dependence upon cars, it can easily be contextualized as particularly American, but ultimately, the human drive to “improve” our environment through questionable (and perhaps even destructive) means is fairly universal. Much like the emotionally unsatisfying sense of freedom bestowed upon those who are born, in “Born, Never Asked,” the title track of Big Science shows us a world full of endless possibilities, but devoid of any true happiness born of those possibilities.

The term “big science” dates back to the Mid-20th Century, and has been used to describe the increasingly large scale of many significant scientific efforts, particularly those supported by world governments...and particularly, their militaries. During and after the Second World War, it became increasingly necessary for nations that wanted a place on the world stage to rope science into the military-industrial complex, especially in light of the development of atomic weaponry. Given the album’s thematic emphasis on the way we look to science and technology to provide some aegis of protection, and often in harmful or destructive ways, it’s a very fitting choice for the title.

I think that connection to the nuclear bomb is also an important key to interpreting the album’s cover art. On the cover of Big Science, we see Anderson lit very harshly from the right--so much so that her sunglasses are rendered completely white by the powerful light. While her pose is very deliberate, and perhaps even stilted, she appears to be raising her arms as though to shield herself from whatever is casting this bright light. Is Anderson perhaps portraying an atomic scientist, observing a nuclear blast with its signature burst of radiant light?

Overall, however we interpret this gesture, the black and white imagery and completely empty backdrop seem to pair well with that sparse and minimalistic instrumentation. Anderson appears on the cover with her signature costume, a solid white suit which, when paired with her short hairstyle, gives her a somewhat androgynous appearance. It also looks a bit like a labcoat, often worn by scientists and doctors--figures who culturally embody the principle of benevolent authorities backed by the power of technology and science.

Whenever artists who only briefly felt the spotlight of mainstream success are discussed, it can be tempting to ask whether or not such figures “deserved” more or better. In the case of Anderson, though, she never expected “O Superman” to become the breakout hit that it did, and never followed it up with anything actively pursuing the pop charts. In the wake of her most famous work, Anderson went right back to doing what she had been doing: making great, but totally avant-garde, art. She’s a figure of “art music,” and the “art world,” through and through, performing her elaborate multimedia works at museums, appearing in a number of festival-circuit art films, and accepting honourary degrees. Anderson has had a perfectly successful career, dwelling precisely in the realm of her choosing, and I don’t think there’s any better outcome than that. If you like Big Science, you’ll find plenty more striking and evocative works throughout the rest of her long and ongoing career.

Music: “Sharkey’s Day”

My favourite track on Big Science is “Sweaters.” With a Celtic-sounding melody, a grating fiddle, and perhaps the most vocally hated musical instrument of all time, the bagpipes, “Sweaters” is a dirge about an ancient subject: falling out of love. But despite its backward-looking folk setting, the jump from “I no longer love your eyes” to “I no longer love your sweaters” anchors it into the realm of the totally mundane...if not banal. Overall, though, what I think really makes it stand out on the album is its sense of levity. As I’ve discussed earlier, Big Science is loaded with really heavy themes about technology, Americana, and the meaning of life...so a song that’s not only about a romantic relationship, but also about sweaters, pens, and pencils, jammed into the middle of the first side, really feels like a sort of palate cleanser while you’re listening to this. That’s all for today--thanks for watching!

Music: “Sweaters”

[designandinteractivity]

A theory of fun - textbook

What are essential questions?  Read the assigned chapter and compose an essential question based on the chapter, or use Honoria’s sample essential questions. In class, present a brief summary of the chapter, ask the class your essential question and lead a discussion on the topic. Prepare follow up questions on the topic to faciltate the discussion with 2 different contributing students.

Theory of Fun (2nd edition) Raph Koster

Game Design 2 - Theory of Fun from Jay Crossler

Chapter 1 Why write this book?

How has your experience of fun and learning changed over time and levels of maturity?

Contrast how you have experienced the same game at different ages.

As a popular game ages, what kinds of changes are made to new versions?

Chapter 2 How the Brain Works

Start with the definitions of games on page 14. Develop your own definition,

Describe one of the patterns in a game or games that you enjoy, or are really good at.

Chapter 3 What Games Are

Describe what you find fun about your favorite game.

Analyze 2 things that ruin the fun in a game you don’t enjoy.

Describe your favorite challenge in all of your game-playing history. (How old were you? Why is it your favorite challenge? How did you succeed or fail at this challenge?)

Chapter 4 What Games Teach Us

Describe the “possibility space” (page 56) of a game you have played in the last year. 

Many games encourage “othering” the opponent (page 68). What kinds of stories and games can we design based on insights into how the modern world works?

Chapter 5 What Game Aren’t

Describe the game system and the story of a game you like. Why does that combination of system and story satisfy? Check out page 88 for some descriptions of game sytems in relation to game stories.

Koster defines fun as “the feedback the brain gives us when we are absorbing patterns for learning purposes.” (page 96) Koster describes why school is not thought of as fun. Describe a memory in which learning academic material was fun. 

Page 100 lists resasons other than fun to play a game with a system: practice, meditation, storytelling, and comfort. Describe your experience with one of these other reasons for playing a game.

Chapter 6 Different Fun for Different Folks

Psychologist Howard Gardner developed a theory of multiple intelligences

In addition Koster mentions the Five Factor Model

On page 106 Koster poses the question. . .

What does this all mean for game designers? Not only will a given game be unlikely to appeal to everyone, but it is probably impossible for it to do so. The difficulty ramp is almost certain to be wrong for many people and the basic prmises are likely to be uninteresting or too difficult for large segments of the population.

How can designers use empathy for their target audience to best design a game that can potentiate a “change in the culture ... towards greater equality . . . and teaching alternate ways of thinking.” (page 108)

Chapter 7  The Problem with Learning

On page 120 Koster states

(Games) teach us things so that we can minimize risk and know what choices to make. Phrased in another way, the destiny of games is to become boring, not to be fun. Those of us who want games to be fun are fighting a losing battle against the human brain because fun is a process and routine is its destination.

In the end, (it’s) both the glory of learning and its fundamental problem, once you learn something, it’s over. You don’t get to learn it again. (page 128)

Based on your own experience can you describe a game that was really fun and become boring? 

How and why did that shift in enjoyment happen? 

How can your experience apply to your creative career in the entertainment industries?

Chapter 8 The Problem with People

On page 134 Koster ponders:

Sticking with one solution is not a survival trait anymore. The world is changing very fast, and we interact with more kinds of people than ever before. The real value now lies in a wide range of experience and in understanding a wide range of points of view. Closed mindedness is actively dangerous to society because it leads to misapprehension. And misapprehension leads to misunderstanding, which leads to offense, which leads to violence.

