6) Sound Investigation: Sound Ideas #3

Firstly, I’d like to say that I truly admire and respect who Martin Luther King Junior was, and what he has done. Secondly, I was honestly really surprised to find this podcast on our website noted as Martin Luther with his Language Removed. I now how his speeches and quotes are sources of inspiration, and of course were history changing events, but I did not think of ever finding pod-casts like this, playing around with his words. It wouldn’t have crossed my mind, ever, to twist the sounds of a man like him. After thinking about him and his work, I did realize how his speeches stood out. If I were to take his famous speech, “I Have A Dream,” and observe it now, I would now be able to pick out the few techniques he used. Personally, the way he spoke resembled a bit like how we might read poems, as he continued his sentence into the beginning of the next and then paused. However, the podcast that I heard from the site had gotten me to think differently. I have previously read and heard famous sayings and speeches by this great gentleman, but this was the first time I had heard his voice with incomplete words and sentences. I believe it was one of his speeches, possibly “I Have a Dream,” and whoever had edited it, had taken out some of the vowel sounds, and maybe exaggerated some other sounds as well. After totally listening to the podcast, I’d say it was quite difficult to listen to because of the incompleteness, and the fact that it seemed like he was unable to speak. That may have bothered me a bit as we all know him as a man who stood up for what he believed in, and from this podcast alone, it felt like he was being strained and being pulled back on his words. His words wouldn’t or more so couldn’t come out, and as a man who spoke out for the rights of people, I disliked how that’s how it came out as. This is very similar to the sound assignment in class we had, called “What the President Will Say and Do.” Both cases involved with a loud, strong voice, trying to say something, but only parts of their words and sentences were coming out.

 

Through this podcast, I learned how certain pieces of language can be cut up and removed to make it sound totally different, and may even send out the opposite kind of message. The fullness of sounds to me seem more important, and this podcast really proves that as it took an inspirational man’s speech, and made it sound more like a bunch of random noises, and not meaningful in that way. I realized that even small sounds like the vowels and basically any letter really, plays an important role to speech and sound, as the removal of one or more may change the tone, the message, and the emotions that are supposed to come from it. I found this version of Martin Luther King Jr’s piece very dull, random, and felt no concern to what he was saying, partially because I wasn’t sure of what he was trying to say. Just like John Cage had said, I now realize more than before that sounds should be known for merely what they’re made to be…sounds.

http://www.cliftonmeador.com/ihvdrm.htm

http://www.king-raleigh.org/history/honor.htm

http://meadow4.ca/writerscraft/

5) Sound Investigation: Sound Ideas #2

I feel that silence says a lot more than words do at times. According to John Cage, silence is one of the most beautiful things. While watching/listening to his video, I found it hard not to agree with everything he had said. No matter how much of a talkative, loud and outgoing person you may be, silence can do a lot for you. It soothes the mind, and allows you to resonate about the importance in life. For him, a silence was simply a span of time that was empty, and he believed that music was built out of blocks of time, and these blocks could contain either sound or silence. As Cage discovered this kind of silence through his composition with time structures, he became more and more interested in ways of composing in which the sounds, relieved of structural responsibility, appeared more casually, with less effort. I found it interesting that something like complete silence could teach you key skills on your work ethics, and your work in general.

Personally I feel that silence is very useful, and as a teenager of the 21^st century, finding silence can be a bit of a hard task. This made me realise what Cage really meant about sounds and silence, and how even with less or no sound at all, everything around you still seems more alive and bright than ever. At least, that is what I understood from Cage’s video as he had said that silence was channeled through chance, and was capable of producing endless content of amazing variety, full of both the unexpected and the common, the shocking and the entrancing, the engaging and the dull. To John Cage, silence was what taught him how to compose his beautiful music, and he continued to describe how sounds are made up simply for its own pleasure. We should not try to worry about how they’re formed and the meanings behind it. We should learn to just enjoy them for what they truly are…sounds. This made me think about how I view sounds and music in general. I don’t recall ever really just enjoying the sound of a tune, or song, without thinking about the lyrics, or what it was supposed to mean to me emotionally. So perhaps the next time I come across a beautiful piece of soothing music, or just a simple sound, I’ll try not to think about it much, and try to enjoy what it merely is.

http://rosewhitemusic.com/piano/writings/silence-taught-john-cage/

http://meadow4.ca/writerscraft/

4) Sound Investigation: Sound Ideas #1

Gibberish. It is an unintelligible or meaningless language. So why is it that we use it? I for one don’t know why people would commit their time to try and make sense of random sounds which in the end, aren’t supposed to make any sense at all. Yet, one major fact that I found interesting, after listening to Stephen Fry’s, “The Joy of Gibberish,” was that a baby’s mother tongue starts off as gibberish. The first few sounds, mama, dada, or papa, are all terms that are gibberish. When babies have a conversation with each other, we say they’re talking, and yet, they’re actually speaking gibberish. Fry had explored the sensation of gibberish, what it was and is, why we write, speak and sing it, and why we truly find it quite enjoyable. His motive for this project was to try and find a meaning to something that is meant to be something meaningless. This is quite clear towards the end of his podcast.

