title: MIDI

text: Computers can use software to generate sounds, which are then passed through a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) to a power amplifier and loudspeaker system. The number of sounds that can be played simultaneously (the polyphony) is dependent on the power of the computer's CPU, as are the sample rate and bit depth of playback, which directly affect the quality of the sound. Synthesizers implemented in software are subject to timing issues that are not necessarily present with hardware instruments, whose dedicated operating systems are not subject to interruption from background tasks as desktop operating systems are. These timing issues can cause synchronization problems, and clicks and pops when sample playback is interrupted. Software synthesizers also may exhibit additional latency in their sound generation.


title: MIDI

text: The roots of software synthesis go back as far as the 1950s, when Max Mathews of Bell Labs wrote the MUSIC-N programming language, which was capable of non-real-time sound generation. Reality, by Dave Smith's Seer Systems was an early synthesizer that ran directly on a host computer's CPU. Reality achieved a low latency through tight driver integration, and therefore could run only on Creative Labs soundcards. Syntauri Corporation's Alpha Syntauri was another early software-based synthesizer. It ran on the Apple IIe computer and used a combination of software and the computer's hardware to produce additive synthesis. Some systems use dedicated hardware to reduce the load on the host CPU, as with Symbolic Sound Corporation's Kyma System, and the Creamware/Sonic Core Pulsar/SCOPE systems, which power an entire recording studio's worth of instruments, effect units, and mixers. The ability to construct full MIDI arrangements entirely in computer software allows a composer to render a finalized result directly as an audio file.


title: MIDI

text: Early PC games were distributed on floppy disks, and the small size of MIDI files made them a viable means of providing soundtracks. Games of the DOS and early Windows eras typically required compatibility with either Ad Lib or Sound Blaster audio cards. These cards used FM synthesis, which generates sound through modulation of sine waves. John Chowning, the technique's pioneer, theorized that the technology would be capable of accurate recreation of any sound if enough sine waves were used, but budget computer audio cards performed FM synthesis with only two sine waves. Combined with the cards' 8-bit audio, this resulted in a sound described as "artificial" and "primitive".


title: MIDI

text: Wavetable daughterboards that were later available provided audio samples that could be used in place of the FM sound. These were expensive, but often used the sounds from respected MIDI instruments such as the E-mu Proteus. The computer industry moved in the mid-1990s toward wavetable-based soundcards with 16-bit playback, but standardized on a 2 MB of wavetable storage, a space too small in which to fit good-quality samples of 128 General MIDI instruments plus drum kits. To make the most of the limited space, some manufacturers stored 12-bit samples and expanded those to 16 bits on playback.


title: MIDI

text: Despite its association with music devices, MIDI can control any electronic or digital device that can read and process a MIDI command. MIDI has been adopted as a control protocol in a number of non-musical applications. MIDI Show Control uses MIDI commands to direct stage lighting systems and to trigger cued events in theatrical productions. VJs and turntablists use it to cue clips, and to synchronize equipment, and recording systems use it for synchronization and automation. Apple Motion allows control of animation parameters through MIDI. The 1987 first-person shooter game "MIDI Maze" and the 1990 Atari ST computer puzzle game "Oxyd" used MIDI to network computers together.


title: MIDI

text: The cables terminate in a 180° five-pin DIN connector. Standard applications use only three of the five conductors: a ground wire (pin 2), and a balanced pair of conductors (pins 4 and 5) that carry a +5 volt data signal. This connector configuration can only carry messages in one direction, so a second cable is necessary for two-way communication. Some proprietary applications, such as phantom-powered footswitch controllers, use the spare pins for direct current (DC) power transmission.


title: MIDI

text: Opto-isolators keep MIDI devices electrically separated from their MIDI connections, which prevents ground loops and protects equipment from voltage spikes. There is no error detection capability in MIDI, so the maximum cable length is set at to limit interference.


title: MIDI

text: Most devices do not copy messages from their input to their output port. A third type of port, the "thru" port, emits a copy of everything received at the input port, allowing data to be forwarded to another instrument in a daisy-chain arrangement. Not all devices feature thru ports, and devices that lack the ability to generate MIDI data, such as effects units and sound modules, may not include out ports.


title: MIDI

text: Each device in a daisy chain adds delay to the system. This can be avoided by using a MIDI thru box, which contains several outputs that provide an exact copy of the box's input signal. A MIDI merger is able to combine the input from multiple devices into a single stream, and allows multiple controllers to be connected to a single device. A MIDI switcher allows switching between multiple devices, and eliminates the need to physically repatch cables. MIDI routers combine all of these functions. They contain multiple inputs and outputs, and allow any combination of input channels to be routed to any combination of output channels. Routing setups can be created using computer software, stored in memory, and selected by MIDI program change commands. This enables the devices to function as standalone MIDI routers in situations where no computer is present. MIDI data processors are used for utility tasks and special effects. These include MIDI filters, which remove unwanted MIDI data from the stream, and MIDI delays, effects that send a repeated copy of the input data at a set time.


title: MIDI

text: A computer MIDI interface's main function is to synchronize communications between the MIDI device and the computer. Some computer sound cards include a standard MIDI connector, whereas others connect by any of various means that include the D-subminiature DA-15 game port, USB, FireWire, Ethernet or a proprietary connection. The increasing use of USB connectors in the 2000s has led to the availability of MIDI-to-USB data interfaces that can transfer MIDI channels to USB-equipped computers. Some MIDI keyboard controllers are equipped with USB jacks, and can be connected directly to computers that run music software.


title: MIDI

text: MIDI's serial transmission leads to timing problems. A three-byte MIDI message requires nearly 1 millisecond for transmission. Because MIDI is serial, it can only send one event at a time. If an event is sent on two channels at once, the event on the second channel cannot transmit until the first one is finished, and so is delayed by 1 ms. If an event is sent on all channels at the same time, the last channel's transmission is delayed by as much as 16 ms. This contributed to the rise of MIDI interfaces with multiple in- and out-ports, because timing improves when events are spread between multiple ports as opposed to multiple channels on the same port. The term "MIDI slop" refers to audible timing errors that result when MIDI transmission is delayed.


title: MIDI

text: There are two types of MIDI controllers: performance controllers that generate notes and are used to perform music, and controllers that may not send notes, but transmit other types of real-time events. Many devices are some combination of the two types.


title: MIDI

text: Keyboards are by far the most common type of MIDI controller. MIDI was designed with keyboards in mind, and any controller that is not a keyboard is considered an "alternative" controller. This was seen as a limitation by composers who were not interested in keyboard-based music, but the standard proved flexible, and MIDI compatibility was introduced to other types of controllers, including guitars, and other stringed instruments and drum controllers and wind controllers, which emulate the playing of drum kit and wind instruments, respectively and specialized and experimental controllers. Nevertheless, some features of the keyboard playing for which MIDI was designed do not fully capture other instruments' capabilities; Jaron Lanier cites the standard as an example of technological "lock-in" that unexpectedly limited what was possible to express. Some of these shortcomings have been addressed in extensions to the protocol.


title: MIDI

text: Software synthesizers offer great power and versatility, but some players feel that division of attention between a MIDI keyboard and a computer keyboard and mouse robs some of the immediacy from the playing experience. Devices dedicated to real-time MIDI control provide an ergonomic benefit and can provide a greater sense of connection with the instrument than an interface that is accessed through a computer. Controllers may be general-purpose devices that are designed to work with a variety of equipment, or they may be designed to work with a specific piece of software. Examples of the latter include Akai's APC40 controller for Ableton Live, and Korg's MS-20ic controller, a reproduction of the control panel on their MS-20 analog synthesizer. The MS-20ic controller includes patch cables that can be used to control signal routing in their virtual reproduction of the MS-20 synthesizer and can also control third-party devices.


title: MIDI

text: A MIDI instrument contains ports to send and receive MIDI signals, a CPU to process those signals, an interface that allows user programming, audio circuitry to generate sound, and controllers. The operating system and factory sounds are often stored in a read-only memory (ROM) unit.


title: MIDI

text: A MIDI instrument can also be a stand-alone module (without a piano-style keyboard) consisting of a General MIDI soundboard (GM, GS and XG), onboard editing, including transposing, MIDI instrument selection and adjusting volume, pan, reverb levels and other MIDI controllers. Typically, the MIDI module includes a screen, so the user can view information for the currently selected function.


title: MIDI

text: Synthesizers may employ any of a variety of sound generation techniques. They may include an integrated keyboard, or may exist as "sound modules" or "expanders" that generate sounds when triggered by an external controller, such as a MIDI keyboard. Sound modules are typically designed to be mounted in a 19-inch rack. Manufacturers commonly produce a synthesizer in both standalone and rack-mounted versions, and often offer the keyboard version in a variety of sizes.


title: MIDI

text: A sampler can record and digitize audio, store it in random-access memory (RAM), and play it back. Samplers typically allow a user to edit a sample and save it to a hard disk, apply effects to it, and shape it with the same tools that synthesizers use. They also may be available in either keyboard or rack-mounted form. Instruments that generate sounds through sample playback, but have no recording capabilities, are known as "ROMplers".


title: MIDI

text: Samplers did not become established as viable MIDI instruments as quickly as synthesizers did, due to the expense of memory and processing power at the time. The first low-cost MIDI sampler was the Ensoniq Mirage, introduced in 1984. MIDI samplers are typically limited by displays that are too small to use to edit sampled waveforms, although some can be connected to a computer monitor.


title: MIDI

text: Drum machines typically are sample playback devices that specialize in drum and percussion sounds. They commonly contain a sequencer that allows the creation of drum patterns, and allows them to be arranged into a song. There often are multiple audio outputs, so that each sound or group of sounds can be routed to a separate output. The individual drum voices may be playable from another MIDI instrument, or from a sequencer.


title: MIDI

text: Sequencer technology predates MIDI. Analog sequencers use CV/Gate signals to control pre-MIDI analog synthesizers. MIDI sequencers typically are operated by transport features modeled after those of tape decks. They are capable of recording MIDI performances, and arranging them into individual tracks along a multitrack recording concept. Music workstations combine controller keyboards with an internal sound generator and a sequencer. These can be used to build complete arrangements and play them back using their own internal sounds, and function as self-contained music production studios. They commonly include file storage and transfer capabilities.


