Please enjoy my poetry writing, vocal performance and accompanying computer generated film for “Acted Articulate”.

The short film includes visualisations of my creative ideas derived directly from the poem with the idea art is timeless, sacred and necessary for our shared human experience.

Here is the poem in full for you:

“What is art to us?

If words be scripted sinew upon page,

Sketch be sighted breeze,

Clay be unmoltened form,

Hands without purpose,

Bereft of curve or grasp,

Touch is paper, cotton,

Pressing line with acted articulate.”

The audio reading you hear in the film took fourteen whole poem-reads to find the emotional qualities, even with several full warmup reads prior.

Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right, recognized by international law (e.g., Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights), allowing individuals to hold, seek, receive and impart information and ideas without interference, regardless of frontiers. It covers spoken, written and artistic expression.

Key details regarding freedom of expression include:

Definition & Scope: This right includes the freedom to hold opinions, freedom of the press and freedom to express oneself through various media (e.g., art, print, internet).

Purpose: It is essential for democratic society, fostering open communication, accountability and the exchange of ideas.

Legal Protections: It is protected in many jurisdictions, such as the First Amendment in the US and Article 10 of the Human Rights Act in the UK.

In the EU, Article 11 – Freedom of expression and information:

1. Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.

2. The freedom and pluralism of the media shall be respected.

(Human Rights information directly from trusted internet sources)

Know your Human Rights according to the Law of your jurisdiction.

For those interested, please let me show you how art sometimes begins in its messy, spontaneous output with a digitally edited black and white photograph of the poem’s rather scribbled first and only draft formation:

My middle school class teacher speaking to me one day improved my handwriting into my high school. However, in ‘shorthand’ style, writings purely for myself to read, I still revert to that earlier scribble, especially when writing very quickly.

I do laugh at this scribble I have, as an artist with fine control of brush, pen and pencil.

Whilst I certainly did not time the full production of this poem, since I am yet to time any poetic words I’ve made, I think the poem took me less than half an hour. As I read the poem through, thoroughly delighted, I became so thankful to Shakespeare.

Why?

Inspiration in style. At some point I noted the word ‘be’ repeated as a phrase construction.

The audio reading is likely subconsciously guided by a famous actor-and-director prolific around the mid-20th century. Whose work and engaging personality I’ve learnt much more about recently. He loved Shakespeare too, enjoying personal performances of specific characters immensely.

‘Touch is paper’ is in direct thought of a recent yellowy-gold moonlight work-in-progress published to my social media. As I recorded the audio performance the natural gesturing of arms caused my cotton shirt to make slight sounds. I call these strange phenomena the artists dimension.

I would like to further explain how strange this is.

At 1145hrs during the audio recordings yesterday, I began snorting prior to the opening line ‘What is art to us?’! I didn’t notice consciously until a few recording takes in, focusing on my word pronunciation. Upon realising this, well, I wanted the best snorting my acting performance could produce.

I’m hoping you’re listening to the film with quality headphones or hi-fi equipment, if you have same.