Remember My Voice
Size: 4 in. x 6 in. (19)
Medium: photographic collage
Completion: November 2018
Medium: photographic collage
Completion: November 2018
This series of photographs captures the movement of lips that correspond with the sound that forms the basic components of communication and interpretation. It is meant to capture the isolated visual element of voice, and how over time we become familiar with the way a voice not only sounds like, but how a voice looks. The overlapping collage of photographs was inspired by John Stezaker's Marriage I. The staging of movement by still frame was inspired by Arnulf Rainer.
Inspiration
John Stezaker is a conceptual artist whose focus is in constructing photographic collages. The content was collected from various sources such as illustrations produced in books, vintage postcards and decorative mail, or classic movie stills (photographs taken during a production). The different images are then dissected into what he determines as the essential parts, and uniting the layers to construct a final piece. They are often paired through artistic reasoning, considering components such as balance, contrast, and shape. To some, his work may be viewed as rebellious, and even destructive due to the way in which he reduces individual pieces of art to create a bigger picture. He manipulates and draws out new meaning through the technique of combining various images by collage. One of his focuses were the truth claims created by photography, which in essence is the way photos can be used to display the reality of life and how the purpose of photos are to produce physical memories. Marriage I is a part of Stezaker's Marriage series, in which he created hybrid faces by taking portions of portraits that belong to public shots of various celebrities that he collected. By morphing individually familiar faces together, an uncaring experience can be concluded from its winless, as a viewer is thrown out of a familiar observation expectancies when regarding a portrait. The alignment of images causes the eye to move throughout the piece and note the areas of transition. Incoherent harmony is found through the layering of the photographs.
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Planning
I conducted research on the movement of different facial structures, but primarily the mouth, lips and tongue. These characterized components allow for the learning of lip reading. Below is one of the basic diagrams that deconstructs various frozen frames of movement that produce the corresponding letter sound.
Process, Technique and Experimentation
My first task was to stage a series of photographs that were connected through the movement of the mouth transitioning from one panel to the next. In order to achieve this, I approached the situation by exploring burst settings on a camera. Before beginning, I created a short phrase to be spoken out loud by the subject. Relating it to the concept of speech consisting into two parts, I decided on, "Can you hear me now?" to convey this. I staged a harsh lighting in the room using a bendable-stem desk lamp. All lights in the room were turned off except this one, which was placed on the floor and propped against the leg of a nightstand to block a portion of the glare. I then had my subject sit against the bare white wall portion near the lamp, to the left of it. I first attempted a burst shoot with a handheld Nikon camera. However, after many trials, I concluded I was unable to capture everything as needed with precision. The camera settings allowed for a certain number of frames to be captured per second, and could increase. However, the time exposure of seconds was unable to manipulated. Due to the focus of my work being the visual element of speech, it was taking more than one second for my subject to pronounce all the words. I tried to break them up into segments, one word at a time, asking her to pause and remain very still in between shots. I then attempted to line them up afterwards and connect the segmented stages of photos. However, there was not enough consecutive motion of her lips captured in the frames, and so certain vowel or consonants communicated by certain mouth positions were missing in the series. I the switched to an iPhone, which allows for continuous burst as long as the camera button is held down. A few trials of this were taken, but this was I was able to capture all frames that depicted the entire phrase at one time. I decided to experiment with the presence of color in the photography. After taking a few series of photos in natural color captured by the lighting, I changed to a basic black and white filter while photographing my subject. This was done with the intention of taking away from the distraction of color as a component of the art. The focus is on the form and movement. The final set of images I chose after sifting through the numerous trials consisted of 25 consecutive photos, with a still portrait posed for the bookends of the series (the first photo, and the last photo). My experimentation was also conducted with regards to my presentation and formatting. My original idea was to create a 5 frame x 5 frame square of the images, reading left to right, going in order from the end of one line (right) to the beginning of the one directly below (left) on a digital platform and print out the entire work as one piece (not composed of its original components). However, this idea evolved over time. I sent out my photos to be printed at a shop, and obtained them later. I then had physical copies of them to place in order, which allowed for my free-flow of thought and idea.