Consider the hypothetical case where every player of an online role-playing game gets exactly two characters: one male and one female. Would the world be more or less sexist as a result?

What do you think about Koster’s 2 character game question?

On page 140 Koster observes:

The most creative and fertile game designers working today tend to be the ones who make a point of NOT focusion too much on other games for inspiration.

What other sources have you noticed in current games?

What other sources of inspiration can be the basis for a game?

What other discipline can you study that might enhance your game design potential?

TIP Research a discipline such as games inspired by art history. 

Chapter 9 Games in Context

Koster observes a number of contexts in which we experience games.

Alone or with others

Any given activity can be performed either by yourself or with others. If you are doing it with others, you can be working either with or against each other. I call these three approaches collaborative, competitive, and solo. (page 142 and 143)

Levels of game interaction

Some forms of interaction are constructive (modding a game), experiential (playing a game) or deconstructive (hacking a game). (page 144)

Koster defines ways in which games can become art.

Mere entertainment becomes art when the communicative element in the work is either novel or exceptionally well done. It really is that simple. The work has the power to alter how people perceive the world around them. (page 150)

Since games are closed formal systems, that might mean that games can never be art . . . But. . .I think . . .we need to decide what we want to say with a given game -- something big, something complex, something open to interpretation, something where there is no single right answer -- and then make sure the player interacts with it, she can come to it again and reveal whole new aspects to the challenge presented. (page 150)

The game would be:

thought provoking reveletory contribute to the betterment of society force us to reexamine assumptions give us different experiences each time allow each of us to approach it in our own way forgive misinterpretations would not dictate would immerse and change a worldview (page 152)

After comparing game design to other artforms Koster concludes:

The designer who wants to use game system design as an expressiver medium must be like the painter and the musician and the writer, in that she must learn what the strengths of the medium are, and what messages are best conveyed by it. (page 162)

What games do you think of as art? What do your chosen art games have in common with specific examples of painting, sculpture, theatre, dance, literature, film, or music.

How can you use Koster’s definition of art on page 148 So what is art?. . . to design games for powerful self-expression and communication?

Chapter 10 The Ethics of Entertainment

Visual representation and metaphor are part of the vocabulary of games. When we describe a game, we almost never do so in terms of the formal abstract system alone; we describe it in terms of the overall experience. (page 166)

The problematic case is a game that contains both brilliant gameplay and offensive content. (page 174) 

In this chapter Koster continues to compare games to other art forms such as literature and film and suggests that the lessons learned in those storytelling media can form a constructive lesson for the art of storytelling in games.

Think of an ethically problematic story or character in your game play experience. How would you change that problematic storyline or stereotypical character in order to align with your values?

Chapter 11 Where Games Should Go

. . .other humans have typically been our greatest predator. Today we have come to realize how interrelated we all are, even when the left continent doesn’t know what the right continent is doing. We have come to realize that actions we undertake often have far-reaching consequences that we never anticipated. (page 176)

But, while we’re bemoaning the lack of maturity in the field, we need not to miss the forest for the trees. Too much sex and violence isn’t the problem. The problem is shallow sex and violence. (page 180)

What are the merits of Koster’s argument when he recommends:

We should fix the fact tht the average cartoon does a better job at portraying the human condition thatn our games do. (page 180)

Ideate ethical and exciting victory conditions for a game that you would like to see in the world.

Chapter 12 Taking Their Rightful Place

Koster’s call to action:

It’s time for games to move on from only teaching patterns about territory, aiming, timing, and the rest. These subjects aren’t the preeminent challenges of our day. (page 188)

- Games do need to present us with problems and patterns that do not have one solution, because those are the problems that deepen our understanding of ourselves. - Games need to be created with formal systems that have authorial intent. - Games need to wrestle with issues of social responsibility. - Games need to develop a critical vocabulary so that understanding of our field can be shared. - Games need to push the boundaries. (page 192)

Pick one of the calls to action and do some research on the topic. 1. Explore arguments both for and against Koster’s calls to action. 2. State your own opinion on the subject with your own supporting arguments.

[filiplig]

J. Brody - Quantum Entanglement

p. 0

Indeed, the laboratory is the place where abstract concepts crystallize into palpable significance between your hands. The laboratory is where nature answers the questions posed by theorists. It’s impractical, however, for every interested person to do every interesting experiment.

p. i

Quantum physics describes the behavior (and misbehavior) of tiny things: atoms, photons, and electrons, to name a few. What electrons lack in size, they make up for in importance. Electrons are the glue in chemical bonds, so quantum physics is used to understand the chemical bonds that hold together metals, plastics, skin, and every other material. Electrons are the lifeblood of computer chips, for instance, so engineers use quantum physics to design faster, smaller devices. Wherever quantum physics is applied, it’s unerringly accurate. The most amazing feature of quantum physics isn’t its accuracy or its usefulness, but its brazen defiance of our common sense. Quantum physics challenges our basic understanding of reality itself. And yet, quantum physics started off in a very mundane way, seeking explanations for dry, quantitative data.

p. xvii

Some scientists argue that quantum physics predicts outcomes of measurements and nothing more; we shouldn’t even ask the question “What does it all mean?” At least, we shouldn’t claim to know what particles are doing when we’re not measuring them. This is a form of Bohr’s “Copenhagen interpretation,” though the Copenhagen interpretation itself has been interpreted different ways by different people. People like Einstein were fed up with vagueness, uncertainty, and contradictions. If 1984 had already been written when these physicists were grappling with these qualities of quantum mechanics, Einstein would have accused his opponents of doublethink: “Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.” Surely nature itself is not guilty of doublethink. Surely quantum physics can be massaged and refined, retaining its accuracy while eliminating the fuzziness and absurdity. Einstein, uncharacteristically, was wrong.

p. 1

The purpose of this book is to empower you to deeply understand how our common- sense assumptions impose constraints— from which entangled particles burst free. In other words, this book explains what quantum physics is not. Our task is to paint the negative space of quantum physics, a space composed of seemingly plausible theories that cannot account for measured results. I’m using “negative space” the way an artist would, to indicate the space around a subject. Let’s imagine a space full of concepts. If we draw a border around quantum physics, our everyday assumptions occupy the excluded space, the negative space. Surprisingly, irritatingly, or magically— depending on your disposition— our everyday assumptions are contradicted by experiments with entangled particles.Mathematics is a vehicle through which our assump- tions become experimentally testable. We need only logic and arithmetic to understand how our everyday assumptions are contradicted by measurements of entangled particles. This is a relief, and perhaps surprising, since harder math is required to understand rocketry, semiconductor devices, heat conduction, and many other topics. Unlike these technological topics, quantum entanglement addresses the fundamental nature of reality. Perhaps nature’s apology for behaving so strangely at the deepest level is to make its negative space mathematically accessible to all of us.