Something that I honestly did not think about was the show Teletubies being spoken in Gibberish. Throughout my whole childhood life, even after learning English, I’ve watched that show numerous of times, and until Stephen Fry had stated that they spoke gibberish, it had not crossed my mind. I found that very surprising, and quite hilarious actually. One would just assume that sound refers to small noises made by people, animals, or things, but even languages like gibberish is a type of sound. I never knew how gibberish could be so significant and still have no meaning at the same time. Stephen stated that “true gibberish should not have meaning and, what might be gibberish to someone might just be someone else’s native language.” Personally, I always thought Gibberish was used when people wanted to communicate without the others around them understanding what it was that they were saying. In the beginning it stated, “Please don’t stretch your pigeon-hole of a mind to understand what these words really are,” which basically just meant, don’t hurt yourself trying to understand gibberish, but instead just enjoy it for the sounds that are made. Stephen also suggests the difference between gibberish and complete nonsense is that nonsense may have a logical and hidden meaning but gibberish does not have any of that. It is merely an imitation of sounds.

Last but not least, the ending where Fry made clear of his point in a not so clear way amused me greatly. “Gibberish is a universal language, spoken by many, recognized by all and understood by none. Gibberish is literate and illiterate, it hints at beauty and truth. Gibberish speaks to our being.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibberish

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Frys-English-Delight-Series-2/dp/1408427435

http://meadow4.ca/writerscraft/

3) Sound Investigation: Sound Artist #3

Lastly, as I listened to Die Geburt Des Dionysos Christos (1977)  and Island (Eine Sinfonie In 10 Satzen) (1980) by Hermann Nitsch, and all I could think of was Halloween, and the sounds or music people play in scary cartoons. I could only think of the creepy themed songs that you would hear in Frankenstein, or the Adam’s Family. As I researched, I found out that Nitsch is an Austrian artist who works in experimental and multimedia modes. As he worked in theatre, the scenes were often involved with slaughters, religious sacrifices, crucifixion, as well as blood and flesh. The performances are also accompanied with music, dancing, and active participants. So these sounds that I heard had now made sense when comparing it to these theatrical sounds and elements. Other than sounds, I looked up his paintings, and was in utter shock, in both the good and bad way. This was because a good portion of his pieces were oil and acrylic canvas paintings that  reflected blood, which made me think of murder and death, and obviously no one sees pleasure in that. Secondly, the other sketches and paintings that were supposed to show or express creations were very eye catching. I myself love to draw, sketch and paint, and so I felt like these were pieces I’d love to try, because they stood out, and made you try to figure out what they really were. According to Nitsch, his abstract splatter paintings, like his performance pieces, address the excessive beauty and intensification of human existence. Personally, all I could think of was whether or not he had been hurt throughout his life. Did he suffer from an illness or had he experienced an accident that involved loosing excessive blood? Was there a reason to why his music was very alarming, and could it have been because of personal issues in his life?

After trying to find some sort of answer to reassure myself, I found out that his art could have been a result from being born and raised throughout the times of war in his country. This could also been his inspiration to start paintings, and the types of sound pieces he has come up with.  He had also said later in the years that Michelangelo, Leonardo, Dutch paintings, Rembrandt, and Rubens where people who truly inspired him while he was studying. Personally, he resembles to other sound and visual he probably did not mean to show in such ways. To most, blood like paintings are not soothing artists, as he represents his feelings, and his thoughts through the arts. Yet, what I believe would make him different from everyone else was that he continued to portray negative aspects, that or calming of any sort, but to him, it was his art, and he did not stop because others may have found it offensive. He had a fascination with the intensity of religious feelings for life in his art work with excessive means such as taboo images, nudity, bloody scenes and  more. He received several court trials and three prison terms for these reasons alone. I wonder if he had tried to speak out for himself, and whether or not he had any mental issues. For all we know, he could have been suffering from something at the time, causing these kinds of work to be produced. Even today, people say his work may represent cultures’ fascination with violence. He is a very interesting artist, and to me, possibly an unstable one, but his art is still admirable even if it seems like a sickening perspective.

