Journal articles on the topic 'Splined shaft connections'

The results of a finite element analysis of a trilobe polygon shaft connection used as an alternative for a spline for torque transmission is presented. These results are compared to the results of a finite element analysis previously performed on an involute spline. It is shown that the tensile stress in the polygon shaft is significantly smaller than in the involute spline and is smaller than all the other stresses in both the shaft and the hub in the polygon connection. Furthermore, the magnitudes and distributions of the maximum principal compressive stress, the shear stress, and the Von Mises stress are nearly the same on the shaft and the hub. It appears that polygonal connections can be more advantageous than splined connections because of lower stresses and the lack of stress concentrations typical of splines. [S1050-0472(00)00601-2]

The test results of stress joints with a regular micro-relief with the purpose of the assessment of their operation properties increase at finish-strengthening are shown. Thus, shaft endurance in insertions increases at relief application on the surface of a bush hole. It is explained with the pressure concentration decrease caused by a fit at the expense of the growth of joint contact flexibility. A similar effect is achieved at the creation of an artificial camber of a surface with the purpose of obtaining a characteristic diagram of a con-tact load distribution. The formation of a regular relief on the shaft surface results in, besides strengthening, the insignificant increase of the fatigue strength in joints. The static strength increase in stressed joints with the regular micro-relief is explained by the contact interaction character of an unevenness at a cross as-semblage and by the increase of an actual contact area at mechanical pressing-in. At that at reassemblies it was observed a lesser decrease of their strength. A sharp increase of bearing capacity is typical for the mating at a balance of micro-relief high-step parame-ters on contact surfaces of a shaft and a bush. The results obtained lead to the idea of the creation of joints like threaded or splined joints at transferring an axial load or a rotational moment. At the relief formation at the expense of some metal extrusion in overflows there is a raising of a sur-face “plateau” which is used for tightness increase of loose connections and also for rejects correction during manufacturing parts. In such a way the application of efficient tech-nologies of regular micro-relief coatings along with strengthening increases considerably fatigue and static strength in joints with tightness.

The article provides an overview of the methods of restoration and repair of various parts of the equipment: shafts, couplings, splined and keyed joints. Recommendations on the choice of methods, equipment and tools are given. In case of wear, the keyway is repaired by welding the face with subsequent milling. At the same time, the keyway size set by the standard is maintained. Such repairs are also possible: the keyway is expanded and deepened, completely eliminating the traces of wear, after which a stepped key is made to it. However, with such repairs, a high-quality connection is not provided and, therefore, it is used in exceptional cases (during inspections and ongoing repairs). When repairing keyed joints, the worn keyed joints are not repaired, but new ones are made, fitting them to achieve a firm contact with the side surfaces of the grooves of the connected parts. The exception is the taper keys: they are driven into the keyway with a hammer blow so that they are jammed in height. The taper key should also be hammered in such a way that, when loosened, it can be deposited. Between the head of the key and the end of the part, there must be a distance equal to the height of the key. The connection with the help of splines is used for fixing gears, gear wheels, and bushings on the shafts. It has a number of advantages over other types of connection. The component parts of this joint are more easily centered. This significantly reduces mechanical deformations at the bushing boundary. During operation, under the influence of various loads, the spline joint loses its properties. In this case, the splines or grooves in which they are placed are restored. Splines of small rollers are usually not repaired; the parts with worn splines are mostly replaced with new ones. Such work is carried out in specialized workshops. In some cases, the repair and restoration of such products is carried out in a small workshop, but equipped with the necessary machines.

Aiming at the precision generating cutting problem of rectangle spline shaft, the multi-parameter fusion method to modified cutting edge of rectangle spline hob is presented. The method based on the analysis of workpiece machining errors to establish a fusion model about the rectangle spline hob cutting parameters and the rectangle spline shaft deformation quantity, the model can indicate the connection between rectangle spling hob theoretics profile and actual cutting profile, therefore, the rectangle spline hob’s profile is modified and to simulate by polynomials. The simulation experiment indicates that the method exact approximation the hob’s modified profile. Compare with the methods of the double-circular-arc and the least square fitting, the multi-parameter fusion method can enhance both design precision and design efficiency.

This article is devoted to the development of refined numerical mathematical models of rotor dynamics of high-performance turbomachines having a spline connection. These models consider the dependence of the critical frequencies of the shaft on the angular stiffness of the spline connection, as well as the procedure of virtual balancing. As a result of the complex application of this approach, the methods of calculation of vibration characteristics taking into ac-count variable values of angular rigidity of splined connection are offered. In addition, the method of evaluating the system of initial imbalances with the corresponding displacements of the rotor axis in the correction and calculation sections has also been improved. The proposed approaches, based on the integrated application of CAE software and computational intelligent systems, allow for modal and harmonic analysis and implement virtual balancing with a significant reduction in preparation and machine time without loss of relative accuracy. In addition, the developed mathematical model of free and forced vibrations of rotor systems have been implemented in the program code operational files “Critical Frequencies of the Rotor” and “Forced Oscillations of the Rotor” of the computer algebra system MathCAD that allows improving the dynamic balancing procedure for evaluating primary imbalances. The high accuracy of the proposed approach is confirmed by checking the dynamic deviations of the rotor axis by the system of residual imbalances in accordance with the standards of vibration stability. Keywords: turbomachine, spline connection, angular stiffness, virtual balancing, modal analysis, harmonic analysis.

This article through analysing coupler's structure, involute spline's stress situation, the tooth face contact intensity, the tooth root bending strength, the tooth root shearing strength, tooth face wear ability and the external spline reverse and curving bearing capacity carry on the precise computation and the examination, simultaneously a multianalysis bulge tight joint set of structure and the correlation computation examination, has established the shaft bossing compound coupler main spare part structure type. In this article based on the shaft bossing composite construction optimization design is targeted mainly flexibility swelling ring shape to optimize the design, change that flexibility swelling ring cone-cone angle, which makes flexible swelling ring Auxiliary T-twisting greater. In the analysis, it is necessary to use the software ANSYS, through the creation of the shaft bossing composite construction of the parametrization model, a flexible swelling ring cone-cone angle of the design variables and flexibility swelling ring allowable material stress as binding conditions, bulging with flexible support ring-twisting as the objective function of T,right propeller shaft coupler hub composite structure axisymmetric analysis, contact analysis and design optimization, inflation reached a flexible support ring largest T-twisting, work stress does not exceed the allowable material stress, elastic swelling ring-cone angle of the optimal solution.

Abstract The aim of this publication is the analysis of the geometric establishment and the manufacturing designing and development of spline fitting promoting the engineer’s designing works. There are many connection possibilities according to the utilization on different constructions. Based on them, different technologies are needed for the manufacturing of the spline shaft and the spline hole. Generally, milling and grinding technologies are needed. These technologies will be analysed. We design mathematical models for the analysis of the milling technologies by mathematical way. We define the technological parameters and the computed machine time for the manufacturing designing process and recommend technologies for the different shapes.

This paper deals with the existing propulsion mechanism, analyzes the disadvantages of the flat key and the spline, studies the features of the logarithmic spiral profile shaft connection. In an existing chain propulsion mechanism, we change the fit of the inner hole of sprocket gear and the outer circle of intermediate shaft to get a logarithmic spiral profile shaft connection(a keyless joint), then introduce the propulsion mechanism with logarithmic spiral profile shaft connection. At last, applying Solidworks2010 software，we create the three-dimensional modeling of the propulsion mechanism, which would lay a solid foundation for the further study. This new propulsion mechanism has such advantages as self- centralizing, easy disassembly, low stress concentration, with a simple fit cross-section, transmitting big torque, suitable for the heavy loads of rock drilling.