p. 4

It’s surprising that a philosophical assumption has mathematical consequences, which can be tested experimentally. But local realism isn’t the only philosophical assumption with mathematical consequences. We might characterize geocentrism as a philosophical assumption: “Everything must orbit our planet due to our own preeminence in the universe.” It’s not obvious that this assumption should have mathematical consequences. And yet, ancient and medieval astronomers labored mightily with the mathematical consequences. They had to explain why the other planets occasionally go into retrograde, backing up as if looking for something they dropped. The geocentric astronomers came up with hugely complex and surprisingly accurate mathematical models. Ultimately, however, the preponderance of evidence, and the preference for a simple unifying theory, forced astronomers to abandon the geocentric assumption. Similarly, as we’ll see, experimental evidence forces us to abandon the everyday assumption of local realism.

p. 21

What difference does it make whether the electrons were in the measured state all along, and what’s the big deal if they’re in an undecided state until the last minute? Indeed, I’ve been in an undecided state about what to order in a restaurant, and it’s only the “measurement” taken by the server that forces me to make up my mind. This is the big deal: If the electrons make up their minds at the last minute, they must make opposite decisions. If one chooses northward deflection, the other must choose southward. How can they coordinate this, in defiance of locality, when they’re in different places? If the electrons make up their minds at the last minute and they always make opposite decisions, they’re like twins with a telepathic link, if you’ll forgive the analogy. This is “spooky action at a distance”— and Einstein argued strenuously against its existence. To preserve locality (and avoid spooky action at a distance), we’d better hope for realism, which asserts that the electrons all along have the properties we end up measuring.

p. 24

For decades, physicists assumed that a local hidden variables theory could, in principle, complement quantum physics, filling in missing information and replacing probabilities with certainties. But the issue seemed academic or philosophical, and not subject to experiment: a local hidden variables theory determines the state of an electron before you measure it. Is it possible to measure the state an electron is in, before it’s measured? Seemingly it is not. In 1964, John Bell made a stunning theoretical discovery, called Bell’s theorem. 3 His original paper languished in obscurity for years, but enthusiasm for his discovery swelled over the course of decades. Bell showed that any local hidden variables theory imposes a constraint on measurable quantities. The constraint on measurable quantities is now called a Bell inequality. If the constraint is violated by measurement, then a local hidden variables theory cannot be valid. Moreover, because quantum physics predicts violations of the Bell inequality, quantum physics is fundamentally incompatible with any local hidden variables theory. So Einstein’s hope was in vain: a local hidden variables theory cannot complement quantum mechanics; it can only contradict it. And since measurable quantities determine whether a Bell inequality is violated or not, an experiment can be performed to determine whether the real world is consistent with quantum mechanics, or with a local hidden variables theory; we can’t have both.

p. 51

Our mistake is the assumption that A, A′, B, and B′ all exist at the same time. Alice can only measure either A or A′; Bob can only measure either B or B′. The quantities that aren’t measured don’t have specific values that we can plug into S=AB+A′B– AB′+A′B′. So S doesn’t exist for a single photon pair. Our belief that S should exist for a single photon pair is really our belief that photon properties exist before we measure them. Experiment contradicts this belief: the measured value of average S exceeds the limits 

p. 72

We now have explicit expressions for all three terms in our Bell inequality: N(30°,0°) ≤ N(0°,60°) + N(30°, −30°), which becomes 3/8 Ntotal  ≤ 1/8 Ntotal + 1/8 Ntotal This simplifies to  3/8 ≤ 2/8,  which is clearly untrue.

p. 122

If I claim that the size of my right foot changes when I measure my left foot, we would expect to observe this directly: when I hold a ruler up to my left foot, we should be able to watch my right foot shrink or expand, or perhaps transform from fuzziness to solidity. Similarly, we want to observe Photon B, both before and after Photon A is measured, to see if anything changes. But then, the first observation of Photon B would be a measurement, which may affect the state of Photon A! My claim is that both photons are transformed by the first observation of either photon. Thus this transformation can never be observed; we can’t perform any observation prior to the first observation. So we can never watch one particle change in response to the measurement of its twin. The innermost workings of nature remain forever out of reach. The quest for complete understanding is always an unscratchable itch. The only fact that’s (almost) certain is that local realism cannot account for measured results. Local realism is defeated by violations of Bell inequalities, which is why local realism is the negative space of quantum physics: local realism is the excluded explanation. If we reject local realism, what’s left? Are the only remaining views of reality mystical? Does quantum mechanics, after all, say something mystical about the universe? We can no longer argue that physics is merely a set of formulas for predicting experimental outcomes, disjoint from philosophical considerations: Bell inequalities show that experiment has overruled a plausible philosophical assumption. There are many alternative assumptions, but none are especially plausible, and all have their partisans.

p. 126

The distinction between realism and counterfactual definiteness becomes clearer if we consider the viewpoint of superdeterminism . According to superdeterminism, there’s no free will. The entire universe is a Rube Goldberg device evolving inexorably along its predetermined course. Every future occurrence, down to the minutest detail, was predetermined at the moment of the Big Bang. Free will is an illusion, and if we believe in this illusion, it’s only because we were predestined to do so.

p. 127

Another viewpoint that undermines counterfactual definiteness is the many- worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. In this view, all possible outcomes of a measurement are real— in parallel universes! When the measurement is performed, the world splits— the photons are vertically polarized in one world, and horizontally polarized in the other. (I believe adherents of this interpretation prefer different terminology: The only reality is the sum of all possible outcomes. So reality itself isn’t splitting; there are just new branches within the single reality, and we’re conscious of only one of the branches.)

p. 135

In another experiment to close the freedom- of- choice loophole, about 100,000 people from around the world generated random numbers. 10 The random numbers were used to set the polarizer angles (or equivalent analyzer settings) in tests of Bell inequalities. Participants generated random numbers by playing a video game online. The Bell inequalities were violated, as usual. We conclude that local realism was defeated: the entangled particles did not have definite properties prior to measurement, or if they did, the measurement of one particle affected the other. Alternatively, a superdeterministic power governed the seemingly random choices of 100,000 people so that their choices corresponded with properties that the entangled particles had prior to measurement. In either case, common sense cannot account for the results.

