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Hot Pink Halo - Hexaflexagon

from SpinTunes 19 Round 3 by Spintunes

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about

Scientists and mathematicians are often hamstrung by the ideal of speaking carefully and plainly so as not to oversell their hypothesis or make it seem like something its not. As a fine art graduate, I can enthusiastically ignore that. Back in my art school days, I looked for ways that could describe how science and storytelling fed off one another, and look, I'm back there again!

This song links the structure of storytelling cycles throughout time to the mathematical geometry of endless loops. A hexaflexagon is folded from a strip of paper and joined in such a way that you can flip it onto itself to reveal surfaces previously hidden inside. This song takes the structure of a hexahexaflexagon, which can be flipped to reveal six surfaces before returning to the starting point.

To make the music, I folded a hexaflexagon from a strip of music box paper and holepunched a circular shape through it, flipping it and re-punching the holes any time they didn't go all the way through the hexaflexagon. When I was done, I undid the hexaflexagon and traced the punched hole pattern onto a fresh strip of music box paper, then spun the hexaflexagon template around and traced it again, so I had a length of music box paper twice as long. I punched the holes again in this new strip, fed it into the music box, gave it a twist then joined it with some tape into a möbius so that it could play in an endless, single surface loop. I recorded this random melody into Logic, turned the audio file into midi and cut it up into samples and applied different virtual instruments. These samples were run through a bunch of step sequencers that adjust each loop slightly throughout so that each section evolves over the course of the song.

You can watch the first run of the möbius music box in action here: www.tiktok.com/@crumpart/video/7086459401791360261?_t=8RUC1vnZh14&_r=1

Other useful links:
Storytelling stuff: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_upon_a_time
Hexaflexagon stuff: www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIVIegSt81k

lyrics

Once upon a story told and
Folded over time
We learned survival
Learned the battle
Learned the way of rhyme
Spin the handle
Crank the wheel
Sing along
As you turn the hexaflexagon

Behind the seven lands and seas there
Lived a bay of shelves
They held the meanings
Held the histories
Held the secret selves
Spin the handle
Crank the wheel
Sing along
As you turn the hexaflexagon

Once there was where there wasn’t
Nothing not quite there
We ran forward
We ran faster
Ran adrift on air
Spin the handle
Crank the wheel
Sing along
As you turn the hexaflexagon

Back when tigers smoked tobacco
Where the wild words roamed
We went sideways
We went through
We went to other homes
Spin the handle
Crank the wheel
Sing along
As you turn the hexaflexagon

Long long long ago there was a day
A day was here
We gathered round
We gathered stories
Gathered far and near
Spin the handle
Crank the wheel
Sing along
As you turn the hexaflexagon

Where it was there it was
We see it over there
It’s behind you
It’s within you
Bending through the air
Spin the handle
Crank the wheel
Sing along
As you turn the hexaflexagon

Once upon a story told and
Folded over time
We learned survival
Learned the battle
Learned the way of rhyme
Spin the handle
Crank the wheel
Sing along
As you turn the hexaflexagon

credits

from SpinTunes 19 Round 3, released April 18, 2022

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Spintunes Union, South Carolina

Spintunes is a semi-annual songwriting contest. Every other week, the competitors receive a challenge and a week to meet it.

Each album on this site contains the responses to a single challenge.

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