Portfolio of compositions with commentaries 2012-2015

This writing forms part of a portfolio of works which gathers together notations and recordings made between 2012 and 2015. The writing divides into four chapters. The first chapter undertakes an examination of abstraction. From the proposition obtained therein, that it is possible to extend within abstraction beyond a correspondence between its terms and concrete manifestations, I ask in what way abstraction may be considered to function therefrom. The second chapter performs an analysis of radical music notations from the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. The central analysis identifies what is essentially an evolution of what I call ''figuration'' throughout three non-chronological phases of Christian Wolff's notations. The chapter closes by questioning what form of understanding might yet be pursued in respect of this work given (a) its nature, and (b) the nature of our inquiry. The third chapter reflects on some of the philosophical problematics raised in the preceding chapters, at the same time as it prepares for those that follow in the final chapter. The final chapter is a record of the development of my thought appertaining to my compositional work. It sets out two case studies (prepared piano and postcard notations) before proceeding to a selected set of commentaries. Finally, the notion of the functioning of written and acoustical ''marks'' developed in the preceding commentaries is generalised as I develop an aesthetics of scriptural experience.

Small angle scattering characterisation of micellar systems and templated architectures

The work described in this thesis reports the structural changes induced on micelles under a variety of conditions. The micelles of a liquid crystal film and dilute solutions of micelles were subjected to high pressure CO2 and selected hydrocarbon environments. Using small angle neutron scattering (SANS) techniques the spacing between liquid crystal micelles was measured in-situ. The liquid crystals studied were templated from different surfactants with varying structural characteristics. Micelles of a dilute surfactant solution were also subjected to elevated pressures of varying gas atmospheres. Detailed modelling of the in-situ SANS experiments revealed information of the size and shape of the micelles at a number of different pressures. Also reported in this thesis is the characterisation of mesoporous materials in the confined channels of larger porous materials. Periodic mesoporous organosilicas (PMOs) were synthesised within the channels of anodic alumina membranes (AAM) under different conditions, including drying rates and precursor concentrations. In-situ small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used to determine the pore morphology of the PMO within the AAM channels. PMO materials were also used as templates in the deposition of gold nanoparticles and subsequently used in the synthesis of germanium nanostructures. Polymer thin films were also employed as templates for the directed deposition of gold nanoparticles which were again used as seeds for the production of germanium nanostructures. A supercritical CO2 (sc-CO2) technique was successfully used during the production of the germanium nanostructures.