title: MIDI

text: Some effects units can be remotely controlled via MIDI. For example, the Eventide H3000 Ultra-harmonizer allows such extensive MIDI control that it is playable as a synthesizer. The Drum Buddy, a pedal-format drum machine, has a MIDI connection so that it can have its tempo synchronized with a looper pedal or time-based effects such as delay.


title: MIDI

text: MIDI messages are made up of 8-bit "words" (commonly called "bytes") that are transmitted serially at a rate of 31.25 kbit/s. This rate was chosen because it is an exact division of 1 MHz, the operational speed of many early microprocessors. The first bit of each word identifies whether the word is a status byte or a data byte, and is followed by seven bits of information. A start bit and a stop bit are added to each byte for framing purposes, so a MIDI byte requires ten bits for transmission.


title: MIDI

text: A MIDI link can carry sixteen independent channels of information. The channels are numbered 1–16, but their actual corresponding binary encoding is 0–15. A device can be configured to only listen to specific channels and to ignore the messages sent on other channels ("Omni Off" mode), or it can listen to all channels, effectively ignoring the channel address ("Omni On"). An individual device may be monophonic (the start of a new "note-on" MIDI command implies the termination of the previous note), or polyphonic (multiple notes may be sounding at once, until the polyphony limit of the instrument is reached, or the notes reach the end of their decay envelope, or explicit "note-off" MIDI commands are received). Receiving devices can typically be set to all four combinations of "omni off/on" versus "mono/poly" modes.


title: MIDI

text: A MIDI message is an instruction that controls some aspect of the receiving device. A MIDI message consists of a status byte, which indicates the type of the message, followed by up to two data bytes that contain the parameters. MIDI messages can be "channel messages" sent on only one of the 16 channels and monitored only by devices on that channel, or "system messages" that all devices receive. Each receiving device ignores data not relevant to its function. There are five types of message: Channel Voice, Channel Mode, System Common, System Real-Time, and System Exclusive.


title: MIDI

text: Channel Voice messages transmit real-time performance data over a single channel. Examples include "note-on" messages which contain a MIDI note number that specifies the note's pitch, a velocity value that indicates how forcefully the note was played, and the channel number; "note-off" messages that end a note; program change messages that change a device's patch; and control changes that allow adjustment of an instrument's parameters. MIDI notes are numbered from 0 to 127 assigned to C to G. This corresponds to a range of 8.175799 to 12543.85 Hz (assuming equal temperament and 440 Hz A) and extends beyond the 88 note piano range from A to C.


title: MIDI

text: System Exclusive (SysEx) messages are a major reason for the flexibility and longevity of the MIDI standard. Manufacturers use them to create proprietary messages that control their equipment more thoroughly than standard MIDI messages could. SysEx messages use the MIDI protocol to send information about the synthesizer's parameters, rather than performance data such as which notes are being played and how loud. SysEx messages are addressed to a specific device in a system. Each manufacturer has a unique identifier that is included in its SysEx messages, which helps ensure that only the targeted device responds to the message, and that all others ignore it. Many instruments also include a SysEx ID setting, so a controller can address two devices of the same model independently. SysEx messages can include functionality beyond what the MIDI standard provides.


title: MIDI

text: Devices typically do not respond to every type of message defined by the MIDI specification. The MIDI implementation chart was standardized by the MMA as a way for users to see what specific capabilities an instrument has, and how it responds to messages. A specific MIDI Implementation Chart is usually published for each MIDI device within the device documentation.


title: MIDI

text: The MIDI 1.0 specification for the electrical interface is based on a fully isolated current loop. The MIDI out port nominally sources a +5 volt source through a 220 ohm resistor out through pin 4 on the MIDI out DIN connector, in on pin 4 of the receiving device's MIDI in DIN connector, through a 220 ohm protection resistor and the LED of an opto-isolator. The current then returns via pin 5 on the MIDI in port to the originating device's MIDI out port pin 5, again with a 220 ohm resistor in the path, giving a nominal current of about 5 milliamperes. Despite the cable's appearance, there is no conductive path between the two MIDI devices, only an optically isolated one. Properly designed MIDI devices are relatively immune to ground loops and similar interference. The baud rate on this system is 31,250 symbols per second, logic 0 being current on.


title: MIDI

text: The MIDI specification provides for a ground "wire" and a braid or foil shield, connected on pin 2, protecting the two signal-carrying conductors on pins 4 and 5. Although the MIDI cable is supposed to connect pin 2 and the braid or foil shield to chassis ground, it should do so only at the MIDI out port; the MIDI in port should leave pin 2 unconnected and isolated. Some large manufacturers of MIDI devices use modified MIDI in-only DIN 5-pin sockets with the metallic conductors intentionally omitted at pin positions 1, 2, and 3 so that the maximum voltage isolation is obtained.


title: MIDI

text: MIDI's flexibility and widespread adoption have led to many refinements of the standard, and have enabled its application to purposes beyond those for which it was originally intended.


title: MIDI

text: MIDI allows selection of an instrument's sounds through program change messages, but there is no guarantee that any two instruments have the same sound at a given program location. Program #0 may be a piano on one instrument, or a flute on another. The General MIDI (GM) standard was established in 1991, and provides a standardized sound bank that allows a Standard MIDI File created on one device to sound similar when played back on another. GM specifies a bank of 128 sounds arranged into 16 families of eight related instruments, and assigns a specific program number to each instrument. Percussion instruments are placed on channel 10, and a specific MIDI note value is mapped to each percussion sound. GM-compliant devices must offer 24-note polyphony. Any given program change selects the same instrument sound on any GM-compatible instrument.


title: MIDI

text: General MIDI is defined by a standard layout of defined instrument sounds called 'patches', defined by a 'patch' number (program number – PC#) and triggered by pressing a key on a MIDI keyboard. This layout ensures MIDI sound modules and other MIDI devices faithfully reproduce the designated sounds expected by the user and maintains reliable and consistent sound palettes across different manufacturers MIDI devices.


title: MIDI

text: The GM standard eliminates variation in note mapping. Some manufacturers had disagreed over what note number should represent middle C, but GM specifies that note number 69 plays A440, which in turn fixes middle C as note number 60. GM-compatible devices are required to respond to velocity, aftertouch, and pitch bend, to be set to specified default values at startup, and to support certain controller numbers such as for sustain pedal, and Registered Parameter Numbers. A simplified version of GM, called "GM Lite", is used in mobile phones and other devices with limited processing power.


title: MIDI

text: A general opinion quickly formed that the GM's 128-instrument sound set was not large enough. Roland's General Standard, or GS, system included additional sounds, drumkits and effects, provided a "bank select" command that could be used to access them, and used MIDI Non-Registered Parameter Numbers (NRPNs) to access its new features. Yamaha's Extended General MIDI, or XG, followed in 1994. XG similarly offered extra sounds, drumkits and effects, but used standard controllers instead of NRPNs for editing, and increased polyphony to 32 voices. Both standards feature backward compatibility with the GM specification, but are not compatible with each other. Neither standard has been adopted beyond its creator, but both are commonly supported by music software titles.


title: MIDI

text: Member companies of Japan's AMEI developed the General MIDI Level 2 specification in 1999. GM2 maintains backward compatibility with GM, but increases polyphony to 32 voices, standardizes several controller numbers such as for sostenuto and soft pedal ("una corda"), RPNs and Universal System Exclusive Messages, and incorporates the MIDI Tuning Standard. GM2 is the basis of the instrument selection mechanism in Scalable Polyphony MIDI (SP-MIDI), a MIDI variant for low power devices that allows the device's polyphony to scale according to its processing power.


title: MIDI

text: Most MIDI synthesizers use equal temperament tuning. The MIDI tuning standard (MTS), ratified in 1992, allows alternate tunings. MTS allows microtunings that can be loaded from a bank of up to 128 patches, and allows real-time adjustment of note pitches. Manufacturers are not required to support the standard. Those who do are not required to implement all of its features.


title: MIDI

text: A sequencer can drive a MIDI system with its internal clock, but when a system contains multiple sequencers, they must synchronize to a common clock. MIDI Time Code (MTC), developed by Digidesign, implements SysEx messages that have been developed specifically for timing purposes, and is able to translate to and from the SMPTE time code standard. MIDI Clock is based on tempo, but SMPTE time code is based on frames per second, and is independent of tempo. MTC, like SMPTE code, includes position information, and can adjust itself if a timing pulse is lost. MIDI interfaces such as Mark of the Unicorn's MIDI Timepiece can convert SMPTE code to MTC.


title: MIDI

text: MIDI Machine Control (MMC) consists of a set of SysEx commands that operate the transport controls of hardware recording devices. MMC lets a sequencer send "Start", "Stop", and "Record" commands to a connected tape deck or hard disk recording system, and to fast-forward or rewind the device so that it starts playback at the same point as the sequencer. No synchronization data is involved, although the devices may synchronize through MTC.


title: MIDI

text: MIDI Show Control (MSC) is a set of SysEx commands for sequencing and remotely cueing show control devices such as lighting, music and sound playback, and motion control systems. Applications include stage productions, museum exhibits, recording studio control systems, and amusement park attractions.


title: MIDI

text: One solution to MIDI timing problems is to mark MIDI events with the times they are to be played, and store them in a buffer in the MIDI interface ahead of time. Sending data beforehand reduces the likelihood that a busy passage can send a large amount of information that overwhelms the transmission link. Once stored in the interface, the information is no longer subject to timing issues associated with USB jitter and computer operating system interrupts, and can be transmitted with a high degree of accuracy. MIDI timestamping only works when both hardware and software support it. MOTU's MTS, eMagic's AMT, and Steinberg's Midex 8 had implementations that were incompatible with each other, and required users to own software and hardware manufactured by the same company to work. Timestamping is built into FireWire MIDI interfaces, Mac OS X Core Audio, and Linux ALSA Sequencer.


title: MIDI

text: An unforeseen capability of SysEx messages was their use for transporting audio samples between instruments. This led to the development of the sample dump standard (SDS), which established a new SysEx format for sample transmission. The SDS was later augmented with a pair of commands that allow the transmission of information about sample loop points, without requiring that the entire sample be transmitted.


