Sunday, 26 April 2009
Weekly update
Saturday 25.4.09 weekly review
Summary of activities and amendments to animation this week:
● Reflecting and acting upon tutor advice
● Increased overall length of the composition in terms of time in order to include more shots to set the scene.
● Including more audio (birdsong, gate opening, wine cork popping, clock ticking.)
● De-saturating images, from colour to black and white
● Reshooting photography, doorways, deer (changed the deer from one to a ‘double deer’ image to link in more closely with the repetitive dialogue), teapot and mug, photographed an older gentleman with a roll up cigarette and old-fashioned ashtray.
● Replacing intro sequence from numerical countdown to photographic doorways
● Including King Bromley milestone shot to give the work context, atmosphere and texture
● Deleting narrator’s black text and replacing it with reversed out text against the dark grey textured background and beginning to scroll the text in a similar fashion to subtitle sequences (this needs further development).
● Aligning images with Ken’s narration, for example laughing sequence is highlighted with laughing cow jug photograph, ‘yeah’ shows Ken’s slippers, ‘wisdom’ will be represented using a light, ‘behave yourself’ will be shown by a prim picture of a welsh lady and so on. The images serve two purposes, firstly to enhance meaning and second to set the zeitgeist of the piece. The reasons for choosing the images will be important findings for the reflective writing and poster. Please see preliminary chart of rationale further on.
Images, methods, rationale (see Indesign file for ‘Methods Chart’ - Contextual file 4.
Friday, 17 April 2009
Weekly reflective account
Monday 13th April (9.30-11.30pm)
‘Aged’ the Anaglypta wallpaper using coffee and tea and ripping paper in places. Once dry I will apply charcoal and chalk pastels to increase dirty appearance of the ‘wall’.
● Planning for work for the rest of the week.
● Ink storyboard of rest of animation and plans for shooting script
● Ensure camera is ready for use and tripod is set up ready to shoot.
● Explore the theme of ‘Englishness’
I looked into some of the views about Englishness and what this term implies.
Englishness: no fuss, please
Long-winded statements about civic virtues, swearing oaths ... none of this feels English
Roy Hattersley
"I am an Englishman. My passport was issued by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and it describes me as a British citizen. But English is what I feel and, therefore, English is what I am. I have never believed that my nationality made me superior to “lesser breeds without the law” or that, thanks to an accident of birth, I possessed elevated views on liberty, democracy and tolerance that are denied to other races. My allegiance is cultural (which means Shakespeare and cricket) and geographical (the Peak District and the Pennines) and usually I do not make a fuss about it.
Indeed, not making a fuss about being English seems to me an essential ingredient of Englishness. If we posses a national characteristic that should be (in Shakespeare's ungrammatical words) “the envy of less happier lands”, it is our emotional reticence - the “modest stillness” that Henry V regarded as the proper response to peace and security.
American schoolchildren swear an oath of allegiance to the flag that they fly on their public buildings because the US is a new country that is unsure of its identity. Italian city squares are decorated with statues of the heroes of the Risorgimento because Italy was only “unified” 150 years ago. We English do not need to behave in those flamboyant ways and we lose something that is essentially English if we start to copy the behaviour of less secure nationalities."
When Gordon Brown wrote yesterday about “common values” that bind the Union together, he was describing the virtues that should inform any civilised society and I very much doubt if Jack Straw, who soon sets off on a journey of exploration, will return with a definition of citizenship that is exclusive to Britain as a whole.
* Join me in a saucy oath to Britain
* What's wrong with a love of being British?
* That's the Britishness I love
* Citizenship: a British farce
But there is one characteristic that at least distinguishes the English from equally admirable races. We pride ourselves on not boasting about being English. When G.K. Chesterton wrote of “the people of England that never have spoken yet”, he did not mean to suggest that we had nothing to say for ourselves - merely that while other nationalities “talked of freedom, while England talked of ale”. We chose that subject because, being free, we did not need to assert the importance of liberty and because we would have been embarrassed to proclaim our love of what we knew to be our birthright.
If we abandon that natural reserve and replace it with oaths, flags, national days and long-winded statements of the civic virtues to which we should all aspire, we may do something to create a feeling of “Britishness”. But an essential part of what it means to be English will be destroyed.
Roy Hattersley's latest book is Borrowed Time: The Story of Britain Between the Wars
(http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article3621134.ece March 26, 2008)
Billy Bragg's top 10 books on Englishness
* guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 18 October 2006 00.00 BST
* Article history
The singer and songwriter Billy Bragg has been producing music for over two decades. In his first book, The Progressive Patriot - part autobiography, part polemic - Bragg considers his own family history and childhood, the influences of thinkers and artists such as George Orwell, Rudyard Kipling and The Clash, and reflects on how they have shaped his sense of Englishness. He also examines the historical impact of such things as the Magna Carta, the civil war and the miners' strike on the formation of the country's national consciousness.
Here, he chooses his favourite books on the subject of Englishness.
1. The Lion and The Unicorn - Socialism and the English Genius by George Orwell
Written during the Blitz, with Nazi invasion seemingly imminent, Orwell wonders aloud if there is anything in this country worth defending, even dying for. The picture he paints of "a family in which the wrong people are in charge" still resonates, as do his attacks on an English intelligentsia "ashamed of their own country". The most important insight he offers is that Englishness is constantly changing: "it stretches into the future and the past, there is something in it that persists, as in a living creature". The greatest book written on the subject from a left-wing perspective.
