23rd of November 2021

23rd of November 2021, 2021

23rd of November 2021 is the result that the process undertaken, and here described, produced.

This reasearch was born out of the desire to explore the limits of language, more specifically of phonetics.

Poetry collection: Quando non morivo, Mariangela Gualtieri

PHASE 1

The set of information chosen for this task were the sentiments conveyed by a specific poetry collection,
Quando non morivo, by Mariangela Gualtieri.
The initial intent towards this collection was understanding up until when can poetry transmit emotions.
Therefore, my first phase consisted in questioning how much, or more specifically how many elements does
a poetry need for it to transmit.

One of the main characters which defines poetry, at least for what regards traditional poetry, are words.
Consequently, I acted on them. Starting from the cover I began a process of cancelling, crossing out words
from the very structure they were ingrained in. Furthermore, I needed to understand whether this
skimming process by itself constituted a translation.
Though, as I moved on in search for the essence of poetries, as I would call it, I came to the conclusion that
my action followed no specific criteria and therefore precluded me from developing an ‘Alphabet’.
At the same time, I evaluated poetry’s other components, in particular the ones strictly related to the process
of emotional transmission. The one which among others stood out was the oral component: specific sounds
in a certain order, read by a certain voice, with a specific pronunciation and certain tone constituted the
main canal for emotions to come through.
Proof of this phenomenon I found by reading diverse poetries -from which essence had already been
extracted- mainly to non-Italian people, but also to Italian ones. Therefrom, I concluded that sound was the
component I needed to be working on.

PHASE 2

Once understood that sound was the channel for emotion, I chose which sound system I wanted to use as its
counterpart; therefore as Italian phonetics’ counterpart. I opted for Chinese phonetics: a range of sounds to
me already known and that though coming from a completely different socio-cultural and historical
environment, I wanted to relate.
At this point I proceeded analytically: every essence was subdivided in syllables, the units which I considered
synthesises of singular sounds. Although, two were the main problems: firstly, by making use of syllables I
was keeping another, and therefore unwanted, poetry’s component, structure. Secondly, Chinese phonetics
doesn’t work in syllables, consequently, not all syllables did correspond to a sound.
From there I decided to de-compose poetries following those given sounds that most probably were present
as ‘only’ sounds in Chinese phonetics.

After the fourth poetry, I was able to develop an almost complete and yet ideally evolving code system: I
called it Fonalfabeto.

PHASE 3

Having obtained a code system I started my translations: I was, one poetry after another, successfully giving
birth to Italian phonetics inside Chinese phonetics. I had documents.
On the other side, I needed to find out whether my Fonalfabeto if not as a universal, could have been at least
classified as an objective code. Consequently, I passed my system of translation, formed by translated
poetries and the Fonalfabeto, to a non-Italian speaker; therefore someone who couldn’t see the connection
among the sounds.
The result was, since I gave only one translation, the very first essence, in Italian, from which the translation
derived.
I had taught someone else my system of code.

PHASE 4
A non-transmissive code system

My system of code, technically speaking, worked: I had created the possibility for people to access Italian
poetries through Chinese phonetics. Though, at this point I realized that my result drifted from the
objective I had planned.
My investigation wanted to point out whether an emotional reflection derived from a certain set of sounds,
through another, was possible. I came to the conclusion that it is not, or at least that it is not if you’re
searching for the same emotional reflection.
Sounds are lost, distorted, extended or narrowed, added or emphasized excessively. Accordingly, do
emotions.

PHASE 5
One of many

The form, among the many, in which my work came to life was a live representation. This for now untitled
representation valued the final result rather than the process: what needed to be emphasized was the
phonetic labour and not methodology.
This form was also an investigative attempt.

It occurred on the 23rd of November of 2021, nearly at 6 p.m., in a non-silent nor empty room. It involved
30 people: they were divided in two groups, non-Italian speakers and Italian speakers; no Chinese speakers..
After briefly describing my process, I asked everyone except me to stand up and form a circle at the center of
the room, not facing the inside of it. Successively I presented a voice: they were to hear a voice reading five
times the same translation.
It’s important to say here that the voice I chose came from a person who could read Chinese, but wouldn’t
have been able to relate the translation to Italian.
It was a male voice. Finally, my last request consisted, while standing, in receiving this repeated translation
with eyes closed.

Afterwards I chose not to say anything else if not answering questions about my work.