group theory

Here’s a new idea for the ruby slippers series.

1. Q: What is the most popular recording of all time?
   A: Bing Crosby’s 1942 White Christmas, it’s sold over 50 million copies.
2. Q: How was this originally consumed?
   A: On 78rpm records.
3. Q: How do most of us know the song today?
   A: Either from television, Muzak, a compact disc or perhaps an MP3.

It’s that MP3 which has me thinking. It’s a medium completely removed from the material world. MP3s are information that won’t change in time. They gather none of the artifacts familiar to vinyl platters. WHat is the same? What is different about the two media? Can you capture the difference between the two? The union? The exclusion? Could you make two ‘differences’ that when combined would restore the original recording?

The first group uses the 78 as the standard, subtracting the MP3 audio and leaving only those artifacts which belong to the vinyl. This signal is then recorded to a new 78. The second group subtracts the 78b signal from the MP3 and leaves those artifacts belonging to MP3.

I also want to hear the crossover, the signal common to both recordings (this could be captured on either medium, and would represent a prototype (ur-)media that survived transcoding to wildly different media.