p. 136

In fact, a favored view among physicists is that reality is a higher-dimensional space. Our ordinary ideas of space and time are inadequate to understand entanglement. To recognize our cognitive limitations, we can imagine a world with fewer dimensions than ours: imagine a society constrained to exist in a flat, geometric plane. The two- dimensional people in this world have no concept of three- dimensional space because they have never experienced it. Now imagine that a three- dimensional titan starts poking the tips of a fork through the two- dimensional world. The fork is poked at random moments through random locations. The two- dimensional people (quivering in terror) perceive the tines of the fork as four isolated, round blobs. They see no possible physical connections among the four blobs; they can completely encircle each blob with a string to prove that it’s isolated from the others. The four blobs always appear at almost the same time, however, and they disappear at almost the same time. Although the two- dimensional scientists can’t predict where or when the blobs will appear, the distance between adjacent blobs is always the same. (Perhaps the blobs expand slightly after they appear, and they shrink before they vanish, but the distance between the centers of the blobs is always the same.) The two- dimensional scientists wonder if the appearance of one blob causes the three other blobs to appear, some distance away. Is this spooky action at a distance? The two- dimensional scientists are scratching their two-dimensional heads. Eventually, an idea forms in their two-dimensional brains. Perhaps the isolation of the blobs is an illusion; perhaps, in an unimaginable higher- dimensional space, the four blobs are part of a unified whole. The properties of one blob don’t influence the properties of any other blob. Instead, the relationships among the blobs exist all along in a higher- dimensional space, which only occasionally intersects the familiar, two- dimensional reality. This is how some physicists explain entanglement: We live in a cross- section of a higher- dimensional reality. Much like the two- dimensional scientists, we cannot intuitively understand causality in the higher dimension. Nicolas Gisin writes, “In a certain sense then, reality is something that happens in another space than our own, and what we perceive of it are just shadows, rather as in Plato’s cave analogy used centuries ago to explain the difficulty in knowing the ‘true reality.’” This is an extraordinary statement. Scientists are stereotyped to equate reality with empirical data, but evidently some scientists equate reality with an invisible higher realm.

p. 144

“Direct observation is the only scientific reality” takes a less extreme, though still brazen, form, in a recent interpretation of quantum mechanics called QBism (pronounced “cubism” to deliberately create a sense of radical departure from established norms). QBism is the abbreviation of “quantum Bayesianism.” In Bayesian statistics, probabilities are updated as new information comes in.

p. 146

QBists refuse (humbly? peevishly?) to assign a cause to the observed correlations between entangled photons. The correlations are a fact of nature, and quantum mechanics gives us the math to accurately predict them. Any speculation as to how the correlations come about is outside the scope of physical science. (This approach is sometimes called “shut up and calculate.”) Since QBist physicists don’t speculate about underlying causality, the speculation and discussion must therefore come from ... philosophers ... or from theologians, poets, or science- fiction writers? I don’t permanently encamp with the QBists. But on occasion, QBism feels like an invigorating breeze that clears away a cloying miasma of confusion. QBism fends off the questions of what a particle’s like before measurement, what constitutes a measurement, and what is the underlying deep reality. QBism ejects these questions from the realm of science because they all inquire about something that can never be scientifically determined: the state of an object before it’s observed. It’s not wrong to speculate about what a particle’s like before it’s measured, or to wonder what invisible mechanism enables one photon to always behave like its twin; it’s just that we step outside of QBist science when we speculate about things that can never be directly observed. What happens to objects that no one’s looking at? Does the seemingly solid world dissolve into the phantasms and mirages of our own assumptions and mental images? The visible universe does not completely blink out of QBist existence when we close our eyes; the lapse in observation is filled in by the subjective judgment that the world is still there. QBism preserves our common sense. Quantum mechanics is classified as a prediction tool, not a gateway to ultimate reality. QBism sweeps the cobwebby spookiness out of quantum physics (and into someone else’s discipline). There’s no action at a distance, and there’s no speculation (within physics) about what particles are doing when we’re not looking at them. But we can push this idea in a direction unintended by QBism’s inventors. If we really believe that direct observation is the only reality, then, looking at the night sky is a single truth; observer and observed cannot be logically separated. And the quest to preserve locality leads to unification with everything we see.

[nephyartis]

“The Right Frequency”

Our Archaic Age

I see lots of conflation and ignorance surrounding the topics of Power Words, Runes, Glyphs, Sigils, Wands, and Wyrdstones. I hope this text will help clarify some of it.

First, some terms. Rune. Glyph. Sigil. Runic Languages, which to say, languages associated with a script (often in addition to a non-runic script), are also often called Languages of Power. A rune in-and-of-itself is a sort of pictogram, representing related physical and meta-physical ideals. It’s a building block. Glyphs, on the other hand, are like compound words, or more nuanced building blocks. A glyph referencing the Tiger animal would be derivative of the basic rune for Beast, as an example. So for what runes are the basic words, and glyphs are the compound words, Sigils are the slang. A sigil will contain elements of runes or glyphs, but expressed in a personalized manner, often for the sake of identification. Different runic systems (languages) do exist, though, which presents some important distinctions.

Primordial, Supernal, The Elder Language, the Language of Creation. Call it what you will, they are all the same. There are vibrational patterns that comprise the nature of existence. They bear personality--mental traits. By mimicking these vibrations, and mental states, we may illicit changes in the world, all working through The Medium--the field of interaction between physical and meta-matter, that so many call the Weave. All languages of power are derivative of this original system. To glimpse it is a task of great difficulty, which is why divination is often used to expand one’s mental faculties, just to grasp the concepts wholly. On the conceptual, abstract, and divine, there is the Dethek Language Branch. On the mechanical, definitive, and arcane, there is the Iokharic Language Branch. Of special note, there have been systems that attempted to mix the two, such as the Seldruin, an arcane system composed with respect for the divine, but that is not the topic I hope to address.

The cultures and creatures that popularized these languages lend credence to the ideals they represent. The origin of species: warring elementals of crude matter, before the specialization of complex life--these creatures, such as Djinn with their reality warping wishes--they warred across the cosmos seeking places of higher potential, creating form from chaos. Crude, raw, powerful. Then in time complex life formed. The creator races were born. They grasped The Language, and further complexity, but they did not create worlds, like the elementals did. Great empires forming afterward, ever more derivative of the last. More complex, but in complexity, one sacrifices potential. Giants, Dragons, then Elves. Each came and created their own derivative systems, yet only two flourish to this day. The Giants and the Dragons. Of those two, it seems to me global culture has strayed, perhaps too far, into the arcane--the material--the Dragon--and in its cry for more--subconsciously aware of its own shortcomings--it has accepted falsehoods and niceties in place of reality and hard truth.

