Growing up on Transfiguration

Professor Skies

August 25, 2018 11:27 PM

Intermediates - Tune In, Tune Up by Professor Skies

“Good morning,” Selina greeted the Intermediate class. She was hoping for a relatively calm lesson, seeing as her subject matter wasn’t… well, any of their classmates, although she suspected there may still be some fallout from that particular revelation.

“Today, we are beginning our work on technical and mechanical transfigurations. This is a particular branch of transfiguration based around working objects, objects with moving parts, and highly complex objects. As you all know, transfiguration is often limited by your ability to visualise. This is especially true when the objects in question are complex or have moving parts. These things are harder to visualise, because of their complex nature. There is some debate in the literature about whether knowledge of how things work is necessary - of course, knowing how something works increases your ability to visualise it accurately but for example, if I can picture the insides of a clock perfectly without knowing how exactly they work, can I still make one, or do I have to know what’s going on? For homework, you will read these two scientific studies that present differing accounts of this, and answer the attached questions,” she sent the stack of parchments flying around the room. “As usual, you may spend time on this in class if you finish the practical.” Both studies used data from subjects with photographic memories. In the first, they had been compared to test subjects without strong visual memory. Each had been given a set amount of time to study certain complex objects. The objects had then been removed and the subjects asked to recreate them using transfiguration. Those with strong visual memories out performed the others, a logical and expected result, but one which the authors argued proved visualisation skills alone were sufficient. The second study compared experts in a particular field - clockmakers, musicians and so on - with those with photographic memories (plus a control group of regular test subjects). Although both groups produced passable products, the experts’ pieces outperformed those with photographic memories both when independently inspected for quality and in terms of how long the transfiguations lasted. The authors of the original paper had written a rebuttal stating that of course experts would be able to visualise things better, and you couldn’t prove that it wasn’t better visualisation skills at work, and the whole thing was currently teetering on the verge of descending into a philosophical debate on the nature of reality, as so many branches of Transfiguration did.

“We’re going to do our own experiment today. Well, sort of. It’s not exactly going to be scientifically rigorous, or really prove much beyond how good your visualisation skills are - and for a few of you, your describing skills. Please stand if you are a member of the orchestra or if you otherwise play any small-sized instrument.” She confirmed the instrument that each person played with them - she had got a list of the orchestra members from last year, so those she already knew - and sent out a piece of paper with the incantation needed for their specific musical instrument to them. She had also added the Russian names for each instrument. She didn’t translate much of the class material - they were attending school in America after all - but when it came to such technical words, and when the nature of the class required that she couldn’t back it up by providing a visual, she thought it best to give the foreign students a bit of a hand… She would have added the French as well, except they had all turned out to be basically identical to the English, save a vowel change here or an accent there. Each member also received a box of wooden rods or blocks approximately the right dimensions for their instrument.

“You will form groups, led by these people. They each have the spell for their instrument, and a wooden rod or block of the right size for you to work on. You will try to create their instruments as best you can from your own mental picture of what they look like. Your instrument players will then give you feedback, and you will try to improve your transfiguration from there. Musicians, you are welcome to try out your classmates’ creations - you may not be able to visually see whether they have the dimensions quite right, but I’m sure you’ll be able to hear it, or to feel whether the spacings are right.

“As I say, we’re not trying to prove a particular theory here, just to give you some practise with making complex objects. Musicians, you can also have a go at making your own instrument once you run out of feedback to give.

“Additionally, if anyone else has a particular hobby that lends itself to technical knowledge, please let me know. It might be fun to make use of you in future.”

OOC - posts will be scored based on length, realism, relevance and creativity. There can be some give and take with the description of the transfigurations. For example, you can go with ‘she found she had no idea what a flute looked like beyond shiny and complicated, and there were probably ten different things wrong with what she had produced’ and let your musician come up with some ideas, or go the other way and give a specific example, e.g. it had completely the wrong number of keys. Any questions, ask me in chatzy. See OOC for list of instrument players.