title: MIDI

text: The Downloadable Sounds (DLS) specification, ratified in 1997, allows mobile devices and computer sound cards to expand their wave tables with downloadable sound sets. The DLS Level 2 Specification followed in 2006, and defined a standardized synthesizer architecture. The Mobile DLS standard calls for DLS banks to be combined with SP-MIDI, as self-contained Mobile XMF files.


title: MIDI

text: MIDI Polyphonic Expression (MPE) is a method of using MIDI that enables pitch bend, and other dimensions of expressive control, to be adjusted continuously for individual notes. MPE works by assigning each note to its own MIDI channel so that particular messages can be applied to each note individually. The specifications were released in November 2017 by AMEI and in January 2018 by the MMA. Instruments like the Continuum Fingerboard, LinnStrument, ROLI Seaboard, Sensel Morph, and Eigenharp let users control pitch, timbre, and other nuances for individual notes within chords.


title: MIDI

text: In addition to the original 31.25 kbit/s current-loop transported on 5-pin DIN, other connectors have been used for the same electrical data, and transmission of MIDI streams in different forms over USB, IEEE 1394 a.k.a. FireWire, and Ethernet is now common. Some samplers and hard drive recorders can also pass MIDI data between each other over SCSI.


title: MIDI

text: Members of the USB-IF in 1999 developed a standard for MIDI over USB, the "Universal Serial Bus Device Class Definition for MIDI Devices" MIDI over USB has become increasingly common as other interfaces that had been used for MIDI connections (serial, joystick, etc.) disappeared from personal computers. Linux, Microsoft Windows, Macintosh OS X, and Apple iOS operating systems include standard class drivers to support devices that use the "Universal Serial Bus Device Class Definition for MIDI Devices". Some manufacturers choose to implement a MIDI interface over USB that is designed to operate differently from the class specification, using custom drivers.


title: MIDI

text: Apple Computer developed the FireWire interface during the 1990s. It began to appear on digital video cameras toward the end of the decade, and on G3 Macintosh models in 1999. It was created for use with multimedia applications. Unlike USB, FireWire uses intelligent controllers that can manage their own transmission without attention from the main CPU. As with standard MIDI devices, FireWire devices can communicate with each other with no computer present.


title: MIDI

text: The Octave-Plateau Voyetra-8 synthesizer was an early MIDI implementation using XLR3 connectors in place of the 5-pin DIN. It was released in the pre-MIDI years and later retrofitted with a MIDI interface but keeping its XLR connector.


title: MIDI

text: As computer-based studio setups became common, MIDI devices that could connect directly to a computer became available. These typically used the 8-pin mini-DIN connector that was used by Apple for serial ports prior to the introduction of the Blue & White G3 models. MIDI interfaces intended for use as the centerpiece of a studio, such as the Mark of the Unicorn MIDI Time Piece, were made possible by a "fast" transmission mode that could take advantage of these serial ports' ability to operate at 20 times the standard MIDI speed. Mini-DIN ports were built into some late-1990s MIDI instruments, and enabled such devices to be connected directly to a computer. Some devices connected via PCs' DB-25 parallel port, or through the joystick port found in many PC sound cards.


title: MIDI

text: Yamaha introduced the mLAN protocol in 1999. It was conceived as a Local Area Network for musical instruments using FireWire as the transport, and was designed to carry multiple MIDI channels together with multichannel digital audio, data file transfers, and time code. mLan was used in a number of Yamaha products, notably digital mixing consoles and the Motif synthesizer, and in third-party products such as the PreSonus FIREstation and the Korg Triton Studio. No new mLan products have been released since 2007.


title: MIDI

text: Computer network implementations of MIDI provide network routing capabilities, and the high-bandwidth channel that earlier alternatives to MIDI, such as ZIPI, were intended to bring. Proprietary implementations have existed since the 1980s, some of which use fiber optic cables for transmission. The Internet Engineering Task Force's RTP-MIDI open specification has gained industry support. Apple has supported this protocol from Mac OS X 10.4 onwards, and a Windows driver based on Apple's implementation exists for Windows XP and newer versions.


title: MIDI

text: Systems for wireless MIDI transmission have been available since the 1980s. Several commercially available transmitters allow wireless transmission of MIDI and OSC signals over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. iOS devices are able to function as MIDI control surfaces, using Wi-Fi and OSC. An XBee radio can be used to build a wireless MIDI transceiver as a do-it-yourself project. Android devices are able to function as full MIDI control surfaces using several different protocols over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.


title: MIDI

text: Some devices use standard 3.5 mm TRS audio minijack connectors for MIDI data, including the Korg Electribe 2 and the Arturia Beatstep Pro. Both come with adaptors that break out to standard 5-pin DIN connectors.. This became widespread enough that the Midi Manufacturers' Association standardized the wiring. The MIDI-over-minijack standards document also recommends the use of 2.5 mm connectors over 3.5 mm ones to avoid confusion with audio connectors.


title: MIDI

text: The MIDI 2.0 standard was presented on 17 January 2020 at the Winter NAMM Show in Anaheim, California at a session titled "Strategic Overview and Introduction to MIDI 2.0" by representatives Yamaha, Roli, Microsoft, Google, and the MIDI Association. This significant update adds bidirectional communication while maintaining backwards compatibility.


title: MIDI

text: The new protocol has been researched since 2005. Prototype devices have been shown privately at NAMM using wired and wireless connections and licensing and product certification policies have been developed; however, no projected release date was announced. Proposed physical layer and transport layer included Ethernet-based protocols such as RTP MIDI and Audio Video Bridging/Time-Sensitive Networking, as well as User Datagram Protocol (UDP)-based transport .


title: MIDI

text: AMEI and MMA announced that complete specifications will be published following interoperability testing of prototype implementations from major manufacturers such as Google, Yamaha, Steinberg, Roland, Ableton, Native Instruments, and ROLI, among others. In January 2020, Roland announced the A-88mkII controller keyboard that supports MIDI 2.0.


title: MIDI

text: MIDI 2.0 includes MIDI Capability Inquiry specification for property exchange and profiles, and the new Universal MIDI Packet format for high-speed transports which supports both MIDI 1.0 and MIDI 2.0 voice messages.


title: MIDI

text: Some devices operating MIDI 1.0 can "retrofit" some 2.0 features. Since its release in early January 2020 by the MIDI Manufacturers Association, more details have yet to come out about the new update. Currently there are five components to MIDI such as; M2-100-U v1.0 MIDI 2.0 Specification Overview, M2-101-UM v1.1 MIDI-CI Specification, M2-102-U v1.0 Common Rules for MIDI-CI Profiles, M2-103-UM v1.0 Common Rules for MIDI-CI PE and M2-104-UM v1.0 UMP and MIDI 2.0 Protocol Specification. Other specifications regarding MIDI 2.0 include; allowing the use of 32,000 controllers and wide range note enhancements. These enhancements are made better through the property exchange.


title: MIDI

text: The property exchange in MIDI 2.0 uses JSON or JavaScript Object Notation. This provides human-readable format to for exchanging data sets. In doing so, this opens up a wide range of capabilities for MIDI 2.0. JSON allows any plugged-in device whether it be a keyboard, piano or any other electrical device to describe what it is doing and what it can do rather than having the person operating it, change their settings every time they operate a new device. For example, a MIDI keyboard that is plugged into an iOS device with specific MIDI settings can now be plugged into a Windows device and not have to have their settings manually changed. Any musical component used in one device will be kept and can be altered automatically in another.


title: MIDI

text: MIDI Capability Inquiry (MIDI-CI) specifies Universal SysEx messages to implement device profiles, parameter exchange, and MIDI protocol negotiation. The specifications were released in November 2017 by AMEI and in January 2018 by the MMA.


title: MIDI

text: Parameter exchange defines methods for inquiry of device capabilities, such as supported controllers, patch names, instrument profiles, device configuration and other metadata, and to get or set device configuration settings. Property exchange uses System Exclusive messages that carry JSON format data. Profiles define common sets of MIDI controllers for various instrument types, such as drawbar organs and analog synths, or for particular tasks, improving interoperability between instruments from different manufacturers. Protocol negotiation allows devices to employ the Next Generation protocol or manufacturer-specific protocols.


title: MIDI

text: MIDI 2.0 defines a new Universal MIDI Packet format, which contains messages of varying length (32, 64, 96 or 128 bits) depending on the payload type. This new packet format supports a total of 256 MIDI channels, organized in 16 groups of 16 channels; each group can carry either a MIDI 1.0 Protocol stream or new MIDI 2.0 Protocol stream, and can also include system messages, system exclusive data, and timestamps for precise rendering of several simultaneous notes. To simplify initial adoption, existing products are explicitly allowed to only implement MIDI 1.0 messages. The Universal MIDI Packet is intended for high-speed transport such as USB and Ethernet and is not supported on the existing 5-pin DIN connections. System Real-Time and System Common messages are the same as defined in MIDI 1.0.


title: MIDI

text: As of January 2019, the draft specification of the new protocol supports all core messages that also exist in MIDI 1.0, but extends their precision and resolution; it also defines many new high-precision controller messages. The specification defines default translation rules to convert between MIDI 2.0 Channel Voice and MIDI 1.0 Channel Voice messages that use different data resolution, as well as map 256 MIDI 2.0 streams to 16 MIDI 1.0 streams.


title: MIDI

text: System Exclusive 8 messages use a new 8-bit data format, based on Universal System Exclusive messages. Mixed Data Set messages are intended to transfer large sets of data. System Exclusive 7 messages use the previous 7-bit data format.


title: Wart

text: Warts are typically small, rough, hard growths that are similar in color to the rest of the skin. They typically do not result in other symptoms, except when on the bottom of the feet, where they may be painful. While they usually occur on the hands and feet, they can also affect other locations. One or many warts may appear. They are not cancerous.


title: Wart

text: Warts are caused by infection with a type of human papillomavirus (HPV). Factors that increase the risk include use of public showers and pools, working with meat, eczema and a weak immune system. The virus is believed to enter the body through skin that has been damaged slightly. A number of types exist, including "common warts", plantar warts, "filiform warts", and genital warts. Genital warts are often sexually transmitted.


