#expanded forms

[stevieburtonfiction-blog]

STORYVILLE EXHIBTION PROPOSAL

The presentation of our outcome so far was the feedback we needed to really finalise our ideas ready for the Storyville Exhibition at St Margret’s Church.  Here is our proposal, fully showing our adjustments to the work:

‘In Cold Blood’ by Truman Capote. We are exploring the main character and murderer Perry Smith, and everything that happens throughout his life right up until the murders of the Clutter Family. We think this approach to exploring the narrative is vital as the book was originally written as an insight into the ‘real Perry Smith’. Many people see murderers as monstrous beings which in turn dehumanises them. We aim to produce the same theme of what Capote was exploring, which was to create a conflict for the audience and humanise Smith to give the audience a chance to rethink their depictions of him and murders in general.

Our interactive space will be filled with objects that symbolise specific stages of his life that we think have moulded him into the character he eventually becomes. Along with the objects we will have a sound piece with accompanied words projected on the wall. The words are descriptions of Smith on all angles taken from the book directly. This and the sound piece will be played on loop and the sounds will consist of many various sounds that illustrate Smiths life up to the event of the murders, which inevitably and consequently leads him to be sentenced to death by hanging.

This will hopefully question the audience on how they depict Smith and what they think of him as a character and as a human being. Hopefully having the audience knowing details about his past, it will change their feelings towards him.

Our space will be rectangular in shape with hanging pieces of long paper that act as our take on prison bars and on the floor we hope to have the shapes of bodies outlined with masking tape. We will need a back wall that will allow us to display our objects either on shelving, pinned or glued. Also on the back wall we would like to have a projection of our film that will be on a loop (this includes a series of flashing type). We will show this by projecting it onto the wall by a projector. We also have sound piece that will be involved that will also be on a continuous loop. This will be done by some speakers or some headphones inserted with MP3s.

[stevieburtonfiction-blog]

Visit Original Link

Some foley I recorded to start making sounds for the installation piece.  We wanted to have a go at creating some of out own sounds even if we couldn’t create them all. 

[stevieburtonfiction-blog]

PERRY EDWARD SMITH

Phrases used to describe Perry in In Cold Blood.

he was like a wife that must be got rid of his aches and ills his superstitions the weepy womanly eyes the nagging whispering voice Suspicious self-righteous spiteful. my buddy the stiff Indian hair his legs were so short his feet, as small as a child’s Irish-Indian blending impish features chunky, misshapen child-man not pretty pink end of his tongue darted forth, flickering like the tongue of a lizard smoking a cigarette punk smiling wanly a decent young man. ironic, erratic compassion, pitiful such a quiet way of speaking very shy wasn't the worst young man I ever saw cut out your heart and never bat an eye neat utter lack of mercy short, solidly built dark with a heavy shock of black hair and a grin on your face almost all the time "Eskimo." a nervy guy a fairly good pool player wild streak in you cheerful and cocky wild "might not be normal, maybe insane" he looked as lonely and inappropriate as a seagull in a wheat field animal Embarrassing Intelligent Ignorance Animal Calculating Undeserving Dangerous Anti-social young happy-go-lucky inncoent Arrogant Tough Dreamy Pretty Sensitive Mean Silent Little Lispy Whispery Lonely Warm-hearted Sympathetic Gentle Drenched Shaking Starved Well acquainted Apprehensive Dictionary Buff Voice was Gentle & Prim Fastidious Hygienic Chunky Dwarfish Elaborate Truncated Tidy Respectful Believer Passionate Hungry Deeply frustrated Strong Destructive Undersized Over-muscled Half Breed Exceptional Rare Artistic ‘a good guy’ Sentimental ‘the dreamer’ Possessed Unusual Valuable ‘Absolutely sane’ Conscienceless ‘ordinary punk’

[stevieburtonfiction-blog]

TEXT

The task for the week was to explore the book through the means of text and sound. 

Keeping the spotlight on the character Perry Smith, we decided to explore text through the means of strategically extracting content straight from the novel. We were interested in motif, collection, arrangement, typography and contrast as lens’ to explore through.

In the end, we decided upon finding every description used in the book to describe Perry’s self, his appearance or his actions. This could be by the narrator or by other characters. 

We chose to do this as we were keen on the idea that Perry was this absurd character whom we, the audience, the other characters in the book, nor seemingly even the author (Capote) could decipher. Was he evil? We’d like to think so for what he did, but fascinatingly, we all feel sorry for this man, in the end. 

The book has great power in unobviously making a comment on human condition by unapologetically revealing Perry as just that: human. He could have been you or me or your next door neighbour. It chips away at that safeguard we use in our society - of demonising murderers and criminals - we seem to find it easier to deal with ourselves as a race if we can think that the ‘people’ who commit such deeds are sub-human and are none of our responsibility. 

But this book’s greatest power is that by the end of reading it, you’ll question all you’ve ever believed about right an wrong, and will feel uncomfortably unable to put a label on Perry Smith and shove him away into a box in the back of your mind where you never have to think about him again. This book is brutally honest, stripping down humanity to it’s bare bones. It’s so crazy that it seemed that Capote was never the same after writing it; he drank himself into oblivion... We’re working with a damn powerful piece of literature!