2. England's Dreaming by Jon Savage
Savage was there at the beginning of punk, hanging out with the Pistols and falling for Malcolm McLaren's Situationist shtick. Despite that, his book - the first to attempt to put punk into its proper context - gets beyond the safety pins and snakebite to shed some light how the mediocrity of mid-70s England produced punk rock.
3. The World Turned Upside Down by Christopher Hill
Hill's masterpiece captures the turmoil of the one true revolutionary episode in English history, when the principle of government by consent led to the execution of the king. A great period of radical thinking was unleashed, much of it coming from below. Diggers, Ranters, Levellers and others seized the moment to agitate for full democratic accountability. All their arguments are here, alongside those of the grandees who eventually snuffed out the English revolution.
4. The Village That Died For England by Patrick Wright
Ostensibly the story of Tyneham, a Dorset village that was evacuated in 1943 to make way for the D-Day preparations and whose residents were never allowed to return, despite Winston Churchill's promise. For Wright however, detail is everything and he clambers over the locked gates and barbed wire fences to discover a "deep England" of eccentric squires, quasi-fascistic communes and neolithic pathways.
5. England, Half English by Colin MacInnes
MacInnes was an Australian who brought an outsider's view to post-war London. He sat in the bars and cafes of Soho, writing articles on the emerging teen culture and the impact of West Indian immigration on the staid English character. This collection of articles, written originally for magazines such as the New Left Review, offers insights into both the roots of swinging London and of our multicultural society.
6. England The Light by Stuart Clarke
Stuart Clarke is a photographer who, in his own words, sets out "to show a landscape that its quite beautiful without the need for football, industry and people - but is better for their existence". This engaging collection of photographs was mostly taken during Euro 2004 in Portugal and constitutes a dazzling celebration of fandom, accompanied by text in English, German, Portuguese and Swedish.
See photographs by Stuart Clarke
7. England In Particular by Sue Clifford and Angela King
A marvellous compendium of the peculiar. Want to know how to participate in the Haxley Hood game or master the ancient art of fen skating? This is the book for you. Every oddity of the English landscape is here, from cabbies' shelters to deserted villages, countryside customs to city superstitions.
8. The Making of the English Working Class by EP Thompson
The founding text of English social history. Thompson shows how the ordinary people of England were not content to wait for political reforms to be handed down to them from above, but were actively fighting for their rights throughout the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
9. A Song For Every Season by Bob Copper
The Copper family tended sheep on the Sussex downland for generations, and built up a vast collection of folk songs which they sung in the fields while working and in the tap room while relaxing with a beer. Discovered by the BBC in the early 1950s, their material formed an important part of the folk revival. Bob Copper's memoir of his family's life on the Downs at Peacehaven is accompanied by songs from the family collection.
10. The Strange Death of Tory England by Geoffrey Wheatcroft
It cheers me up just to write that title, never mind read the book.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2006/oct/18/top10s.englishness
Tuesday 14h April
Aims: Continue to ‘age’ the wallpaper
● Create test shots of wallpaper, with natural lighting, highlights, dark lighting and props.
● Create shots of cigarette falling into ashtray and smoke. (video)
● Use video to capture wine cork popping , (plastic syringe, and tea cup being stirred).
● Continue ink storyboard of shooting script, including tea stains, brown betty teapot,
● Wallpaper, tea rings, part of a plate (chipped) or old.
Storyboard the following:
Mug (explore methods on this one key word).
The findings could be used for poster 2.
(different ways this can be shown, including 4 methods from research, different influences BB, Lye, Brownjohn, Transcription convention, everything. also concrete poetry, try 2D and 3D, using paper and extending, using props relating to tea i.e. tealeaves and glue.
Union jack from the word ‘T’
● ● ● Significant findings occurred today when merging together linguistic methods with visual cues. I began storyboarding a shooting script as planned from yesterday’s agenda.The aim of the shooting script is to visualise my thoughts about methods and their efficiency in communication of intonation. Based on reflections of previous visual methods I have utilised such as chalk pastel, the organic use of ink, exploration of concrete poetry etc I started to synthesise these methods with linguistic explorations I had researched earlier on in the year. Linear, contour, levels and crazy letter methods have been linked firstly with my influences such as Brownjohn, Barnbrook, and Lye. After this first way of working, I quickly moved onto other methods or movements I had reviewed, such as concrete poetry, dada and I began to create my own processes and rationale. A storyboard of seven methods has been recorded as follows:
1 Crazy letter method (Bollinger ’72) + letterforms CCE (Allanson-Smith’09) (CCE=created in unison with content, context and environment) The word mug will be created using tea related materials, such as liquid tea, tea leaves, tea stains, 3D references and 2D references.
2 Levels method (Pike ’45) + letterforms CCE (Allanson-Smith’09)
3 Crazy letter method (Bollinger ’72) + Dadaism (Schwitters collage, ‘Bild mit Heller Mitte’ 1919
4 Linear method (Fries 1940) ) + letterforms CCE
5 Crazy letter method (Bollinger ’72) + letterforms 0IE (Allanson-Smith ’09)
OIE = created using organic shapes to represent intonational emphasis.