http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/hermann_nitsch_resources.htm

http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/hermann-nitsch-595-v17n11

http://meadow4.ca/writerscraft/

2) Sound Investigation: Sound Artist #2

While I was searching for other sound artists, I came across one that looked familiar. Later I remembered that Christian Bök (who is a Canadian experimental poet) had written a famous book called, “Eunoia” which was the book Ms. Parrish had passed around in class. After researching about him, I found out that not only was the book very popular, but that it had won the 2002 Griffin Poetry Prize and was considered to be one of the best-selling Canadian poetry books. Now I understand why Ms. Parrish had said her signed copy would be worth a lot in the future! So as I listened to portions of his books online, and my idea of him being unique and creative did not change. What I found very interesting about this book was that it took him seven years to write! I honestly would not have guessed that it would take that long, because putting a bunch of words with the same vowel doesn’t seem like a 7 year activity. I did however still find his pieces to be a bit unusual, because it did not really make a lot of sense to me personally. His intentions with the vowels were clear, but hearing random words with a similar vowel being spilled out, one after another was really bizarre. Although his sentences were structured properly, I still found it hard to comprehend some of his pieces, even though they did in fact make sense. I also found it surprising that he had read the entire dictionary FIVE whole times in preparation for writing his book. It’s more mind boggling that he tried or attempted to the best of his ability, to include all those vocabulary words. The only main question that came to my mind was why would he have even considered doing such a thing, and what was it that gave him such an odd idea?

I found out that he also wrote a poem called “vowels” which later was incorporated into lyrics of a song on the EP A Quick Fix of Melancholy by the Norwegian band Ulver in 2003. In terms of his inspirations, he said that while writing poetry in his late adolescence, work by Michael Ondaatje, Leonard Cohen, and Gwendolyn MacEwan really kept him going. After publishing some of his “juvenilia” he later was convinced in his undergraduate career that he could really change the history of poetry I found that truly inspiring, and it just makes the audience and other writers believe that doing what you love, and working extremely hard for it, will indeed pay off in the end. In that sense, he is similar to other sound artists, as he kept at his work, regardless of how different and unique his work was. He wrote poems with the sense of freedom, and did not feel the need for it to make sense. This was also evident with his sound pieces. When I listened to his piece, “Valuvëula” I found it sounded like a song and the vowels were the most evident sounds. It also seemed like a totally different language, and I wondered how he even came up with such random, but so fitting kinds of words. What made him different to other sound artists was his perspective of creativity and experimental poetry. For example, the 43 year old poet is now working on a poem that will be coded, translated, and constructed into a genetic sequence, and then implanted onto a bacterium. For this Bök has chosen the Deinococcus radiodurans which is an organism that has earned the Guinness Book of World Records entry for “world’s toughest bacterium.” This made me wonder how a poet who began with emphasis on vowel sounds, had decided to go into something more genetical, and came up with this idea. Who or what made him even decide to do this, or if this could even be possible? His creativity is honestly at another level in comparison to any other sound artist, and although it doesn’t always seem to make any sort of sense, I guess that’s how you know he’s perfected the ideology of it representing sound.

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/christian-bok

http://www.utne.com/arts/christian-bok-experimental-poet-eunoia.aspx#ixzz2hSXsk2u6

http://www.utne.com/arts/christian-bok-experimental-poet-eunoia.aspx#axzz2hSUCJpSn

http://meadow4.ca/writerscraft/

1) Sound Investigation: Sound Artist #1

The first sound piece I listened to was called, “Discours Absolu” which lasted about 3 minutes and 40 seconds of the original 6 hour composition. It contained parts that were done in the late 1940s till 1960, by a man named Altagor. His pseudonym, which is the fictitious name used by an author to conceal his or her identity was Jean Vernier. So at first, when I heard the words I thought of two languages: Arabic and French. After researching I found out it was indeed French. I live in an area where there are many Arabic families, and I always hear arabic words, and when the words, “hatmeh, hatma, hatmo” came along, I felt like I was hearing the name Fatma but in the way they pronounce it in Arabic, as Fatmeh. That was my reasoning to thinking it could have been or could have had Arabic components. Altagor was actually a former mechanic and miner, but eventually became a writer, and created many poems with his own invented words. I wondered why this was, as I could have never imagined someone who works physically and in the dark to be able to come up with such elegant and music like poems, more or less spend the rest of his life committed to writing them. Although,the idea of how the loud sounds down in the mine may have been inspiring, and could have helped him with the beginning of his sound poetry. I wonder if there is such connection?

