· Balisage Series on Markup Technologies· Vol 31· 0 citations
Abstract
The Zettelkasten ("card case"), introduced by the German social scientist Niklas Luhmann in 1981, is an external memory system composed of notes linked through explicit cross-references. A mesh of cross-references allows larger conceptual structures to emerge as the collection grows. Luhmann regarded his system as an indispensable combination of outboard memory and research assistant.
Luhmann was known for his exceptional productivity and attributed much of it to his Zettelkasten. Others have tried to emulate his system with varying degrees of success.
Luhmann's Zettelkasten was entirely paper-based; later times have seen efforts to computerize the design. Few seem to have achieved or even understood the levels of engagement that Luhmann wrote about: how his card collection supported fluid thinking, creativity, and serendipity.
This paper presents a framework for understanding how such a system can achieve Luhmann-level support, why and how so many users fall short of these ideals. It pulls together aspects of information theory, cognitive and psychological science, human interface, movie production practice, Topic Maps data modeling, and library science to illuminate key concepts underlying highly effective thinking support.
The work reported here is the outgrowth of four main threads dating back to the early 2000s. First was a series of browser bookmarks managers that were in essence lightweight zettelkastens that worked with bookmarks instead of notes [
Passin 2003
]. Second was a program to allow writing XML source text, including RDF, in a highly simplified and intuitive way that relies on a few simple conventions [
Passin 2007
]. Third was the development of a Topic Maps engine and various applications built on it. The fourth was extensive experience with systems modeling and enterprise architecture.
Together these threads lead to an understanding that modeling systems need to be highly adaptable to changes and reorganization, that more semantics is captured by the structure than by individual information items, and that a flexible and adaptive system needs to present the user with extreme simplicity and intuitive operation as far as possible.
This paper proposes that successful Zettelkasten implementations must provide very low cognitive friction so users do not feel impeded by their system. They should provide an outline-style view, and a user should be able to restructure the outline at any time in a convenient manner. Metadata is included by extremely simple markup that relies on a few conventions. Finally, though the underlying model is a Topic Map, most of the Topic Map machinery and details should be left implicit. This is essential to keep the cognitive friction low.
Even though the framework presented in this paper seems complex, implementations can be surprisingly simple. This is demonstrated by the author's third-generation Zettelkasten implementation.
The term "Haykabanutyun" often comes across in scientific literature and fiction. The concept of "Haykabanutyun," however, hasn't been defined so far and we cannot explain what did Haykabanutyun/Haykaban specifically mean.
The author tackles this concern in this article, based on diverse dictionaries and other sources. He argues that though the term maintained a broad sense, it was used with various connotations in different periods and by different scholars.
Eventually, he combines the diverse sets of meanings and presents the reader with some of its characteristic objectives:
a. to prevent the Armenian language from the impact of Latin and maintain its purity.
b. to use only the 5th century classic Grabar (Old Armenian) words, and grammatical expression.
c. to make the Armenian language more perfect and artistic based on the 5th century linguistic achievements.
d. to spread Armenian education in educational institutions.
e. to avoid the influence of other languages and dialects on the Armenian language.
Those who had adopted such a policy were called "Haykaban"s.
As a towering figure in music in the twentieth century, John Coltrane has made innumerable contributions. One of the most significant aspects of his career are his blues compositions and improvisations. Many of Coltrane’s written blues heads, as well as his opening and closing solo choruses, follow sentential structures. Somewhat surprisingly, this particular part of his output has been left underexplored in existing research projects. In hopes of also contributing to a fairly recent discussion that centers around efforts to revamp the sentential paradigm, I introduce the formal type of the “blues sentences,” and contrast it with the riff blues, and other designs. Moreover, I also introduce the riff-sentence hybrid and the two subcategories of through-composed blues types (a) line-driven melodies and (b) modular melodies. In the effort to establish a sentential perspective, I do not dismiss traditional bar form readings but rather supplement my interpretations with them in order to highlight the respective advantages and disadvantages.
Lukas Gabric· Journal of jazz studies· 0 citations
Not all the writings of the Diaspora Armenian author Vazken Shushanian have been published. Except for his early poems and "Yerkrir Hishtakats" (country of memories), Shushanian has mostly written in prose, with some writings published in Armenia and others in the Diaspora.
The article highlights Shushanian's book, Panasdeghdzn Oo Gine (the poet and the woman), published in 2005 in Yerevan, which sheds light on Shushanian's aesthetic views. Shushanian's very indicative and meaningful article "Kerkrutian Garmir Late" (the red fabric of provocation) is put as the introductory chapter of the book.
Shushanian holds a unique place among the avant-garde authors of the Armenian Diaspora. He highlights the refined/delicate facets of the woman's inner world in a very skillful and masterly manner. Shushanian perceives the woman as a mother, a female and most importantly as a sacrament of harmony and beauty.
Storytelling inherently revolves around characters. Using the television sitcom `Friends'as a case study, we investigate how well archetype vectors capture both individual characterization and the relational structure of a specific ensemble. Our work is based on the archetypometrics framework, which locates 2,000 fictional characters from 341 stories in a continuous space derived from 464 bipolar traits. We proceed in three stages: interpreting each character's archetypal profile against narrative evidence, projecting the ensemble onto ousiograms of the six essential dimensions, and measuring pairwise similarity with vector inner products. We show that the six characters of `Friends'occupy distinct archetypal positions that accord with their established identities, while the projections expose ensemble structure invisible in individual profiles, including the collapse of the Angel--Demon dimension, a signature of the sitcom's uniformly sympathetic cast. Based on inner products, we construct a similarity matrix that resolves three main kinds of relational structure: alignment (e.g., Phoebe--Joey), contrast (e.g., Phoebe--Ross), and orthogonality (e.g., Rachel--Ross and Monica--Chandler). The orthogonality of the romantic pairings affords a detailed view of relationships built on complementary rather than overlapping character traits. Overall, our case study suggests that for ensemble-based stories the archetypometric geometry is fully interpretable in narrative terms, from individual identities to the structure of the group's relationships.
Shunyou Zhang, Tabia Tanzin Prama, C. Danforth et al.· 0 citations
By contextualizing the lyrics, reevaluating Ocean’s post-album release festival run, and presenting new information about the songs’ production, the book decodes the enigma that isBlonde.
Frank Ocean’sBlondeis a contemporary classic. Sandwiched between Elvis Presley and the Sex Pistols at #79 on Rolling Stones’ 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list,Blondedefined a generation in the almost nine years since its release.
Yet, the album is still a mystery to so many. Besides a handful of interviews, a hefty 360-page zine titledBoys Don’t Cry, and Tumblr posts from around the time of the album’s release, Frank Ocean has distanced himself as much as possible from the album and the conversations involving it.
It is one of the seminal works in the 2010s Afrofuturism revival, which this book highlights by pointing at the role of modern technology in society, including a dialogue about its misgivings and its ability to manipulate time, memory, and emotions. It spotlights the summer leading up to the album, the album’s release, a track-by-track rundown illustrating the album’s narrative, along with a discussion about its lasting cultural impact.
This is a man who headlined Coachella 2023 despite releasing only ten singles and no album in the eight years prior. How did he manage to maintain such a prophetic status for all those years? The answer is simple:Blonde.