6 Levels method (Pike ’45) + concrete poetry
7 Crazy letter method (Bollinger ’72) + multi-sensory technique.
This method has been inspired by the following books Toe by Toe’ and ‘Brain Gym’ and linguists Jannedy, S & Mendoza-Denton, N (2005) Structuring Information through gesture and Intonation, Humbolt University, Berlin & University of Arizona
‘greater information density can be achieved by presenting part of the information acoustically and part of it (possibly complementary or reinforcing information) visually, bringing us closer to modelling the online workings of face-to-face conversation.’ p201-2
This final method will also feature sound as well as visual stimuli.
In this method the ‘U’ of the word mug will extend on folded paper as the syllable is uttered and will be deliberated over emphasised to aid intonation.
The next phase of work will involve small quick rough stop frame animations to test the results. These tests will be also reviewed with tutors and peers and developed and if appropriate will be applied to the animation.
Thursday 16h April
A series of animations were created. I found that the methods I had used before were helpful and I was able to build upon them. I had an idea of what the pieces should be like, however, stronger work emerged that was unplanned and right at the end of the animation ‘set’. Having produced concrete poetry from strips of letters, affecting letterforms with ink, I found that using the raw material connected to the conversation (in this case tea leaves) allowed the work to be more fluid, creative and expressive. The final animation was produced with an enlarged letter ‘u’ appearing from a swirl of tealeaves. The large text relates to the linguistic method ‘crazy letter’ in Bollinger’s book 1972 ‘Intonation’.
Friday 17h April
Tutorial feedback (JH and RN) NTU Summary: points addressed:
● Include still photography (not video footage)
● Audio of the tea being made and cork popping are effective, consider including
birds singing and gate opening (to lead audience into the sequence).
● Set up the next animation phase with out any text to resolve the photography sequence and audio only. MAKE SURE THE IMAGES WORK WELL AND JOIN UP WELL TOGETHER.
Consider changing or de-saturating the colour.
● Bring back narrators subtitles, it is not working without the dialogue and the words feeding and leading. Think about how the subtitles look, could they be handwritten on a notebook, or more business-like?
Set up outside shots of the house, gate, door then inside and some cut away shots
Allow text enough space against photographic backdrop
Leave ‘1 and a half’ on screen for longer
Include the precursor garbled message ‘are we gonna record it on now’, show jumbled
letters jostling together.
Apply mixture of methods and approaches in the work
Work on the other storyboards to give the current work contrast
Create evocative and subtle shots of cigarette falling into ashtray/smoke.
Consider using photography and clock ticking as the clock ticks the images change
or repeat (**really appreciated this suggestion as it would help the work’s structure and ‘heartbeat’.)
The linear method lends itself well to motion graphics
The linear method could look too dry, think about mixing the methods or approaching
the project in a more emotive way
‘Aged’ the Anaglypta wallpaper using coffee and tea and ripping paper in places. Once dry I will apply charcoal and chalk pastels to increase dirty appearance of the ‘wall’.
● Planning for work for the rest of the week.
● Ink storyboard of rest of animation and plans for shooting script
● Ensure camera is ready for use and tripod is set up ready to shoot.
● Explore the theme of ‘Englishness’
I looked into some of the views about Englishness and what this term implies.
Englishness: no fuss, please
Long-winded statements about civic virtues, swearing oaths ... none of this feels English
Roy Hattersley
"I am an Englishman. My passport was issued by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and it describes me as a British citizen. But English is what I feel and, therefore, English is what I am. I have never believed that my nationality made me superior to “lesser breeds without the law” or that, thanks to an accident of birth, I possessed elevated views on liberty, democracy and tolerance that are denied to other races. My allegiance is cultural (which means Shakespeare and cricket) and geographical (the Peak District and the Pennines) and usually I do not make a fuss about it.
Indeed, not making a fuss about being English seems to me an essential ingredient of Englishness. If we posses a national characteristic that should be (in Shakespeare's ungrammatical words) “the envy of less happier lands”, it is our emotional reticence - the “modest stillness” that Henry V regarded as the proper response to peace and security.
American schoolchildren swear an oath of allegiance to the flag that they fly on their public buildings because the US is a new country that is unsure of its identity. Italian city squares are decorated with statues of the heroes of the Risorgimento because Italy was only “unified” 150 years ago. We English do not need to behave in those flamboyant ways and we lose something that is essentially English if we start to copy the behaviour of less secure nationalities."
When Gordon Brown wrote yesterday about “common values” that bind the Union together, he was describing the virtues that should inform any civilised society and I very much doubt if Jack Straw, who soon sets off on a journey of exploration, will return with a definition of citizenship that is exclusive to Britain as a whole.
* Join me in a saucy oath to Britain
* What's wrong with a love of being British?
* That's the Britishness I love
* Citizenship: a British farce
But there is one characteristic that at least distinguishes the English from equally admirable races. We pride ourselves on not boasting about being English. When G.K. Chesterton wrote of “the people of England that never have spoken yet”, he did not mean to suggest that we had nothing to say for ourselves - merely that while other nationalities “talked of freedom, while England talked of ale”. We chose that subject because, being free, we did not need to assert the importance of liberty and because we would have been embarrassed to proclaim our love of what we knew to be our birthright.
If we abandon that natural reserve and replace it with oaths, flags, national days and long-winded statements of the civic virtues to which we should all aspire, we may do something to create a feeling of “Britishness”. But an essential part of what it means to be English will be destroyed.
