sound experiments

I have started experimenting with how the machine could output the measurement of sentences with sound. Using a similar logic to the one applied in the angles and the use of colour, the audio output of the machine is produced by layering different sounds that represent the different angles at each different axis..
There is also a general background sound which is connected with the background colour.

meaning has colour

Continuing with the rules of the word machine I noticed how in all 3d programmes the x, y and z axis are attributed Red Green and Blue. As the viewer slides the angles of each axis off and on the colour of the axis is taken away from the colour balance of the background.

Meanings lost and found #02: The Word Machine

"to refuse to fix meaning is, in the end, to refuse God"
R. Barthes, 1977

The second and final part of my project with language is the Word Machine.
The ethereal word machine mulls around responses to concepts that are ambiguous. In an attempt to map meaning, it spits those responses out in a tree of connected strings of collective verbal expression.
If meaning however is in our minds and not in words, sentences or objects, then pin-pointing it and mapping it is impossible.

The content that the Word Machine is using are single sentence statements from a collection of varied sources representing the/a collective unconscious. For the prototype, I'm using responses from 65 people to Wittgenstein's 'the limits of my language are the limits of my world' and quotes from my research [see previous blog entry for initial sketches]. Once the parameters and rules of the 'machine' however are set and defined, it should be possible for it to use any starting point for a different map/tree as long as there is relevant input and subject matter settings. Other potential subject matters besides 'language' for the machine to map will be: desire and time.

still from a visualisation of the sentence selection process

From a database of sentences the machine selects responses to connect in 3d space. The starting point is a key statement in regards to a subject matter. In this case"the limits of my language are the limits of my world". The 'machine' is looking for the first word of the succeeding sentence to match the last of the preceeding.
i.e. The limits of my language are the limits of my world/ My world is not your world.
The angle the new sentence is placed to join the previous one is according a a set of 'meaning parameters'.

The Word Machine will place the selected word in 3d space in an angle in all 3 axises (x, y, z), eacho of which has been assigned it's own meaning parameter of polar opposites measured in quarters (-90º, -45º, 45º, 90º) in relation to the machine's point zero.
The X axis angle stands for macro v/s micro, Y axis stands for quantative v/s qualitative, Z axis objective v/s subjective.

The viewer will be able to add her/his own sentence in the list and also explore each parameter separately and the structure as a whole in 3d space. This is still in working progress.

still from an initial simulation of the word machine in cinema4d

the limits of my language are the limits of my world

I created the following 'chains' or 'strings' with responses from different people to Wittgenstein's sentence: "The limits of my language are the limits of my world". In the second and third example the angle is relevant to agreement and disagreement to the original phrase. Parallel to the original being in agreement and vertical in disagreement.

the circle is complete

immersive poetry

This is an extract of the two animations that I've created. They are both two different viewpoints of the same thing in a way visualising the throught process on the left and the words and phrases on the right. The sound is a result of a voice recording I made of my friend Dave and samples from Nick's sonic art compositions which i have compiled here to match with the motion and speech. Next step is to work on panning the audio and experiment with different projection compositions for the immersive space.

gravitational pull

getting on with it at the moment, here is an experiment with dynamics and initial compositing.
sound: nick del'nero

Patterns in time

So as to move away from my no-frills minimalism and to play about with textures [which I really enjoy]
I've been experimenting with things that fluidly change in time. Like ink in water, bubbles bursting etc.

Poetic environment project

Socrates "Phaedrus"

The discovery of the alphabet will create forgetfulness

in the learners souls, because they will trust to the external

written characters and not remember themselves

...

You give your disciples not truth but only the semblance

of truth; they will be heroes of many things and will have

learned nothing; they will appear omniscient and will generally know nothing.

T.S Eliot "Burnt Norton"

[...] Words strain,
Crack and sometimes break, under the burden,
Under the tension, slip, slide, perish,
Decay with imprecision, will not stay in place,
Will not say still. [...]

I am drawn to language, how it is used and what it means to different people, how it can make concrete some of our abstract thoughts and understanding of our world.
It often mystifies me how these lines and circles create meaning as well as how easy it is to misunderstand it.

 BEFORE 

For my 1st Brief I did an animation [Time#01] with the text from T.S Eliots Burnt Norton [from Four Quartets]. I was particularly drawn to the idea of parallel dimensions that the poet hints to that follow on from '... the path we did not take". This is directly linked to my interests in parallel narratives, timelines and space.
Inspired by the Cats Cradle game and I created a sphere with the interconnected verses of the poem.

 NOW 

The poem explores the notion of time and consciousness as something that exists beyond time. My interest lies in visually exploring the notion of time as an abstract concept tied to space as a non fixed changing and relative fabricated structure which is the poem itself.

I wish through this to share the experience of the linguistic/verbal meditative journey of the poet but to also form a dialogue with it. The animation and camera point of view having a dialogue with the words, through the use of space and timing.

Each part of the poem is a separate structure that is a type of a constellation with each verse a separate star/column, moving individually but attached to the structure/mechanism. In this way the shape continuously changes and words/verses overlap offering a different reading to the poem.

In this way I am hoping to offer the viewer a sense of the abstract relative notion of time and the words which try to describe it and instead of understanding a particular meaning and didactic message in a verbal sense, which the poet offers, to get a feeling instead in a non-verbal manner through motion and sound. Words are fabricated structures and mechanisms and verbal meanings are subject to points of view and interpretation.

 AFTER 

I selected parts of the poem that I am most drawn to and put them together into a new poem which the camera will narrate:

a storyboard has started to emerge:

and this is the initial sketch of the post-cinematic space I want to create: