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