realms in focus

Andrew Crosby

As you round the bend at a brisk canter into the final stretch (or the pointy end, the final quarter, “business time”, etc.) of this year, whether it be year 12, commonly known as “hell”, or year 7, aka “you don’t know how lucky you are”, it is well worth looking back and asking yourself just one question. “What has this all been for?”

Now, this ‘blogger isn’t going to make any efforts to pretend that the reflections of the younger members of our community will be particularly profound or interesting, so accordingly, he will ignore them, instead focusing on those who are the “present”, rather than the “future” of our school – the year 12s. We are the ones who everyone (in theory, at least) looks up to, idolises, and treats as role models, the ones who spend our entire lives on the go, as part of the most intense year of our lives. Our entire lives have been a build-up to this point, as teachers, parents, and occasionally passing junkies seem to delight in telling us repeatedly, and if we don’t make the most of it, then our lives might as well be over – in fact, if your marks in any given subject have dropped below a B, you might as well give up now, and get a job “flipping burgers, because that’s all you’ll ever be good for.” (I must have heard that rant a solid 6 or 7 times..)

But let’s be honest with ourselves – would life not be more fun if we could just do this easy kind of job, and leave our work at work? It’s just our private school mentality that has us so intent on a university degree, and a job as a doctor, chemist, lawyer, whatever. We’ve become indoctrinated with the idea that with a high-pressure job comes high salary, and therefore happiness. What happened to Buddha and happiness as a result of moderation? As all senior students learn every year, pressure and stress does not lead to happiness at all, so why do we think that as soon as school is over, this no longer becomes an issue? This is why people have mid-life crises – what they’ve spent their whole lives working obsessively towards, this idealised concept of how to become happy, is suddenly revealed as meaningless and superficial. Now, far be it from me to suggest that we should abandon all our ambitions toward so-called “greatness”. Do whatever floats your boat. However, you can’t allow yourself to be beaten into accepting it as the only possible option in your life. Simpler is, more often than not, better, so consider the non-university option, the “non-ambitious” option, and you might find the spiritual rewards later in life are greater than you originally expected.

I guess this is all a somewhat roundabout way of saying that Year 12 isn’t the end of the world, and that a high ENTER won’t ensure a happy, successful life (apologies to the VCE Office staff whose jobs rely on the assumption that it is a life-or-death matter).

If you want my advice, relax. Enjoy yourself. You only live once, and life as a 17-or-18-year-old is pretty damn good.

 

Mr Kevin Boyd

Most of us at Camberwell Grammar are familiar with Mr Boyd as the photographer of many of the school events that take place during the course of the year. In fact, the photographs of the musical Les Mis featured on ROG were taken by Mr Boyd. Many more students will know of Mr Boyd through his work with them as a ceramics teacher in Studio Art. What many may not be aware of is the extent of Mr Boyd’s reputation as a highly regarded ceramicist whose work is admired for the delicate quality of form and glazing that he is able to achieve.

Mr Boyd’s Raku inspired ceramics collection recently has been exhibited at the Skepsi Gallery in Carlton. One of Mr Boyd’s works has been purchased by the school to be placed on permanent display as part of its art collection.

It’s an exciting opportunity for the school to see members of its own staff pursuing creative opportunities in their own right and which, we all hope, will serve as an inspiration to students to seize the opportunities that may come their way!

 

Mr Dayan Ramalingam

Introduction

I must admit that having foolishly agreed to write an article for ROG (I plead the streaker’s defence: ‘It seemed like a good idea at the time, Your Honour”), it is fear of my Editor that is now motivating me. The idea of symmetry was highlighted throughout my undergraduate degree by the Physics lecturers; Physics being the sort of Science that is given to a tendency to both the abstract and the whimsical. I also noticed in later years an odd number of physicists who were musicians (#Music) Dr Anderson being a case in point). At their heart, I humbly submit, both Physics and Mathematics are the study of shape and metaphor. Models in Physics and Mathematics describe certain aspects of reality (more than defining them) and are proven true in the accuracy of their description and in their ability to predict new phenomena in that area (#MathPhysics)

I recall a comment that Tolkien’s trilogy was notable for it’s internal coherence; the fidelity within the story is amazing and furthermore, The Lord of the Rings calls somehow from imaginary Middle Earth to our more prosaic lives through it’s evocation of very human themes of heroism and grief (#Literature). In that sense the Mathematical models in Physics are like coherent and cohesive stories that seek to describe a reality other than themselves but which are nonetheless beautiful in their own right.

