Hi Trevor
I had fun playing around there (not all the accents had American shadings,
Annie). And the scroll of nationalities down the side includes some
languages I've never heard - Lamaholot, Lui, Gusii, Twi.
I've occasionally got a room of people to read out a single poem. It is
pretty interesting how much a poem can differ from reading to reading. But
as you know, I kind of get hypnotised by the phenomenon of performance, and
particularly the range of meanings that can be brought out by different
theatrical performances of a single text. Despite the assistance of
lighting &c in aiding this, the interpretation always comes down to the
voice first and the body in space a very close next. Can't record the body
except by implication in audio, tho, and not always in video.
I reckon if you were going to a similar archive you would need a text that's
at once open, plain and rich. Stein would be good.
Best
A
> My notion of a similar experiment with poetry was to use a text which
> has more (obvious?) possibilities for difference in interpretation.
> Following on, maybe, from the recent conversation here about
> translation, I'm constantly surprised by how differently others
> interpret poems from my own experience. So, to provoke those
> differences into an audio archive, struck me as an interesting
> possibility: expressive, considered, playful, impassive, with the
> semantic and affective beats striking variously in each instance. The
> range of accents, ages, genders, qualities of voice, would be a bonus.
Alison Croggon
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Editor, Masthead: http://masthead.net.au
Home page: http://alisoncroggon.com
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