Post your practice-research questions to your blog. Write a blog post (200-500 words) reflecting on your possible choices of topic for this unit and the various advantages and disadvantages of these. Begin gathering sources for your essay and annotated bibliography. Note down at least three keywords regarding your chosen topic as well as some terms that you might find difficult to understand or define:

Areas of interest: Language, its relation to sound and music. Graphic notation’s relation to language. Calligraphy as notation. Sound that relates to certain characters or words, considering both meaning and aesthetic qualities. Apply language into graphic scoring.

Keywords: Orthography, Language, Calligraphy, Music Notation.

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Orthography , noun [ U ], uk  /ɔːˈθɒɡ.rə.fi/ us  /ɔːˈθɑː.ɡrə.fi/

a: the art of writing words with the proper letters according to standard usage

b: the representation of the sounds of a language by written or printed symbols

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I feel that focusing on the the connection between written language and graphic cores would offer both an exciting creative challenge as well as a genuine productive area of enquiry.

Both systems attempt to do similar things – capturing meaning through marks on a page – yet with radically different methods. To compare them would challenge my own assumptions that I feel I tend to take for granted in both fields: for example, what it means to actually “read” something, and how far does interpretation depend on a shared conventions rather than individual response?

With my practice often rooted quite stubbornly in improvisation, I am keen to explore the potentiality of graphic scores, as I rarely engage with this. Graphic scores are also particularly interesting in this context because they occupy a space between image, text, language and instruction.

The disadvantage here is that graphic scores may present practical problems , they vary so widely in form and intention that making generalisations across them is methodologically awkward. Furthermore, I feel as though there is a risk of ‘spreading itself too thin’ due to the fact I will be drawing both on linguistic and music studies within the confines of 3000 words. A disadvantage also exists in that by bridging too many disciplines , I may not end up satisfying either of them fully.

Texts I have began to explore:

Developing a NeumeScribe for Sino-Japanese Buddhist Musical Notations – Elizabeth J. Markham and Rembrandt F. Wolpert