Month: October 2021

Language Games

Wittgenstein was an Austrian philosopher that had revolutionary ideas on human communication. In ‘Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus’ Wittgenstein investigates how human’s communicate ideas to one another, he suggested that humans use language to trigger images in each others minds. This idea was sparked by a Paris court case in which the judge ordered a visual recreation of the events, in this case a car crash, to gain more understanding of the situation. Wittgenstein asserts that we use words to make pictures of facts, in conversation we are exchanging pictures of scenes, although for the majority of people we find it difficult to conjure a picture in someone else’s mind that is accurate to our own, this breeds miscommunication. Another danger is that we read into other peoples explanations too much, conjuring an inaccurate image in our minds. This book was Wittgenstein’s effort to make people speak with more forethought, and control our interpretations.

‘Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent’ – Ludwig Wittgenstein

Later on in his life, Wittgenstein furthered his analysis of language with his second book ‘Philosophical Investigations’. In this, he suggested that language wasn’t just something to conjure images, it was tool that we use to play games, or rather ‘patterns of intention’. As children we learn by engaging in games, an activity with a set of rules that lay out parameters for us to move in. These parameters allow us to interact with each other effectively. Wittgenstein saw language as a game with parameters. However, within language there are many different games, one example might be a ‘stating facts’, another might be a more emotional type of game such as a ‘help and reassurance’ game. When a person enters a conversation engaging in one game, and another person is playing a different game, the wires get crossed and we misunderstand each other. Someone might say “You never help me”, this person might be trying to say, help me and I need reassurance, while the receiver could take it as “I do help you, here’s some examples”. The key to good communication is working out what games people are playing. We use language not only to understand each other, but to understand ourselves. It is reassuring to oneself when you have to hand a word that describes your mental state, a word that is universally understood by your peers.

‘Language is a public tool for the understanding of private life’ – Ludwig Wittgenstein

This suggests that the media we consume is an important means to self knowledge, reading books, watching films, and listening to discourse gives us tools to understand who we are. This is why the voice and language in media is so important to us, the human ear is predisposed to decoding these games, and through it we seek to understand ourselves.

Humans use the same basic biological apparatus to make noises as chimps, lungs, throat, voice box, tongue and lips. So why are we the only ones that articulate words, talk on the phone and sing songs? Through evolution humans have developed a longer throat and smaller mouth better suited to shaping sounds, furthermore we have developed a flexibility in our mouths unique to us that allows us to make a wide range of very specific sounds.

When we talk we produce small controlled bursts of air that are pushed through our larynx, or voice box. The larynx is made of cartilage and muscle, there are two folds of mucus membrane stretched across the top, these are the vocal cords. When air is pushed through the folds vibrate, producing sound. We change the pitch of our voices by tightening the cords, and loosen them to make a lower sound.

Producing sentences is a very complex process, it involves a collaboration between the throat, tongue and lips to emit specific consonants and vowel sounds.

‘Speech is the most complex motor activity that a person acquires except from maybe violinists or acrobats etc. It takes about 10 years for children to get to the level of adults. ‘

–Dr. Philip Lieberman

If you look back at human evolution, after we diverge from an early ape ancestor, the shape of our vocal track changed. Our mouths got smaller, we developed more flexible tongues and our necks got longer. Our larynx got pulled down into the throat, the extension was a way to make room for all of this vocal equipment. This very important development in the human body came at a price. As a result, when humans eat the food must pass by the larynx to get to the Oesophagus, this can sometimes get mixed up and this is why people choke to death.

One of the main differences between humans and chimps when it comes to the production of language is breath control, humans can control their breath to a very high degree, whereas chimps can only produce short bursts of air.

The Acousmetre

Acousmetre refers to a sound that is unseen by the visual eye. Hearing is the only sense that is omnidirectional, however sight is the most important to humans, its the most complicated, it’s what we rely on to decipher signs and elaborate language. This is where the acousmetre derives its power, considering the importance of sight to humans, when we hear something but we don’t see it, the brain is in an uncomfortable position.

Chion elaborates his theory by comparing it with the work of Freud. Chion talks on the relationship of the Mother and offspring, during raising process they are constantly playing a game of the seen and unseen, when breastfeeding, when playing hide and seek, holding them when sleeping etc. For Freud, this was a rather disturbing/traumatic thing for the child to undertake. Chion recognised that the cinema became the perfect place for this acousmetre phenomenon to take place. Pythagorean scholars would listen to their masters speak behind a curtain for 5 years before being able to see them, they wanted to avoid the visual context impeding the context of the speech. Chion took this idea and applied it to cinema putting forward the idea that when we see the embodiment of the voice that we are hearing in cinema, it takes away from the power of the acousmetre.

Chion defines three distinct forms of the acousmetre. The first is a person that you talk to on the phone having never seen their face. The second is the visualised acousmetre, you can put a face to the invisible voice. The third is the complete acousmetre, this is a voice of something that is not yet seen but is liable to appear in the visual field at some point the future. Chion suggests that the acousmetre that has already been visualised is a comforting and reassuring presence, whereas he who never shows his face is less so. To clarify the power of acousmetre in cinema, Chion compares it to acousmetre in theatre. The offstage voice in theatre can be located by sound, you can hear it coming from a specific point left or right of the stage. For Chion, this disrupts the acousmetre, and diminishes the power. In contrast, cinema does not employ a stage, therefore the acousmetre is neither inside nor outside, further disembodying the voice. Chion raises to two questions, what is there to fear from the acousmetre? and what are their powers?

The powers of the acousmetre are as follows, omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence. A perfect example of the acousmetre is 2001 a space odyssey. Hal the computer inhabits the entire spaceship, this is incongruent with the human experience of sound and therefore unsettling.

Chion notes that this voice without a face might take us back to before we were born, the voice was everything and it was everywhere. Being in the womb, we can hear very early in our development. Even in the first few months of life, babies lack the ability to define the visual space, the eyes need to develop to acquire clear vision. And so it could be argued that the first few months of our lives are a complete acousmetre, we constantly hear our parents voices, but it is only later that we put a visual context to these voices.

Week 3: information, language and connection

Process of work for the next few weeks:

• Primary research- blog
• Primary statements
• Primary recordings

• Introduction st draft of script
• Secondary research- blog
• Conclusion 1ts draft of script

• Recording of audio paper
• Production of Audio paper

• Citation check- pdf
• Formatting & Post production of script audio paper

How can we structure information to provide understanding ?

Be clear with hypothesis or subject, supporting arguments/evidence and conclusion (what it means for sound design as a whole and what it means to you). Also I think that maybe the production of the audio paper effects this, support claims with sound examples and make transitions smooth and easy to follow.

This is an investigation into a subject, an issue or culture.

Who is your audience?

People who are interested in what interests me, sound designers and film enthusiasts, class mates. Share what interests you to the people who will benefit from that information.

What references be important to explain, and what references are specific to your audience and/or subject?

I’ll have to explain what makes my ‘issue’ and issue, and why my investigation is taking place.

Ideas:

Investigation into the human voice’s impact on the brain, and the development of different uses. (too broad atm).

Michel Chion, the human voice takes precedence in an audio mix, Why? (Good)

VOCOCENTRISM