Visual Language Proposal

For the semester, I have been studying the body language of human beings as my main source for the class. As I was completing each given project, I found myself digging deeper into the subject matter. At first, I was only observing the physical aspects of body language such as different hand gestures or facial expressions. After documenting some photos and researching further about the topic, I have found that body language is more than just a few bodily movements; rather, it is a part of our conscious and subconscious mind. These certain actions of the human body show and tell more than one may think. Similar to the way people use words as a way to communicate, various bodily acts are also a way for people to correspond with each other, except in a non-verbal way. Just like certain phrases express a variety of meanings to different people, biting one’s lip may be a gesture that can be interpreted in many different ways. People just never stop talking. As long as there are people next to each other, language, whether verbal or non-verbal will be shared and interpreted. That is why body language is a part of our conscious and sub-conscious mind. Whether a person chooses to or not, he/she will inevitably display some sort of emotion or message through the body. Body language is a part of people’s everyday lives, and even without words, people are able to communicate still as if everyone is somehow connected sub-consciously.

I want to incorporate the idea that people are able to sub-consciously communicate with one another in my final project. I am interested in the part of our mind that people are unaware of; yet is the most integral part of people’s lives. It affects people’s actions and their decisions everyday especially in how people communicate with each other. Through various bodily gestures, people are able to talk and understand each other. For my final project, I want to capture the sub-conscious mind in a visual representation as well as incorporate all the characteristics of body language that display on the exterior of a human being. The media that I feel will best grasp the concept of body language and the sub-conscious mind is through 4-D and 2-D media. My 4-D media would be video and my 2-D would be drawings. I feel that through video, I will be able to capture different gestures that portray body language and I will be able to manipulate it so that I will also have the ability to interpret the sub-conscious mind in different symbols and representations. The drawings will also be part of the video aspect of the project because I believe that the act of drawing is also a way of verbal and non-verbal communication. It is also a gesture that displays a sense of emotion and language that is then emitted onto the final piece. Sometimes, more than one message can be sub-consciously instilled upon the final piece whether it was the artist’s intention or not.

For the drawing, I will use a variety of colored inks that will represent various emotions that people sub-consciously feel. This piece will consist of gesture drawings of people I am going to be observing. I am going to compile as many different gestures as I can and place them on a large-scale piece of paper. This piece will represent the viewer’s sub-conscious mind. Red string will be sewn onto different parts of each gesture and the leftover string will extend out of the drawing. The string will be made wrapped around a light-weight piece of metal that can adjust to any head size and it will act like a head band of some sort and a viewer will have to put it on. The gestures will act like the viewers sub-conscious mind for the viewer won’t be facing the drawing, but it will be a part of him/her as the viewer watches a video of my interpretation of someone else’s sub-conscious mind. The drawing will be large-scale piece that will be placed behind the viewer on a wall. The video will be projected in front of the viewer. This piece will be somewhat interactive as people are needed in order for the message to be conveyed.