Showing posts with label Travel (Not Synth Related). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Travel (Not Synth Related). Show all posts

Wednesday, 13 January 2016

The Hattersley Loom - NZ - a early sequencer

On a recent trip to New Zealand I came across a ancient loom that is still in use today.
It's job is to weave textiles for use in the burgeoning film industry of New Zealand.
The firm running this mill (Stansborough) is currently making textiles for the "Lord of the Rings" & "The Hobbit" films.
This loom dates from the 1800s and gives the textiles that magic for the movies.

What interested me was the method used to program patterns. Electronic music (and music in general) relies on pattern creation whether they are drum sequences, or melodies.
Weaving patterns into textiles really isn't any different.

These wooden bars with rings are a 19th century sequencer. I could probably put these patterns into a midi sequencer and "play" the garment.
I didn't have time on this visit but maybe in the future.


The Hattersley loom was developed by George Hattersley and Sons of Keighley, West Yorkshire, England. The company had been started by Richard Hattersley in 1784.
Originally, the company made nuts & bolts, but after 1834 when Richard's son, George joined the business, they started production of looms.


The very first loom was smashed by a group of "Luddites" - revolutionary hand loom weavers - fearful of loosing their jobs. (Nothing has changed today).
This didn't stop George. His company soon went into full scale production and continued to manufacture loops for the next 100 years.


Stansborough organise tours of the factory. You can book online:
www.stansborough.co.nz



This is an amazing piece of machinery.

More sequencers:





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Friday, 1 January 2016

Durham England

 Some old pics - from 1995

A lovely city and magnificent cathedral

The city is on the banks of the River Wear.
The settlement was founded over the final resting place of St Cuthbert and Saint Bede the Venerable.
 
The Cathedral was founded in 1093,

View from the roof of the cathedral


The view from the cathedral roof looking towards Durham Castle





Prebends bridge and the weir marking the end of the stretch available for rowing.

 








New years eve. 2016. New Zealand

Happy new years eve everyone.
2015 was a shocker so i was very happy to see
The end of it.
I spent new years on a farm with 3 great djs
 dj agent 99

electronic noise

And 
 dj marty aka martian

Some more pics of beautiful New Zealand

Alpaca  farm in a secret nz location 


Tango enjoying the beautiful farm

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Monday, 23 November 2015

Ugarit - Syria

Some old travel pics of Syria. These date from 1999.
These are scans of positive prints so my apologies for the quality.
Digital photography didn't exist back then.

This is the entrance to the Royal Palace.

Ugarit is just north of Latakia on the Mediterranean coast & I reached the site via taxi.
Built on a headland, the port city traded extensively with Cyprus and the Mycenaean civilization.
It's also known as Ras Shamra

They had close connections to the Hittite Empire & sent tribute to Egypt at times.
I believe this section of Syria hasn't been overrun by ISIS so I hope these ruins still exist.

Many on these remains are Neolithic. Much dates from around 6000BC

The city was first mentioned in a document of nearby Ebla, ca. 1800 BC. Ugarit later passed into the sphere of influence of Egypt, which deeply influenced its art.


The city was destroyed in the Bronze Age. The exact date isn't know though most historians agree it was during the reign of  the last king of Ugarit, Ammurapi, (circa 1215 to 1180 BC).

 Remarkably, there is a letter preserved from this time from King Ammurapi to the King of Alasiya, where the King of Ugarit pleads for help to fight invading "Sea People". The situation sounds desperate.
"My father, behold, the enemy's ships came (here); my cities(?) were burned, and they did evil things in my country. Does not my father know that all my troops and chariots(?) are in the Land of Hatti, and all my ships are in the Land of Lukka?...Thus, the country is abandoned to itself. May my father know it: the seven ships of the enemy that came here inflicted much damage upon us."[6]
Sounds like Ammurapi never got the help he wanted.
Sadly, history repeats...... today the new enemy is ISIS.

The origins of the mysterious "Sea People" have been lost in time. There is a relief of a battle between the Egyptians & the Sea people in Luxor, Egypt. (The Temple of Medinet Habu)

After its destruction in the early 12th century BC, Ugarit's location was forgotten until 1928 when a peasant accidentally opened an old tomb while ploughing a field. 

Most of the excavations were carried out by the archaeologist Claude Schaeffer from the Musée archéologique in Strasbourg in 1929.
The excavations uncovered a royal palace of ninety rooms laid out around eight enclosed courtyards.

During the excavation many 2 libraries (a palace library, a temple library) of  cuneiform clay tablets were discovered. All dated from the last phase of Ugarit, around 1200 BC. 

This priceless collection of documents was written in Sumerian, Hurrian, Akkadian (the language of diplomacy at this time in the ancient Near East), and Ugaritic (a previously unknown language).
There is ongoing debate as to whether the Phoenician or Ugaritic alphabet is the oldest in the world.

The libraries contained diplomatic, legal, economic, administrative, scholastic, literary and religious texts. 


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Tuesday, 10 November 2015

The temple of Medinet Habu - Luxor Egypt

The Mortuary Temple of Ramesses III at Medinet Habu.
This is very close to the "Valley of the Kings".
This dates from the New Kingdom.

 First Pylon of the Mortuary Temple of Ramesses III
 It's a huge place. Very famous for its decorated wall reliefs -- about 7,000 m2 (75,347 sq ft) of them..

The reliefs depict the defeat of the Sea Peoples during the reign of Ramesses III.


The battle between the Egyptians and the Sea People occurred around  1175BC.
Ramesses III seems to have repulsed an invasion of the Nile delta.
Other sources suggest a date of 1177BC
This period is very important, as it was a time of great upheaval and marked a turning point in civilization
and the end of the Bronze Age.
 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Eric Cline, PhD)

The end of the Bronze age marked the start of a new dark age which lasted till the Renaissance of Greece.






 Ramses harvesting corn

 Lion headed goddess - Sekhmet ??
Sekhmet is the warrior goddess as well as goddess of healing  .... a strange combination !
She is often depicted as a lioness, the fiercest hunter who's breath formed the desert. 



Amun & Maat
Amun - the Father of life who later combined with Ra to become Amun-Ra the all important State God.
Maat is here representing truth, justice, balance and morality. She is the daughter of the Egyptian sun deity Ra and wife of the moon god Thoth.




Horus
God of the sky & Kingship - often depicted as a falcon Horus as the son of Isis and Osiris.