Roy Hattersley's latest book is Borrowed Time: The Story of Britain Between the Wars
(http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article3621134.ece March 26, 2008)
Billy Bragg's top 10 books on Englishness
* guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 18 October 2006 00.00 BST
* Article history
The singer and songwriter Billy Bragg has been producing music for over two decades. In his first book, The Progressive Patriot - part autobiography, part polemic - Bragg considers his own family history and childhood, the influences of thinkers and artists such as George Orwell, Rudyard Kipling and The Clash, and reflects on how they have shaped his sense of Englishness. He also examines the historical impact of such things as the Magna Carta, the civil war and the miners' strike on the formation of the country's national consciousness.
Here, he chooses his favourite books on the subject of Englishness.
1. The Lion and The Unicorn - Socialism and the English Genius by George Orwell
Written during the Blitz, with Nazi invasion seemingly imminent, Orwell wonders aloud if there is anything in this country worth defending, even dying for. The picture he paints of "a family in which the wrong people are in charge" still resonates, as do his attacks on an English intelligentsia "ashamed of their own country". The most important insight he offers is that Englishness is constantly changing: "it stretches into the future and the past, there is something in it that persists, as in a living creature". The greatest book written on the subject from a left-wing perspective.
2. England's Dreaming by Jon Savage
Savage was there at the beginning of punk, hanging out with the Pistols and falling for Malcolm McLaren's Situationist shtick. Despite that, his book - the first to attempt to put punk into its proper context - gets beyond the safety pins and snakebite to shed some light how the mediocrity of mid-70s England produced punk rock.
3. The World Turned Upside Down by Christopher Hill
Hill's masterpiece captures the turmoil of the one true revolutionary episode in English history, when the principle of government by consent led to the execution of the king. A great period of radical thinking was unleashed, much of it coming from below. Diggers, Ranters, Levellers and others seized the moment to agitate for full democratic accountability. All their arguments are here, alongside those of the grandees who eventually snuffed out the English revolution.
4. The Village That Died For England by Patrick Wright
Ostensibly the story of Tyneham, a Dorset village that was evacuated in 1943 to make way for the D-Day preparations and whose residents were never allowed to return, despite Winston Churchill's promise. For Wright however, detail is everything and he clambers over the locked gates and barbed wire fences to discover a "deep England" of eccentric squires, quasi-fascistic communes and neolithic pathways.
5. England, Half English by Colin MacInnes
MacInnes was an Australian who brought an outsider's view to post-war London. He sat in the bars and cafes of Soho, writing articles on the emerging teen culture and the impact of West Indian immigration on the staid English character. This collection of articles, written originally for magazines such as the New Left Review, offers insights into both the roots of swinging London and of our multicultural society.
6. England The Light by Stuart Clarke
Stuart Clarke is a photographer who, in his own words, sets out "to show a landscape that its quite beautiful without the need for football, industry and people - but is better for their existence". This engaging collection of photographs was mostly taken during Euro 2004 in Portugal and constitutes a dazzling celebration of fandom, accompanied by text in English, German, Portuguese and Swedish.
See photographs by Stuart Clarke
7. England In Particular by Sue Clifford and Angela King
A marvellous compendium of the peculiar. Want to know how to participate in the Haxley Hood game or master the ancient art of fen skating? This is the book for you. Every oddity of the English landscape is here, from cabbies' shelters to deserted villages, countryside customs to city superstitions.
8. The Making of the English Working Class by EP Thompson
The founding text of English social history. Thompson shows how the ordinary people of England were not content to wait for political reforms to be handed down to them from above, but were actively fighting for their rights throughout the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
9. A Song For Every Season by Bob Copper
The Copper family tended sheep on the Sussex downland for generations, and built up a vast collection of folk songs which they sung in the fields while working and in the tap room while relaxing with a beer. Discovered by the BBC in the early 1950s, their material formed an important part of the folk revival. Bob Copper's memoir of his family's life on the Downs at Peacehaven is accompanied by songs from the family collection.
10. The Strange Death of Tory England by Geoffrey Wheatcroft
It cheers me up just to write that title, never mind read the book.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2006/oct/18/top10s.englishness
Tuesday 14h April
Aims: Continue to ‘age’ the wallpaper
● Create test shots of wallpaper, with natural lighting, highlights, dark lighting and props.
● Create shots of cigarette falling into ashtray and smoke. (video)
● Use video to capture wine cork popping , (plastic syringe, and tea cup being stirred).
● Continue ink storyboard of shooting script, including tea stains, brown betty teapot,
● Wallpaper, tea rings, part of a plate (chipped) or old.
Storyboard the following:
Mug (explore methods on this one key word).
The findings could be used for poster 2.
(different ways this can be shown, including 4 methods from research, different influences BB, Lye, Brownjohn, Transcription convention, everything. also concrete poetry, try 2D and 3D, using paper and extending, using props relating to tea i.e. tealeaves and glue.