Subthreads:

My favorite orchestra player (tag Peyton) by Jasmine Delachene, Crotalus with Peyton O'Malley, Crotalus, Professor Skies

Growing up by Natalie Atwater, Pecari

13 Professor Skies Intermediates - Tune In, Tune Up 26 Professor Skies 1 5

Jasmine Delachene, Crotalus

September 05, 2018 12:59 PM

My favorite orchestra player (tag Peyton) by Jasmine Delachene, Crotalus

Jasmine looked with interest to see who stood as a member of the orchestra. She had taken some piano lessons as a child, herself, but she did not count herself skilled enough to join a performance group. She was more inclined toward choir as a musical club, though honestly she preferred just belting out Disney tunes in the MARS music room (which, by the way, was totally awesome because MARS then changed scenes so she could actually take magic carpet rides or way-find on the ocean or paint the colors of the wind or do whatever the princess in question was doing as she sang in her movie).

She didn’t have to look past her roommate, though, to know whose group she would be joining. She may have never so much as touched a clarinet before (at least outside of its case - she was pretty sure she’d handed the case off to Peyton once or twice if she was standing closer to it when her roommate was getting ready to go to orchestra), but that was kind of the point of the lesson, wasn’t it? To see if you could transfigure something you didn’t know much about?

Besides, not working with Peyton was not something she could or would consider. They were best friends as well as roommates and she needed to be supportive, especially since she wasn’t sure if Peyton was going to be terribly happy about being volunteered for this.

She’d obviously seen Peyton practicing it before, so she had some baseline to start off with, so after Peyton shared the incantation, Jasmine tried to remember what the assembled instrument looked like and cast the spell on her wooden block (which was at least the right material already, clarinets being woodwinds and all).

The first attempt even Jasmine knew was wrong. She’d forgotten to change the hole coverings from wood to metal and seeing the transfigured product made her realize that mistake. So she cast again and fixed that. At that point, it looked okay to her. It was a long black hollow wooden tube with holes covered by shiny metal bits. The mouthpiece was all wrong, resembling a simple kazoo (Jasmine’s primary experience with instruments you blow into) than the reeded complexity of a real clarinet, and the holes and valves were not really in the right places, nor were there the right number of them. (Jasmine had figured 10 was a good number since that’s how many fingers people had.) Also the shiny metal pieces merely capped each hole and had flourishing bits that looked pretty and complicated without actually moving or being conducive to actually playing the clarinet. She could tell there was still something not quite right about that, but she wasn’t sure what was wrong or how to fix it.

She showed her clarinet to Peyton. “What do I need to fix?”

1 Jasmine Delachene, Crotalus My favorite orchestra player (tag Peyton) 1397 Jasmine Delachene, Crotalus 0 5

Peyton O'Malley, Crotalus

September 10, 2018 12:23 PM

Awwww by Peyton O'Malley, Crotalus

This year had brought some changes for Peyton. For one thing, Sophie was no longer a teacher here, and that made the Crotalus sad. Professor Brooding seemed nice and all, but she wasn't Peyton's sister-in-law. Furthermore she was now going into intermediate classes and would have classes with the fifth years which was slightly intimidating. On the other hand, now Ivy was in her classes again and that was nice.

However, right now Peyton felt sort of nervous. Today she had to lead a group and that wasn't something that she was used to doing. She wasn't exactly thrilled about being volunteered for the exercise really. The third year played an instrument and was in orchestra mostly because Ivy was and while she enjoyed playing the clarinet, her true passion was cooking.

Of course, she supposed that this wouldn't be as hard as one would think since she wasn't going to be doing more than providing feedback to people. Still, that wasn't easy either since she didn't want to end up hurting someone's feelings. And having to give feedback to the fifth years made her a little queasy. Maybe they'd all go to Ivy or Connor instead so they didn't have to take directions from a little third year.

And because of this, Peyton found herself only half listening to the lecture. She never quite understood when teachers brought up science, which she understood was something Muggles needed because they didn't have magical powers. Not that she didn't grasp the concepts at all, but just that they talked about it at all seemed odd. Still, what she caught of Professor Skies' lecture was really interesting.

They split up into groups and Peyton gave those gathered around her the incantation. She waited as the others tried to create their own clarinets. Before long, Jasmine approached. "Well, let's take a look." She glanced over the instrument. "This is a nice attempt but the mouthpiece is completely wrong. It needs to look more like this. " Peyton showed her friend her own clarinet, pointing at the mouthpiece. "Also, it doesn't have the right number of holes and the holes and valves are in the wrong places. Plus, there seem to be a number of odd bits that look really nice but don't do anything and aren't....what's really on a clarinet. Do you want to take mine as a guideline?" Peyton asked.