This paper consists of research for actuality of propulsion mechanism, analysis of the disadvantage of flat key and spline, and analysis of features of the cosine tooth profile shaft connection. Based on existing chain propulsion mechanism, the propulsion mechanism with cosine tooth profile shaft connection is introduced, in which the cosine tooth profile shaft connection without key is composed of inner hole of sprocket gear and the outer circle of intermediate shaft with cosine tooth profile. The three-dimensional modeling is made by Solidworks2010 for the propulsion mechanism with cosine tooth profile shaft connection and provides fundamental base for the further research and application. This new propulsion mechanism has such advantages as self-centralizing, easy disassembly, low stress concentration, with a simple fit cross-section, transmitting big torque, suitable for the heavy loads of rock drilling

This paper deals with the existing propulsion mechanism, analyzes the disadvantages of the flat key and the spline, studies the features of the generated isometric trilateral profile shaft connection. In an existing chain propulsion mechanism, we change the fit of the inner hole of sprocket gear and the outer circle of intermediate shaft to get a generated isometric trilateral profile shaft connection(a keyless joint), then introduce the propulsion mechanism with generated isometric trilateral profile shaft connection. At last, we create the three-dimensional modeling of the propulsion mechanism, which would lay a solid foundation for the further study. This new propulsion mechanism has such advantages as self-centralizing, easy disassembly, low stress concentration, with a simple fit cross-section, transmitting big torque, suitable for the heavy loads of rock drilling.

Dealing with the existing propulsion mechanism, the paper analyzes the deficiency of the flat key and the spline, studies the specialities of high-order elliptic profile. On the basis of chain propulsion mechanism, we get a high-order elliptic profile shaft connection. (a keyless joint) through changing the fit of the inner hole of sprocket gear and the outer circle of intermediate shaft, then introduce the propulsion mechanism with high-order elliptic profile shaft connection. At last, applying Solidworks2011 software, we create the three-dimensional modeling of the propulsion mechanism, thus laid a solid foundation for the further study. This new propulsion mechanism enjoys the superiorities like self-centralizing, easy disassembly, low stress concentration, with a simple fit cross-section, transmitting big torque, suitable for the heavy loads of rock drilling.

Because of the problem of key joint or spline joint, the isometric polygonal profile connection was put forward, and the mathematical model of isometric polygonal curve was analyzed in this paper. Based on the periodicity characteristics of equivalent effective stress and total displacement in the whole structure through preliminary analysis, 1/3 structure of isometric polygonal profile shaft and hub was adopted during geometry model being established. The shearing strength in isometric polygonal profile hub and shaft, the main stress in hub and the total strain in shaft were calculated and analyzed based FEM.

The contact between the male and female teeth of involute spline couplings connecting misaligned transmission shafts has been studied using an elastostatic contact model with stick-slip friction based on the boundary integral element method. The effect on the distribution of pressure and on the slip path during shaft rotation, of a wide range of design parameters and of applied torque and misalignment has been explored. The predicted behavior is classified according to the regime of friction (cyclic stick-slip or gross slip) and to that of the pressure history (uniform, cyclic, discontinuous, or toppled). The magnitude of the maximum tooth load, the axial skewness of the distribution of pressure and a maximum wear depth parameter are presented in terms of dimensionless design and operating parameters. The effect of tooth crowning is briefly examined. The results show a number of previously unreported features including a cyclic tooth load—which declines to zero for certain conditions—and an effective slip amplitude of around half the rigid-body value. This may affect the interpretation of laboratory fretting tests.

The clutch is an absolutely necessary part of the gasoline cars and the other types where the main drive is obtained from the fuel in the cylinder. The author starts planning this friction coupling with the theory and shifting system of style, then determines the type of clutch plate to be worn, determining the large diameter of the clutch shaft, specifies the thick of the friction plate, the spring reducer, the flywheel connecting Bolt with the flux, the flywheel connecting bolt with the engine shaft, the rivet connector of the friction plate with the spring disc, the rivet of the disc-connector with the sub plate, the rivet of the sub-plate and the spline hub, the rivet of the Cover flux, clutch shaft bearings, bearing holders, as well as heat calculations and age of friction plates. Specifies the type of clutch plate to be worn, determining the large diameter of the clutch shaft, determining the thick of the friction plate, the damper spring, the flywheel connecting Bolt with the flux, flywheel connecting bolt with engine shaft, rivet swipes with friction plate with disc spring, Rivet Connector Spring with sub plate, rivet sub plate rivets with spline hub, rivet fastening rivets with flux cover, clutch shaft bearings, bearing holders, as well as heat calculation and age of friction plates. Single-plate swipes are designed so that they can transmit power/rotation in a rotating or unrotating state. The type of coupling discussed here is the fixed clutch that uses a plate that serves as a medium of friction between the flywheel and the pressing plate. The purpose of writing these planning tasks to meet and complement the course of the machine element, the authors try to plan and discuss the clutch system

This paper deals with the existing propulsion mechanism, analyzes the disadvantages of the flat key and the spline, studies the features of the profile curve of the inner gear with swing movable tooth. In an existing chain propulsion mechanism, we change the fit of the inner hole of sprocket gear and the outer circle of intermediate shaft to get the profile shaft connection of inner gear with swing movable tooth (a keyless joint), then introduce the propulsion mechanism with it. At last, applying Solidworks2010 software, we create the three-dimensional modeling of the propulsion mechanism, which would lay a solid foundation for the further study. This new propulsion mechanism has such advantages as self-centralizing, easy disassembly, low stress concentration, with a simple fit cross-section, transmitting big torque, suitable for the heavy loads of rock drilling.

This paper describes an alternative to splines for connecting turbine discs to shafts. The trilobe shape consists of six smoothly blending 60° circular arcs of two alternating radii; it is between a circle (both radii equal) and a triangle (smaller radius zero, larger radius infinite). Frozen-stress, photoelastic models of a realistic disc and a tubular shaft have been designed, made and loaded centrifugally, under static torsion and under combined torsion and rotation. The results show that the greatest centrifugal stresses in the disc occur in the bore at the tips of the trilobe and the greatest contact stresses occur near the transition from the larger to the smaller radius. The centrifugal stress concentrations due to the trilobe were small. Bore deformation and backlash due to differential centrifugal expansion were measured and found to be acceptable for a similar ceramic or nickel alloy disc.

The work is devoted to the problem of negative dynamic effects on the transmission and the engine of a mobile vehicle on ultra-low pressure tires. When using this propulsion device on technological means, the load on wheel reducers (final drives), half shafts, differential, final drive, on the shaft and cardan drive hinges, spline connection, transfer case, elastic transmission clutch, transmission drive and driven shafts sharply increases with gears, clutch driving and driven parts, engine crankshaft. When the load on these elements is excessive, their service life is reduced, and excessive loading can even lead to a sudden failure. Since each of these nodes is somehow fixed on the frame of the vehicle, to which vibrations from the unevenness of the rolling surfaces perceived by the propulsion are transmitted, they also have an additional effect. For a comprehensive assessment of the dynamic loading of the transmission and the engine of a mobile vehicle equipped with ultra-low pressure tires, taking into account the influence of road irregularities, a mobile vehicle model was compiled. The model will allow a more accurate calculation of the basic characteristics of technological equipment transmissions on ultra-low pressure tires.

Study the existing advancing mechanism of drill, analyze the disadvantage of the flat key and the spline, and the feature of the three circular arc equidistant profile connection. Taking the common chain advancing mechanism as basis, using three circular arc equidistant curve to make sprocket bore and intermediate shaft external cylindrical fit constitute the three circular arc equidistant profile keyless connection. Then introduce the advancing mechanism with three circular arc equidistant profile connection of drill. Applying Solidworks2010, we created the three-dimensional modeling of the mechanism, which lay the foundation for the further research and application. The new type advancing mechanism has many advantages, such as automatic-centering accurately, convenient in assembling and disassembling, eliminating the stress concentration, simplicity of the fit section，transferring bigger torque, suitable for heavy-loaded rock drill machine.

