Jazz of Chinese Etymology

Visual Culture 1C

Chinese Characters have been around since 1766 BC--the earliest known record being the "oracle characters" which were engraved upon turtle shells and ox bones. They have long since metamorphosed into a sophisticated and beautiful language system that consists of over 56,000 characters used today.

The piece is separated into two acts: one (the introduction) calls attention to the poem itself--rough and frantic movements from both the animation and the brushstrokes juxtaposing a beautiful poem and a very gentle system of writing.

The chronology of this piece is moving backwards from Modern into the Primitive. As the characters become less recognizable, the style becomes more abstract. In some cases, images that represent the characters start to re-surface.

The reason I've chosen this marriage between Chinese characters and Jazz is a reference to the modern fascination with Primitivism and how Western society feels the need to go back to the early man, which was considered high art. Although Primitivism and Orientalism are not quite the same, the same fascination unites them (as symbolized in the gradual synchronization of the music and the animation).

The poem in this experimental animation is called Night Thoughts by Li Bai. It is one of the most well known poems in China. Li Bai is very well known for the intense and emotional imagery depicted in his choice of words. I tried to separate from this by breaking down and taking apart his words. Distancing the audience from any depth or meaning of the poem and just looking at the words themselves.

However, I suppose if you would like to look into the correlation of meanings, the poem's homesickness enlightens the audience to one's yearning for his home/his past/something familiar.

References:
Night Thoughts
Li Bai
1 Before my bed, the moonlight so bright,
2 Be frost on the ground, I suppose it might.
3 I raise my head and the moon I behold, then
4 I lower it, brooding: Im homesick tonight.

chineseetymology.org

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• Max
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[YouGotJimmered]

Whats the name of these two jazz tracks that you used for this animation? Thanks in advance. Very good job!

[verpetas]

I hope the translation for at least one of those was "fisting pirates: awesome, awesome"