title: Wart

text: Without treatment, most types of warts resolve in months to years. A number of treatments may speed resolution, including salicylic acid applied to the skin and cryotherapy. In those who are otherwise healthy, they do not typically result in significant problems. Treatment of genital warts differs from that of other types.


title: Wart

text: Warts are very common, with most people being infected at some point in their lives. The estimated current rate of non-genital warts among the general population is 1–13%. They are more common among young people. Prior to widespread adoption of the HPV vaccine, the estimated rate of genital warts in sexually active women was 12%. Warts have been described at least as far back as 400 BC by Hippocrates.


title: Wart

text: A range of types of wart have been identified, varying in shape and site affected, as well as the type of human papillomavirus involved. These include:


title: Wart

text: Warts are caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV). There are about 130 known types of human papilloma viruses. HPV infects the squamous epithelium, usually of the skin or genitals, but each HPV type is typically only able to infect a few specific areas on the body. Many HPV types can produce a benign growth, often called a "wart" or "papilloma", in the area they infect. Many of the more common HPV and wart types are listed below.


title: Wart

text: Common warts have a characteristic appearance under the microscope. They have thickening of the stratum corneum (hyperkeratosis), thickening of the stratum spinosum (acanthosis), thickening of the stratum granulosum, rete ridge elongation, and large blood vessels at the dermoepidermal junction.


title: Wart

text: Gardasil 6 is an HPV vaccine aimed at preventing cervical cancers and genital warts. Gardasil is designed to prevent infection with HPV types 16, 18, 6, and 11. HPV types 16 and 18 currently cause about 70% of cervical cancer cases, and also cause some vulvar, vaginal, penile and anal cancers. HPV types 6 and 11 are responsible for 90% of documented cases of genital warts.


title: Wart

text: HPV vaccines do not currently protect against the virus strains responsible for plantar warts (verrucae).


title: Wart

text: The virus is relatively hardy and immune to many common disinfectants. Exposure to 90% ethanol for at least 1 minute, 2% glutaraldehyde, 30% Savlon, and/or 1% sodium hypochlorite can disinfect the pathogen.


title: Wart

text: There are many treatments and procedures associated with wart removal. A review of various skin wart treatments concluded that topical treatments containing salicylic acid were more effective than placebo. Cryotherapy appears to be as effective as salicylic acid, but there have been fewer trials.


title: Wart

text: According to English folk belief, touching toads causes warts; according to a German belief, touching a toad under a full moon cures warts. The most common Northern Hemisphere toads have glands that protrude from their skin that superficially resemble warts. Warts are caused by a virus, and toads do not harbor it. A variety of traditional folk remedies and rituals claim to be able to remove warts.


title: Wart

text: In "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", Mark Twain has his characters discuss a variety of such remedies. Tom Sawyer proposes "spunk-water" (or "stump-water", the water collecting in the hollow of a tree stump) as a remedy for warts on the hand. You put your hand into the water at midnight and say:


title: Wart

text: You then "walk away quick, eleven steps, with your eyes shut, and then turn around three times and walk home without speaking to anybody. Because if you speak the charm's busted." This is given as an example to Huckleberry Finn's planned remedy, which involves throwing a dead cat into a graveyard as a devil or devils comes to collect a recently buried wicked person. Another remedy involved splitting a bean, drawing blood from the wart and putting it on one of the halves, and burying that half at a crossroads at midnight. The theory of operation is that the blood on the buried bean will draw away the wart. Twain is recognized as an early collector and recorder of genuine American folklore.


title: Wart

text: Similar practices are recorded elsewhere. In Louisiana, one remedy for warts involves rubbing the wart with a potato, which is then buried; when the "buried potato dries up, the wart will be cured". Another remedy similar to Twain's is reported from Northern Ireland, where water from a specific well on Rathlin Island is credited with the power to cure warts.


title: Wart

text: Surviving ancient medical texts show that warts were a documented disease since at least the time of Hippocrates, who lived – . In the book "De Medecia" by the Roman physician Aulus Cornelius Celsus, who lived – , different types of warts were described. Celsus described "myrmecia", today recognized as plantar wart, and categorized acrochordon (a skin tag) as wart. In the 13th century, warts were described in books published by the surgeons William of Saliceto and Lanfranc of Milan. The word "verruca" to describe a wart was introduced by the physician Daniel Sennert, who described warts in his 1636 book "Hypomnemata physicae".


title: Wart

text: But the cause of warts was disputed in the medical profession. In the early 18th century the physician Daniel Turner, who published the first book on dermatology, suggested that warts were caused by damaged nerves close to the skin. In the mid 18th century, the surgeon John Hunter popularized the belief that warts were caused by a bacterial syphilis


title: Wart

text: infection. The surgeon Benjamin Bell documented that warts were caused by a disease entirely unrelated to syphilis, and established a causal link between warts and cancer. In the 19th century, the chief physician of Verona hospital established a link between warts and cervical cancer. But in 1874 it was noted by the dermatologist Ferdinand Ritter von Hebra that while various theories were advanced by the medical profession, the "influences causing warts are still very obscure".


title: Wart

text: In 1907 the physician Giuseppe Ciuffo was the first to demonstrate that warts were caused by a virus infection. In 1976 the virologist Harald zur Hausen was the first to discover that warts were caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV). His continuous research established the evidence necessary to develop a HPV vaccine, which first became available in 2006.


title: Radhika Madan

text: Radhika Madan (born 1 May 1995) is an Indian actress who works predominantly in Hindi films. After graduating from the Jesus and Mary College, she began her acting career with the television soap opera "Meri Aashiqui Tum Se Hi" (2014–2016). Madan made her film debut with Vishal Bhardwaj's comedy "Pataakha" in 2018, for which she won the Screen Award for Best Female Debut.


title: Radhika Madan

text: Madan has since starred in the films "Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota" (2018), "Angrezi Medium" (2020) and "Shiddat" (2021), and the anthology series "Ray" (2021).


title: Radhika Madan

text: Radhika Madan was born on 1 May 1995 in Delhi, India. Her father, Sujit Madan is a businessman and her mother, Neeru Madan is a painter. She is one of two siblings. She has a brother, Arjun Madan.


title: Radhika Madan

text: Madan completed her schooling from Delhi Public School, Mathura Road, New Delhi, and did her graduation in Bachelor’s of Commerce from Jesus and Mary College, University of Delhi, New Delhi.


title: Radhika Madan

text: Hailing from Delhi, Madan started her career by making her acting debut in the daily soap opera TV series "Meri Aashiqui Tum Se Hi" on Colors TV. She played the female lead Ishaani Vaghela opposite Shakti Arora, that earned her massive popularity. The series became one of the most famous shows of Colors TV, airing for over 400 episodes from June 2014 to February 2016.


title: Radhika Madan

text: While busy in shooting for "Meri Aashiqui Tum Se Hi", Madan also simultaneously participated in Colors TV's dance reality show "Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 8" in 2015.


title: Radhika Madan

text: Madan quit television to make her feature film debut in Vishal Bhardwaj's drama "Pataakha" (2018) alongside Sanya Malhotra. Based on the short story "Do Behnen" by Charan Singh Pathik, which revolved around two sisters in Rajasthan who are always on conflict. The story was based on the wives of Pathik's brothers, and for preparation, both Madan and Malhotra met the real women for the dialect and the character's nuances. For the preparation, both Malhotra and Madan stayed in Ronsi village near Jaipur and learned the Rajasthani dialect; they also got accustomed with milking buffaloes, thatching roofs, plastering the walls with dung and walking for long distances while balancing "matkas" full of water on their head and one around their waist. They also had to put on of weight. Raja Sen wrote in his review, "Radhika Madan positively shines in this bossy role, unwavering in dialect and determination."


title: Radhika Madan

text: In 2019, Madan was cast in Vasan Bala's action comedy "Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota" with newcomer Abhimanyu Dassani. It premiered in the Midnight Madness section of the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the . The film was also screened at the 2018 MAMI Film Festival. Madan mentioned that she was auditioning for "Laila Majnu" (2018) when got to know about "Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota" and chose the latter film because of its "uniqueness". She performed all the stunts herself and watched several classic action films for days to famliarise herself with the genre. She was also injured while the physical training. Pradeep Menon of "Firstpost" called her a "delight as Supri" and noted that Madan "manages to make it work by sheer will and talent" despite the character having an "inconsistent treatment". He further said that she "sparkles in the action sequences."


title: Radhika Madan

text: In 2020, Madan appeared in Homi Adajania's comedy-drama "Angrezi Medium" with Irrfan Khan and Kareena Kapoor, which was Khan's last film before his death in April 2020. Anupama Chopra called her an "absolute natural" in the role. Writing that she "captures the unforced innocence of a 17-year-old, desperate to get out of her small town and see the world."


title: Radhika Madan

text: In 2021, Madan did a variety of four projects. She made her entry into web series with her performances as Divya Didi in "Ray" and Avani Rajvansh in "Feels Like Ishq", both of which earned critical praise. She also worked in the music video "Ni Jaana", a single by Jasleen Royal. Her only film in 2021 was released on Disney+ Hotstar. It was Kunal Deshmukh's romance film "Shiddat" with Sunny Kaushal.


title: Radhika Madan

text: Madan will next appear in "Kacchey Limbu" with Rajat Barmecha and Ayush Mehra. She has completed shoot for Adajania's untitled film, and Netflix film "Monica, O My Darling". She plays the titular character in Sudhanshu Saria's "Sanaa". The film will have its world premiere at the 26th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in November 2022. She completed shoot for Bhardwaj's production and his son Aasmaan's directorial "Kuttey".


title: Radhika Madan

text: In April 2022, Madan commenced shooting for Tamil film "Soorarai Pottru" remake alongside Akshay Kumar and Paresh Rawal. She also started filming Vijan's "Happy Teacher's Day" with Nimrat Kaur in September 2022.


title: Bruce McLaren

text: Bruce Leslie McLaren (30 August 1937 – 2 June 1970) was a New Zealand racing car designer, driver, engineer, and inventor.