This paper deals with the existing propulsion mechanism, analyzes the disadvantages of the flat key and the spline, studies the features of the eccentric wheel handspike roller movable inner gear profile curve shaped-connection. In an existing chain propulsion mechanism, we change the fit of the inner hole of sprocket gear and the outer circle of intermediate shaft to get a eccentric wheel handspike roller movable inner gear profile curve shaped-connection (a keyless joint), then introduce the propulsion mechanism with eccentric wheel handspike roller movable inner gear profile curve shaped-connection. At last, we create the three-dimensional modeling of the propulsion mechanism, which would lay a solid foundation for the further study. This new propulsion mechanism has such advantages as self-centralizing, easy disassembly, low stress concentration, with a simple fit cross-section, transmitting big torque, suitable for the heavy loads of rock drilling.

Hydromechanical clutches with a differential driving gear can protect against sudden quickly growing shortterm overloads not related to emergency without triggering at the expense of a smooth moment increase on a shaft of the engine provided with the operation of hydroelastic elements in the hydrosystem of a clutch. The investigation of the friction influence in ki-nematic pairs of hydromechanical clutches with helical and toothed differential driving gears upon the dynamics of clutch operation during emergency triggering has shown that in a helical driving gear the kinetic friction in a spline connection and in a pair of “screw-nut” increases a moment on a shaft of an electric motor overloading it longer than it is admissible. It means, that such a type of clutches may be used only as elastic-damping one decreasing the dynamics of the whole dynamic system at the expense of high friction in kinematic pairs, or jointly with the protection on current as a smooth increase of a moment on a shaft of the electric motor even at the overload increasing in spurts ensured by a clutch increases protection efficiency on current. In the toothed driving gear friction in kinetic pairs is low and a driving gear does not actually experience an overload that means high efficiency of driving gear protection against rapidly growing random overloads with such a type of clutches.

Temporally and Spatially distributed measurements of precipitation have gained renewed interest in connection with climate change impact studies. The complex relationship between topography and precipitation in mountainous regions such as Himalayas is evident from the pattern of rainfall distribution. The variation in precipitation with altitude is controlled by mean height of clouds and decrease in water vapours with altitude. Precipitation values are usually available from a limited number of gauge stations and their spatial estimates can be obtained by interpolation techniques such as Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW), Kriging and Spline. In the present study, precipitation-elevation relationship can be established using Digital Elevation Model (DEM) (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer-ASTER, 30m resolution), Spline interpolation technique in Geographical Information System (GIS) environment and point data from various gauge stations spread over the Satluj River Basin. Changes of spatial distribution of precipitation with elevation show a distinct shift. Bhakra Dam to Rampur, there is continuous variation in rainfall with increase in altitude. But beyond Rampur, variation is very high. Swarghat shows exceptional rainfall, may be due to position of mountains and their orographic effects. Maximum rainfall was observed in the lower Himalayas i.e. Shiwalik range. Negligible rainfall was observed beyond, above the elevation of around 3756 m. The general trend of rainfall exhibits that the lower and middle parts experience good rainfall whereas the upper part experiences less rainfall. Such spatial and temporal distribution of rainfall with elevation provides an important platform for hydrologic analysis, planning and management of water resources.

The complex relationship between topography and precipitation in mountainous regions such as Himalayas is evident from the pattern of rainfall distribution. The variation in precipitation with altitude is controlled by mean height of clouds and decrease in water vapours with altitude. Spatially distributed measurements of precipitation have gained renewed interest in connection with climate change impact studies. Precipitation values are usually available from a limited number of gauge stations and their spatial estimates can be obtained by interpolation techniques such as Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW), Kriging and Spline. In the present study, precipitation-elevation relationship can be established using Digital Elevation Model (DEM) (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer-ASTER, 30m resolution), Spline interpolation technique in Geographical Information System (GIS) environment and point data from various gauge stations spread over the Satluj River Basin. Changes of spatial distribution of precipitation with elevation show a distinct shift. Bhakra Dam (5854.60 mm) to Rampur (4451.10 mm), there is continuous variation in rainfall with increase in altitude. But beyond Rampur, variation is very high. Swarghat shows exceptional rainfall (8031.76 mm), may be due to position of mountains and their orographic effects. Maximum rainfall was observed in the lower Himalayas i.e. Shiwalik range. Negligible rainfall was observed beyond Kaza (470 mm), above the elevation of around 3756 m. The general trend of rainfall exhibits that the lower and middle parts experience good rainfall whereas the upper part experiences less rainfall. Such spatial and temporal distribution of rainfall with elevation provides an important platform for hydrologic analysis, planning and management of water resources.

Classically, the unfolded protein response (UPR) safeguards secretory pathway proteostasis. The most ancient arm of the UPR, the IRE1-activated spliced X-box binding protein 1 (XBP1s)-mediated response, has roles in secretory pathway maturation beyond resolving proteostatic stress. Understanding the consequences of XBP1s activation for cellular processes is critical for elucidating mechanistic connections between XBP1s and development, immunity, and disease. Here, we show that a key functional output of XBP1s activation is a cell type-dependent shift in the distribution of N-glycan structures on endogenous membrane and secreted proteomes. For example, XBP1s activity decreased levels of sialylation and bisecting GlcNAc in the HEK293 membrane proteome and secretome, while substantially increasing the population of oligomannose N-glycans only in the secretome. In HeLa cell membranes, stress-independent XBP1s activation increased the population of high-mannose and tetraantennary N-glycans, and also enhanced core fucosylation. mRNA profiling experiments suggest that XBP1s-mediated remodeling of the N-glycome is, at least in part, a consequence of coordinated transcriptional resculpting of N-glycan maturation pathways by XBP1s. The discovery of XBP1s-induced N-glycan structural remodeling on a glycome-wide scale suggests that XBP1s can act as a master regulator of N-glycan maturation. Moreover, because the sugars on cell-surface proteins or on proteins secreted from an XBP1s-activated cell can be molecularly distinct from those of an unactivated cell, these findings reveal a potential new mechanism for translating intracellular stress signaling into altered interactions with the extracellular environment.

Abstract Outside of gerontology, age is an often underappreciated element of diversity. At a time when all generations must work together to provide inclusive, multi-faceted solutions to today’s societal problems, ageist and generational stereotypes are often barriers to meaningful intergenerational exchanges. Age derogation and negative stereotypes have been used to splinter communities, perpetuate misinformation, and trivialize intergenerational conversations. As researchers, educators, and practitioners, we understand why age matters, but our students, community leaders, and employers may not. It is our disciplinary obligation to convince those who ignore, dismiss, or misrepresent age of the importance of this aspect of diversity for navigating any multigenerational setting. In this talk, we provide three approaches to addressing age-related beliefs in the classroom. We begin by exploring the impact of generational stereotypes within minority communities. For the LGBT community, negative stereotypes coupled with rapid social change have lead to a growing generational gap. We then shift perspectives to examine the role that lifespan developmental psychology can play in preparing students to enter a diverse multigenerational workforce. Here, we discuss research on age identity and generational identity as distinct and self-enhancing life-span processes, and highlight the developmental barriers that must be navigated in order to foster intergenerational cohesion. Finally, we discuss the findings from Generation to Generation, an intergenerational discussion course for older and younger adults, designed to promote productive intergenerational contact. The results provide evidence that intergenerational discussion may facilitate improved connections between generations.

In machine elements many different methods for connecting shaft and hub are specified in different standards. A not so common shaft–hub connection is the polygon profile as specified in DIN 32711 (P3G) and DIN 32712 (P4C). This type of connection is an alternative to key or spline connections. The practical point of the connection is the easy assembly and disassembly, but as for all shaft–hub connections the drawback is the high stress leading to a limited strength of these connections. The polygon connection design is to some extent due to an old production method, i.e. it is not design/optimized for reducing the maximum stress. In the present paper it is shown how the connection strength can be improved significantly by the use of shape optimization. The focus here is both on the highest contact stress (compression) but also on the largest tensile stress. Overall reduction in the stress in the order of 20% to 40% is found relative to standard design.