While scholars have debated whether Iokharic was influenced by Dethek, or if it were the other way around, I will posit that this is the wrong question. They share commonalities because they are inspired by--derivative of--the same root system. The universal language. As language has progressed, however, ever more nuanced, it has gained the ability to express more-and-more complex ideas, at the cost of its potency, much like the races that practice it. Each one branches out of those that came before, in a great tree of life. This is not to say that I believe movement along the branches is impossible, but that’s a topic for another time.

Compare both Iokharic and Dethek runes. Knowing their script will greatly assist. For that matter, compare the runic forms of any language. Those two are simply the most widespread. While there are differences, their similarities are key to understanding the pervasive narrative of our universe. Lake, Water, Ocean, Tide, Mutability, Longing, Gulf. A nuanced rune (also called a Glyph, or Hanzi) will appear visually similar to other like-minded runes, because their meanings are related. Shark will resemble Fish, which resembles Water. This holds true with all runes. They represent things, which in and of themselves, contain mental traits. These mental traits correspond to a certain vibrational frequency. Now compare the vibrations. The sound. The practice. Follow it up the linguistic tree, and watch it evolve. You will start hearing very familiar phonemes while on the same branch. It’s not until one reaches the Big Three, that language diverges greatly. Dethek, Draconic, and Elvish, respectively. Despite these apparent differences, though, their runes address and link the same ideals and frequencies.

Still, their differences are not unimportant. Dethek runes, like the cultures that popularized them, are grounded in the divine. They focus more on the intent, meaning, or associated mental traits, rather than physical measurements. The giants’ Ordning, dwarven paragons, human belief. There is a narrative beneath it all. Old churches of yore were cautious of science (read, arcane), and the pride of intellect. It was for good reason, even if it became misguided. One need not look far to see its dangers displayed in Dragons. Even the most noble among them face temptation in the face of ignorance or wealth. Primates in particular have evolved with a phrenology primed to notice serpentine figures, for the danger they pose is legendary. It is a story that our very blood cries out.

One can look at the spread of human language to see its influences, and trace its lineage along these branches. Often, mixing the two properties. Chessan, Raumtheran, Thorass, and Waelan, all take influence from dwarves (who took influence from Jotun), from the gods, or directly from Jotun. For some it’s harder to follow, such as the Untheric, Han, or Rauric languages (for that matter, any influenced by Netheril or Imaskar). The Netherese, first introduced to the Art by elves, then later for themselves with the great golden scales, became increasingly Iokharic. Likewise, their people, arcane. Independently, the same can be seen with Kara-Tur, and the Rauric (Imaskar, Thay) languages. Their cultures, while divine at first, made course along the arcane, increasingly adopting Iokharic methods.

Time for a closer look at Iokharic. The methodical. The measured. The arcane. These are focussed on what physical phenomena are represented, by the universe’s pervasive narrative. Iokharic is to Dethek, what Alchemy is to Herbalism, and what Intelligence is to Wisdom (Seldruin is the Charisma of the group, which muddies the picture a bit). Yet look at the great empires that rose in its wake, each pragmatic and worldly. The Dragons. The Elves. Netheril. Thay. Each has contributed greatly to the advancement of the sciences, and revolutionized the way we live. But left unchecked, history shows that innovation will be its own undoing. I do not intend to say arcane magic is wrong, or that it should not be practiced. Merely, that there is a balance in all things. Even the divine, and the arcane. Their balance--their synthesis--is godhood. It’s otherworldly. It is true divinity. It is that which lay closest to understanding the universal system. Magic Circles are often a good example of this, combining both practices.

At this point, let’s point out various ways these concepts can be utilized. Take Wyrdstones, for example. Primordial and awesome in power, they are still crude. While it cannot be said precisely, I would place their original creation prior to the divergence of language. One need only channel their intent to realize the potential held within Wyrdstones. Any symbols they hold are lost on the limited perspective of our minds. So following the route previously stated, this would suggest Wyrdstones to be very near the universal language, as one does not need to infer a narrative, nor discern a practice. Wyrdstones are more whole. Intrinsic. Dwarven runestones, on the other hand, tell stories, and those stories often possess a weaker, but more nuanced power. The corresponding flow of mental traits are their key importance. While on the other hand, Iokharic runes are measured and precise, constructed meticulously, and often with more material affect. They pay less heed to the overarching story, and more to its physical events. The reliable power achieved in this way is often very attractive to aspiring mages, which likely goes without saying. To which I point out again, and caution against, the Pride of Intellect.

The differences between these systems also aids in understanding how to use more complex magical items. Arcane wands, for example, require practical understanding. How to stand, what frequency to embody, and how. Whereas with divine wands, empathetic understanding is necessary. You must respect, emulate, and believe, the energies being channeled. Posture and tone become much less important. Of course, one could also just practice through intuition how to use magical devices, but such a skill only gets you so far.

Last but not least, bringing this to an end, I’m sure some will have thought by now, “What about the planar languages?” It becomes very difficult to say. We could speculate, for example, that Infernal aligns more arcane than divine. The ideas they espouse, and association with Tiamat, along with present day cultures (such as Thay) align enough to suggest it is true. However, there are two important dynamics to note. The gods are shaped by our cultivated belief. I have little doubt that their language could be as well, and that their language might evolve over time. Moreover, as previously described, godhood is a state of existence both arcane and divine, so at the very least it cannot be said that planar runes are wholly one or the other. They surely emphasize both practices, which is what makes them deific in the first place. It’s with these things in mind that it becomes very hard to pin-down planar languages. Combine that with the fact that they are obviously very far away from us, studying them becomes difficult. This is why I have focussed on a more grounded history of language. The planar systems are undoubtedly very close to the universal system, as far as origins go, but to what degree they still resemble it, may be impossible to say.

What I can say is that it’s time we stopped living in an age of ignorance.

[bittersweetjj]

Ouai Wave Spray

Price: $26.00

Claims: A weightless texture mist for effortlessly chic, undone hair. Infused with rice protein to add hold and memory for that "just got out of the ocean and my hair dried perfectly" look.

Free of parabens and sodium chloride. 

 No animal testing.


Ingredients:

Aqua (Water): Primarily used as a solvent in cosmetics and personal care products in which it dissolves many of the ingredients that impart skin benefits, such as conditioning agents and cleansing agents. Water also forms emulsions in which the oil and water components of the product are combined to form creams and lotions.