title: Bruce McLaren

text: His name lives on in the McLaren team which has been one of the most successful in Formula One championship history, winning a total of 8 World Constructors' Championships and 12 World Drivers' Championships. McLaren cars dominated CanAm sports car racing with 56 wins, a considerable number of them with him behind the wheel, between 1967 and 1972 (and five constructors' championships), and have won three Indianapolis 500 races, as well as the 24 Hours of Le Mans and 12 Hours of Sebring.


title: Bruce McLaren

text: Born in Auckland, New Zealand, Bruce McLaren attended Meadowbank Primary School. As a nine-year-old, he was diagnosed with Perthes disease in his hip that left his left leg shorter than the right.


title: Bruce McLaren

text: His parents, Les and Ruth McLaren, owned a service station and workshop in Remuera Rd, Remuera, Auckland; Les McLaren had been a motorcycle racing enthusiast, but gave that up due to an injury before Bruce's birth, and began racing cars at the club level instead. Bruce spent all of his free hours hanging around the workshop and developed his passion during his formative years.


title: Bruce McLaren

text: Les McLaren restored an Austin 7 Ulster, which 14-year-old Bruce used in 1952 when he entered his first competition, a hillclimb. Two years later, he took part in his first real race and showed promise. He moved up from the Austin to a Ford 10 special and an Austin-Healey, then a Formula Two (F2) Cooper-Climax sports racing car. He immediately began to modify, improve and master it, so much so that he was runner-up in the 1957–58 New Zealand championship series.


title: Bruce McLaren

text: His performance in the New Zealand Grand Prix in 1958 was noticed by Australian driver Jack Brabham (who would later invite McLaren to drive for him). Because of his obvious potential, the New Zealand International Grand Prix organisation selected him for its 'Driver to Europe' scheme designed to give a promising Kiwi driver year-round experience with the best in the world. McLaren was the first recipient, to be followed by others later including Denny Hulme.


title: Bruce McLaren

text: McLaren went to Cooper and stayed seven years. He raced in F2 and was entered in the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring in which F2 and F1 cars competed together. He astounded the motor racing fraternity by being the first F2, and fifth overall, in a field of the best drivers in the world.


title: Bruce McLaren

text: McLaren joined the Cooper factory F1 team alongside Jack Brabham in 1959 and won the 1959 United States Grand Prix at age 22 years 104 days, becoming the youngest ever GP winner (not including the Indianapolis 500) up to that time. This record would stand for more than four decades until Fernando Alonso's victory at the 2003 Hungarian Grand Prix. He followed that with a win in the Argentine Grand Prix, the first race of the 1960 Formula One season, and he would finish runner-up that season to Brabham.


title: Bruce McLaren

text: McLaren won the 1962 Monaco Grand Prix, eventually finishing a fine third in the championship that year. The next year, he founded Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Ltd, which remains in the Formula One championship simply as McLaren. McLaren continued to race and win in Coopers (including the New Zealand GP in 1964).


title: Bruce McLaren

text: McLaren left Cooper at the end of 1965, and announced his own GP racing team, with co-driver and fellow Kiwi Chris Amon. Amon left in 1967 to drive for Ferrari. In 1968, McLaren was joined by another fellow Kiwi Denny Hulme, who had become world champion in 1967 with Brabham. McLaren took his fourth career win racing his own McLaren car at Spa in 1968, achieving the team's first Grand Prix win. Hulme won twice in the McLaren-Ford.


title: Bruce McLaren

text: The championship was also a success, with McLaren finishing third in the standings despite taking no wins. In tribute to his homeland, McLaren's cars featured the "speedy Kiwi" logo.


title: Bruce McLaren

text: McLaren's design flair and ingenuity were graphically demonstrated in powerful sports car racing. Just as the Can-Am began to become very popular with fans in Canada and the U.S., the new McLaren cars finished second twice, and third twice, in six races.


title: Bruce McLaren

text: In 1967, they won five of six races and in 1968, four of six. The following year, McLarens proved unbeatable, winning all 11 races. In two races, they finished 1–2–3.


title: Bruce McLaren

text: In 1965, McLaren and co-driver Ken Miles raced a Ford GT40 in the 24 Hour Race at Le Mans. The car was leading after 45 laps but retired due to gearbox failure. In 1966, McLaren and co-driver Chris Amon won the race in a Ford GT40, in a Ford 1-2-3 finish. The Ken Miles-Denny Hulme entry crossed the line first but travelled less distance due to the Le Mans style start.


title: Bruce McLaren

text: McLaren was a competitive driver, but his legacy, the McLaren Racing Team, stems from his abilities as an analyst, engineer, and manager. In the early days of McLaren sports cars, McLaren was testing and as he drove out of the pits, he noticed the fuel filler access door was flapping up and down as he drove. The current aerodynamic thinking was that it should have been pressed more firmly in place as the speed of the car increased. Instead, it bounced more vigorously as the speed increased. Instantly, his frustration at the sloppy work changed and he had an insight. Stopping in the pits, he grabbed a pair of shears, and started cutting the bodywork away behind the radiator. Climbing back in the car, he immediately began turning lap times faster than before.


title: Bruce McLaren

text: Later he explained, I was first angry that the filler door hadn't been properly closed but then I began to wonder why it wasn't being pressed down by the airflow. The only answer was that there had to be a source of higher pressure air under it than over it. From that session came the "nostrils" that have been a key McLaren design feature, including in the McLaren P1 road car.


title: Bruce McLaren

text: McLaren noticed that his team's cars were less innovative than the Chaparrals of rival driver/designer Jim Hall, but their superior reliability was rewarded by race and championship victories. That culture continued after his death and when Ron Dennis bought the team was reinforced by the lessons learned in his early career as a race mechanic.


title: Bruce McLaren

text: Bruce McLaren died aged 32 when his Can-Am car crashed on the Lavant Straight just before Woodcote corner at Goodwood Circuit in England on 2 June 1970. He had been testing his new McLaren M8D when the rear bodywork came adrift at speed. The loss of aerodynamic downforce destabilised the car, which spun, left the track, and hit a bunker used as a flag station.


title: Bruce McLaren

text: Motorsport author Eoin Young said that Bruce McLaren had "virtually penned his own epitaph" in his 1964 book "From the Cockpit". Referring to the death of teammate Timmy Mayer, McLaren had written:


title: Bruce McLaren

text: McLaren was survived by his sisters Pat and Jan, wife Patty and daughter Amanda. He was buried at Waikumete Cemetery in Glen Eden.


title: Bruce McLaren

text: <nowiki>*</nowiki> McLaren was ineligible to score points in the 1958 German Grand Prix because he was driving a Formula Two car.


title: Bruce McLaren

text: A list of further such volumes can be viewed at Historical Books -- Bruce McLaren Trust - History of motorsport racing legend and founder of McLaren F1 and Can-Am teams.


title: Lake Michigan

text: Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that of Lake Huron through the wide, deep, Straits of Mackinac, giving it the same surface elevation as its easterly counterpart; the two are technically a single lake.


title: Lake Michigan

text: Lake Michigan is the world's largest lake by area in one country. Located in the United States, it is shared, from west to east, by the states of Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. Ports along its shores include Milwaukee and the City of Green Bay in Wisconsin; Chicago in Illinois; Gary in Indiana; and Muskegon in Michigan. Green Bay is a large bay in its northwest, and Grand Traverse Bay is in the northeast. The word "Michigan" is believed to come from the Ojibwe word ("michi-gami" or "mishigami") meaning "great water".


title: Lake Michigan

text: Some of most studied early human inhabitants of the Lake Michigan region were the Hopewell Native Americans. Their culture declined after 800 AD, and for the next few hundred years, the region was the home of peoples known as the Late Woodland Native Americans. In the early 17th century, when western European explorers made their first forays into the region, they encountered descendants of the Late Woodland Native Americans: the historic Chippewa; Menominee; Sauk; Fox; Winnebago; Miami; Ottawa; and Potawatomi peoples. The French explorer Jean Nicolet is believed to have been the first European to reach Lake Michigan, possibly in 1634 or 1638. In the earliest European maps of the region, the name of Lake Illinois has been found in addition to that of "Michigan", named for the Illinois Confederation of tribes. During the 1640s and 1650s, the Beaver Wars over the fur trade with the European colonies, initiated by the Iroquois, forced a massive demographic shift as their western neighbors fled the violence. They sought refuge west and north of Lake Michigan.


title: Lake Michigan

text: Lake Michigan is joined via the narrow, open-water Straits of Mackinac with Lake Huron, and the combined body of water is sometimes called Michigan–Huron (also Huron–Michigan). The Straits of Mackinac were an important Native American and fur trade route. Located on the southern side of the straits is the town of Mackinaw City, Michigan, the site of Fort Michilimackinac, a reconstructed French fort founded in 1715, and on the northern side is St. Ignace, Michigan, site of a French Catholic mission to the Indians, founded in 1671. In 1673, Jacques Marquette, Louis Jolliet and their crew of five Métis voyageurs followed Lake Michigan to Green Bay and up the Fox River, nearly to its headwaters, in their search for the Mississippi River. By the late 18th century, the eastern end of the straits was controlled by Fort Mackinac on Mackinac Island, a British colonial and early American military base and fur trade center, founded in 1781.


title: Lake Michigan

text: With the advent of European exploration into the area in the late 17th century, Lake Michigan became used as part of a line of waterways leading from the Saint Lawrence River to the Mississippi River and thence to the Gulf of Mexico. French coureurs des bois and voyageurs established small ports and trading communities, such as Green Bay, on the lake during the late 17th and early 18th centuries. In the 19th century, Lake Michigan was integral to the development of Chicago and the Midwestern United States west of the lake. For example, 90% of the grain shipped from Chicago travelled by ships east over Lake Michigan during the years. The volume rarely fell below 50% after the Civil War even with the major expansion of railroad shipping.


title: Lake Michigan

text: The first person to reach the deep bottom of Lake Michigan was J. Val Klump, a scientist at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee in 1985. Klump reached the bottom via submersible as part of a research expedition. In 2007, a row of stones paralleling an ancient shoreline was discovered by Mark Holley, professor of underwater archeology at Northwestern Michigan College. This formation lies below the surface of the lake. One of the stones is said to have a carving resembling a mastodon. The formation needed more study before it could be authenticated. The warming of Lake Michigan was the subject of a 2018 report by Purdue University. In each decade since 1980, steady increases in obscure surface temperature have occurred. This is likely to lead to decreasing native habitat and to adversely affect native species survival, including game fish.


