kianataylorblog-blog - Tumblr blog

[kianataylorblog-blog]

Tonterías - FINAL WORK

Tonterías, or ‘silly stuff’ in English, explores the themes presented in widely popular ‘telenovelas’ (Latin American soap operas). It also pays homage to the style associated with these programs which relies heavily on overdubbed audio. I explored the impact of audio on a subconscious level in my first assessment and have decided to play with it again.

Telenovelas are an integral part of Latin American culture which offers interesting insight into the portrayal of women. It is common to see a dichotomy in this presentation; between angelic mother figures or subservient girls to over sexualised or violent women. There is also an element of preference for able-bodied, white, cis characters and demonisation of those who don’t fit into those categories. While this is common in media from most countries it is painfully transparent in Latin American telenovelas.

For most Latin Americans, watching telenovelas is quite common, even for those who are first, second and third generation immigrants. In my family, this enduring love is put down to self-reflection as chismosas or ‘gossipers’. As my grandmother often says, we see ourselves in them; our passions, our hopes, our fights, our dramas. In this way, Latin Americans self-identify with the themes presented in the novelas, which provides interesting insight into their popularity.

Tonterías is a tongue-in-cheek exploration of the themes presented in telenovelas. The clips were sourced from three popular telenovelas, María la del barrio, Cuidado con el ángel and La rosa de guadalupe and subtitles as well as audio dubbing were put on top. The subtitles were written and translated by me and demonstrate the awkwardness of trying to translate media that is made for a particular culture only. While a line such as “Que haces con la lisiada!” might sound fine in Spanish, it sounds particularly funny in English (What are you doing with the cripple?!). Tonterías also explores the ability of audio to facilitate the mood of a video.

[kianataylorblog-blog]

undefined

Experiment 3 - I was playing around with femicide statistics as well to see wether it would be interesting on top of novela scenes. I think it might be better though to just do something funny rather than aiming for depth or trying to be smart. Novelas are often associated with b-grade editing skills (sort of like the bold and the beautiful) and this is an interesting concept. Unlike Australia, soap operas are the most popular form of entertainment in Latin America although they do divide people as well with their portrayal of women.

[kianataylorblog-blog]

Experiment two - overdubbing is often something found with programs that aren’t in English and they’re usually quite hilarious. For this I got my boyfriend to respond to the video and just make a whole bunch of noises. I actually ended up using it.

[kianataylorblog-blog]

undefined

Experiment 1 - This is footage taken from the telenovela ‘Maria la del barrio’. On top is text I have written which is taken from my family’s interactions on Facebook. Not sure if I want to head down this personal route or not, or if I want to explore stereotypes around latinx women instead. 

[kianataylorblog-blog]

Chun Yin Rainbow Chan, ‘Familiar Stranger’ - performance work

Chan installed a 10-metre silk scroll which hangs from the ceiling on which she wrote a poem translated from Google Translate. Recalling the rote style learning she had to do at Saturday school learning Chinese, Chan wrote the characters as many as 10 times in a performance that lasted a few hours. Chan said she is interested in the idea of mistranslation and authenticity, which is a key part of the work; as the scroll inevitably fails to make sense. Instead it is a jumbled up mixture of characters and meaning. I find this work interesting and it reminds me of my childhood; my grandma would often do sessions with me to try to teach me Spanish as a kid which always involved rote learning of some kind. I distinctly remember writing out as many as twenty times:

la manzana

la manzana

la manzana

la manzana

la manzana

la manzana etc etc

[kianataylorblog-blog]

Asuka Goto - ‘lost in translation’

Japanese-American artist Asuka Goto explores her identity and the loss of her native language through her work ‘lost in translation’. Goto aims to translate into English, the 300 word book ‘Elizabeth’ written by her father. She calls it a ‘flawed approximation’, as her knowledge of the language is less than perfect, having grown up in an English speaking country. Goto displays the original text with all her notes as an installation, and also puts pictures of her texts to her mother as part of the work. Goto said she used her mother as a conduit between her and her father which is an interesting concept. I identified with this work as I often find I have to use my grandmother to translate things for me, or I have to restore to Google translate which is often flawed in it’s translations.

