One of the documents that I produced in my creative nonfiction class was based on an experiment with silence. Essentially, I didn't talk for a day and didn't tell anyone beforehand. It gave me a chance to explore Silence (needs that capital S) in a way that I never had before, and deepened my understanding of its... infinitude.
In my repurposing, I wanted to explore a character’s silence, rather than my own. I went into the project hoping to encompass multiple perspectives throughout different stages of life – hence, the idea for the vignettes. The goal was to get across this truth of Silence's infinitude (it's amazing that the absence of something – in this case, speech – can be so huge...). At first, I wanted to base each vignette off of a quote about silence (for the sake of representing many perspectives), but this became way too constraining. So I decided to write about a fictional character, Janie, and how she experiences silence from childhood through death, and what prevailing form of silence exists at each stage of her life. I wound up having to split the piece into parts because the vignettes were so far apart chronologically. In each part, I included a section from Janie’s perspective and a section from another character’s perspective. This other character related to Janie in some way, and reflects on their interactions with her. They provide additional lenses through which to view silence.
In the second draft, I made Janie’s sections situational and the other characters’ sections monologues. Janie is talking because of some environmental stimulus, and the other characters are speaking to people not in the vignettes. This contrast is meant to highlight Janie’s running internal monologue, which fit her as a character. Finally, I expanded some of the monologue sections (the non-Janie characters) to take some focus off of Janie and soften the piece.
Repurposing:
The Process
Remediation:
The Process
Holes in my repurposing:
#1 There is speaking. There are words. But this is about Silence.
#2 The perspectives involved were cultivated by me, and probably represent me in some way. This is not infinitude.
#3 I. Need. Fluidity. Silence is a shape-shifter.
To fill these holes, I wanted to create a black and white experimental-ish film completely free of audio. The plan was to create a list of thought-provoking questions (as provoking as I could possibly make them) to ask volunteers as I film them. Each shot would be a close of the respective volunteer’s face, and the idea behind the questions was to elicit as genuine and clear emotion as possible (so hard when they're aware of the camera...).
While I was working on my website, I realized that a lot of what I had created so far followed some sort of curve. The curves weren’t necessarily bell-shaped, but there was a clear flow to everything. This fit into the need for fluidity (serendipitous?), and so the curve of my remediation was born. Huzzah! I planned to film moments around campus and Ann Arbor. Nothing planned or specific – I just wanted to capture movement and interaction, and then strip the sound from these. Then I would transition into a few short close-ups, followed by one longer close-up, followed by a moment of black screen. Again, everything still silent. This would move the film through a funnel, bringing the viewer from silence in the environment all the way through to silence within themselves (black screen).
Towards the end of remediation planning, it became clear that there needed to be some assurance for the viewer that there is intentionally no sound. So the opening shot became one of blackness with only the sound of a crowd, and the closing shot became credits with sound as well.
A big part of writing is awareness, and the goal of the remediation is to inspire people to observe, to take note without responding, without judgement (see Why I Write). The repurposing is meant to show a few types of Silence, so the remediation, then, encourages the viewers to observe Silence, and to find their own. What's your Silence like?