Mathematical Physics (#MathPhysics) and good narratives also seem to share symmetry as a property. Tolkien starts in the Shire and then returns to the Shire at the end. The climax in the third book is far from the end with a fair bit of decrescendo towards the end (that was not apparent in the films). Indeed some older stories were more fond of having the climax in the middle of the narrative and were as such, more symmetrical.

One of the oldest stories in the Judeo-Christian tradition is the story found in the Book of Ruth in the Bible. Uncharacteristically, the central protagonist is a young woman (#Literature).

Most regard Maths and Physics as dry areas of endeavour but speaking to Physicists gives the opposite impression. Most see machinery while Physicists see dance. There is no separation of precision from beauty, nor Maths from marvel. Indeed, Art (#Art) and the Sciences have a long and notable relationship. Scholars still argue about the degree to which famous master painters used optical devices to aid their work. Camera Lucida and Camera Obscura were used by even the Great Masters at a time when there was no separation between these pursuits. Both the Arts and the Sciences look to men like Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo with admiration and longing.

 

Symmetry in narrative and poetry

[short analysis of the Book of Ruth]

In more recent history, the Star Wars series has it’s chronological climax at the end of episode three. A few years ago the Babylon 5 television series went on for five years with a single narrative plot that had it’s climax somewhere in the middle with a predictable apocalyptic battle. The second half of the series dealt with the consequences of that apocalypse and the rebuilding required after. So many of our stories end with ‘and they lived happily ever after’. This works very well for focus groups that are brought in to adjudge Hollywood films prior to release to maximise profits but do not work quite as well if stories are to challenge our thinking. By contrast, the recent Grammy Award winning film, No country for old men is a study, both in book and film, of disturbing uncertainty.

One of the characters in Babylon 5, a pivotal Puck-ish figure names Zathrus regularly bemoans his fate. One of the central plot motifs in the series is a non-causal time-travel device and Zathrus is it’s facilitator. He sighs that his life is full of sadness and suffering but he says, perking up, ‘very symmetrical’.

 

Symmetry in Art

Without wanting to prescriptively define my topic, it is sufficient to regard symmetry for now through some initial impressions and characteristics. In it’s shape, it feels round and rhythmical. If it is strung out, it feels as though an assembly of them would lead to a restoration of sphericality. One way though, to point to the symmetrical is through asymmetry. A crooked nose is notable because it breaks the symmetry of the face. Sir Francis Bacon notes that ‘there is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion’.

[Art is almost an ongoing study of symmetry and asymmetry from the XXX to the chaotic lattice drippings of Pollock]

 

Mathematical Physics

One cannot speak of symmetry in Mathematical Physics without speaking of universality. If the laws of Physics were not symmetrical, they would not be universal since they would not apply equally across space. The basic forces in Physics are as follows. Forces (except apparently puches or pulls) affect things at a distance. Gravity for example, still acts on you even though you are not in cotact with the earth. And who can forget the magic of seeing magnets move without touching? Without this effect, there would be no technology as we know it - and no remote control. Most action at a distance we see are due to Gravity and Electromagnetic forces.

Type of Force	Description	Things involved	Things affecting	Symmetrical force field?
Gravitation	Mass attracting mass	Gravity particle?	Mass
Nuclear forces	Short range forces keeping nucleus together
Electrical forces	Positive and negative charges (like electrons)	Positive and negative charges
Magnetic forces	Magnetic fields exist when electric charges move
Mechanical forces	The only contact force?

 

Symmetry in Music