Propanediol: A glycol that can enhance the absorption of ingredients (such as salicylic acid) into the skin. Propanediol can be derived naturally (from corn) or synthetically. It has hydrating properties that may leave a smooth, dewy finish. Propanediol is a well-tolerated ingredient, not likely to cause sensitivity.

Glycerin: An emollient and humectant derived from vegetable oils that helps skin retain moisture.

Panthenol (Vitamin B5): Member of the B complex family of vitamins. A moisturizing humectant and emollient.

Phyllostachis Bambusoides Juice: A soothing anti-inflammatory.

Daucus Carota Sativa (Carrot) Root Extract: Also known as wild carrot. It can have antioxidant properties, but applied topically it can cause sensitivity.

Nasturtium Officinale Extract (Watercress): Research indicates that watercress extracts can have antioxidant activity, but that information is limited and was carried out either in vitro or as animal experiments, not in skincare products.

Zingiber Officinale (Ginger) Root Extract: Extract from a plant in the Zingiberacae family that has research showing it has soothing and potent antioxidant activity when taken orally and when applied to skin. Ginger extract is generally considered non-volatile, meaning it doesn’t pose a risk of sensitizing skin. In contrast, the oil form of ginger maintains the volatile components (ginger oil contains over 50 such components) that have the potential to aggravate skin with topical use. Detoxifies and rejuvenates the skin for a healthy glow.

Oryza Sativa (Rice) Extract: This emollient oil is an excellent skin conditioner and antioxidant.

Pisum Sativum (Pea) Extract: Latin name for the garden pea. It does have antioxidant activity 

Arginine: An amino acid considered essential to human development. It has antioxidant properties.

Alanine: An Amino Acid act as water-binding agents, and some have antioxidant properties. Can be combined with other ingredients that have skin-restorative ability to work in unison to fight signs of aging.

Glycine: An Amino Acid act as water-binding agents, and some have antioxidant properties. Can be combined with other ingredients that have skin-restorative ability to work in unison to fight signs of aging.

Serine: An Amino Acid act as water-binding agents, and some have antioxidant properties. Can be combined with other ingredients that have skin-restorative ability to work in unison to fight signs of aging.

Valine: An Amino Acid act as water-binding agents, and some have antioxidant properties. Can be combined with other ingredients that have skin-restorative ability to work in unison to fight signs of aging.

Isoleucine: An Amino Acid act as water-binding agents, and some have antioxidant properties. Can be combined with other ingredients that have skin-restorative ability to work in unison to fight signs of aging.

Histidine: An Amino Acid act as water-binding agents, and some have antioxidant properties. Can be combined with other ingredients that have skin-restorative ability to work in unison to fight signs of aging.

Phenylalanine: An Amino Acid act as water-binding agents, and some have antioxidant properties. Can be combined with other ingredients that have skin-restorative ability to work in unison to fight signs of aging.

Proline: An Amino Acid act as water-binding agents, and some have antioxidant properties. Can be combined with other ingredients that have skin-restorative ability to work in unison to fight signs of aging.

Threonine: An Amino Acid act as water-binding agents, and some have antioxidant properties. Can be combined with other ingredients that have skin-restorative ability to work in unison to fight signs of aging.

Phytic Acid: Component of plants that has antioxidant properties.

Aspartic Acid: An Amino Acid act as water-binding agents, and some have antioxidant properties. Can be combined with other ingredients that have skin-restorative ability to work in unison to fight signs of aging.

Zea Mays (Corn) Starch: It is highly absorbent, making it ideal for use to mop up moisture. Its fine texture makes skin feel silky and smooth.

Ethylhexylglycerin: A synthetic skin-softening agent also used as a preservative, a carrier, or suspending agent for other preservatives such as phenoxyethanol.

Sodium PCA: Natural component of skin, PCA (pyrrolidone carboxylic acid) is also a very good hydrating agent. Sodium PCA also functions as a skin-replenishing ingredient.

PPG-5-Ceteth-20: An emollient and surfactant. It is considered to have versatile uses and can have lubricating properties or serve as solvent in formulas. When used as a traditional emollient, PPG 5 Ceteth 20 creates a dry, silky feeling on the skin and can reduce the greasy effect of oils and petroleum.

Polysorbate-20: A surfactant, emulsifier, and fragrance ingredient. Serve as a dispersing agent and mix oil and water, work as a fragrance solubilizer and stabilizer, act as a lubricator, and have a soothing effect on the skin 

Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Water: Soothing and hydrating on the skin.

Hydrolyzed Hibiscus Esculentus Extract: An antioxidants and fragrant. 

Jasminum Officinale (Jasmine) Flower Extract: Fragrant oil, often used as a source of perfume, whose volatile fragrance chemicals (chiefly linalool) can be skin sensitizers.

Hydrolyzed Linseed Extract: Non-volatile plant oil. Linoleic acid is a component of linseed oil. Used as an emollient and thickening agent. Effective as a skin restorative, an antioxidant and as a skin-soothing agent. 

PCA: An ingredient derived from amino acids that serves as a humectant and is part of the natural moisturizing factor.

Sodium Polystyrene Sulfonate: Used as a film former, emulsion stabilizer, surfactant and viscosity increasing agent, and also has microbicide properties when applied topically. As a film former, Sodium Polystyrene Sulfonate may help to mask wrinkles when included in formulas.

Cystine Bis-PG-Propyl Silanetriol: It is considered a hair and skin conditioning agent. 

Sodium Lactate: Sodium salt of lactic acid. Used primarily as a hydrating and buffering agent (to adjust a product’s pH value).

Parfum (Fragrance): One or a blend of volatile and/or fragrant plant oils (or synthetically derived oils) that impart aroma and odor to products. These are often skin sensitizers because they are composed of hundreds of individual chemical components. Fragrance is a leading source of sensitivity to cosmetics.

Pentylene Glycol: A synthetic skin-replenishing agent and solvent.

Disodium EDTA: Used as a chelating, meaning it prevents ingredients in a formula from binding with trace elements (mainly minerals) that can be present in water.

Aminomethyl Propanol: An alkanolamine that comes in the form of either a colorless liquid or crystalline solid. Works to adjust PH levels.

BHT: A fat soluble synthetic compound, in the form of a white/yellow crystalline solid. Primarily acts as an antioxidant food additive because of its ability to preserve fats. It's also used as a preservative. As an antioxidant, it helps fight against the deterioration of cosmetic products caused by chemical reactions with oxygen. It's also known to work synergistically with other antioxidants. 

Caprylyl Glycol: Skin and hair conditioning agent that may be plant-derived or synthetic. Often used as part of a preservative blend in cosmetics. 