title: Lake Michigan

text: The Milwaukee Reef, running under Lake Michigan from a point between Milwaukee and Racine to a point between Grand Haven and Muskegon, divides the lake into northern and southern basins. Each basin has a clockwise flow of water, deriving from rivers, winds, and the Coriolis effect. Prevailing westerly winds tend to move the surface water toward the east, producing a moderating effect on the climate of western Michigan. There is a mean difference in summer water temperatures of 5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit (2 to 5 degrees Celsius) between the Wisconsin and Michigan shores.


title: Lake Michigan

text: Hydrologically Michigan and Huron are the same body of water (sometimes called Lake Michigan-Huron) but are normally considered distinct. Counted together, it is the largest body of fresh water in the world by surface area. The Mackinac Bridge is generally considered the dividing line between them. The main inflow to Lake Michigan from Lake Superior, through Lake Huron, is controlled by the locks operated by the bi-national Lake Superior Board of Control.


title: Lake Michigan

text: Lake Michigan is the only Great Lake that is wholly within the borders of the United States; the others are shared with Canada. Lake Michigan has a surface area of 22,404 sq.mi (58,026 km); (13,237 square miles, 34,284 km lying in Michigan, 7,358 square miles, 19,056 km in Wisconsin, 234 square miles, 606 km in Indiana, & 1,576 square miles, 4,079 km in Illinois) making it the largest lake entirely within one country by surface area (Lake Baikal in Russia is larger by water volume) and the fifth-largest lake in the world.


title: Lake Michigan

text: It is the larger half of Lake Michigan–Huron, which is the largest body of fresh water in the world by surface area. It is long by wide with a shoreline long. The lake's average depth is 46 fathoms 3 feet (279 ft; 85 m), while its greatest depth is 153 fathoms 5 feet (923 ft; 281 m). It contains a volume of 1,180 cubic miles (4,918 km³) of water. Green Bay in the northwest is its largest bay. Grand Traverse Bay in its northeast is another large bay. Lake Michigan's deepest region, which lies in its northern half, is called Chippewa Basin (named after prehistoric Lake Chippewa) and is separated from South Chippewa Basin by a relatively shallower area called the Mid Lake Plateau.


title: Lake Michigan

text: In the mid 20th century, construction of the Saint Lawrence Seaway and Great Lakes Waterway opened the Great Lakes to ocean-going vessels. But the wider ocean-going container ships that were developed later do not fit through the locks on these routes, which limits shipping on the lakes. Lake freighters are used on the lakes that are too large to pass the locks and enter the ocean. Despite their vast size, large sections of the Great Lakes freeze in winter, interrupting most shipping. Some icebreakers ply the lakes.


title: Lake Michigan

text: Lake Michigan is connected by the Illinois Waterway to the Gulf of Mexico via the Illinois River and the Mississippi River. Commercial tug-and-barge traffic on these waterways is heavy. Pleasure boats can enter or exit the Great Lakes by way of the Erie Canal and Hudson River in New York. The Erie Canal connects to the Great Lakes at the east end of Lake Erie (at Buffalo, New York) and at the south side of Lake Ontario (at Oswego, New York).


title: Lake Michigan

text: The lake fluctuates from month to month with the highest lake levels typically occurring in summer. The normal high-water mark is above datum ("577.5 ft or 176.0 m"). In October 1986, Lakes Michigan and Huron reached their highest level at above datum. The monthly average high-water records were broken for several months in a row in 2020.


title: Lake Michigan

text: Lake levels tend to be the lowest in winter. The normal low-water mark is below datum ("577.5 ft or 176.0 m"). In the winter of 1964, Lakes Michigan and Huron reached their lowest level at below datum. As with the high-water records, monthly low-water records were set each month from February 1964 through January 1965. During this twelve-month period, water levels ranged from below Chart Datum. The all-time low-water mark was eclipsed in January 2013.


title: Lake Michigan

text: In January 2013, Lake Michigan's monthly mean water levels dipped to an all-time low of , reaching their lowest ebb since record keeping began in 1918. The lakes were below their long-term average and had declined 17 inches since January 2012. Keith Kompoltowicz, chief of watershed hydrology for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' district office in Detroit, explained that biggest factors leading to the lower water levels in 2013 were a combination of the "lack of a large snowpack" in the winter of 2011/2012 coupled with very hot and dry conditions in the summer of 2012. Since then water levels rebounded, rising more than 6 feet (2 meters) to historical record high levels.


title: Lake Michigan

text: Lake Michigan, like the other Great Lakes, supplies drinking water to millions of people in bordering areas.


title: Lake Michigan

text: The Great Lakes are collectively administered by the Conference of Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Governors and Premiers, intergovernmental organization led by the governing chief executives of the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Québec, and by the governors of the U.S. states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The Conference came into force, in December 2008, with the enactment of laws in all of the states and the two provinces, and the enactment of a United States federal law.


title: Lake Michigan

text: Environmental problems can still plague the lake. Steel mills and refineries operate near the Indiana shoreline. The "Chicago Tribune" reported that BP is a major polluter, dumping thousands of pounds of raw sludge into the lake every day from its Whiting, Indiana, oil refinery. In March 2014 BP's Whiting refinery was responsible for spilling more than of oil into the lake.


title: Lake Michigan

text: Lake Michigan has many beaches. The region is often referred to as the "Third Coast" of the United States, after those of the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. The sand is often soft and off-white, known as "singing sands" because of the squeaking noise (caused by high quartz content) it emits when walked upon. Some beaches have sand dunes covered in green beach grass and sand cherries, and the water is usually clear and cool, between , even in the late summer months. However, because prevailing westerly winds tend to move the surface water toward the east, there is a flow of warmer water to the Michigan shore in the summer.


title: Lake Michigan

text: The sand dunes located on the east shore of Lake Michigan are the largest freshwater dune system in the world. In multiple locations along the shoreline, the dunes rise several hundred feet above the lake surface. Large dune formations can be seen in many state parks, national forests and national parks along the Indiana and Michigan shoreline. Some of the most expansive and unique dune formations can be found at Indiana Dunes National Park, Saugatuck Dunes State Park, Warren Dunes State Park, Hoffmaster State Park, Silver Lake State Park, Ludington State Park, and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Small dune formations can be found on the western shore of Lake Michigan at Illinois Beach State Park, and moderate-sized dune formations can be found in Kohler-Andrae State Park and Point Beach State Forest in Wisconsin. A large dune formation can be found in Whitefish Dunes State Park in Wisconsin in the Door Peninsula. Lake Michigan beaches in Northern Michigan are the only place in the world, aside from a few inland lakes in that region, where Petoskey stones, the Michigan state stone, can be found.


title: Lake Michigan

text: The beaches of the western coast and the northernmost part of the east coast are often rocky, with some sandy beaches. The southern and eastern beaches are typically sandy and dune-covered. This is partly because of the prevailing winds from the west (which also cause thick layers of ice to build on the eastern shore in winter). The Chicago city waterfront has been developed for parks, beaches, harbors and marinas, and residential developments connected by the Chicago Lakefront Trail. Where there are no beaches or marinas, stone or concrete revetments protect the shoreline from erosion. The Chicago lakefront is accessible for about between the city's southern and northern limits along the lake.


title: Lake Michigan

text: Twelve million people live along Lake Michigan's shores, mainly in the Chicago and Milwaukee metropolitan areas. The economy of many communities in northern Michigan and Door County, Wisconsin, is supported by tourism, with large seasonal populations attracted by Lake Michigan. Many seasonal residents have summer homes along the waterfront and return to other homes for the winter. The southern tip of the lake near Gary, Indiana, is heavily industrialized.


title: Lake Michigan

text: The National Park Service maintains the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and Indiana Dunes National Park. Parts of the shoreline are within the Hiawatha National Forest and the Manistee National Forest. The Manistee National Forest section of the shoreline includes the Nordhouse Dunes Wilderness. The Lake Michigan division of the Michigan Islands National Wildlife Refuge is also within the lake, as is the Green Bay National Wildlife Refuge.


title: Lake Michigan

text: There are numerous state and local parks located on the shores of the lake or on islands within the lake:


title: Lake Michigan

text: Lake Michigan is home to a small variety of fish species and other organisms. It was originally home to lake whitefish, lake trout, yellow perch, panfish, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass and bowfin, as well as some species of catfish. As a result of improvements to the Welland Canal in 1918, an invasion of sea lampreys and overharvesting, there has been a decline in native lake trout populations, ultimately causing an increase in the population of another invasive species, the alewife. As a result, salmonids, including various strains of brown trout, steelhead (rainbow trout), coho and chinook salmon, were introduced as predators in order to decrease the wildlife population. This program was so successful that the introduced population of trout and salmon exploded, resulting in the creation of a large sport fishery for these introduced species. Lake Michigan is now stocked annually with steelhead, brown trout, and coho and chinook salmon, which have also begun natural reproduction in some Lake Michigan tributaries. However, several introduced invasive species, such as lampreys, round goby, zebra mussels and quagga mussels, continue to cause major changes in water clarity and fertility, resulting in knock-on changes to Lake Michigan's ecosystem, threatening the vitality of native fish populations.


title: Lake Michigan

text: Fisheries in inland waters of the United States are small compared to marine fisheries. The largest fisheries are the landings from the Great Lakes, worth about $14 million in 2001. Michigan's commercial fishery today consists mainly of 150 tribe-licensed commercial fishing operations through the Chippewa-Ottawa Resource Authority and tribes belonging to the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, which harvest 50 percent of the Great Lakes commercial catch in Michigan waters, and 45 state-licensed commercial fishing enterprises. The prime commercial species is the lake whitefish. The annual harvest declined from an average of from 1981 through to 1999 to more recent annual harvests of . The price for lake whitefish dropped from $1.04/lb. to as low as $.40/lb during periods of high production.


title: Lake Michigan

text: Sports fishing includes salmon, whitefish, smelt, lake trout and walleye as major catches. In the late 1960s, successful stocking programs for Pacific salmon led to the development of Lake Michigan's charter fishing industry.