The article provides an overview of methods for restoring and repairing various equipment parts: shafts, couplings, spline and keyway connections. Recommendations on the choice of methods, equipment and tools are given.

Identifying thermal characteristics of gas foil bearings (GFBs) provides an insight for successful implementation into high speed oil-free turbomachinery. The paper presents temperature measurements of a bump type GFB floating on a hollow shaft for various operating conditions. Two angular ball bearings support the hollow shaft at one end (right), and the other end (left) is free. Test GFB has the outer diameter of 100 mm and the axial length of 45 mm, and the hollow shaft has the outer and inner diameters of 60 mm and 40 mm, respectively. An electric motor drives the hollow shaft using a spline coupling connection. A mechanical loading device provides static loads on test GFB upward via a metal wire, and a strain gauge type load cell placed in the middle of the wire indicates the applied loads. During experiments for shaft speeds of 5 krpm, 10 krpm, and 15 krpm and with static loads of 58.9 N (6 kgf), 78.5 N (8 kgf), and 98.1 N (10 kgf), twelve thermocouples measure the outer surface temperatures of test GFB at four angular locations of 45 deg, 135 deg, 215 deg, and 315 deg, with an origin at the top foil free end, and three axial locations of bearing centerline and both side edges at each angle. Two infrared thermometers measure the outer surface temperature of the hollow shaft at free and supported ends close to test GFB. Test results show that GFB temperatures increase as the shaft speed increases and as the static load increases, with higher temperatures in the loaded zone (135 deg and 215 deg) than those in the unloaded zone (45 deg and 315 deg). In general, the recorded temperatures are highest at 225 deg where a highest hydrodynamic pressure is expected to build up. Measured temperatures at the bearing centerline are higher than those at the side edges, as expected. In addition, large thermal gradients are recorded in the hollow shaft along the axial direction with higher temperatures at the supported end. The axial thermal gradient of the shaft is thought to cause higher temperatures at the bearing right edge facing the ball bearing support than those at the left edge. The paper presents test data along with detailed test GFB/shaft geometries and material properties.