Phenoxyethanol: A glycol ether and bactericide (that functions as a disinfectant, antiseptic or antibiotic) that is primarily used as a preservative. It is also seen as a fragrance additive.

Chlorphenesin: Type of alcohol used as a preservative in cosmetics.

Potassium Sorbate: Used as a preservative, almost always used in conjunction with other preservatives.

Sodium Benzoate: A preservative.

Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone: A synthetic compound in the form of a colorless liquid. Used as a perfume.

Limonene: Colorless liquid with a light, fresh, and sweet citrus odor used to make fragrances and flavors. It is naturally occurring substance found in many citrus fruits. 

Geraniol: A colourless liquid; it has a sweet, rose-like odour, with a hint of citrus.

Hydroxycitronellal: A perfume ingredient providing a floral scent.

Linalool: Fragrant component of lavender and coriander that can be a potent skin sensitizer. Colorless liquid with a soft, sweet odor. 

Citronellol: A volatile fragrance chemical extracted from geranium, rose, and other plants, citronellol has a characteristic grassy, citrus-like scent. Applied to skin, it can cause aggravation when exposed to air. This exposure causes the unstable citronellol molecule to oxidize, which is believed to trigger aggravation on skin.

My Thoughts: When I went to disneyland with my sister in law she raved about Ouai Wave Spray. Its been untouched in my box for a long time. I decided to give it a go when I got home. I received a travel size in my July 2016 Play! by Sephora box. The travel size is available for $12 great for anyone who's on a budget. Or you can get a big bottle for $26. It comes in a standard spray bottle. When I get the yellowish liquid on my hands it tends to leave them sticky.

I believe I found the best method when using Ouai Wave Spray, well actually my sister in law gave me the idea. After I showered and washed my hair I spilt my hair up in 2 sections. I spray each section  that is damp, but not on the root of my hair. I quickly braid both sections into a pigtails. I let it air dry completely. I take the pigtails out and I have perfectly natural crimped/wavy hair without heat! The hair has to be fully dried to get that finishing look. If the hair is still wet it won’t work. Most days leave the pigtails over night. Either way Ouai Wave Spray never leaves any left over residue or makes my hair crunchy. What I can live without is the strong perfume scent.

Would I purchase Ouai Wave Spray? Yes I love it, I would even purchase the bigger bottle.

Pros:

Travel size 

Received July 2016 Play! by Sephora box

Budget friendly 

Standard spray bottle 

No heat required

Use on damp hair

Braid hair method works best 

Natural crimped/wavy hair

No residue left behind on hair

Cons:

Yellowish liquid can make hands sticky 

Strong perfume scent.

If you found this review helpful please click on the heart or reblog. Feel free to reply with your thoughts on the product.

[vlc-for-mac-osx-blog]

Selecting Your Wedding Photographer

That skills and knowledge can't be developed or bought overnight. It does take time for a beginner to become fully fledged artist. Regardless what the photographer states, if you do not like his/her past work, do not use that photographer. Remember, you are going to employ you to definitely record probably the main moments in your life. You do not want to regret after viewing the wedding pictures that you're not happy with. Budget enough money and take enough time to find and employ an able shooter that matches your model and taste. Typically, Wedding photographs are generally done inside companies with props and setups. Photographer frequently provides very particular modeling recommendations and assistance to brides and grooms. If the topics know how to create properly, it can result in good photographs that are sharp and effectively composed. Regrettably many individuals are camera shy and do not also know how to smile in front of a camera. Below that predicament, sat pictures may not be your absolute best choice. Photojournalistic wedding photography has gained their popularity in the past 15- 20 years. This photography design presents less formalized pictures with not as posing requirements from the subjects. Shooter requires the pictures without giving way too many instructions and records raw and untarnished emotion. Occasionally, subjects don't even understand that they are photographed. I personally prefer this method for portrait since persons look most useful when they are below their normal state. Nevertheless, this approach may cause complex constraints with photographer. As illumination is one of the most crucial aspects of photography, shooter might not get all the most well-liked illumination when he/she movements about such as a journalist. Photographer really must rely on their knowledge and gear to obtain the very best shots taken. Wedding is never a natural function; therefore, hybrid fashion is generally used. Hybrid design images is really a mixture of staged photographs with photojournalistic shots. Photographer may ask class pictures to be staged while get candid photograph to exhibit feelings or story. This is the one issue that's requested most frequently. When selecting shooter, many brides put the purchase price as the top deciding factor. I believe that this is not the most effective strategy of choosing the right photographer. Please remember, you are employing you to definitely record the absolute most valuable time in your life. There is no 2nd chance for shooter to ask one to re-do the ceremony or get the same pictures twice. You truly need the help from professional perhaps not some amateurs. Cost of qualified photography has come down considerably due to reputation of camera and competition. Wedding photographs applied to price $2,000-6,000, and most photographers charges between $1,000-3,000 nowadays. Simply how much must a few spend on images companies? I'd state, about 10-15% of one's overall wedding budget should be a fair allocation. I've seen amateurs promoted their wedding images companies for just $450 and offer to provide a DVD cd to customer right after the wedding. I genuinely believe that this is an irresponsible way of making wedding photos. Excellent photographs need to be made both throughout and after the shoot. What After all is that article processing can be crucial besides excellent original photos. Post production can correct along with, produce romantic sense, and then add nice touches to the originals. The wow factors usually derive from post processing. Article creation is time consuming and needs complex and imaginative skills. Amateurs who give DVD correct following the capture avoid the full time invest in article manufacturing (or actually do not know how to do good post production) and time handle client after the wedding. They consider their work finished when big day is over. Brides who focus on saving cash and hire this sort of amateur photographer probably find yourself having photos look similar to the people taken by their friends. This isn't saving money, this is squandering money. Should you choose an easy r, taken the time that pro shooter costs for post production, the price you spend for amateurs and pros should be similar; therefore, you're spending pro value and got a beginner service. There is grounds for people who demand suprisingly low fees. Each one of these amateurs treatment is money. Quality and customer satisfaction are not their principal concern. Be aware! Skilled photographers require to maintain specific price range in order to endure and generate income since getting photographs is all they do for living.