11 Peyton O'Malley, Crotalus Awwww 1403 Peyton O'Malley, Crotalus 0 5

Professor Skies

September 13, 2018 9:14 AM

OOC by Professor Skies

Hi Peyton,

Please note that the orchestra members do not have their instruments with them in class. They were not asked to bring them, or to create their own attempts in the task. The purpose of the class is for their classmates to work from verbal feedback rather than having a model to copy, so Peyton wouldn't have a clarinet to show Jasmine.

As you have edit powers, you may modify your own post, or let me know what alterations you'd like to make.

Thanks

13 Professor Skies OOC 26 Professor Skies 0 5

Natalie Atwater, Pecari

September 20, 2018 5:47 PM

Growing up by Natalie Atwater, Pecari

Fifth year was a big year but what Natalie was currently focused on wasn't CATS. She supposed she'd just take Transfig, Charms and Defense. She didn't expect stellar marks on them based on the fact that she was only an A-E student with an occasional O (usually in Transfig) or P (usually in Potions or on theory work).

It was more the fact that she was now fifteen and would be sixteen in February. That meant in less than two years, Natalie would be an adult . And she did not want to be. Adulthood wasn't even remotely fun. She'd have expectations placed on her even more than she did now. Worse, she was sure her parents, Father especially, expected her to follow Kelsey's example.

Of course, Natalie doubted she could. For one thing, she didn't think she'd have as many suitors and she certainly didn't want the same kind her sister did, who were all interchangeably stuffy. Which suited Kelsey perfectly because she was stuffier than a plush toy with a bad cold.

She often looked at the Crotalus boys to see if she could picture herself with them. Winston Pierce she found a bit uptight and the other two-and Simon was also sort of uptight, really-she just plain didn't know well. Not that she really knew Winston either. As for the sixth years, she wasn't really clear on Jozua's social status-that was a must, they had to be socially important or it wouldn't happen-and Finn....seemed taken, even if she wasn't sure by who. Okay, Natalie wouldn't really care about snatching him away from Gwen Fintoc if that was the case and she was that interested in him, which she wasn't, but she didn't want to hurt Juniper who seemed fragile. Plus, she was family. Distant family, but still family and the fifth year didn't want to bring about a schism.

And then Victor might be interested in Emerald as they'd gone to the ball together. This adult thing was so bloody confusing! The Pecari so very much did not want it!

She was glad when Professor Skies began the lecture and she could focus on simpler things like Transfiguration. As much as Natalie didn't care for theory and she didn't really want to read anything scientific for homework, it was less overall stressful than the whole "being an adult" thing. At least she was female and wouldn't be expected to have a career! The fifth year couldn't imagine having to find something she had to do for the rest of her life on top of the rest of it.

Once Professor Skies gave them today's practical assignment, Natalie headed over to Connor's group. Ivy was her first cousin and all, but a trombone sounded easier than a piccolo with all it's keys.

The Pecari took her wooden block and pictured a trombone. Okay, so a trombone was considerably bigger and less wooden block like then the other instruments. They weren't very similar, but the thing still didn't have keys at all. Why couldn't somene play something....well, closer to what a wooden block was like? Like....hmm...a bongo drum?

Natalie did the incantation she was given by Connor and accompanying wand motion and handed her finished product off to the fourth year for inspection.

Connor looked it over. "Well, okay, first of all, it's not big enough. Your mouthpiece is wood yet and it should be metal." He tried to move the slide only to find it was stuck. "And this part should slide out but it's still solid wood yet which means the sound isn't going to come out. Overall, it seems to be a gold painted wood trombone rather then a metal one" The Crotalus paused, wanting to give Natalie some positive feedback as well. "It does have the right proportions though. And it's not a block of wood anymore."

"Thank you." The fifth year took back her wooden toy-sized trombone for another try.

OOC-Connor is also written by me.

11 Natalie Atwater, Pecari Growing up 371 Natalie Atwater, Pecari 0 5