FMP - Speaking with Gestures

FMP Week Two - Day 3

The Truth Behind the Voice

Analysing Paralinguistic Features

Own Work - Stills From Interview

After recording the interview with maria, I noticed that she used plenty of hand gestures, facial features as well as exaggerated body movements and other paralinguistic features. I began to flick through the video and took stills of the interesting movements she was making; I made notes of the context of the movement then started analysing deeply at how it supported her statement and the influence the movement made on the viewers to either exaggerate situations or too show the little importance a subject had. The large body movement usually suggests the more relaxed subject where she become confident and overly excited whilst the part where she looks down and keep her body in uniform usually are the more serious and uncomfortable situations. When she look directly at the camera however you can understand a sense of sincerity as her tone of voice lowers. It is quite interesting considering this is also the way she was taught how to speak English in the first place. Hand gestures are used more commonly when trying to communicate with people who do not understand a language well; it is also used to exaggerate situations.

FMP - A Story to Remember

 FMP Week Two - Day 2

Looking for the Signs

A Transition from Romania to London

Own Video - Interview With Maria

I shot an interview with my best friend. She moved to London from Romania when she was 13 years old; I wanted to catch a glimpse of her feelings on the situation, then and now. I told her to tell me her story, to feel free to let out all her anger and frustration as well as happiness. I wanted her to tell her story so that the listeners could be emotionally invested within the story. Her metaphors and comparisons did this perfectly. After recording I edited the video and began watching the finished product. She used plenty of hand gestures and body movement which was quite interesting, so I want to look further into that. I want to see how her facial expressions and other paralinguistic features support what shes actually saying.

FMP - Organising An Interview

FMP - Week Two - Day 1

Primary Research

Finding The Story...

Stills - Interview With Nani

Today I began looking over the interview with my Nani, and decided the interview was way too personal so I couldn't use it for the Project. I then began thinking of a more light hearted ways to replicate the same kind of information and came up with a solution. I contacted my best friend whom I hadn't seen for almost a whole year and asked her to do an interview with me. Me and Maria are very close and I know her inside out; her story and the emotions she went through growing up, as I was by her witnessing it all. Today I booked a camera and recorder again to film an interview with Maria tomorrow. I wrote down a few questions and told her what kinds of long responses I was expecting; she was happy to do this. I chose to do the interview with Maria because she had moved to this country not knowing any English at a young age, and its the struggles of her moving to London and trying to fit in that I want to highlight. Having a voice but not being able to use it.

FMP - Analysing Research

FMP - Week One - Day 3

Creating A Good Body Of Research

Own Work - Research Folder

So today I whipped out the highlighters and notepads, and began analysing my research in greater detail. I found plenty of useful information on political voice and neo-liberalism whilst attempting to de-code a PhD essay in 'Culture and politics after neo-liberalism' by Nick Couldry'; I noted down the most influential sections and words which I felt appropriate to keep hold of, for example; 'oppression', 'transparent', and a 'collective voice'. The research also provided plenty of other references in which I had interest to looking at. I also looked at an English pronunciation book, which teaches the basics of English and accent, I found this very interesting and quite confusing. Its quite drawing how they manage to explain the basics of speech including the movement of the tongue, I started taking notes unsure whether i'd use the information or not. I also began looking into poetry from the book 'Poetry in (E)Motion' and from here I started looking into paranoia. 

This analysis has really helped me accumulate more ideas for my project, the only problem is that it currently isn't personal to me; I want the project to be personal to me because then I will feel like I can work wholeheartedly because I have a connection to the project. I want to show a piece of me in my work.

FMP - Reasearch

FMP - Week One - Day 2

What Is Voice To Me?

I began to think long and hard, what is voice? What does it mean to me? Why does it matter?

Voice is something we all have; it's something we all use and it becomes something we all fear. Everyone's voice is different, it's what contributes majorly to create who we are; our idiolect. It could be the way we talk; how we sound or even the things we say; the rhythm in our voice; it all adds up.

I began to draw up brainstorm for voice, I then chose of few of the words on the brainstorm and went to the library to find books, articles and videos that relate. I then went through each book and article and photocopied the most relevant sections as well as sections that interested me in general.

I managed to find some really good material, so now my idea bubble is expanding further. I often scribble down any ideas that briefly pop into my head so that I can refer back to it at a later stage, I find this method to be very useful.

FMP - The Exploratory Stage

FMP - Week One - Day 1

The Starting Point

How Can We Explain Voice?

So today I began exploring voice through my own ideologies. I started off by taking a trip to the Wellcome gallery. I found the Wellcome Collection particularly interesting as none of the work there were at all related to voice however, they still indirect and silent links. For example, one of the most interesting pieces I saw at the Wellcome Collection was the sculptures on the five senses. It reminds me of the work people produce to represent sound and movement which could be a direction I could take down the theme of  'Voice'.

At The Wellcome Collection

There was another particularly interesting piece that caught my eye, and this was the sculpture on dyslexia. I feel like the piece was so powerfully emotive; it expresses how dyslexic children face the difficulties of the things we take for granted. The tag 'dyslexic' means nothing but jumbled letters, just as the you cannot understand the sculpture without reading the description otherwise it would just look like random letters on children's playing blocks. I took this piece as a piece of non verbal form of communication. Voicing the voiceless. 

At The Wellcome Collection

The trip was very useful as I managed to gather some direction as to how much further I can take the project. Whilst I was at the Museum I also attended the the 'States of Mind' exhibition; this was such an interesting exhibition, there were very few things to explore but were all very enriched in tracing the edges of consciousness. In the background were short clips of people doing abnormal activities in their sleep. Although it was quite spooky, I want to pull some of the information I learnt today and cleverly place it into my project. 

Final Major Project - Voice

FMP Week One - Voice

Final Major Project Proposal

For my FMP I decided to focus on voice. I want to look into the idea of the voice being used as a weapon, an escape and a restraint. Also looking into the material quality of the voice, vocal tracts, restless minds and speech devices. I want to be able to capture the complex psychological and physiological origins. A voice is potentially one of the most danger weapons to ones self or another, its just the way in which you harness the power that tips the scale. I feel that this project is quite personal to me, during a dark time, when I reacted to the constant voices in my head and the ones which surrounded me in reality; there was no escape.

I want to focus on emotions, impact and repercussions of the voice; also looking into rhythm, pitch and tone and non verbal forms of communication. The voice is extremely flexible and can change dramatically in different situations as well as with treatment and training.

For my research I want to record sounds myself, in different scenarios and examine them in detail. I want to interview a few people and ask questions. I will then print out a transcript and analyse their use of literary features; I’d also like to make recordings of conversation between different relationships and log data of any voice variations. I’m also planning to attend a few of  ‘the voice’ talks going on at the Royal Opera House. Another place relevant to my research would be at the exhibition of voice and sound. The Wellcome Collection Museum also has a good collection of un-voiced but spoken work which is a powerful collection to examine.

How I Plan To Evaluate My Work...

Apart from reviews from group tutorials my peers, I will keep evaluating my work through recording and reflecting my progress in my regular blogs. By updating the blog weekly I will be able to see a clear progression of my work and reflect on what could be done better, therefore I avoid making the same mistakes and my work only evolves. The blogs should keep me on track as well as add context to the decisions I make on my project. I will also maintain a notebook of information from my research to constantly refer back to, so I don’t divert from the main topic.