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Abstract painting and Dunhuang Art

Introduction I enjoy playing with and rearranging colors, lines and shapes to create images that I want to look at. For me, it seems that color is the primary means for sparking the between artifice and nature, and the shape that is also very important. I feel that abstract art has value, as a lot of it tends to focus on the concepts of form, composition, and color. These concepts are essentially the foundations of visual art. At the beginning of this course, I was interested in 'Explore the importance of perspective and distortion physically and/or symbolically.' Thus, for my studio work, I chose abstract paintings. Although I have never tried abstract painting before. But I think abstract style can well explain this topic. At the beginning of this course I had a general plan and gradually adjusted as the course progressed.  My plan is all paintings are composed of curved lines, and the objects are from the concrete thing that exists such as flowers. Due to lack of experience in abstract painting, I did some exercises. The first few paintings I painted very difficult, and spent a lot of time. I even replaced my original color painting with black and white. Although some paintings are not very successful, I also learned a lot from these exercises. After I did the reflection on how the works of art time travel, I tried to add historical and cultural elements to make my final work more meaningful. Because I really like its smooth lines and bold colors from the Dunhuang Murals, I turned my research area to 'Time Travel and the distortion physically.' I refer the Dunhuang Murals and add its elements into my paintings. In my studio work, these abstract paintings are base on my memories, they are not base on photo. Therefore, they will have some distortion when I paint them. I visited to Dunhuang Murals two times when I was in 10 and 22 years old. Childhood memories have been blurred and distorted. When I was a child I think those murals are scary, the figures in the murals in the dim caves are like ghosts. In my 22 years old, I had a special trip to enjoy those great murals, from an artistic perspective. In addition to solemn Buddha statues, the images that most attract me are Apsaras (The Flying Celestials). The Apsaras are so romantic and dynamic, these figures shows a great combination on freedom and beauty. In my final work, I connect the childhood memories and my artistic research, and represent them to an abstract painting.

Dunhuang Art The Silk Road developed and thrived from the Han dynasty (207 BCE–220 CE)[1], creating in centuries of contact and exchange between Eastern and Western civilizations and peoples. These huge networks carried more than just precious commodities, the constant movement and mixing of populations also brought about the transmission of knowledge, ideas, cultures and beliefs. These ancient trade routes also facilitated the development in northwest China of the Dunhuang. Mogao Grottoes is 1600 year old, and it is the most magnificent grottoes in Dunhuang cave-temple. The Buddhist cave temples at Mogao embraced local different dynasty artistic traditions, and also incorporated artistic influences from Central Asia and India [2].

The Apsaras is a kind of Buddhist figure, but they are unique in Dunhuang art. They have naked upper torsos with flying scarves and wear dhoti as long skirts. They could float and roam in the air in tremendous curving lines, looks like the wind blowing in the caves. The Buddhist sutras often described the scenes of Apsaras singing, dancing and/or scattering petals to praise the Buddha[2]. Although they are not the main characters, their beauty of romance and freedom attract me. In addition, I most like the early Apsaras figures. The early painters intentionally lengthened the figure, this is a kind of abstract expression.

There are some key elements in Apsaras: their scarves and clouds all flying, create a beautiful and dynamic scene; they are holding lotus or jewellery and scattering petals; they are in different lithe and graceful poses which are rich in the representation of the aesthetics of the human body[2]. I added all these elements to my abstract painting to support the theme of the 'Time Travel'.

My Abstract Painting

When I am creating this painting, I encountered many challenges such as the choice between traditional or modern materials. Before I start to paint, I was too concerned about the 'Time Travel'. One of the plans is use Chinese painting paper, choose the colors appear in the Dunhuang Murals, and even use 'make old' (a Chinese painting skill that makes painting looks like an antique). But in my final plan, I decided to be  bolder to choose the meterials. Because this is abstract painting, if I hope to achieve a certain pre-ordained result it runs the risk of being too 'tight'. Therefore, I chose a 42"X42" huge square canvas and acrylic paints for my final work. I chose the Apsaras element because their flying scarves makes a well connect with my original theme the 'distortion physically' lines. Their colorful long flowing scarves even flutter outside the boundary of the panel that brings a feeling of freedom. All of them are dressed in long skirts made of red brocade with beautiful patterns. In my painting, I turned these long flowing scarves and dresses to colorful long curves. But in the finished work the figures disappeared, leaving only the abstract shapes of the Apsaras that made of the colorful long curves. I exaggerated flowing scarves, that is the colorful long curves, the most important things in this painting. On the composition, an Apsaras in the middle of the canvas, and his head is the focal point, some Apsaras are flying around him. Their flowing scarves are winding with each others, constitute a circle around the center. The lotus, jewellery, and petals embellished in the flowing scarves. Behind them is different shapes of clouds. The painting I did before the final work, most of the lines were in the same layer. Thus, I pay attention to the layer in this work. This painting has many layers, even the clouds in the background also have complex context, that makes they look like moving in the sky. In the last two paintings I put completely different color together. This is a big challenge for me, because I need to find balance of them. Before this, I failed once time, that is the painting that changes from color to black, white, and gray. But finally I succeeded. Although somewhat different from what I expected, it is also another surprise. I involuntarily used a lot of green on the canvas, thus in the process I found its more like an underwater world. But I did not stop to use green, because the lines are still 'Floating'. They are also bring the romantic and dynamic feeling, just from sky to the underwater.

Reflection When I am painting this work, I deeply realized that how different Chinese and Western cultures. Most abstract Chinese paintings are 'Xie Yi', which requires putting the emphasis on portraying the mien and verve of the subjects with concise and recapitulative brush strokes, verve is more important than shape. But for me, color and the shape are both very important. Therefore, I chose to focus on colors and shapes, and combined Dunhuang elements. In addition, I am also focus on verve, that are freedom and beauty. This is why I did not  rectify it when I found the painting looks like underwater world. To Understand the Dunhuang elements in this painting need special culture and historical context. I added Dunhuang elements, but I did not show them directly to the viewers, it sounds contradictory. I showed this painting to my friend who was traveled to Dunhuang with me. When I pointed out the word 'Apsaras', she quickly understands this painting, this is my purpose. However, if viewers do not understand the content of the painting, they also can resonate against with the bright colors and the flowing lines.

Summary I learned a lot in the process of creating abstract paintings. This is I first time to try abstract painting. Abstract painting is attractive to me because it can be a little of each, both a representation of reality and a sample of its processes. When I am engaged in painting, the process involves a compromise between ideas and practice. I usually begin a painting with a clear idea of what it should have. Different choices of colors, brushes, paints, and medium will create completely different results. From 'tight' in my first abstract painting to 'free' in the final work, my abstract paintings become more naturally.

Reference [1]Silk Road, Wikipedia. Apr 15, 2018. http://public.dha.ac.cn/content.aspx?id=185436748917 [2]The Art of Dunhuang, Dunhuang Academy, 2014. Apr 15, 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Road