Although I can't say it covers all of the things @stonebat mentions, I think anyone who's played around with recreating musical instruments using sampling, where in theory you can create something perfect and consistent note-to-note, will have discovered that you have to build imperfection into it to make it sound more "real" and human, because real, human produced things have that quality - whereas mass-produced, perfect things, often don't. But it's also interesting - we strive for perfection but often really what we value is imperfection.

Well... you can't sample a piano perfectly. You can reproduce single notes as played in isolation, but pianos are highly interactive. The sonic character of constituent notes varies with which combination of notes are played, how long a sustain pedal has been held, etc... These are not "imperfections", rather they are interdependent factors that are difficult, or impossible, to thoroughly model.

You didn't work for Native Instruments - B4 ?

Yeah, I think perceptual modeling for video is in its infancy. They test one thing at a time and ask people how it looks. Then all these factors, which were determined in isolation, are combined in order to determine how to build the coding mechanism. The problem with this approach is that it is predicated on the notion that how we perceive things in isolation has much to do with how we perceive them when combined - which isn't a valid assumption. I think that's why even when we think everything is "perfect", somehow it doesn't "feel" right. How something "feels" is probably a product of factors we are not consciously aware of, or at least factors we can't isolate mentally and articulate.

Along these perceptual lines, I’ve been contemplating a method for mitigating the “strobing” look of digital video. The issue is that film camera shutters are out of focus and digital “shutters” (actually they aren’t really shutters) are in focus. One way you could go about this is to create intermediate, motion interpolated frames and combine them with the captured frames using lower brightness for the interpolated frames. That would give the motion strobing a softer look – like with film cameras. It would be quite a project, though…

Maybe Twixtor would be interested in doing something like this - they already have the hard part (i.e. the motion interpolation) figured out - the rest wouldn't be all that hard to do.

Yes, I was the one who made the footage they shot in Arizona for the moon program look authentic:-) It was all about perception!

My girlfriend, a yoga teacher, turned me onto Wabi Sabi in a big way. I think of it more in reference to the way stories are put together in video than experimental visuals though, if that makes any sense.

Read a good blog about Wabi Sabi. http://the-writing-life.blogspot.com/2012/07/please-pass-wabi-sabi.html

Check out unpredictably beautiful imperfect leaf. http://blogs.psychcentral.com/therapist-within/2012/01/is-perfection-an-imperfect-idea-therapy-nature/

Mmmmm :)

@cbrandin @B3Guy @driftwood Checkout the Hammond played by Mal Logan on this early 1970's Aussie song 'Golden Miles' by Healing Force.

Forget the video itself as it's mostly some silly unrelated mish-mash of unrelated clips.

Give it a few plays without looking at the video and just listen to this Hammond really wind up.

Here's another video clip of the actual band here but the audio quality is unfortunately really bad.

@Rambo You know something? I had a feeling you were going to chime in on 'Golden Miles'. Pity the band broke up so quickly.

Of note lead singer Charlie Tumahai appeared in the groundbreaking film 'Once Were Warriors' (1994) but sadly died the following year in 1995 at just 46.

In many ways 'Once Were Warriors' epitomises 'Wabi-sabi' especially in relation to some of the central characters.

'Once Were Warriors' - a family descended from Maori warriors is bedeviled by a violent father and the societal problems of being treated as outcasts. Jake Heke is a violent man who beats his wife frequently when drunk, and yet obviously loves both her and his family.

@rambo - Thanks for the links! I was in London a lot in the late 60's (yeah, I'm that old). Those were the B3 days! I used to frequent the Marquee club and probably half the bands playing there used B3's. In those days one of the reasons the B3 was popular because it was considered a good "portable" organ because sound was generated mechanically and thus the B3's never went out of tune (unlike Farfisas - which were terrible). One night in particular I remember was when Yes was the house band and they were opening for the "Elastic Band". Both had B3's and instead of one band opening for the other they actually alternated sets. It was quite a sight to watch them move around the 400lb "portable" B3's between sets. They drilled holes in the sides of the cabinets, put bars in, and lifted them like stretchers.

It's interesting how two of the coolest sounding keyboards ever - the B3 and the Rhodes - gained so much popularity largely because they stayed in tune when used on the road.

Aside from guys like Jimmy Smith (that was jazz, though) the player of that era that really blew me away was Keith Emerson - especially when he as with Nice - and they were incredible live too.

As for "Once Were Warriors" - one of my all time favorites.

Now... what were we talking about - oh yeah Wabi-sabi;-)

I got one of those too . . . a 122. That combined with my B3 gives all the classic Hammond vibe one could ever want. If I ever pay off these student loans, I'm headed straight for a Rhodes. If I get a Rhodes, then I'll have my custom Strat, the B3, and the Rhodes all together, through a nice pedal board and switchable to the guitar amp or the Leslie. Guitar through Leslie is also pretty killer.

On the portability of the B3 . . . far too many modern keys players are wussies when it comes to lugging stuff around. They look at the B3 and reach for a Nord instead. My father and I can move my B3 pretty much anywhere just the two of us, excepting up/down full-on staircases, and I don't even have any handles for it or anything, just grip and go. Sure, you end up sweaty. Sure its heavy. Sure it requires a bit of pre-planning . . . but watching the guitarist's jaw drop when the Leslie blasts his silly little stack to kingdom come . . . well . . . for everything else, there's MasterCard.