Day 39

I recently attended a series of events organised in order to examine the effects of Phonography on disturbed individuals; specifically those who might be said to suffer from various social disorders. I attended in a semi-non-official capacity, as a dedicated observer, but with related professional duties, including work on the eventual date-base, as well as technical advice, where needed, on issues within my own fields of research. This work will be formally published in due course, albeit somewhat restrictively so. In the meantime, let me relate to you some of my own observations and initial impressions; by way of beginning to validate this kind of approach overall.

The research took place over * days and involved ten subjects. Each of these subjects was exposed to sustained levels of audible stimuli - from simple to complex. There was an endurance aspect to this, which should be taken squarely into consideration. A simple points-system was used in order to evaluate this component; and subjects were fed or remained unfed in accordance with these findings. This, in turn, functioned as both a basic incentive-scheme and, micro-cosmically, as the way the society of the research worked as a whole. Quite naturally, the division this caused had a remarkable psychological effect.

One central symposium entailed a subject being treated to strict, repeated patterns in groups of twenty-four over seven days; watched by thousands, incidentally. The dialogue here was frankly electric; so much so that I chose to assemble the minutes on this myself. Another symposium was kept deliberately below zero for all concerned; with a conceptual emphasise upon relentless circularity. Here, internal differences became beside-the-point. No situation alarmed anyone.

I'll say more in due course.