Well this is a visual representation of my voice. I actually made it a representation of it over the course of the semester so far. This drawing represents the large journey my voice has undergone during the first half of the semester.
Starting with the shape of the paper, the conic shape represents how I’m being to find more volume with my voice. It’s increasing, just as the paper’s size increases a little bit from left to right. The asymmetric shape is meant to show the inconsistencies of my voice. I understand that many days I find great moments and great vowel sounds in my speech and I use it effectively, but then the next day I end up back at square one.
The lines drawn on the paper have meaning in their shape, color, and direction. Starting with shape, the more jagged a line is, the less standardized my speech is. In the beginning of the year, most of my vowel sounds were not anywhere near standard American. I had some of them down in my everyday speech, but most of them were incorrect. As the year continues, you can see the lines straightening themselves out, as they are slowly getting closer to standard American speech. Some lines still have some jagged beginnings or are curved ever-so-slightly to show how I’m still not perfect with my vowel placement. Finally, when we get to the end of the paper, my lines start swirling. This is meant to show how I started manipulating these mostly standardized vowels (these straight lines) into something more exciting (swirls).
The colors of the lines show my comfort with the vowel sounds. In the beginning of the year, my vowel sounds had to be forced. They were manufactured, so they were grey, like the color of smoke released from a factory. Soon they became blue with hints of grey, representing how they were still rather forced, but they were a little bit easier to make. Even then, however, the colors are still all only shades of blue. There is no variety, just as I felt as though every vowel sound as I was making was unoriginal and still lifeless. As the paper reaches the end and the semester reaches its midpoint, I find these vowel sounds easier to make and more fun to create, hence the myriad of colors near the end. They begin to become fun to use rather than a chore to form.
The direction of the lines show my certainty with what direction the class was taking. At the beginning of the year, I had was a little uncertain as to how this was all going to be covered and if I would be able to do it all, hence some lines being askew or vertical. Clearly I got the idea, as the lines straightened out rather quickly. Also representing this uncertainty, specifically in my ability to properly form these speech sounds, is a slight black shading in the background. The black shading lightens as the semester continues.
Lastly, the edge of the paper is covered in the tails of many colorful lines. It represents how, even though I don’t know what the rest of the semester will be like, I’m confident that the speech work we did in the first of the semester will carry over and be the basis for what work will be done.
jschno1 