Reflection
Over all this project was quite engaging and I found excitement in the general research that guided my work. Although I had general knowledge that the movement of the mouth affects the creation of sound and the communication of language. However, this is what lead me deeper into the specific science behind how precision of movement is required for different vowel and consonants. I began to learn visually what these letters and phonetics looked like, without their counterpart, sound. I developed a better sense of lip reading, and when I looked back at each individual frame in my series of twenty-five photos, I was able to more clearly draw out the definitive adjustments of physical movement, such as the corners of the lips drawn up, widening of the mouth, the positioning of the tongue against the roof of the mouth, the lowering and raising of the jaw, and how much of the teeth were visible. A rather large obstacle I faced were the components and limitations of the camera available to me. I spent a long time researching settings and options available through the camera, and then tried to make them work for what they were. Staging was done with some difficulty, and a bit of trial and error. Despite the frustration I experienced at some points during this process, I was immersed in the intriguing aspects of learning another less-addressed aspect of verbal communication.
ACT Responses
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
I am able to identify the cause-effect relationship between my inspiration and its effect upon my artwork by analyzing the intentional use of specific shades of color (black, red, and blue) to unify and simplify the portrayed content, allowing for a degree of abstraction.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Kandinsky's approach to his woodcut prints was to simplify concepts and subject matter as abstractly as possible; his creations are dominantly composed of organic shapes and lines in smooth, consistent color. Dali utilized precise subject matter to conceptualize surreal sensations and display unusual experiences that humans uniquely encounter.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Due to the abstract nature of the emotions that are produced by the experience of intangible aspects of life, surrealism is characterized and symbolized visually in different ways. Dali was able to interpret time as a concept that had consistency (could fluctuate between hard and soft).
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea of my inspirational research was the use of a simplistic, more abstractly-inclined style. The nature of prints allow for color to remain consistent in saturation and intensity, an approach that dominates Kandinsky's woodcut prints.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
Kandinsky's focus on the presence of color and the placement of visual elements creates an aesthetic that is not always focused on depth or meaning, but more so on the visual experience and the pleasing characteristics of the work itself.
I am able to identify the cause-effect relationship between my inspiration and its effect upon my artwork by analyzing the intentional use of specific shades of color (black, red, and blue) to unify and simplify the portrayed content, allowing for a degree of abstraction.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Kandinsky's approach to his woodcut prints was to simplify concepts and subject matter as abstractly as possible; his creations are dominantly composed of organic shapes and lines in smooth, consistent color. Dali utilized precise subject matter to conceptualize surreal sensations and display unusual experiences that humans uniquely encounter.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Due to the abstract nature of the emotions that are produced by the experience of intangible aspects of life, surrealism is characterized and symbolized visually in different ways. Dali was able to interpret time as a concept that had consistency (could fluctuate between hard and soft).
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea of my inspirational research was the use of a simplistic, more abstractly-inclined style. The nature of prints allow for color to remain consistent in saturation and intensity, an approach that dominates Kandinsky's woodcut prints.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
Kandinsky's focus on the presence of color and the placement of visual elements creates an aesthetic that is not always focused on depth or meaning, but more so on the visual experience and the pleasing characteristics of the work itself.
Bibliography
https://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/john_stezaker.htm
https://www.avedonfoundation.org/the-work/
Arnulf Rainer: https://www.studiointernational.com/index.php/arnulf-rainer-retrospective-albertina-museum-vienna
http://visualarts.britishcouncil.org/collection/artists/stezaker-john-1949
image: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/lips-sound-pronunciation-chart-mouth-shape-676851673?src=n7Da8qtpB7GdFBSzbw3rag-1-4
https://www.albertina.at/en/exhibitions/arnulf-rainer/
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/arnulf-rainer-1813
https://www.avedonfoundation.org/the-work/
Arnulf Rainer: https://www.studiointernational.com/index.php/arnulf-rainer-retrospective-albertina-museum-vienna
http://visualarts.britishcouncil.org/collection/artists/stezaker-john-1949
image: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/lips-sound-pronunciation-chart-mouth-shape-676851673?src=n7Da8qtpB7GdFBSzbw3rag-1-4
https://www.albertina.at/en/exhibitions/arnulf-rainer/
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/arnulf-rainer-1813