Research Annex · First Annex
Speculative Indices
for a Research-Field
Object Incidence, Relational Thickness, and further ontography in The Black Bird
This annex introduces speculative indices developed from the object grammar of The Black Bird.
Object Incidence records how Research Note Objects and Field Objects distribute recurrence across the research-field. Relational Thickness records where objects repeatedly share mediating conditions. Mediational Incidence records how strongly a Field Object is held by Relation Objects.
The indices give recurrence a surface. They open pathways for further ontography, relation-making, and poetic construction.
The calculation is bounded to source-bearing Research Note Objects and extracted Field Objects. Relation Objects remain mediating sites. Mapping Note Objects, Reference Objects, and Name Objects keep their roles outside the primary calculation.
Two matrices structure the calculation.
The first matrix, A, records the contact between Research Note Objects and Field Objects. Its rows are the four Research Note Objects. Its columns are the eighteen Field Objects. A cell is active when a Field Object appears inside that source-bearing note.
The second matrix, B, records the contact between Field Objects and Relation Objects. Its rows are the eighteen Field Objects. Its columns are the twelve Relation Objects. A cell is active when a Field Object participates in that Relation Object.
The indices do not interpret the work from outside. They give recurrence, overlap, and mediation a small surface, so the reader can return to the field with a more precise sense of where the work has already thickened.
The work begins with Black Bird as the first object-field, but the relation layer gives Corpse one more mediating site than Black Bird.
Black Bird and Corpse are equal in research recurrence: each appears in all four Research Note Objects, giving both a Field Object Research Recurrence of 4. In the Relation Object layer, however, Corpse has Mediational Incidence 9 while Black Bird has Mediational Incidence 8.
The entry-object and the densest relation-body are therefore not identical. This difference is one of the useful pressures exposed by the indices.
RT_NN = A Aᵀ. Each cell shows the number of Field Objects shared between two Research Note Objects. The diagonal shows the Field Object count for each note.
| RNO pair | Shared FOs | Shared Field Objects |
|---|---|---|
| Cain / Ghurāb — Huginn / Muninn | 3 | Black Bird, God, Corpse |
| Scald-crow — American Crows | 3 | Black Bird, Corpse, Forensic |
| Cain / Ghurāb — Scald-crow | 2 | Black Bird, Corpse |
| Cain / Ghurāb — American Crows | 2 | Black Bird, Corpse |
| Huginn / Muninn — Scald-crow | 2 | Black Bird, Corpse |
| Huginn / Muninn — American Crows | 2 | Black Bird, Corpse |
The public ledgers show only values greater than 1. Complete values remain available in the data package.