Clinamen

Clinamen explanation

In Epicurean physics,Clinamen is the spontaneous swerve of the atoms as they move straight down to the void. It is an unpredictable swerve in time and space that allows their collision. This concept was introduced by Epicurus to define the freedom of the human will within non-deterministic physics.

In the work On the Nature of Things (II, 216-219) Lucretius comments on Epicurean philosophy, stating that ‘atoms fall into a straight line into the void based on their own weight. At certain moments, they imperceptibly deviate their trajectory, just enough for it to be possible to talk about changing the balance’.

This is the idea of an unusual and unpredictable swerve, almost a ‘bump in the road’, an epiphenomenon that allows us to associate clinamen with pataphysics.

In the key novel Gestes et opinions du docteur Faustroll (Exploits and opinions of Dr. Faustroll, Note of the Translator), which is considered to be the bible of pataphysics, Alfred Jarry mentions the ejaculation of the ‘unforeseen beast Clinamen’ (Book 6, Chapter 34 titled ‘Clinamen’). O. Votka, pataphysic, writes that Epicurus understood that at the center of every thought as of every reality,  (which is nothing but a thought of reality for anyone) there is the smallest possible aberration, a fundamental swerve which unbalances everything. Therefore the clinamen is not at all a simple fatality or possibility as it is often said. It is indeed an unsettling notion that Epicurus puts at the beginning of everything…

Thus the logo chosen to represent CLINAMEN AUDIO can be ‘read’ in two ways. On one hand it represents a staff with a musical score on it. On the other hand the notes can be seen as the atoms mentioned by Epicurus; they lie on the parallel lines of the staff and never collide. But the atom going along the ‘O’ follows a spiralling route and merges into Clinamenaudio; it represents the unpredictable swerve from the status quo and conveys the idea of specialty and exclusivity we wanted to give this brand.

And here’s a thought….

What is Music but vibrating atoms?