[kianataylorblog-blog]

Idea for assessment 2:

This clip is from a famous telenovela (Latin American soap opera - this one is Mexican). My family always jokes about how our drama and interactions with each other are like scenes from a telenovela. I think I would like to experiment with this idea, and maybe write my own translations then superimpose them on video clips taken from novelas. I could find material from messages from my family on Facebook and private messages. Could be interesting in terms of identity; Latin Americans are often stereotyped as over-dramatic, crazy. I could maybe also try to write translations myself with my not so perfect Spanish, a reflection of my identity as a Peruvian-Australian.

[kianataylorblog-blog]

Concept Statement

‘Spoken Word’ explores the relationship between auditory perception and emotion. I used language sourced from motivational speeches, videos from self-help gurus and guided meditations to create a script from which I could base a recording. The recording itself is the final work, an eerie ode to the power and effect of language and the human voice on our emotions. The work is made to be viewed individually and in a solitary space; quite like the secret confines of a bedroom or our own hidden thought processes. Posters have many functions, one of which is idolisation; they reflect who we want to be, what we want to experience and moments we wish were our own. Increasingly we are seeing this process channeled through other mediums. Social media platforms and the internet provide us with hundreds of ‘posters’ every day which are tailored to our desires; for example, our Instagram feeds now follow a rubric of what it predicts we would like to see. We are also being flooded with audio and audio-visual ‘posters’; guided meditations and self-help podcasts are an example. As technology increases, our ambitions, hopes and dreams need not be plastered on a wall in a 2D, static form anymore; now they are made to be carried around with us where ever we go, like a portable poster.

‘Spoken Word’ engages with audio in order to explore human interaction with sound. A study done in 2015 found that an infants’ emotional capability was heightened by access to its’ mother’s voice. This might be why guided meditations for example often have a soothing, calm voice that mimics the voice of a parent or other guardian figure. Using language derived from many different ‘inspirational’ or ‘motivational’ sources, ‘Spoken Word’ attempts to convey the subliminal messaging of posters in an audio form.

[kianataylorblog-blog]

Draft script for recording - language sourced from multiple different motivational speech videos and guided meditations.

Maybe you are afraid of becoming vulnerable and opening yourself up for scrutiny.

(Pause)

Imagine you are free to do what you want.

Create a picture of yourself as this person.

(Pause)

Imagine how good and successful you will feel..

It’s interesting how almost all the language is the same between different videos. It requires you to visualise or manifest your own destiny. It can be said that posters are a visual 2D version of this concept.

[kianataylorblog-blog]

Experiment with recording voice. I think I want to corroborate a whole bunch of different things from guided meditations and motivational speeches. Also obviously need better quality recording.

[kianataylorblog-blog]

Guided Meditation for Deep Sleep, Create Your Destiny Hypnosis for Law o...

i find guided meditation interesting as they use techniques that are psychologically proven to elicit emotion i.e. soothing voice creates a relaxed mental state. The power of another human talking in a particular way is evident and has been researched through studies of mothers and their infants. I think I’d like to play with this idea and use language that is common of these sorts of guided meditations to conceptualise the emotional response a poster on a wall can have.

[kianataylorblog-blog]

REC/PLAY from link on Vimeo.

Artist Thessia Machado creates machines from found objects that interact to create sound. Her work is interesting as it also elicits emotion in the audience but in an opposite way to Susan Philipsz; this work elicits a nervous, tense response and highlights the psychology behind particular sounds and physical responses in humans i.e. the feeling you get when you hear nails running down a chalkboard.

[kianataylorblog-blog]

One of the first acoustic stimuli we are exposed to before birth is the voice of the mother and the sounds of her heartbeat. As fetuses, we have substantial capacity for auditory learning and memory already in utero (1⇓⇓⇓–5), and we are particularly tuned to acoustic cues from our mother (6⇓⇓–9). Previous research suggests that the innate preference for mother’s voice shapes the developmental trajectory of the brain (10, 11). Prenatal exposure to mother’s voice may therefore provide the brain with the auditory fitness necessary to process and store speech information immediately after birth (12, 13).

There is evidence to suggest that prenatal exposure to the maternal voice and heartbeat sounds can pave the neural pathways in the brain for subsequent development of hearing and language skills (14). For example, the periodic perception of the low-frequency maternal heartbeat in the womb provides the fetus with an important rhythmic experience (15, 16) that likely establishes the neural basis for auditory entrainment and synchrony skills necessary for vocal, gestural, and gaze communication during mother–infant interactions (17, 18).