In his directorial debut, The Man with the Iron Fists (2012), RZA not only evokes the textual borrowing techniques he has utilised as a hip-hop producer, but also reflects the influence of filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, who has built a career upon acknowledging mainstream and cult film histories through mise-en-scene, editing, and deft characterisation. The Man with the Iron Fists was originally to coincide with Tarantino’s rebel slave narrative Django Unchained (2012), which Tarantino has discussed openly as commentary regarding race in contemporary America. In 2011, Variety reported that RZA had joined the cast of Tarantino’s anticipated Django Unchained, playing “Thaddeus, a violent slave working on a Mississippi plantation” (Sneider, “Rza Joins ‘Django Unchained’ Cast”). Django Unchained follows Tarantino’s pattern of generic and trope mixology, combining elements of the Western, blaxploitation, and buddy/road film. He famously stated: “[If] my work has anything it's that I'm taking this from this and that from that and mixing them together… I steal from everything. Great artists steal; they don't do homages” (“The Directors of Our Lifetime: In Their Own Words”). He sutures iconography from multiple films in numerous genres to form new texts that stand alone, albeit as amalgamations of references. In considering meanings attached particularly to exploitation films, this article addresses the significance of combining influences within The Man with the Iron Fists and Tarantino’s Django Unchained, and the ideological threads that emerge in fusing exploitation film aesthetics. Ultimately, these films provide a convergence not only of texts, but also of the collective identities associated with and built upon those texts, feats made possible through the filmmakers’ use of pastiche. Pastiche in Identity Formation as Subversive A reflection of the postmodern tendency towards appropriation and borrowing, pastiche is often considered less meaningful than its counterpart, parody. Fredric Jameson suggests that though pastiche and parody share commonalities (most notably the mimicry of style and mannerisms), they do so to different effects. Jameson asserts that parody mimics in an effort to mock the idiosyncrasies within a text, whereas pastiche is “neutral parody” of “dead styles” (114). In short, as Susan Hayward writes, “In its uninventiveness, pastiche is but a shadow of its former thing” (302). For Jameson, the most ubiquitous form of pastiche is the nostalgia film, which attempts to recapture the essence of the past. As examples, he points to the George Lucas films American Graffiti (1973), which is staged in the United States of the 1950s, and Star Wars (1977), which reflects the serials of the 1930s-1950s (114-115). Though scholars such as Jameson and Hayward are contemptuous of pastiche, a growing number see its potential for the subversion and critique that the aforementioned suggest it lacks. For instance, Sarah Smith reminds us that pastiche films engage in “complicitous critique”: the films maintain the trappings of original texts, yet do so in order to advance critique (209). For Smith and other scholars, such as Judith Butler and Richard Dyer, Jameson’s criticism of pastiche is dismissive, for while these scholars largely agree that pastiche is a form of mimicry in which the distance between original and copy is minimal, they recognise that a space still exists for it to be critical. Smith writes: “[W]hile there may be greater distance between the parody and its target text than there is between the pastiche and the text it imitates, a prescribed degree of distance is not a prerequisite for critical engagement with the ur-text” (210). In this regard, fidelity to the original texts is not only required but to be revered, for these likenesses to the original “act as a guarantee of the critique of those origins and provide an opportunity for the filmmaker to position [himself or herself] in relation to them” (Smith 211). Essentially, pastiche is a useful technique in which to construct hybrid identities. Keri E. Iyall Smith suggests that hybrid identities emerge from “a reflexive relationship between local and global” (3). According to popular music scholar Brett Lashua, hybrid identities “make and re-make culture through appropriating the cultural ‘raw materials’ of life in order to construct meaning in their own specific cultural localities. In a sense, they are ‘sampling’ from broader popular culture and reworking what they can take into their own specific local cultures” (“The Arts of the Remix: Ethnography and Rap”). As will be evidenced here, Tarantino utilises pastiche as an unabashed genre poacher; similarly, as a self-avowed Tarantino student and hip-hop producer known for his sampling acumen, RZA invokes pastiche to reflect mastery of his craft and a hybridised identity his multifaceted persona. Plagiarism, Poaching, and Pastiche: Tarantino Blurs Boundaries As a filmmaker, Tarantino is known for indulging in excess: violence, language, and aesthetics. Edward Gallafent characterised the director’s work as having a preoccupation with settings and journeys, violence (both emotional and physical), complicated chronological structures, and dissatisfying conclusions (3-4). Additionally, pieces of Tarantino’s cinematic fandom are inserted into his own films. Academic and popular critics continually note Tarantino’s rise as an obsessive video store clerk turned respected and eccentric auteur. Tarantino’s authorship lies mostly in his ability to borrow (or in his words, steal) narrative arcs, characterisations, and camera work from other filmmakers, and use them in ways that feel innovative and different from those past works. It is not that he borrows generally from movements, films, and filmmakers, but that he conscientiously lifts segments from works to incorporate into his text. In Postmodern Hollywood: What’s New in Film and Why It Makes Us Feel So Strange, Keith M. Booker contends that Tarantino’s work often straddles lines between simplistic reference for reference’s sake and meditations upon the roles of cinema (90). Booker dismisses claims for the latter, citing Tarantino’s unwillingness to contextualise the references in Pulp Fiction, such that the film is best described not an act of citation so much as a break with the historical. Tarantino’s lack of reverence provides him freedom to intermingle texts and tropes to fit his goals as a filmmaker, rather than working within the confines of generic narratives. Each film feels both apart and distinct from genre categories. Jackie Brown, for example, has many of the traits attached to blaxploitation, from its focus on drug culture, the casting of Pam Grier who gained status playing female leads in blaxploitation films, and extreme violence. Tarantino’s use of humour throughout, particular in his treatment of character types, plot twists, and self-aware musical cues distances the film from easy characterisation. It is, but isn’t. What is gained is a remediated conception of cinematic reality. The fictions created in films of the past are noted in Tarantino’s play with tropes. His mixes produce an extreme form of mediated reality – one that is full of excess, highly exaggerated, and completely composed of stolen frameworks. Tarantino continues his generic play in Django Unchained. While much of it does borrow heavily from 1960s and 1970s Western filmmakers like Leone, Corbucci, and Peckinpah (the significance of desolate landscapes, long takes, extreme violence), it also incorporates strands of buddy cop (partners with different backgrounds working together to correct wrongs), early blaxploitation (Broomhilda’s last name is von Shaft suggesting that she is an ancestor of blaxploitation icon John Shaft, the characterisation of Django as black antihero enacting revenge on white racists in power), and kung fu (revenge narrative, in addition to the extensive training moments between Dr. Schultz and Django). The familiar elements highlight the transgressions of genre adherence. The comfort of the western genre and its tropes eases the audience, only for Tarantino to incorporate those elements from outside the genre to spark interest, to shock, to remind audiences of the mediated reality onscreen. Tarantino has been criticised for his lack of depth and understanding regarding women and people of colour, despite his attempts to provide various leading and supporting roles for both. Django Unchained was particularly criticised for Tarantino’s use of the term nigger - over 100 instances in the film. Tarantino defended his decision by claiming historical accuracy, poetic license, and his desire to confront audiences with various levels of racism. Many, including Spike Lee, disagreed, arguing Tarantino had no claim to making a film about slavery. Lee stated through Twitter: “American Slavery Was Not A Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western. It Was A Holocaust. My Ancestors Are Slaves. Stolen From Africa. I Will Honor Them” (“Spike Lee on Django Unchained: Filmmaker Calls Movie ‘Disrespectful’”). Not only does Lee evoke the tragedy of the American slave trade and the significance of race within contemporary filmmaking, but he uses genre to underscore what he perceives is Tarantino’s lack of reverence to the issue of slavery and its aftermath in American culture. Django Unchained is both physically and emotionally brutal. The world created by Tarantino is culturally messy, as Italian composers rub elbows with black hip-hop artists, actors from films’ referenced in Django Unchained interact with new types of heroes. The amounts of references, people, and spectacles in his films have created a brand that is both hyperaware, but often critiqued as ambivalent. This is due in part to the perception of Tarantino as a filmmaker with no filter. His brand as a filmmaker is action ordered, excessive, and injected with his own fandom. He is an ultimate poacher of texts and it is this aesthetic, which has also made him a fan favourite amongst young cinephiles. Not only does he embrace the amount of play film offers, but he takes the familiar and makes it strange. The worlds he creates are hazier, darker, and unstable. Creating such a world in Django Unchained provides a lot of potential for reading race in film and American culture. He and his defenders have discussed this film as an “honest” portrayal of the effects of slavery and racial tension in the United States. This is also the world which acts as context for RZA’s The Man with the Iron Fists. Though a reference abandoned in Django Unchained, the connection between both films and both filmmakers pleasure in pastiche provide further insight to