Union jack from the word ‘T’
● ● ● Significant findings occurred today when merging together linguistic methods with visual cues. I began storyboarding a shooting script as planned from yesterday’s agenda.The aim of the shooting script is to visualise my thoughts about methods and their efficiency in communication of intonation. Based on reflections of previous visual methods I have utilised such as chalk pastel, the organic use of ink, exploration of concrete poetry etc I started to synthesise these methods with linguistic explorations I had researched earlier on in the year. Linear, contour, levels and crazy letter methods have been linked firstly with my influences such as Brownjohn, Barnbrook, and Lye. After this first way of working, I quickly moved onto other methods or movements I had reviewed, such as concrete poetry, dada and I began to create my own processes and rationale. A storyboard of seven methods has been recorded as follows:
1 Crazy letter method (Bollinger ’72) + letterforms CCE (Allanson-Smith’09) (CCE=created in unison with content, context and environment) The word mug will be created using tea related materials, such as liquid tea, tea leaves, tea stains, 3D references and 2D references.
2 Levels method (Pike ’45) + letterforms CCE (Allanson-Smith’09)
3 Crazy letter method (Bollinger ’72) + Dadaism (Schwitters collage, ‘Bild mit Heller Mitte’ 1919
4 Linear method (Fries 1940) ) + letterforms CCE
5 Crazy letter method (Bollinger ’72) + letterforms 0IE (Allanson-Smith ’09)
OIE = created using organic shapes to represent intonational emphasis.
6 Levels method (Pike ’45) + concrete poetry
7 Crazy letter method (Bollinger ’72) + multi-sensory technique.
This method has been inspired by the following books Toe by Toe’ and ‘Brain Gym’ and linguists Jannedy, S & Mendoza-Denton, N (2005) Structuring Information through gesture and Intonation, Humbolt University, Berlin & University of Arizona
‘greater information density can be achieved by presenting part of the information acoustically and part of it (possibly complementary or reinforcing information) visually, bringing us closer to modelling the online workings of face-to-face conversation.’ p201-2
This final method will also feature sound as well as visual stimuli.
In this method the ‘U’ of the word mug will extend on folded paper as the syllable is uttered and will be deliberated over emphasised to aid intonation.
The next phase of work will involve small quick rough stop frame animations to test the results. These tests will be also reviewed with tutors and peers and developed and if appropriate will be applied to the animation.
Thursday 16h April
A series of animations were created. I found that the methods I had used before were helpful and I was able to build upon them. I had an idea of what the pieces should be like, however, stronger work emerged that was unplanned and right at the end of the animation ‘set’. Having produced concrete poetry from strips of letters, affecting letterforms with ink, I found that using the raw material connected to the conversation (in this case tea leaves) allowed the work to be more fluid, creative and expressive. The final animation was produced with an enlarged letter ‘u’ appearing from a swirl of tealeaves. The large text relates to the linguistic method ‘crazy letter’ in Bollinger’s book 1972 ‘Intonation’.
Friday 17h April
Tutorial feedback (JH and RN) NTU Summary: points addressed:
● Include still photography (not video footage)
● Audio of the tea being made and cork popping are effective, consider including
birds singing and gate opening (to lead audience into the sequence).
● Set up the next animation phase with out any text to resolve the photography sequence and audio only. MAKE SURE THE IMAGES WORK WELL AND JOIN UP WELL TOGETHER.
Consider changing or de-saturating the colour.
● Bring back narrators subtitles, it is not working without the dialogue and the words feeding and leading. Think about how the subtitles look, could they be handwritten on a notebook, or more business-like?
Set up outside shots of the house, gate, door then inside and some cut away shots
Allow text enough space against photographic backdrop
Leave ‘1 and a half’ on screen for longer
Include the precursor garbled message ‘are we gonna record it on now’, show jumbled
letters jostling together.
Apply mixture of methods and approaches in the work
Work on the other storyboards to give the current work contrast
Create evocative and subtle shots of cigarette falling into ashtray/smoke.
Consider using photography and clock ticking as the clock ticks the images change
or repeat (**really appreciated this suggestion as it would help the work’s structure and ‘heartbeat’.)
The linear method lends itself well to motion graphics
The linear method could look too dry, think about mixing the methods or approaching
the project in a more emotive way
Thursday, 9 April 2009
Weekly review
Friday 10th April 2009
Contents
1 Preparatory shots for Ken background and props
2 Micro plans for rest of MA (daily timetable)
Preparatory shots
Based on the feedback of tutors and peers I have mocked up a section of wall with textured wallpaper that will be ‘aged’ to look as though it is part of Ken’s lounge.
Anaglypta wallpaper was pasted onto plasterboard with assistance from my sons (Easter holidays). I also bought props that I deemed to suit Ken’s aesthetic taste, such as: a single boat on a calm lake with gold thin frame and slightly mouldy edges, a single grooming kit (with dust, courtesy of the antique shop) a dull coloured mug with a flying duck which pays homage to ‘Coronation Street style ducks flying on the wall, (a very English old fashioned signifier). A round brass ship with burnished holes and faded patina and a patriotic mug with Queen Elizabeth II again to communicate Englishness. Roll up cigarettes, a stained ashtray and tobacco tin give clues to Ken’s habits, age and lifestyle.
Once the papered plasterboard is set I will distress the surface, rip parts of the wallpaper and age the surface using tea, charcoal and chalk pastel. Pictures will be set on the wall and the work will be photographed and video will be utilized with different lighting effects.
Micro plans for rest of MA (daily timetable)
I have set daily tasks for the rest of the term and will be dedicating more time to the MA, which will include weekends and evenings. Speaking to close friends about my workload and family commitments, we devised a plan to tackle the tasks in a micro managed way. My role is to commit to each deadline and become more focused and strict about achieving these deadlines and have the support of family, friends and work colleagues (or not!). PDF plan of the work can be found in Contextual studies file 4.