I also listened to a small portion of his poem called Métapoésie, which consisted of onomatopoeia. He like many other sound artists, was involved with poetry, which would be my favourite kind of writing. However, he was quite different in comparison to other poets as he did visual poetry. He accompanied his poems alongside a pantophone, which is a stringed, bowed instrument, and sometimes a plectrophone, which is played with a stick. Of course I had to look up both of these instruments, as I’ve never heard such ones before. His inspirations were probably past poets, whom helped guide him into writing poetry, and given him the hope and freedom to make his own kind. The only questions I had to his work was what had caused him to include music with his poems? Did he have a love for music? If so, what kinds of music, and whom did he enjoy listening to the most? Personally, poetry to me reflects emotions, and are like stories, so including music while writing and reading poems seemed something unusual. The only way it would seem to make sense was if the music was relevant to the emotions described in his poems, but that was hard to identify as he made up his own kinds of sounds and words. I also wondered if he had any sort of hobbies that involved visual arts. In the clip I saw paintings and random abstract and beautiful drawings, and sketches, and wondered if they were just used to showcase his poems or if they had some other relevance.I found Altagor to be a very interesting poet, and for some reason, I seemed to be reminded of another artist (not one involved sound, but with visual art), Leonardo Da Vinci. Quite weird actually.

http://www.ubu.com/sound/altagor.html

http://continuo.wordpress.com/2012/09/27/baobab-issue-9-altagor/

http://meadow4.ca/writerscraft/

#4: A topic that interests you

A topic that I found quite interesting was the idea of writing a question poem. I always loved writing poems from the time I learned how to properly write one. It is a great way to express yourself and there really aren’t many rules. You write what you see, smell, feel, think, etc. It was a self motivational writing form for me, and I always felt like I accomplished a lot when I finally came to the end of my own poems. So recently, when researching about poems, I found out about question poems, and found that to be a very interesting subject. I understood that question poems are essentially sequences of queries. They describe what you know and really wonder about, but in a fast pace. This in general reminded me of any and every kind o poetry, as they’re all written to express of feelings, thoughts and emotions. It reminded me of the times I used to just write random poems for fun, and to find peace to the mind. I felt a source of completion and relaxation once I finished writing poems, regardless to how long or short they were.

               I just wondered how you would even write question poems. I remember using questions in certain poems I wrote, but I always ended up answering them as I continued to write the poem. I also wondered how a writer would feel complete after writing a poem of that kind. Would they write about their past, or their present? I find that most people including myself, usually question the decisions that have been made in the past, rather than the future or present.

               To further investigate this type of poetry, I would attempt to write these kinds of poems and compare them to my old ones. I’d like to see the similarities and differences in both. I would also like to see whether there were differences in how I perceive things while trying to write a question poem, and whether or not it is similar to how I would think when writing any other kind of poem. It would be very interesting, and extremely fun!

http://meadow4.ca/writerscraft/

#3: A writing style, genre, technique, issues

When it comes to writing styles, the first one that pops up into my mind would be the persuasive writing style. This is my favourite because here, I can express my opinions, be bias, and justify whatever it may be that I want to prove. I get to try to prove to the readers and the audience that what I believe is correct and use examples to make them believe in what I am trying to say and prove. I can persuade the readers to picture ideas in a way that I would find more beneficial and useful, which helps prove my points and ideas. When reading different kinds of persuasive writing pieces, I always think about the original author, and how devious their minds may work. In certain pieces, you can really understand what the point is, and what you are being convinced of, but not all the time are you sure of the other possible choices. Often the competition is shown as a lower standard and less beneficial choice in comparison to the authors, but only skeptical minds like mind would try to perceive the opponents thoughts, and justify as to whether or not what I am reading is honestly true.

                    I wonder if all writers of persuasive writing pieces write with the intentions of degrading an opponent or opponents. Sometimes people just emphasize the pros, but hide the cons, and so I wonder if all or most persuasive writers try to avoid writing about the few cons. If as an author you are trying to prove a point, would they think about their reasoning, arguments, and justifications ahead of time, and only if they have thought of enough valid points do they continue the writing piece what if their point or perspective was (to them) correct, but was hard to prove or justify? Because they believe it is correct, would they still continue to attempt in proving their side of the story? I wonder if writing a persuasive piece is much more difficult than it sounds.