connections between film and race. Doing the Knowledge: RZA Pays Homage As a filmmaker, RZA utilises Tarantino’s filmmaking brand techniques to build his own homage and add to the body of kung-fu films. Doing so furnishes him the opportunity to rehash and reform narratives and tropes in ways that change familiar narrative structures and plot devices. In creating a film which relies on cinematic allusions to kung fu, RZA—as a fan, practitioner, and author—reconfigures kung fu from being an exploitative genre and reshapes its potential for representational empowerment. While Tarantino considers himself an unabashed thief of genre tropes, RZA envisions himself more as a student who pays homage to masters—among whom he includes Tarantino. Indeed, in an interview with MTV, RZA refers to Tarantino as his Sifu (a Chinese term for master or teacher) and credits him not only for teaching RZA about filmmaking, but also for providing him with his blessing to make his first feature length film (Downey, “RZA Recalls Learning from ‘The Master’ Quentin Tarantino”). RZA implies that mastery of one’s craft comes from incorporating influences while creating original work, not theft. For instance, he states that the Pink Blossom brothel—the locus for most of the action in the film—was inspired by the House of Blue Leaves restaurant, which functions in a similar capacity in Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (“RZA Talks Sampling of Kung Fu Films for Movie & The Difference Between Biting vs. Influence”). Hip-hop is an art form in which its practitioners “partake of a discursive universe where skill at appropriating the fragments of a rapidly-changing world with verbal grace and dexterity is constituted as knowledge” (Potter 21). This knowledge draws upon not only the contemporary moment but also the larger body of recorded music and sound, both of which it “re-reads and Signifies upon through a complex set of strategies, including samplin’, cuttin’ (pastiche), and freestylin’ (improvisation)” (Potter 22). As an artist who came of age in hip-hop’s formative years and whose formal recording career began at the latter half of hip-hop’s Golden Age (often considered 1986-1993), RZA is a particularly adept cutter and sampler – indeed, as a sampler, RZA is often considered a master. While RZA’s samples run the gamut of the musical spectrum, he is especially known for sampling obscure, often indeterminable jazz and soul tracks. Imani Perry suggests that this measure of fidelity to the past is borne out of hip-hop’s ideological respect for ancestors and its inherent sense of nostalgia (54). Hallmarks of RZA’s sampling repertoire include dialog and sound effects from equally obscure kung fu films. RZA attributes his sampling of kung fu to an affinity for these films established in his youth after viewing noteworthy examples such as The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978) and Five Deadly Venoms (1978). These films have become a key aspect of his identity and everyday life (Gross, “RZA’s Edge: The RZA’s Guide to Kung Fu Films”). He speaks of his decision to make kung fu dialog an integral part of Wu-Tang Clan’s first album Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers): “My fantasy was to make a one-hour movie that people were just going to listen to. They would hear my movie and see it in their minds. I’d read comic books like that, with sonic effects and kung fu voices in my head. That makes it more exciting so I try to create music in the same way” (Gross, ““RZA’s Edge: The RZA’s Guide to Kung Fu Films”). Much like Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) and his other musical endeavours, The Man with the Iron Fists serves as further evidence of RZA’s hybrid identity., which sociologist Keri E. Iyall Smith suggests emerges from “a reflexive relationship between local and global” (3). According to popular music scholar Brett Lashua, hybrid identities “make and re-make culture through appropriating the cultural ‘raw materials’ of life in order to construct meaning in their own specific cultural localities. In a sense, they are ‘sampling’ from broader popular culture and reworking what they can take into their own specific local cultures” (“The Arts of the Remix: Ethnography and Rap”). The most overt instance of RZA’s hybridity is in regards to names, many of which are derived from the Gordon Liu film Shaolin and Wu-Tang (1983), in which the competing martial arts schools come together to fight a common foe. The film is the basis not only for the name of RZA’s group (Wu-Tang Clan) but also for the names of individual members (for instance, Master Killer—after the series to which the film belongs) and the group’s home base of Staten Island, New York, which they frequently refer to as “Shaolin.” The Man with the Iron Fists is another extension of this hybrid identity. Kung fu has long had meaning for African Americans particularly because these films frequently “focus narratively on either the triumph of the ‘little guy’ or ‘underdog’ or the nobility of the struggle to recognise humanity and virtue in all people, or some combination of both” (Ongiri 35). As evidence, Amy Obugo Ongiri points to films such as The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, a film about a peasant who learns martial arts at the Shaolin temple in order to avenge his family’s murder by the Manchu rulers (Ongiri 35). RZA reifies this notion in a GQ interview, where he speaks about The 36th Chamber of Shaolin specifically, noting its theme of rebellion against government oppression having relevance to his life as an African American (Pappademus, “This Movie Is Rated Wu”). RZA appropriates the humble origins of the peasant San Te (Gordon Liu), the protagonist of The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, in Thaddeus (whom RZA plays in the film), whose journey to saviour of Jungle Village begins with his being a slave in America. Indeed, one might argue that RZA’s construction of and role as Thaddeus is the ultimate realisation of the hybrid identity he has developed since becoming a popular recording artist. Just as Tarantino’s acting in his own films often reflects his identity as genre splicer and convention breaker (particularly since they are often self-referential), RZA’s portrayal of Thaddeus—as an African American, as a martial artist, and as a “conscious” human being—reflects the narrative RZA has constructed about his own life. Conclusion The same amount of play Tarantino has with conventions, particularly in characterisations and notions of heroism, is present in RZA’s Man with the Iron Fists. Both filmmakers poach from their favourite films and genres in order to create interpretations that feel both familiar and new. RZA follows Tarantino’s aesthetic of borrowing scenes directly from other films. Both filmmakers poach from films for their own devices, but in those mash-ups open up avenues for genre critique and identity formation. Tarantino is right to say that they are not solely homages, as homages honour the films in which they borrow. Tarantino and RZA do more through their poaching to stretch the boundaries of genres and films’ abilities to communicate with audiences. References “The Directors of Our Lifetime: In Their Own Words.” Empire Online. N.d. 8 May 2013 ‹http://www.empireonline.com/magazine/250/directors-of-our-lifetime/5.asp›. Booker, Keith M. Postmodern Hollywood: What’s New in Film and Why It Makes Us Feel So Strange. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2007. Downey, Ryan J. “RZA Recalls Learning from ‘The Master’ Quentin Tarantino.” MTV. 30 August 2012. 14 July 2013 ‹http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1692872/rza-man-with-the-iron-fists-quentin-tarantino.jhtml›. Gallefent, Edward. Quentin Tarantino. London: Longman. 2005. Gross, Jason. “RZA’s Edge: The RZA’s Guide to Kung Fu Films.” Film Comment. N.d. 5 June 2013 ‹http://www.filmcomment.com/article/rzas-edge-the-rzas-guide-to-kung-fu-films›. Iyall Smith, Keri E. “Hybrid Identities: Theoretical Examinations.” Hybrid Identities: Theoretical and Empirical Examinations. Ed. Keri E. Iyall Smith and Patricia Leavy. Leiden: Brill, 2008. 3-12. Jameson, Fredric. “Postmodernism and Consumer Society.” Postmodern Culture. Ed. Hal Foster. London: Pluto, 1985. 111-125. Lashua, Brett. “The Arts of the Remix: Ethnography and Rap.” Anthropology Matters 8.2 (2006). 6 June 2013 ‹http://www.anthropologymatters.com›. “The Man with the Iron Fists – Who in the Cast Can F-U Up?” IronFistsMovie 21 Sep. 2012. YouTube. 8 May 2013 ‹http://youtu.be/bhJOQZFJfqA›. Pappademus, Alex. “This Movie Is Rated Wu.” GQ Nov. 2012. 6 June 2013 ‹http://www.gq.com/entertainment/movies-and-tv/201211/the-rza-man-with-the-iron-fists-wu-tang-clan›. Perry, Imani. Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 2004. Potter, Russell. Spectacular Vernaculars: Hip-Hop and the Politics of Postmodernism. Albany, NY: SUNY P, 1995. “RZA Talks Sampling of Kung Fu Films for Movie & The Difference between Biting vs. Influence.” The Well Versed. 2 Nov. 2012. 5 June 2013 ‹http://thewellversed.com/2012/11/02/video-rza-talks-sampling-of-kung-fu-films-for-movie-the-difference-between-biting-vs-influence/›. Smith, Sarah. “Lip and Love: Subversive Repetition in the Pastiche Films of Tracey Moffat.” Screen 49.2 (Summer 2008): 209-215. Snedier, Jeff. “Rza Joins 'Django Unchained' Cast.” Variety 2 Nov. 2011. 14 June 2013 ‹http://variety.com/2011/film/news/rza-joins-django-unchained-cast-1118045503/›. “Spike Lee on Django Unchained: Filmmaker Calls Movie ‘Disrespectful.’” Huffington Post 24 Dec. 2012. 14 June 2013 ‹http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/23/spike-lee-django-unchained-movie-disrespectful_n_2356729.html›. Wu-Tang Clan. Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). Loud, 1993. Filmography The 36th Chamber of Shaolin. Dir. Chia-Liang Lui. Perf. Chia Hui Lui, Lieh Lo, Chia Yung Lui. Shaw Brothers, 1978. Django Unchained. Dir. Quentin Tarantino. Perf. Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, Christoph Waltz. Miramax, 2012. Five Deadly Venoms. Dir. Cheh Chang. Perf. Sheng Chiang, Philip Kwok, Feng Lu. Shaw Brothers, 1978. Jackie Brown. Dir. Quentin Tarantino. Perf. Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Forster. Miramax, 1997. Kill Bill: Vol. 1. Dir. Quentin Tarantino. Perf. Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Darryl Hannah. Miramax, 2003. The Man with the Iron Fists. Dir. RZA. Perf. RZA, Russell Crowe, Lucy Liu. Arcade Pictures, 2012. Pulp Fiction. Dir. Quentin Tarantino. Perf. John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson. Miramax, 1994. Shaolin and Wu-Tang. Dir. Chiu Hui Liu. Perf. Chiu Hui Liu, Adam Cheng, Li Ching.