Friday, 3 April 2009
Friday 3rd April 2009
Friday 3rd April 2009
Contents
1 MA catalogue copy and image submission
2 reviewing new research
3 Peer critique (Sheila Kendrick, PHd student
and colleague, University of Derby)
MA catalogue copy
Tracy Allanson-Smith MA RPT Graphic Design
‘Typographic Conversations’
My project explores the relationship of the typographic representation of oral language through the medium of animation. During unscripted spoken discourse I reflect upon layers of information from the data such as: syntax, lexical information and intonation of voice. Can scale, composition, layout, selection of letterforms and visual metaphor represent personality, individuality and subtleties integral to human speech? t.d.allanson-smith@derby.ac.uk http://tasmania40.blogspot.com
Reviewing new research
Jannedy, S & Mendoza-Denton, N (2005) Structuring Information through Gesture and Intonation, Humboldt University, Berlin & University of Arizona
The first paper highlights the importance of auditory cues to aid comprehension of discourse analysis.
‘greater information density can be achieved by presenting part of the information acoustically and part of it (possibly complementary or reinforcing information) visually, bringing us closer to modelling the online workings of face-to-face conversation.’ p.201-2
‘Further, the acoustic signal transmits social content, that is, it also carries social information pertaining to the speaker (age, gender, ethnicity, etc.) and their interlocutors.’ p. 204
The final information is not poignant to the project but nevertheless I find it fascinating, the gestural movements we use to accompany speech are aligned with intonation.
‘gestures strongly correlate with grammar and grammatical structures: it was found that the stroke (peak of effort) of a gesture occurs with the intonationally most prominent syllable of the aligned speech segment.’
(Kendon, 1980; McNeill, 1992, Cassell 2000; Loehr 2004).
Known also at the ‘apex’ (Browman & Goldstein, 1990)
History of Intonational Grammar (useful references)
Pierrehumbert (1980) the initial framework for English language intonation was carried out was then formalised as Transcription system in Beckham & Ayers (1994)
McNeill (gestural transcription)
Praat display of multitier transcription of intonation and gesture
ANVIL programme allows video and audio to be time aligned in preparation for transcription.
.................................................................................................................
Sanchez-Ayala, I (2003) Constructions as a resource for Interaction: lists in English and Spanish Conversation, Sage publications, London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi. University of California (Linguistics Department, Santa Barbara)
The second paper has been significant in re-examining previous discourse analysis terminology and has unearthed new information particularly relevant for Ken’s speech patterns.
The ultimate lexical stress in each intonation unit is lengthened (in English and Spanish)
Interlocutors (listeners) produce ‘reactive tokens’(Clancy et al) or ‘continuers’ (Schlegoff, 1983) to encourage more conversation.
Transcription notations adapted by author based on Du Bois (see in Research file 4)
Basic concepts of discourse follow:
Intonation unit, Chafe (1987:22) can be defined thus ‘a sequence of words combined under a single, coherent intonation contour, usually preceded by a pause’
Tone groups - Crystal
Intonation groups - Cruttenden
Intonation Phrases – Couper-Kuhlen
BASIC CONCEPTS
Du Bois et al defines the difference between intonation units into four sections
1 A coherent intonational contour throughout the unit
2 A reset in pitch
3 Anacrusis (definition below) at the beginning of new intonation units
anacrusis: in classical prosody, the up (or weak) beat, one or more syllables at the beginning of a line of poetry that are not regarded as a part of the metrical pattern of that line. Some scholars do not acknowledge this phenomenon. The term is from the Greek anakrousis, meaning "the act of pushing back," or "beginning of a tune."
4 Intervening pause between units
Tones
‘Tone is defined as the relative height of pitch in accented syllables with respect to surrounding syllables.” There are three combinations to tonal values;
1 High to Low
2 Low to High
3 Low High Low
These combinations occur during pre-nuclear, nuclear and post nuclear or tail syllable (Couper-Kuhlen, 1985)
Pitch
Pitch identifies the loudness of the words spoken, therefore helping to identify prominent types of accent within intonation units.
‘Syllables within intonation units have different degrees of prominence. Prominence correlates with greater loudness and duration as well as with pitch obtrusion on the prominent syllable.’
Prosody
1. the science or study of poetic meters and versification.
2. a particular or distinctive system of metrics and versification:
Milton's prosody.
3. Linguistics. the stress and intonation patterns of an utterance
Abruptness of speech patterns: (of particular relevance to the project)***
Sometimes speech is abrupt and appears as ‘step’ and opposed to gradient transitions or ‘glides’
Rhythm-based pattern
English language seems to reflect a distinctive rhythmic pattern.
English discourse displays a slower tempo, with an increase in loudness for nuclear syllables within the intonation unit. ‘Forte-lento’-Sanchez Ayala
List making patterns in Spanish and English display a ‘clearly distinct prosodic profile marked by its stylization or musicality.’
Syntax
Linking intonation units can be indicated using the comma (Chafe:1988) and the use of ‘connectives’ and, or then etc.
Lexicon
GLC’s Generalized List completers (Jefferson: 1990) GLC’s are used almost in place of etc and ‘so on’ ‘this and that’, ‘stuff’ ‘whatever’. They indicate a lexical clue to the end of the topic. This features heavily in Ken’s speech patterns.
