Sound Of Silence

Sound Of Silence - Simon & Garfunkel 

when i here the word Silence mentioned, this song seems to come to my head instantly.

Shh!

Researching Silence has made me think about when people say Shh! or Shush.

shush
interj
be quiet! hush!
Verb
to quiet (someone) by saying `shush' [imitative]

it seems ironic that a making a sound can be a demand for silence. Why is it this sound that we make? where did it start?


Hiroshima

The nuclear weapon "Little Boy" was dropped on the city of Hiroshima on Monday, August 6, 1945, followed on August 9 by the detonation of the "Fat Man" nuclear bomb over Nagasaki. These are the only attacks with nuclear weapons in the history of warfare.



Tinnitus

The term “Tinnitus aurium”, short Tinnitus, is the Latin name for “the ringing in the ears”. It identifies the symptom understood as the subjective perception of a tone or sound without any external acoustic stimulation.

I am a sufferer of mild Tinnitus, so when i personally think of silence i imagine the high-pitched ringing sound. Silence is impossible, in the same way it is impossible to have "Nothing"


Alone

This is an image i took in May 2006, on Crosby beach Liverpool where Antony Gormleys 'Another place' is located. i have always seen it as a very silent image. Looking back it is the silent feeling that probably inspired me to give it the title "Alone".

 Here are some other photographs i have taken that have a silent feeling to them...






Silence in Nature...

Nature is never silent. the wind will whistle, birds will craw and leaves will rustle. although when we are alone in nature there is a feeling of silence.

 
 
A time when i seem to notice the silence is when i wake up to find snow has fallen overnight. everything seems so calm and still.

4'33"

In the second year for the Sound and vision project, we were given a list of tracks to listen too. We then were to choose one of them to be the basis of our designs. Although i didn't choose it, a track that interested me was 4'33" by John Cage. The composition consists of three 'rests' or 'tacets' in other words nothing but silence.

First thoughts...

My first thoughts about this brief are that it sounds similar to the Interpretation project in the second year, for which i was asked to interpret the quote "Go to where the Silence is and say something." Amy Goodman. Here are some of the images i collected as research for that brief as i think they will be relevant.

An object designed for capturing sound, but no one there to make any. a nice way of visualizing silence i thought.

For the interpretation brief i focused on how a blank or "silent" wall often invites people to say something weather it be political, creative, drunken foolishness or just plain vandalism. This was my favorite image of a silent wall.

A blank page, one of the more obvious interpretations of silence but still a powerful one.

I think empty stages are quite eerie things, this is probably down to the silence because they are a place that is usually full of sound.

New Brief: Silence

CAN SILENCE BE VISUAL ?

IN THE REALMS OF VISUAL LANGUAGE, WHAT IS SILENCE ?

WHAT CAN SILENCE EVOKE and CONVEY or rather ALLOW ?

SEE YOUR BRIEF BELOW AND VISUALLY DISCUSS AND INVESTIGATE


Brief P A R T O N E

Research the possible concepts and visual potential of ‘Silence’ and with lateral visual experimentation attempt to conceptually interpret silence in any media or form.

These visual ideas and experiments will be utilized for the realization of the project in PART TWO of the brief – which will be introduced later.

Collect and collate historic contextual imagery and reference it in your staff and peer tutorials.

Format What is required ?

1. Reflect on what Silence could mean and begin a A BODY OF Visual experiments that visualise your ideas and visual studies , this can be Digital Photography – found imagery, drawing, scanning and software experiments – an amalgam of these or just one approach – it is open to your interpretation.

2. Collect and show 5 examples of ‘Silence’ at your first tutorial seminar – found or made images – any format, but the meaning or effect of the image is key to your dialogue


Deadline Jan 2010
Please note Attendance at your seminar tutorials is vital - to form and enhance your ideas
Why am I doing this ? You are investigating ‘SILENCE’ a key semiotic conduit and vehicle for the communication of emotion, atmosphere and metaphor –the silent pause, the empty space , the open space for the audience to ‘reflect’ and project into – You are analysing the psychology of persuasion.

Further information Full unit descriptions are in the 3rd year student handbook here...

http://www.designandartdirection.mmu.ac.uk/intranet/folder/1137/


S U G G E S T E D R E R E R E N C E S ( AND FURTHER READING )

Consider the Sao Paulo hoardings ban
Political silence – censorship - abstention

Art
Musician and Artist Brian Eno's audio paintings
Film here
http://www.ubu.com/film/eno_14.html

Research Malevich's historic ‘black square’ painting
Joy Divisions Unknown pleasures sleeve and other here

http://interartive.org/index.php/2009/07/unknown_pleasures/


Hans Richters film here
http://www.ubu.com/film/richter_rhythmus.html

Edward Hoppers Influential Paintings and the essay by Alain de Botton on Hoppers work in his book ‘The Art of travel’

The sculptural edification of empty space – see Rachel Whitread’s cast house sculpture and other pieces in that series- Unoccupied and empty or ‘lost’ space

Consider the spaces and silences in dance, theatre and Film - the pauses – the absence of music, the commas and pauses in language – at times silence can evoke more than the language itself. Non verbal communication

View Silent documentary footage and the resonance of silent social documentation – juxtaposed with an alternative audio context.
Consider how silence is used as a metaphor by directors and employed to huge dramatic effect – David Lynch is a prime example of this.

‘In Lynch's penultimate film The Straight Story (1999), silence is employed regularly to convey isolation, but also to create sonic discomfort in order to reflect the fact that the main character, Alvin Straight, has not spoken to his brother for many years. The theorist and sound designer Philip Brophy comments on this when he writes, "There are many moments in the film where one hears absolutely nothing. The abject silence of The Straight Story echoes that loss of proximity engineered by old age: literally, we are removed from the film; not merely from a certain narrational moment, but from the realm of narration. We are left sitting in the cinema in total isolation." Through this isolation the viewer is able to empathise with the isolation felt by Alvin in the film; the silence is symbolic of his solo journey to meet his brother and also his lifelong journey, which is nearing its end, death being the ultimate silence.

Article source here http://www.britishfilm.org.uk/lynch/Schap1.html

see blog

http://mackmanning.blogspot.com/

for Visuals and more info

What This Blog is for...

Here is where i will be posting my research towards my D&AD 3rd year projects.


In the Studio today Adam Brandon decided it would be much more efficient to show his research and progress in this way. As i work in a similar, mainly computer based way and Sketchbooks have never been my strong point, i have decided to see if this suits me better.


For my other work go to Sapbdesign