As I often do, I *may* have underestimated how long it would take to see the end of my first guitar build. This is my travel journal to remember the long journey that started in December 2020. I made my own plans for a 7/8 classical guitar with a scale length of 630mm (...)
ReadBefore setting out to build a guitar, I attempted to understand how to design one. There isn't a monolithic reference book on guitar design, at least none that I could identify. Instead I gathered tips and insights from a variety of sources. This post is my attempt to summarize what I have read so far. Instrument design is a fascinating topic that sits at the confluence of physics, engineering, art and craftsmanship.
ReadIf you look backwards and try to understand how you landed where you are, there isn't always a clear-cut path in the jungle of the past. One fine summer day, I reached one of these turning points that seemingly come out of nowhere when I decided to make a guitar.
Read'Ghost In The Shell' (GITS), in Japanese 攻殻機動隊 (Kōkaku kidōtai) is a famous animation movie directed by Mamoru Oshii that came out in 1995. 'Man's Fate' (1933, 'La condition humaine' in French) is a novel by André Malraux that is no less well-known (at least in France). Both of these works deeply impressed me. After some maturation time, I was astonished to see some parallels emerge and that is what I would like to share with you here.
ReadThe Altiplano is a fascinating place at the heart of the Andes, the most extensive area of high plateau after Tibet. It was the birthplace of several major civilizations such as Tiwanaku and the Inca Empire. In this landscape made of snow-covered peaks, lakes, deserts, salt flats, and high plains, the Aymara people speak a fascinating language full of surprises.
Read'Luminous' is a science-fiction short story published by Greg Egan in 1995. Starting as a dark thriller, it leads us very quickly on a trail of surprising ideas about mathematics, physics and what we call 'truth'.
ReadHuman languages share few features that distinguish them from other form of animal communication. One of the most famous is recursion. In any language one can always form an arbitrarily long sentence. Always? Not quite. According to Daniel Everett, up to now the only non-native of the Pirahã Amazonian tribe who has ever understood their language, the Pirahã language does have a sentence of maximal length. Of course this statement stirred a durable controverse among linguists and prompted Noam Chomsky to criticize him as a 'charlatan'. Yet his story is interesting and, in my opinion, worth listening to.
Read