The code for this project is broken into a few different modules, not all of which are currently in good shape for distribution.
I: The Phoneme II: The Letter - see words.rs submodule III: The Context
How to Get There From Here should be read by a single individual at conversational speaking volume and intonation, with optional amplification.
Each line in the score indicates an equal duration. The denser lines should feel rushed, while the sparse lines should be disconnected. A performance at 3 seconds per line is a reasonable pace that still allows for completion of the denser material by a non-virtuosic speaker. An underscore or completely empty line indicates silence.
Language, like music, cannot communicate meaning without substance. There’s the material, and then the semantic baggage which only develops through usage and historical context. The sound of language changes how we interpret its meaning, but the meaning of the words determines how we speak them in everyday practice.
How To Get There From Here transforms the phrase “we remember not the word, but the sound of the word” in three movements. The first is drawn from 1,600 segments of speech arranged first as a fixed media electronic composition through stochastic principles and then transcribed as International Phonetic Alphabet symbols for human performance. The second is a transformation on the spelled words themselves, moving from one word to the next by making simple edits: adding, removing, or editing letters. This final movement is constructed entirely of quotations from English texts ranging in date from the 14th to 20th centuries.