                    I would probably like to further investigate by writing out a persuasive piece myself, or getting others to attempt to write some as well. From there, I could observe the techniques used, and if it really is fair and whether or not making a point is easy to do. Things aren’t always as easy as they may seem.

http://meadow4.ca/writerscraft/

#2: An author of your own choice

While reading about E.E Cummings, I found him to be a very unusual man. The idea of not using capitals or proper spelling seemed a little weird, and I just thought of him as a lazy individual. Yet after finding out that he was most popular to young readers at the time, I went on and read some of his poems. I did not quite understand a good portion of them, but the one I wanted to write my investigation on specifically was his poem, “she being Brand.” When I first started reading it, I believed it was about a woman, but as I got closer to the end, I realized that it seemed more so about an automobile than a woman. That to me was very unusual, but at least I understood what he was trying to say. I instantly thought of how, even now, men refer to their automobiles as “she” and I wondered whether this comparison may have started a long time ago. Maybe even long before E.E Cummings’ time. It made me think about how and why women and automobiles were alike, and how this comparison could have come to be. Could it be because cars and women are things that men become interested in their teens? Or maybe because both of these things are sources of pleasure or conversely and quite amusingly, could be sources of pain, and financial loss? The thought of how both the vehicles and women also popped into my mind, as the better looking they were, the more impressive it made the men seem. So relatively, the more money and wealthy the men were, the more expensive and glamorous his automobile/woman was.

After wondering about the connections, I thought about why Mr. Cummings would even write about an automobile, and whether or not this was directing to a woman in his life. If it was, many dirty interpretations could be made and this would explain why he was more famous to the young readers during his time. At first his intentional rule breaking strategies annoyed me, but while reading through some passages, it seemed unique, and something you could not really try to copy, no matter how hard you tried. Although it wasn’t his original technique, he managed to form a type of writing that was so confusing and simple at the same time. This poem in general made me wonder the love perspective from the mind of Mr. Cummings, and whether or not his love life had worked out, or whether he had any sort of romantic relationships throughout his life.

I would further investigate to find out what his life was like, and whether he, liek many other famous authors, experienced more of the pain that love brought along. I’d like to know how he perceived women, and whether they were seen as a tool, or piece of equipment (automobile) rather than a human. I would also like to attempt to write a similar poem, although it would be extremely hard to imitate his poem without making it of my own, in a female perspective, and write about men in comparison to an object. I’m not exactly sure what object I would use, but that would definitely be a very interesting piece.

http://meadow4.ca/writerscraft/

#1: Writers who break the rules

After reading a good portion of James Joyce’s book Finnigan’s Wake, I felt a little bit irritated as I found it a bit difficult to comprehend and annoying to try to understand. Parts of his work were very hard to understand because his writing was random and did not make a lot of sense. There were words that were put together that originally should or would never be put together. I had difficulty trying to make sense of the so called sentences. I had a hard time trying to make sense of what was written, and only continued reading on because there were chunks that had legitimate words, which helped me try to push forward. His writing reminded me of absolutely nothing, as everything I remember reading in my life has made some sort of sense.

 

His writing made me wonder if his work was unique or complete nonsense. In comparison to other writers who broke rules, I found myself more frustrated and unsure of his talents when reading his pieces. Even though some other writers’ works have also made no sense, they had their own way of capturing the reader; where as James Joyces’ pieces were simply hard to follow through in the first place. Personally, if it weren’t for this assignment, I probably would not have continued on reading through the first page of Finnigan’s Wake, in hopes of some sort of message being passed through. I also wondered if it wasn’t his writing, and whether it was just myself. Maybe I don’t seem to understand his intentions and message through his writing. I could be one of the unsure and lost readers, and there could be a clear and precise message to his work, but I myself not being used to reading clustered work like this, may not be able to quickly grasp the initial idea being set by Mr. Joyce.

 

In terms of investigating James Joyce, I’d like to find out what made him write in the way he does and whether or not he himself understands his writing. It could be quite possible that he writes what he believes makes sense, and later on, it’s as unclear to him as it is to me. I’d like to also find out about his lifestyle, and the type of environment he was around. What kinds of issues or events caused him to write these kinds of peculiar pieces and if in some sense, it was with a specific purpose. I also want to find out how it is that he became famous, because quite frankly, I find his piece to be unique yet very frustrating to read. If I had to do a creative project relevant to this, I would try to write my own version similar to Mr. Joyce’s and see if my friends or classmates would attempt in reading the whole page, or if they would give up after a certain amount of sentences. That would actually be very interesting and amusing as well!

http://meadow4.ca/writerscraft/