Word search fillers – lexico-grammatical devices (Chafe, Kotschi, Clark)
Delaying the conversation can be implemented by the following means:
1 pauses between intonation unit
2 fillers such as ‘um’ ‘er’ ‘and’
3 Lengthened last syllables of each intonation unit
4 Repeating portion of parallel intonation unit
‘Note that (1) to (4) are based on lack of material, material with a very low semantic content or repetition of old material.’
Pauses – lexico-grammatical devices
Pauses play an important role by delaying the conversation, which allows the speaker to plan the rest of the conversation. Pauses display a forte-lento rhythmic pattern and are upbeats at the beginning of the intonation unit.
Lengthening
‘Kotschi has noted that intonation units usually show a lengthening in the penultimate syllable that serves to gain some time for the planning of the upcoming intonation unit.’
Parallelism
Parallelism or repetition is a key factor in list-making and also features in Ken’s speech patterns. Researchers in this field include:
Johnstone (1983), Rains (1992) and Sanchez Ayala (1997)
Coda
1. Music. a more or less independent passage, at the end of a composition, introduced to bring it to a satisfactory close.
2. Ballet. the concluding section of a ballet, esp. the final part of a pas de deux.
3. a concluding section or part, esp. one of a conventional form and serving
as a summation of preceding themes, motifs, etc., as in a work of literature
or drama.
4. anything that serves as a concluding part.
5. Phonetics. the segment of a syllable following the nucleus, as the d-sound in good.
.................................................................................................................
Feedback with S. Kendrick, P.H.D student
My peer reviewed the proposal, all sketchbooks and animations. The project proposal was met with engagement and enthusiasm. Further scope for research beyond the MA was discussed briefly.
Successes of the animation mentioned were:
Deployment of letterpress to denote age and lifestyle
The fluidity and offset nature of the ‘ha ha ha’s’
The rationale and inclusion of the narrator’s voiceover
The transparency of research (transcription convention)
Areas to consider:
Give the audience more visual clues to content
(tea related and ‘Englishness’, also grimy glib context with faded wallpaper, show alcohol when drink is mentioned of at least imply it. I suggested that a tea ring stain could form part of the words ‘I know it is’.
Give the audience more auditory clues to content
(tea related , stirring a cup of tea, kettle boiling, perhaps wine bottle being
de-corked)
More emphasis on ‘Mug’ is required as this is a key word, perhaps this needs a 3d element?
Deleting the video of the handwriting helps the viewer concentrate on the animation and was not adding more to the content. It was see as a blackboard, due to the inverted colouring.
Sheila’s perception of Ken from the audio data:
“He reminds me of a lonely sink with washing up for one and yellow net curtains.
He’s a very lonely man.” SK
Contents
1 MA catalogue copy and image submission
2 reviewing new research
3 Peer critique (Sheila Kendrick, PHd student
and colleague, University of Derby)
MA catalogue copy
Tracy Allanson-Smith MA RPT Graphic Design
‘Typographic Conversations’
My project explores the relationship of the typographic representation of oral language through the medium of animation. During unscripted spoken discourse I reflect upon layers of information from the data such as: syntax, lexical information and intonation of voice. Can scale, composition, layout, selection of letterforms and visual metaphor represent personality, individuality and subtleties integral to human speech? t.d.allanson-smith@derby.ac.uk http://tasmania40.blogspot.com
Reviewing new research
Jannedy, S & Mendoza-Denton, N (2005) Structuring Information through Gesture and Intonation, Humboldt University, Berlin & University of Arizona
The first paper highlights the importance of auditory cues to aid comprehension of discourse analysis.
‘greater information density can be achieved by presenting part of the information acoustically and part of it (possibly complementary or reinforcing information) visually, bringing us closer to modelling the online workings of face-to-face conversation.’ p.201-2
‘Further, the acoustic signal transmits social content, that is, it also carries social information pertaining to the speaker (age, gender, ethnicity, etc.) and their interlocutors.’ p. 204
The final information is not poignant to the project but nevertheless I find it fascinating, the gestural movements we use to accompany speech are aligned with intonation.
‘gestures strongly correlate with grammar and grammatical structures: it was found that the stroke (peak of effort) of a gesture occurs with the intonationally most prominent syllable of the aligned speech segment.’
(Kendon, 1980; McNeill, 1992, Cassell 2000; Loehr 2004).
Known also at the ‘apex’ (Browman & Goldstein, 1990)
History of Intonational Grammar (useful references)
Pierrehumbert (1980) the initial framework for English language intonation was carried out was then formalised as Transcription system in Beckham & Ayers (1994)
McNeill (gestural transcription)
Praat display of multitier transcription of intonation and gesture
ANVIL programme allows video and audio to be time aligned in preparation for transcription.
.................................................................................................................
Sanchez-Ayala, I (2003) Constructions as a resource for Interaction: lists in English and Spanish Conversation, Sage publications, London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi. University of California (Linguistics Department, Santa Barbara)
The second paper has been significant in re-examining previous discourse analysis terminology and has unearthed new information particularly relevant for Ken’s speech patterns.
The ultimate lexical stress in each intonation unit is lengthened (in English and Spanish)
Interlocutors (listeners) produce ‘reactive tokens’(Clancy et al) or ‘continuers’ (Schlegoff, 1983) to encourage more conversation.