"Interactivity implies two agencies in conversation, playfully and spontaneously developing a mutual discourse" -- Sandy Stone (11) I. On Interactivity The difference between interactivity as it is performed across the page and the screen, maintains Sandy Stone, is that virtual texts and virtual communities can embody a play ethic (14). Inserted like a mutation into the corporate genome, play ruptures the encyclopaedic desire to follow seamless links to a buried 'meaning' and draws us back to the surface, back into real-time conversation with the machine. Hypertext theorists see this as a tactic of resistance to homogenisation. As we move across a hypertextual reading space, we produce the text in this unfolding now, choosing pathways which form a map in the space of our own memories: where we have been, where we are, where we might yet be. Play is occupying oneself with diversions. II. Space, Time and Composition Reading in time, we create the text in the space of our own memories. Hypertext theorists maintain that the choices we make around every corner, the spontaneity and contingency involved in these choices, are the bringing into being of a (constantly replaced) electronic palimpsest, a virtual geography. The dislocation which occurs as we engage in nodal leaps draws us back to the surface, rupturing our experience of the narrative and bringing us into a blissful experience of possibility. III. War against the Line There is the danger, on the one hand, of being subsumed by the passive subject position demanded by infotainment culture and the desire it encourages to seek the satisfaction of closure by following seamless links to a buried 'meaning'. On the other hand, we risk losing efficiency and control over the unfolding interaction by entering into an exchange which disorientates us with infinite potential. We cannot wildly destratify. The questions we ask must seek to keep the conversation open. In order to establish a new discursive territory within which to understand this relationship, we should view the interface not simply as a transparency which enables interaction with the machine as 'other', but as a text, a finely-wrought behavioural map which "exists at the intersection of political and ideological boundary lands" (Selfe & Selfe 1). As we write, so are we written by the linguistic contact zones of this terrain. Hypertext is thus a process involving the active translation of modes of being into possible becomings across the interface. The geographic 'space' we translate into a hypertext "is imaginational... . We momentarily extend the linear reading act into a third dimension when we travel a link" (Tolva 4). A literal spatial representation would break from the realm of hypertext and become a virtual reality. Thus, the geographic aspect is not inherent to the system itself but is partially translated into the geometry of the medium via our experience and perception (the 'map'), a process describing our 'line of flight' as we evolve in space. Directional flows between time and its traditional subordination to space in representation implode across the present-tense of the screen and time literally surfaces. Our experience of the constantly-replaced electronic palimpsest is one of temporal surrender: "we give in to time, we give way to time, we give in with time"(Joyce 219). In other words, the subject of hypertext subverts the traditional hierarchy and writes for space, producing the 'terrain' in the unfolding now in the Deleuzian sense, not in space as desired by the State. Johnson-Eilola aligns the experience of hypertext with the Deleuzian War Machine, a way of describing the speed and range of virtual movement created when the animal body splices into the realm of technology and opens an active plane of conflict.. The War Machine was invented by the nomads -- it operates by continual deterritorialisation in a tension-limit with State science, what we might call the command-control drive associated with geometric, dynamic thought and the sedentary culture of the Line. It "exemplifies" the avant-garde mentality that hypertext theorists have been associating with the electronic writing space (Moulthrop, "No War Machine" 1). Playing outside. The State desires an end to the resistance to totalisation promulgated by contingent thought and its thermodynamic relationship to space: the speed which assumes a probabilistic, vortical motion, actually drawing smooth space itself. The war machine is thus an open system opposed to classical mechanics via its grounding in active contingencies and spatio-temporal production. The nomad reads and writes for space, creating the temporal text in the space of her own memory, giving way to time and allowing existent points to lapse before the trajectory of flight. Nomad thought is not dependent on any given theory of relationship with the medium, but works via disruption and (re)distribution, the gaps, stutterings and gasp-like expressions experienced when we enter into conversation with the hypertext. The danger is that the war machine might be appropriated by the State, at which point this light-speed communication becomes of the utmost importance in the war against space and time. As speed and efficient retrieval replace real-space across the instantaneity and immediacy of the terminal, the present-time sensory faculties of the individual are marginalised as incidental and she becomes "the virtual equivalent of the well-equipped invalid" (Virilio 5). In other words, as the frame of real-space and present-time disappears, the text of the reader/writer becomes "sutured" into the discourse of the State, the only goal to gain "complete speed, to cover territory in order for the State to subdivide and hold it through force, legislation or consent" (Virilio, qtd. in Johnson-Eilola). This is when the predetermined geometry of hypertext becomes explicit. The progressive subsumption (or "suturing") of the multiple, nomadic self into the discourse of the computer occurs when "the terms of the narrative are heightened, as each 'node' in the hypertext points outwards to other nodes [and] readers must compulsively follow links to arrive at the 'promised plenitude' at the other end of the link" (Johnson-Eilola 391). When we no longer reflect on the frame and move towards complete speed and efficiency, when we stop playing on the surface and no longer concern ourselves with diversion, the war machine has been appropriated by the State. In this case, there is no revolutionary 'outside' to confront in interaction, as all has been marshalled towards closure. Keeping the conversation open means continuously reflecting on the frame. We cannot wildly destratify and lose control entirely by moving in perpetual bewilderment, but we can see the incompleteness of the story, recognising the importance of local gaps and spaces. We can work with the idea that the "dyad of smooth/striated represents not a dialectic but a continuum" (Moulthrop, "Rhizome" 317) that can be turned more complex in its course. Contingency and play reside in the intermezzo, the "dangerous edges, fleeting, attempting to write across the boundaries between in-control and out-of-control" (Johnson-Eilola 393). The war machine exists as at once process and product, the translation between smooth-striated moving in potentia: the nomadic consciousness can recognise this process and live flux as reality itself, or consistency. In sum, we avoid subsumption and appropriation by holding open the function of the text as process in our theorising, in our teaching, in our reading and writing across the hypertextual environment. We can either view hypertext as a tool or product which lends itself to efficient, functional use (to organise information, to control and consume in an encyclopaedic fashion), or we can view it as a process which lends itself to nomadic thought and resistance to totalisation in syncopated flows, in cybernetic fits and starts. This is our much-needed rhetoric of activity. IV. An Alternative Story No matter their theoretical articulation, such claims made for hypertext are fundamentally concerned with escaping the logocentric geometry of regulated time and space. Recent explorations deploying the Deleuzian smooth/striated continuum make explicit the fact that the enemy in this literary 'war' has never been the Line or linearity per se, but "the nonlinear perspective of geometry; not the prison-house of time but the fiction of transcendence implied by the indifferent epistemological stance toward time" (Rosenberg 276). Although the rhizome, the war machine, the cyborg and the nomad differ in their particularities and composition, they all explicitly play on the dislocated, time-irreversible processes of chaos theory, thermodynamics and associated 'liberatory' topological perspectives. Rosenberg's essay makes what I consider to be a very disruptive point: hypertext merely simulates the 'smooth', contingent thought seen to be antithetical to regulated space-time and precise causality due to its fundamental investment in a regulated, controlled and (pre)determined geometry. Such a deceptively smooth landscape is technonarcissistic in that its apparent multiplicity actually prescribes to a totality of command-control. Hypertext theorists have borrowed the terms 'multilinear', 'nonlinear' and 'contingency' from physics to articulate hypertext's resistance to the dominant determinist episteme, a framework exemplified by the term 'dynamics', opposing it to "the irreversible laws characteristic of statistical approximations that govern complex events, exemplified by the term, 'thermodynamics'" (Rosenberg 269). This resistance to the time-reversible, non-contingent and totalised worldview has its ideological origins in the work of the avant-garde. Hypertext theorists are fixated with quasi-hypertextual works that were precursors to the more 'explicitly' revolutionary texts in the electronic writing space. In the works of the avant-garde, contingency is associated with creative freedom and subversive, organic logic. It is obsessively celebrated by the likes of Pynchon, Joyce, Duchamp and Cage. Hypertext theorists have reasoned from this that 'nonlinear' or 'multilinear' access to information is isomorphic with such playful freedom and its contingent, associative leaps. Theorists align this nonsequential reasoning with a certain rogue logic: the 'fluid nature of thought itself' exemplified by the explicitly geographic relationship to space-time of the Deleuzian rhizome and the notion of contingent, probabilistic 'becomings'. Hypertext participates fully in the spatio-temporal dialectic of the avant-garde. As Moulthrop observes, the problem with this is that from a topological perspective, 'linear' and 'multilinear' are identical: "lines are still lines, logos and not nomos, even when they are embedded in a hypertextual matrix" ("Rhizome" 310). The spatio-temporal dislocations which enable contingent thought and 'subversive' logic are simply not sustained through the reading/writing experience. Hypertextual links are not only reversible in time and space, but trace a detached path through functional code, each new node comprising a carefully articulated behavioural 'grammar' that the reader adjusts to. To assume that by following 'links' and engaging in disruptive