EMOTION
ORGAN
SYMBOL RESEARCH
Jan 2005
"Your lungs provide the pressure (the lower action)
Your glottal stop is the valve operated by each key
Your vocal cords create the vibrations (as do the reeds)
Your mouth is the chamber into which the reed speaks ("formative", in acoustic-talk)
Your lips are the mute that shuts the sound on and off."
- James B. Tyler, The Reed Organ Society, 2001
I have been looking into various religious and occult symbol systems. I envisage replacing the organ's exisiting labels, especially the round stop labels, with new symbols. The idea is to not necessarily use existing symbols, but to create "new" hybrid or mutated ones such that an eventual player may possibly feel familiar with the imagery, but not necessarily know what they mean or exactly what their function is. Below is an initial selection based on two categories:
01. Emotional States
02. Control States
Once a player has selected an emotional state, then this can be modified by
a controll state.
CURRENT STOP LABEL AESTEHTICS
ALL STOP LABELS
Bass Coupler, Viola, Pipe Diapason, Dulcet Bass, Dulcet Treble, Pipe Melodia, Vox Celeste, Vox Humana, Treble Coupler.
POSSIBLE SOURCES OF NEW AESTEHTICS
MANIPURA - EMOTIONS
(Chakra) Chakra in Hindu means "wheel." In Buddhist, Jainist, and
Hindu beliefs, Chakras are vital energy centers in the body. Located in the
nerve ganglia along the spine, they are conceived as spinning vortices channeling
cosmic energy. Blockages or interruptions of the flow of this energy is believed
to cause illness, confusion, and emotional difficulty. Manipura, or Solar
plexus, the center of the base emotions.
01. EMOTIONAL STATES
LOVE (chinese)
TRANQUILITY (chinese)
HAZARD (danger/fear?)
Origin (as yet) unknown.
SMILEY
This sign was first seen in the 1960s although it was not extensively used
until the 1980s. It is called the smile or acid sign. Acid, apart from being
a word for the drug LSD, denotes a music style, a strange, dance provoking
blend of American soul and European disco music. Thus the music, the sign,
and its name, acid, are somewhat associated with the pleasure drug ecstasy
and the psychedelic drug LSD. This sign, however, is also the logotype for
the international ecology organization Asian Pals of the Planet.
FOFO - JEALOUSY AND ENVY
(the "yellow flowered plant")
"When the fofo's petals drop, they turn into black spiky-like seeds.
The Akan liken the nature of this plant to a jealous person."
- The Adinkra Dictionary by W. Bruce Willis
There is a Akan proverb associated with this symbol: "What the fofo plant
wishes is that the gyinantwi seeds turn black."
ANGRY (Japanese)
02. CHANGE OR CONTROL OF STATES
HAND OF ERIS - CHAOS
The Hand of Eris is a symbol of the Discordian religion, symbolizing Eris, the goddess of chaos and discord.
CHRONOS - PASSAGE
This is the sign used to represent the god Chronos in Greek mythology. He was the son of Uranus, grandfather and oldest god, and Gaia the earth goddess. Chronos castrated his father with the help of Gaia's relatives, the Titans, and by this act made himself master of heaven and earth.
OM - UNFOLDING
The word Om (aum) derived from the Sanskrit. The Om is the primordial sound
by which the earth was created- a similar concept to the Greek Logos. It symbolizes
unfolding or expansion - when pronounced, it begins in the lungs, and ends
on the lips.
YANTRA - SUSTAIN
A meditational device used in Hindu meditation. From the root "yam,"
meaning "to sustain," the Yantra is used to maintain a focused state
during meditation. It is usually composed of an outer geometrical form enclosing
an interior geometrical designs. Each particular design is used for a specific
purpose or intent.
EPA - TRAPPED
Epa means "handcuffs". It is the symbol of law and justice, slavery
and captivity.
Adolph Agbo, in "Values of Adinkra Symbols" notes that handcuffs
were introduced in Africa as a result of the slave trade, and later became
popular among chiefs in cuffing offenders of the law.
"The symbol reminds offenders of the uncompromising nature of the law."
REFERENCE LINKS:
Symbols.com
http://www.symbols.com/
Runes
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/7946/r-symbol/runes/
Adinkra Index
http://www.welltempered.net/adinkra/htmls/adinkra_index.htm
http://www.isymbolz.com/misc/japanese/index.htm