title: Lake Michigan

text: Like all of the Great Lakes, Lake Michigan is today used as a major mode of transport for bulk goods. In 2002, 162 million net tons of dry bulk cargo were moved via the Lakes. This was, in order of volume: iron ore, grain and potash. The iron ore and much of the stone and coal are used in the steel industry. There is also some shipping of liquid and containerized cargo, but most container vessels cannot pass the locks on the Saint Lawrence Seaway because the ships are too wide. The total amount of shipping on the lakes has been on a downward trend for several years. The Port of Chicago, operated by the Illinois International Port District, has grain (14 million bushels) and bulk liquid (800,000 barrels) storage facilities along Lake Calumet. The central element of the Port District, Calumet Harbor, is maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.


title: Lake Michigan

text: Two passenger and vehicle ferries operate ferry services across Lake Michigan, both connecting Wisconsin on the western shore with Michigan on the east. From May to October, the historic steamship, , operates daily between Manitowoc, Wisconsin, and Ludington, Michigan, connecting U.S. Highway 10 between the two cities. The "Lake Express", established in 2004, carries passengers and vehicles across the lake between Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Muskegon, Michigan.


title: Lake Michigan

text: Tourism and recreation are major industries on all of the Great Lakes. A few small cruise ships operate on Lake Michigan, including a couple of sailing ships. Many other water sports are practiced on the lakes, such as yachting, sea kayaking, diving, kitesurfing and lake surfing. Great Lakes passenger steamers have been operating since the mid-19th century. Several ferries currently operate on the Great Lakes to carry passengers to various islands, including Beaver Island and Bois Blanc Island (Michigan). Currently, two car ferry services traverse Lake Michigan from around April to November: the SS Badger, a steamer from Ludington, Michigan, to Manitowoc, Wisconsin, and the Lake Express, a high speed catamaran from Milwaukee to Muskegon, Michigan.


title: Lake Michigan

text: The Great Lakes Circle Tour, a designated scenic road system, connects all of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River. The lake is a great place to view ice volcanoes, which typically occur at the start of the winter season.


title: Andy Weir

text: Andrew Taylor Weir (born June 16, 1972) is an American novelist and former computer programmer. His 2011 novel "The Martian" was adapted into the 2015 film of the same name directed by Ridley Scott. He received the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2016 and his 2021 novel "Project Hail Mary" was a finalist for the 2022 Hugo Award for Best Novel.


title: Andy Weir

text: Weir was raised in Milpitas, California. His father, John Weir, was a physicist at Sandia National Laboratories, and his mother was an electrical engineer. He was an only child, and his parents divorced when he was eight. Weir grew up reading classic science fiction such as the works of Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov. At the age of 15, he began working as a computer programmer for Sandia.


title: Andy Weir

text: After high school, Weir studied computer science at the University of California, San Diego, though he did not graduate. He worked as a programmer for several software companies, including AOL, Palm, MobileIron, and Blizzard, where he worked on the video game "".


title: Andy Weir

text: Weir began writing science fiction in his twenties and published work on his website for years. He also authored a humor web comic called "Casey and Andy" featuring fictionalized "mad scientist" versions of himself and his friends (such as writer Jennifer Brozek) from 2001 to 2008; he also briefly worked on another comic called "Cheshire Crossing" (bridging "Alice in Wonderland", "Peter Pan", "The Wizard of Oz" and "Mary Poppins") from 2006 to 2008. The attention these gained him has been attributed as later helping launch his writing career, following the failure to publish his first novel attempt called "Theft of Pride". His first work to gain significant attention was "The Egg", a 2009 short story that has been adapted into a number of YouTube videos, a one-act play, and is the overarching concept of "Everybody", the third album by American rapper Logic.


title: Andy Weir

text: He wrote his first published novel, "The Martian", to be as scientifically accurate as possible, doing extensive research into orbital mechanics, conditions on the planet Mars, the history of human spaceflight, and botany. Originally published as a free serial on his website, some readers requested he make it available on Amazon Kindle. First sold for 99 cents, the novel made it to the Kindle bestsellers list. Weir was then approached by a literary agent and sold the rights to Crown Publishing Group. The print version (slightly edited from the original) of the novel debuted at No. 12 on "The New York Times" bestseller list in 2014. "The Wall Street Journal" called it "the best pure sci-fi novel in years". It was adapted into a film starring Matt Damon and Jessica Chastain, which was released in 2015.


title: Andy Weir

text: In 2015 Weir announced he was working on his second novel, provisionally titled "Zhek", which he described as "a more traditional sci-fi novel with aliens, telepathy, faster-than-light travel, etc." A fan-fiction story written by Weir, "Lacero", was published in the 2016 edition of "Ready Player One", making it canonical to the book's fictional universe. The work functions as a prequel to the main novel. Also in 2016, Weir released "The Principles of Uncertainty" collection of short stories on the website/app Tapas.


title: Andy Weir

text: After announcing that the "Zhek" project had been "back-burnered", Weir moved on to another hard sci-fi novel titled "Artemis", with a female protagonist, set on the Moon in the 2080s-2090s. The thriller, published in 2017, follows "Jazz", a twenty-six-year-old woman constrained by her small town (which is also the only city on the Moon). On September 26, 2017, it was announced that Phil Lord and Christopher Miller had been hired to develop and direct a science fiction film based on the novel.


title: Andy Weir

text: In 2017 CBS picked up a pilot written by Weir titled "Mission Control", following a group of young NASA astronauts and scientists. In May of the same year, Weir collaborated with webcomic artist Sarah Andersen to reillustrate "Cheshire Crossing" for Tapas, before publishing it as a stand-alone graphic novel in July 2019. In November 2019, a film adaptation was announced from Amblin Partners and Walt Disney Pictures, to be produced by Michael De Luca and written by Erin Cressida Wilson.


title: Andy Weir

text: In May 2021, Weir's third novel, "Project Hail Mary", was released. The plot revolves around an astronaut, Ryland Grace, who wakes up from a coma on a strange spacecraft and is afflicted with amnesia. "Project Hail Mary" has received widespread positive reception, winning the 2022 Audie Award for Audiobook of the year and a nomination for the 2022 Hugo Awards for best novel, as well as achieving the #1 spot on the "New York Times" Audiobook Bestseller List. Ryan Gosling is slated to produce and star as Grace in a film adaption, with Lord and Miller also directing the project.


title: Andy Weir

text: According to Weir, he grew up in Milpitas, California, where he attended Rancho Milpitas Junior High School and Milpitas High School.


title: Andy Weir

text: In 2015, Weir lived in Mountain View, California, in a rented two-bedroom apartment. Since he has a fear of flying, he never visited the set of the film adaptation of "The Martian" in Budapest, where most of the scenes set on Mars were shot at Korda Studios. In 2015, with the help of therapy and medication, he was able to fly to Houston to visit the Johnson Space Center, and to San Diego to attend Comic-Con.


title: Andy Weir

text: Weir is married to Ashley Weir, whom he met while he was in Los Angeles to pitch a TV series. They have one son born in 2021. Weir has stated that he is agnostic, and has described his political views as fiscally conservative and socially liberal.


title: Sculpture

text: Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sculptural processes originally used carving (the removal of material) and modelling (the addition of material, as clay), in stone, metal, ceramics, wood and other materials but, since Modernism, there has been an almost complete freedom of materials and process. A wide variety of materials may be worked by removal such as carving, assembled by welding or modelling, or moulded or cast.


title: Sculpture

text: Sculpture in stone survives far better than works of art in perishable materials, and often represents the majority of the surviving works (other than pottery) from ancient cultures, though conversely traditions of sculpture in wood may have vanished almost entirely. However, most ancient sculpture was brightly painted, and this has been lost.


title: Sculpture

text: Sculpture has been central in religious devotion in many cultures, and until recent centuries large sculptures, too expensive for private individuals to create, were usually an expression of religion or politics. Those cultures whose sculptures have survived in quantities include the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean, India and China, as well as many in Central and South America and Africa.


title: Sculpture

text: The Western tradition of sculpture began in ancient Greece, and Greece is widely seen as producing great masterpieces in the classical period. During the Middle Ages, Gothic sculpture represented the agonies and passions of the Christian faith. The revival of classical models in the Renaissance produced famous sculptures such as Michelangelo's statue of "David". Modernist sculpture moved away from traditional processes and the emphasis on the depiction of the human body, with the making of constructed sculpture, and the presentation of found objects as finished art works.


title: Sculpture

text: A basic distinction is between sculpture "in the round", free-standing sculpture such as statues, not attached (except possibly at the base) to any other surface, and the various types of relief, which are at least partly attached to a background surface. Relief is often classified by the degree of projection from the wall into low or bas-relief, high relief, and sometimes an intermediate mid-relief. Sunk-relief is a technique restricted to ancient Egypt. Relief is the usual sculptural medium for large figure groups and narrative subjects, which are difficult to accomplish in the round, and is the typical technique used both for architectural sculpture, which is attached to buildings, and for small-scale sculpture decorating other objects, as in much pottery, metalwork and jewellery. Relief sculpture may also decorate steles, upright slabs, usually of stone, often also containing inscriptions.


title: Sculpture

text: Another basic distinction is between subtractive carving techniques, which remove material from an existing block or lump, for example of stone or wood, and modelling techniques which shape or build up the work from the material. Techniques such as casting, stamping and moulding use an intermediate matrix containing the design to produce the work; many of these allow the production of several copies.


title: Sculpture

text: The term "sculpture" is often used mainly to describe large works, which are sometimes called monumental sculpture, meaning either or both of sculpture that is large, or that is attached to a building. But the term properly covers many types of small works in three dimensions using the same techniques, including coins and medals, hardstone carvings, a term for small carvings in stone that can take detailed work.


title: Sculpture

text: The very large or "colossal" statue has had an enduring appeal since antiquity; the largest on record at is the 2018 Indian Statue of Unity. Another grand form of portrait sculpture is the equestrian statue of a rider on horse, which has become rare in recent decades. The smallest forms of life-size portrait sculpture are the "head", showing just that, or the bust, a representation of a person from the chest up. Small forms of sculpture include the figurine, normally a statue that is no more than tall, and for reliefs the plaquette, medal or coin.


