Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
with the use of avatars, telecasting, TV, group-
ware implementations, social networking, You
Tube, and any other ways of social activities.
We may think about sharing knowledge as a per-
formance act. It may pertain to the performing
arts, acting for a theatre, dancing, performing
sport activities, filmmaking and recording on
video, may involve costume design, as well as
creating comics and animations. We may also
consider artificial life (A-Life), which models
living systems, ecosystems and life in general.
Working environment can be enhanced by
possibilities of talking to a computer or touching
a screen instead of typing, or even marking hand
movements by a virtuoso to attain master per-
formance on a digital musical instrument. One
can imagine no more instances of a carpal tunnel
syndrome; the success of the performance would
depend on the brain-hand coordination of the
musician, without application of strength. One
may also contemplate playing chamber music
with a small ensemble of musicians who actu-
ally reside in far away places. Some scientists
approach the virtual worlds as a combination
of both physical and electronic environments
that focus on processes and actions rather than
on objects and perceptual signs. Models created
by physical modeling or computer simulation
allow for experimenting in fictional scenery.
Computer models serve to simulate a physical
phenomenon, for instance atmospheric condi-
tions such as snow, rain, or wind. Most of the
major feature animation studios and the film
industry incorporate simulation in their pro-
duction process.
17
th
century violinist Giuseppe Tartini (who in
1753-4 wrote Trattato di Música) discovered the
existence of the difference tones whose frequen-
cies, resulting from the additive or subtractive
interference between the pairs of sound waves,
produced complex chords. Periodicity pitches,
the tones that result from the linear mixing of
acoustic waves, are phantom pitches that have
no energy at their frequencies, but many writers
claim that we can hear them. The less known
kinds of virtual music are psycho-acoustical
phenomena such as virtual pitches (where one's
brain interprets tones in music that don't actually
exist, in contrast to a spectral pitch, which is
a tone that physically exists), subjective tones
(two single-frequency tones present in the air
at the same time, which interfere with each
other and produce a beat frequency, and thus
other tones), missing or phantom fundamentals
(when the brain perceives the same pitch even
if the fundamental frequency is missing from
a tone), Schouten's residue pitches (evoked by
harmonic complex tones and corresponding to
the fundamental frequency of which their com-
ponent frequencies are all integer multiples), and
others. Experiments with the use of the imaging
techniques such as fMRI (functional magnetic
resonance imaging), PET (positron emission
tomography), MEG (magnetoencephalography
neuroimaging), and CAT (computerized axial
tomography) have shown that the amygdala,
the brainstem, the cerebellum, and other lower
parts of the brain light up in scans in response
to virtual music. These phenomena are evidence
of emotional response in the centers of emotion
in the brain, often subliminally, subconsciously,
and unknowingly to musicians. Ehle suggests
there is a wide range of acoustical and psycho-
acoustical experiences that modulate emotion;
the emotional component in the music of some
composers results from these unwritten and
unaccounted for pitch phenomena.
Virtual Music
Virtual music has been described as acoustic or
psychoacoustic phenomenon occurring in the
inner ear and the brain. According to the music
theory professor Robert C. Ehle (2012), the