nodal leaps a reader night be resisting the framework of regulated space-time and determinism is "to ignore how, once the dislocation occurs, a normalcy emerges ... as the hypertext reader acclimates to the new geometry or new sequence of lexias" (Rosenberg 283). Moreover, the searchpath maps which earlier theorists had sensed were antithetical to smooth space actually exemplify the element of transcendent control readers have over the text as a whole. "A reader who can freeze the text, a reader who is aware of a Home button, a reader who can gain an instant, transcendent perspective of the reading experience, domesticates contingencies" (Rosenberg 275). The visual and behavioural grammar of hypertext is one of transcendent control and determined response. Lines are still lines -- regulated, causal and not contingent -- even when they are 'constructed' by an empowered reader. Hypertext is thus invested (at least in part) in a framework of regularity, control and precise function. It is inextricably a part of State apparatus. The problem with this is that the War Machine, which best exemplifies the avant-garde's insurgency against sedentary culture, must be exterior to the State apparatus and its regulated grid at all times. "If we acknowledge this line of critique (which I think we must), then we must seriously reconsider any claims about hypertext fiction as War Machine, or indeed as anything en avant" (Moulthrop, "No War Machine" 5). Although hypertext is not revolutionary, it would be the goal of any avant-garde use of hypertext to find a way to sustain the experience of dislocation that would indicate liberation from the hegemony of geometry. I would like to begin to sketch the possibility of 'contingent interaction' through the dislocations inherent to alternative interfaces later in this story. For the time being, however, we must reassess all our liberation claims. If linearity and multilinearity are identical in terms of geometric relations to space-time, "why should they be any different in terms of ideology", asks Moulthrop ("Rhizome" 310). V. On Interactivity Given Rosenberg's critique against any inherently revolutionary qualities, we must acknowledge that hypermedia "marks not a terminus but a transition," Moulthrop writes ("Rhizome" 317). As a medium of exchange it is neither smooth nor striated, sophist nor socratic, 'work' nor 'text': it is undergoing an increasingly complex phase transition between such states. This landscape also gives rise to stray flows and intensities, 'Unspecified Enemies' which exist at the dangerous fissures and edges. We must accept that we will never escape the system, but we are presented with opportunities to rock the sedentary order from within. As a group of emerging electronic artists see it, the dis-articulation of the point'n'click interface is where interaction becomes reflection on the frame in fits and starts. "We believe that the computer, like everything else, is composed in conflict," explain the editors of electronic magazine I/O/D. "If we are locked in with the military and with Disney, they are locked in not just with us, but with every other stray will-to-power" (Fuller, Interview 2). Along with Adelaide-based group Mindflux, these artists produce hypertext interfaces that involve sensory apparatus and navigational skills that have been marginalised as incidental in the disabling interactive technologies of mainstream multimedia. Sound, movement, proprioception, an element of randomness and assorted other sensory circuits become central to the navigational experience. By enlisting marginalised senses, "we are not proposing to formulate a new paradigm of multimedial correctness," stresses Fuller, "but simply exploring the possibility of more complicated feedback arrangements between the user and the machine" (Fuller, qtd. in Barnet 48). The reader must encounter the 'lexias' contained in the system via the stray flows, intensities, movements, stratas and organs that are not proper to the system but shift across the interface and the surface of her body. In Fuller's electronic magazine, the reader is called upon to converse with the technology outside of the domesticated circuits of sight, dislocating the rigorous hierarchy of feedback devices which privilege the sight-machine and disable contingent interaction in a technonarcissistic fashion. The written information is mapped across a 'fuzzy' sound-based interface, sensitive at every moment to the smallest movements of the reader's fingers on the keys and mouse: the screen itself is black, its swarm of links and hotspots dead to the eye. The reader's movements produce different bleeps and beats, each new track opening different entrances and exits through the information in dependence upon the fluctuating pitch and tempo of her music. Without the aid of searchpaths and bright links, she must move in a state of perpetual readjustment to the technology, attuned not to the information stored behind the interface, but to the real-time sounds her movements produce. What we are calling play, Fuller explains, "is the difference between something that has a fixed grammar on the one hand and something that is continually and openly inventing its own logic on the other" (Fuller & Pope 4). The electronic writing space is not inherently liberatory, and the perpetual process of playing with process across the interface works to widen the 'fissures across the imperium' only for a moment. According to Fuller and Joyce, the 'process of playing with process' simply means complicating the feedback arrangements between the user's body and the machine. "We need to find a way of reading sensually ... rather than, as the interactive artist Graham Weinbren puts it, descending 'into the pit of so-called multimedia, with its scenes of unpleasant 'hotspots,' and 'menus' [that] leaves no room for the possibility of a loss of self, of desire in relation to the unfolding'" remarks Joyce (11). Interactivity which calls upon a mind folded everywhere within the body dislocates the encyclopaedic organisation of data that "preserves a point of privilege from where the eye can frame objects" by enlisting itinerant, diffuse desires in an extended period of readjustment to technology (Fuller & Pope 3). There are no pre-ordained or privileged feedback circuits as the body is seen to comprise a myriad possible elements or fragments of a desiring-machine with the potential to disrupt the flow, to proliferate. Mainstream multimedia's desire for 'informational hygiene' would have us transcend this embodied flux and bureaucratise the body into organs. Information is fed through the circuits of sight in a Pavlovian field of buttons and bright links: interactivity is misconceived as choice-making, when 'response' is a more appropriate concept. When the diffuse desire which thrives on disruption and alternative paradigms is written out in favour of informational hygiene, speed and efficient retrieval replace embodied conversation. "Disembodied [interaction] of this kind is always a con... . The entropic, troublesome flesh that is sloughed off in these fantasies of strongly male essentialism is interwoven with the dynamics of self-processing cognition and intentionality. We see computers as embodied culture, hardwired epistemology" (Fuller 2). Avant-garde hypertext deepens the subjective experience of the human-computer interface: it inscribes itself across the diffuse, disruptive desires of the flesh. Alternative interfaces are not an ideological overhaul enabled by the realm of technê, but a space for localised break-outs across the body. Bifurcations are enacted on the micro level by desiring-machines, across an interface which seeks to dislocate intentionality in conjunction with the marginalised sensory apparatus of the reader, drawing other minds, other organs into localised conversation with command-control. "The user learns kinesthetically and proprioceptively that the boundaries of self are defined less by the skin than by the [local] feedback loops connecting body and simulation in a techno-bio-integrated circuit" (Hayles 72). She oscillates between communication and control, play and restraint: not a nomad but a "human Deserter assuming the most diverse forms" (ATP, 422). VI. Desire Working from across the territory we have covered, we might say that electronic interaction 'liberates' us from neither the Line nor the flesh: at its most experimental, it is nothing less than reading embodied. References Barnet, Belinda. "Storming the Interface: Mindvirus, I/O/D and Deceptive Interaction." Artlink: Australian Contemporary Art Quarterly 17:4 (1997). Deleuze, Gilles, and Felix Guattari. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism & Schizophrenia. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1987. Fuller, Matt and Simon Pope. "Warning: This Computer Has Multiple Personality Disorder." 1993. 11 Dec. 1998 <http://www.altx.com/wordbombs/popefuller.php>. ---, eds. I/O/D2. Undated. 11 Dec. 1998 <http://www.pHreak.co.uk/i_o_d/>. Hayles, Katherine N. "Virtual Bodies and Flickering Signifiers" October Magazine 66 (Fall 1993): 69-91. Johnson-Eilola, Johndan. "Control and the Cyborg: Writing and Being Written in Hypertext." Journal of Advanced Composition 13:2 (1993): 381-99. Joyce, Michael. Of Two Minds: Hypertext, Pedagogy and Poetics. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1995. Moulthrop, Stuart. "No War Machine." 1997. 11 Dec. 1998 <http://raven.ubalt.edu/staff/moulthrop/essays/war_machine.php>. ---. "Rhizome and Resistance: Hypertext and the Dreams of a New Culture." Hyper/Text/Theory. Ed. George P. Landow. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1994. 299-319. Rosenberg, Martin E. "Physics and Hypertext: Liberation and Complicity in Art and Pedagogy." Hyper/Text/Theory. Ed. George Landow. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1994. 268-298. Selfe, Cynthia L., and Richard J. Selfe. "The Politics of the Interface: Power and Its Exercise in Electronic Contact Zones." College Composition and Communication 45.4: 480-504. Stone, Allucquére Roseanne. The War of Desire and Technology. London: MIT Press, 1996. Tolva, John. "Ut Pictura Hyperpoesis: Spatial Form, Visuality, and the Digital Word." 1993. 11 Dec. 1998 <http://www.cs.unc.edu/~barman/HT96/P43/pictura.htm>. Virilio, Paul. "The Third Interval: A Critical Transition." Rethinking Technologies. Ed. Verena Conley. London: U of Minnesota P, 1993. 3-12. Citation reference for this article MLA style: Belinda Barnet. "In the Garden of Forking Paths: Contingency, Interactivity and Play in Hypertext." M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 1.5 (1998). [your date of access] <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9812/garden.php>. Chicago style: Belinda Barnet, "In the Garden of Forking Paths: Contingency, Interactivity and Play in Hypertext," M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 1, no. 5 (1998), <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9812/garden.php> ([your date of access]). APA style: Belinda Barnet. (1998) In the garden of forking paths: contingency, interactivity and play in hypertext. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 1(5). <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9812/garden.php> ([your date of access]).