Studies examining the neural response to the maternal voice soon after birth have found activation in posterior temporal regions, preferentially on the left side, as well as brain areas involved in emotional processing including the amygdala and orbito-frontal cortex (19).

Research taken from “Mother’s voice and heartbeat sounds elicit auditory plasticity in the human brain before full gestation”, Alexandra R. Webb, Howard T. Heller, Carol B. Benson, and Amir Lahav, PNAS March 10, 2015. 112 (10) 3152-3157; published ahead of print February 23, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1414924112. Edited by Mortimer Mishkin, National Institute for Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, and approved January 28, 2015 (received for review August 6, 2014). 

This research is interesting as it attempts to explain the impact of sound on human emotions. Could also be a reason why we often hear a soothing voice in guided meditations; I’m guessing the brain reacts to voices that sound nurturing and soft because of this fundamental process as infants.

[kianataylorblog-blog]

'Lowlands' - Susan Philipsz Turner Art Prize Winner 2010

Susan Philipsz looks at the psychology of sound. She records her voice and mixes it with an eclectic bunch of sources such as David Bowie snippets and plays the sound in public spaces, often architectural sites. Her work is eerie and melancholy and changes the atmosphere of the physical spaces. Philipsz looks at the psychology of sound and it’s facilitation of human emotion.

I find the idea that sound can instigate a physical response in the form of emotions interesting. Posters are often a form of idolisation in that they also instigate an emotional response in us, they are a visual 2D version of this concept. Yet, we don’t always look to physical posters as much these days for inspiration/motivation due to an increase in technology; these days, the posters we wouldve put on our walls exist instead on our phones as wallpapers, saved photos, likes on social media platforms.

[kianataylorblog-blog]

Making a friendship bracelet - a form of weaving that is worn on the body. I’d like to make a giant friendship bracelet using thick wool/material/maybe extension cords or other found objects

[kianataylorblog-blog]

Friendship bracelets: a form of textile that says something without words; is declarative of a promise without needing text. Communication doesn’t always have to be textual or 2D.

noun

noun:

friendship bracelet

; plural noun:

friendship bracelets

a brightly coloured bracelet of woven wool, cotton, or other yarn, worn by young people as a token of friendship.

/tokenˈtəʊk(ə)n/

noun

noun:

token

; plural noun:

tokens

1. a thing serving as a visible or tangible representation of a fact, quality, feeling, etc."mistletoe was cut from an oak tree as a token of good fortune"synonyms:symbol, sign, emblem, badge, representation, indication, mark, index, manifestation, expression, pledge, demonstration, recognition; Moreevidence, attestation, proof "a token of our appreciation"memento, souvenir, keepsake, reminder, record, trophy, relic, remembrance, memorial; archaicmemorandum "he kept the menu as a token of their golden wedding"

2. a voucher that can be exchanged for goods or services, typically one given as a gift or forming part of a promotional offer."a record token"synonyms:voucher, coupon, chit, docket, stamp, order, credit note, IOU; informalchitty "a book token"

3. an individual occurrence of a symbol or string, in particular:

4. Computinga sequence of bits passed continuously between nodes in a fixed order and enabling a node to transmit information.

archaica badge or favour worn to indicate allegiance to a particular person or party."Ruthven was murdered and the assassin left his token"

archaica word or object conferring authority on or serving to authenticate the speaker or holder."you should have a token that will stand you in good stead if ever you should fall foul of the prince's officers"

a staff or other object given to a train driver on a single-track railway as authority to proceed over a given section of line.

a metal or plastic disc used to operate a machine or in exchange for particular goods or services."a milk token"synonyms:counter, disc, substitute coin, jetton, chip, piece, man "a telephone token"

Linguistics an individual occurrence of a linguistic unit in speech or writing.

Computing the smallest meaningful unit of information in a sequence of data for a compiler.

adjective

adjective:

token

1. done for the sake of appearances or as a symbolic gesture."cases like these often bring just token fines from magistrates"synonyms:symbolic, emblematic, indicative;

[kianataylorblog-blog]

Inspiration: Peruvian-American artist Sarah Zapata utilizes traditional Andean and Peruvian hand practices of rug making and weaving to create vibrant, abstract textile works. Zapata utilizes these labor-intensive practices in order to examine her own cultural identity, in addition to reclaiming a medium that has historically been considered "women's work." Weaving is still an integral part of Peruvian identity and is very labour intensive, also considered an extension of the person’s own being and part of their identity.