Transcription notations adapted by author based on Du Bois (see in Research file 4)
Basic concepts of discourse follow:
Intonation unit, Chafe (1987:22) can be defined thus ‘a sequence of words combined under a single, coherent intonation contour, usually preceded by a pause’
Tone groups - Crystal
Intonation groups - Cruttenden
Intonation Phrases – Couper-Kuhlen
BASIC CONCEPTS
Du Bois et al defines the difference between intonation units into four sections
1 A coherent intonational contour throughout the unit
2 A reset in pitch
3 Anacrusis (definition below) at the beginning of new intonation units
anacrusis: in classical prosody, the up (or weak) beat, one or more syllables at the beginning of a line of poetry that are not regarded as a part of the metrical pattern of that line. Some scholars do not acknowledge this phenomenon. The term is from the Greek anakrousis, meaning "the act of pushing back," or "beginning of a tune."
4 Intervening pause between units
Tones
‘Tone is defined as the relative height of pitch in accented syllables with respect to surrounding syllables.” There are three combinations to tonal values;
1 High to Low
2 Low to High
3 Low High Low
These combinations occur during pre-nuclear, nuclear and post nuclear or tail syllable (Couper-Kuhlen, 1985)
Pitch
Pitch identifies the loudness of the words spoken, therefore helping to identify prominent types of accent within intonation units.
‘Syllables within intonation units have different degrees of prominence. Prominence correlates with greater loudness and duration as well as with pitch obtrusion on the prominent syllable.’
Prosody
1. the science or study of poetic meters and versification.
2. a particular or distinctive system of metrics and versification:
Milton's prosody.
3. Linguistics. the stress and intonation patterns of an utterance
Abruptness of speech patterns: (of particular relevance to the project)***
Sometimes speech is abrupt and appears as ‘step’ and opposed to gradient transitions or ‘glides’
Rhythm-based pattern
English language seems to reflect a distinctive rhythmic pattern.
English discourse displays a slower tempo, with an increase in loudness for nuclear syllables within the intonation unit. ‘Forte-lento’-Sanchez Ayala
List making patterns in Spanish and English display a ‘clearly distinct prosodic profile marked by its stylization or musicality.’
Syntax
Linking intonation units can be indicated using the comma (Chafe:1988) and the use of ‘connectives’ and, or then etc.
Lexicon
GLC’s Generalized List completers (Jefferson: 1990) GLC’s are used almost in place of etc and ‘so on’ ‘this and that’, ‘stuff’ ‘whatever’. They indicate a lexical clue to the end of the topic. This features heavily in Ken’s speech patterns.
Word search fillers – lexico-grammatical devices (Chafe, Kotschi, Clark)
Delaying the conversation can be implemented by the following means:
1 pauses between intonation unit
2 fillers such as ‘um’ ‘er’ ‘and’
3 Lengthened last syllables of each intonation unit
4 Repeating portion of parallel intonation unit
‘Note that (1) to (4) are based on lack of material, material with a very low semantic content or repetition of old material.’
Pauses – lexico-grammatical devices
Pauses play an important role by delaying the conversation, which allows the speaker to plan the rest of the conversation. Pauses display a forte-lento rhythmic pattern and are upbeats at the beginning of the intonation unit.
Lengthening
‘Kotschi has noted that intonation units usually show a lengthening in the penultimate syllable that serves to gain some time for the planning of the upcoming intonation unit.’
Parallelism
Parallelism or repetition is a key factor in list-making and also features in Ken’s speech patterns. Researchers in this field include:
Johnstone (1983), Rains (1992) and Sanchez Ayala (1997)
Coda
1. Music. a more or less independent passage, at the end of a composition, introduced to bring it to a satisfactory close.
2. Ballet. the concluding section of a ballet, esp. the final part of a pas de deux.
3. a concluding section or part, esp. one of a conventional form and serving
as a summation of preceding themes, motifs, etc., as in a work of literature
or drama.
4. anything that serves as a concluding part.
5. Phonetics. the segment of a syllable following the nucleus, as the d-sound in good.
.................................................................................................................
Feedback with S. Kendrick, P.H.D student
My peer reviewed the proposal, all sketchbooks and animations. The project proposal was met with engagement and enthusiasm. Further scope for research beyond the MA was discussed briefly.
Successes of the animation mentioned were:
Deployment of letterpress to denote age and lifestyle
The fluidity and offset nature of the ‘ha ha ha’s’
The rationale and inclusion of the narrator’s voiceover
The transparency of research (transcription convention)
Areas to consider:
Give the audience more visual clues to content
(tea related and ‘Englishness’, also grimy glib context with faded wallpaper, show alcohol when drink is mentioned of at least imply it. I suggested that a tea ring stain could form part of the words ‘I know it is’.
Give the audience more auditory clues to content
(tea related , stirring a cup of tea, kettle boiling, perhaps wine bottle being
de-corked)
More emphasis on ‘Mug’ is required as this is a key word, perhaps this needs a 3d element?
Deleting the video of the handwriting helps the viewer concentrate on the animation and was not adding more to the content. It was see as a blackboard, due to the inverted colouring.
Sheila’s perception of Ken from the audio data:
“He reminds me of a lonely sink with washing up for one and yellow net curtains.
He’s a very lonely man.” SK
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