title: Sculpture

text: Modern and contemporary art have added a number of non-traditional forms of sculpture, including sound sculpture, light sculpture, environmental art, environmental sculpture, street art sculpture, kinetic sculpture (involving aspects of physical motion), land art, and site-specific art. Sculpture is an important form of public art. A collection of sculpture in a garden setting can be called a sculpture garden. There is also a view that buildings are a type of sculpture, with Constantin Brâncuși describing architecture as "inhabited sculpture".


title: Sculpture

text: One of the most common purposes of sculpture is in some form of association with religion. Cult images are common in many cultures, though they are often not the colossal statues of deities which characterized ancient Greek art, like the Statue of Zeus at Olympia. The actual cult images in the innermost sanctuaries of Egyptian temples, of which none have survived, were evidently rather small, even in the largest temples. The same is often true in Hinduism, where the very simple and ancient form of the lingam is the most common. Buddhism brought the sculpture of religious figures to East Asia, where there seems to have been no earlier equivalent tradition, though again simple shapes like the "bi" and "cong" probably had religious significance.


title: Sculpture

text: Small sculptures as personal possessions go back to the earliest prehistoric art, and the use of very large sculpture as public art, especially to impress the viewer with the power of a ruler, goes back at least to the Great Sphinx of some 4,500 years ago. In archaeology and art history the appearance, and sometimes disappearance, of large or monumental sculpture in a culture is regarded as of great significance, though tracing the emergence is often complicated by the presumed existence of sculpture in wood and other perishable materials of which no record remains;


title: Sculpture

text: The totem pole is an example of a tradition of monumental sculpture in wood that would leave no traces for archaeology. The ability to summon the resources to create monumental sculpture, by transporting usually very heavy materials and arranging for the payment of what are usually regarded as full-time sculptors, is considered a mark of a relatively advanced culture in terms of social organization. Recent unexpected discoveries of ancient Chinese Bronze Age figures at Sanxingdui, some more than twice human size, have disturbed many ideas held about early Chinese civilization, since only much smaller bronzes were previously known.


title: Sculpture

text: Some undoubtedly advanced cultures, such as the Indus Valley civilization, appear to have had no monumental sculpture at all, though producing very sophisticated figurines and seals. The Mississippian culture seems to have been progressing towards its use, with small stone figures, when it collapsed. Other cultures, such as ancient Egypt and the Easter Island culture, seem to have devoted enormous resources to very large-scale monumental sculpture from a very early stage.


title: Sculpture

text: The collecting of sculpture, including that of earlier periods, goes back some 2,000 years in Greece, China and Mesoamerica, and many collections were available on semi-public display long before the modern museum was invented. From the 20th century the relatively restricted range of subjects found in large sculpture expanded greatly, with abstract subjects and the use or representation of any type of subject now common. Today much sculpture is made for intermittent display in galleries and museums, and the ability to transport and store the increasingly large works is a factor in their construction. Small decorative figurines, most often in ceramics, are as popular today (though strangely neglected by modern and Contemporary art) as they were in the Rococo, or in ancient Greece when Tanagra figurines were a major industry, or in East Asian and Pre-Columbian art. Small sculpted fittings for furniture and other objects go well back into antiquity, as in the Nimrud ivories, Begram ivories and finds from the tomb of Tutankhamun.


title: Sculpture

text: Portrait sculpture began in Egypt, where the Narmer Palette shows a ruler of the 32nd century BCE, and Mesopotamia, where we have 27 surviving statues of Gudea, who ruled Lagash c. 2144–2124 BCE. In ancient Greece and Rome, the erection of a portrait statue in a public place was almost the highest mark of honour, and the ambition of the elite, who might also be depicted on a coin. In other cultures such as Egypt and the Near East public statues were almost exclusively the preserve of the ruler, with other wealthy people only being portrayed in their tombs. Rulers are typically the only people given portraits in Pre-Columbian cultures, beginning with the Olmec colossal heads of about 3,000 years ago. East Asian portrait sculpture was entirely religious, with leading clergy being commemorated with statues, especially the founders of monasteries, but not rulers, or ancestors. The Mediterranean tradition revived, initially only for tomb effigies and coins, in the Middle Ages, but expanded greatly in the Renaissance, which invented new forms such as the personal portrait medal.


title: Sculpture

text: Animals are, with the human figure, the earliest subject for sculpture, and have always been popular, sometimes realistic, but often imaginary monsters; in China animals and monsters are almost the only traditional subjects for stone sculpture outside tombs and temples. The kingdom of plants is important only in jewellery and decorative reliefs, but these form almost all the large sculpture of Byzantine art and Islamic art, and are very important in most Eurasian traditions, where motifs such as the palmette and vine scroll have passed east and west for over two millennia.


title: Sculpture

text: One form of sculpture found in many prehistoric cultures around the world is specially enlarged versions of ordinary tools, weapons or vessels created in impractical precious materials, for either some form of ceremonial use or display or as offerings. Jade or other types of greenstone were used in China, Olmec Mexico, and Neolithic Europe, and in early Mesopotamia large pottery shapes were produced in stone. Bronze was used in Europe and China for large axes and blades, like the Oxborough Dirk.


title: Sculpture

text: The materials used in sculpture are diverse, changing throughout history. The classic materials, with outstanding durability, are metal, especially bronze, stone and pottery, with wood, bone and antler less durable but cheaper options. Precious materials such as gold, silver, jade, and ivory are often used for small luxury works, and sometimes in larger ones, as in chryselephantine statues. More common and less expensive materials were used for sculpture for wider consumption, including hardwoods (such as oak, box/boxwood, and lime/linden); terracotta and other ceramics, wax (a very common material for models for casting, and receiving the impressions of cylinder seals and engraved gems), and cast metals such as pewter and zinc (spelter). But a vast number of other materials have been used as part of sculptures, in ethnographic and ancient works as much as modern ones.


title: Sculpture

text: Sculptures are often painted, but commonly lose their paint to time, or restorers. Many different painting techniques have been used in making sculpture, including tempera, oil painting, gilding, house paint, aerosol, enamel and sandblasting.


title: Sculpture

text: Many sculptors seek new ways and materials to make art. One of Pablo Picasso's most famous sculptures included bicycle parts. Alexander Calder and other modernists made spectacular use of painted steel. Since the 1960s, acrylics and other plastics have been used as well. Andy Goldsworthy makes his unusually ephemeral sculptures from almost entirely natural materials in natural settings. Some sculpture, such as ice sculpture, sand sculpture, and gas sculpture, is deliberately short-lived. Recent sculptors have used stained glass, tools, machine parts, hardware and consumer packaging to fashion their works. Sculptors sometimes use found objects, and Chinese scholar's rocks have been appreciated for many centuries.


title: Sculpture

text: Stone sculpture is an ancient activity where pieces of rough natural stone are shaped by the controlled removal of stone. Owing to the permanence of the material, evidence can be found that even the earliest societies indulged in some form of stone work, though not all areas of the world have such abundance of good stone for carving as Egypt, Greece, India and most of Europe. Petroglyphs (also called rock engravings) are perhaps the earliest form: images created by removing part of a rock surface which remains "in situ", by incising, pecking, carving, and abrading. Monumental sculpture covers large works, and architectural sculpture, which is attached to buildings. Hardstone carving is the carving for artistic purposes of semi-precious stones such as jade, agate, onyx, rock crystal, sard or carnelian, and a general term for an object made in this way. Alabaster or mineral gypsum is a soft mineral that is easy to carve for smaller works and still relatively durable. Engraved gems are small carved gems, including cameos, originally used as seal rings.


title: Sculpture

text: The copying of an original statue in stone, which was very important for ancient Greek statues, which are nearly all known from copies, was traditionally achieved by "pointing", along with more freehand methods. Pointing involved setting up a grid of string squares on a wooden frame surrounding the original, and then measuring the position on the grid and the distance between grid and statue of a series of individual points, and then using this information to carve into the block from which the copy is made.


title: Sculpture

text: Bronze and related copper alloys are the oldest and still the most popular metals for cast metal sculptures; a cast bronze sculpture is often called simply a "bronze". Common bronze alloys have the unusual and desirable property of expanding slightly just before they set, thus filling the finest details of a mould. Their strength and lack of brittleness (ductility) is an advantage when figures in action are to be created, especially when compared to various ceramic or stone materials (see marble sculpture for several examples). Gold is the softest and most precious metal, and very important in jewellery; with silver it is soft enough to be worked with hammers and other tools as well as cast; repoussé and chasing are among the techniques used in gold and silversmithing.


title: Sculpture

text: Casting is a group of manufacturing processes by which a liquid material (bronze, copper, glass, aluminum, iron) is (usually) poured into a mould, which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape, and then allowed to solidify. The solid casting is then ejected or broken out to complete the process, although a final stage of "cold work" may follow on the finished cast. Casting may be used to form hot liquid metals or various materials that "cold set" after mixing of components (such as epoxies, concrete, plaster and clay). Casting is most often used for making complex shapes that would be otherwise difficult or uneconomical to make by other methods. The oldest surviving casting is a copper Mesopotamian frog from 3200 BCE. Specific techniques include lost-wax casting, plaster mould casting and sand casting.


title: Sculpture

text: Welding is a process where different pieces of metal are fused together to create different shapes and designs. There are many different forms of welding, such as Oxy-fuel welding, Stick welding, MIG welding, and TIG welding. Oxy-fuel is probably the most common method of welding when it comes to creating steel sculptures because it is the easiest to use for shaping the steel as well as making clean and less noticeable joins of the steel. The key to Oxy-fuel welding is heating each piece of metal to be joined evenly until all are red and have a shine to them. Once that shine is on each piece, that shine will soon become a 'pool' where the metal is liquified and the welder must get the pools to join, fusing the metal. Once cooled off, the location where the pools joined are now one continuous piece of metal. Also used heavily in Oxy-fuel sculpture creation is forging. Forging is the process of heating metal to a certain point to soften it enough to be shaped into different forms. One very common example is heating the end of a steel rod and hitting the red heated tip with a hammer while on an anvil to form a point. In between hammer swings, the forger rotates the rod and gradually forms a sharpened point from the blunt end of a steel rod.