{"id":11288,"date":"2023-07-01T10:00:18","date_gmt":"2023-07-01T10:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tusitalabooks.com\/?p=11288"},"modified":"2023-09-13T11:45:24","modified_gmt":"2023-09-13T11:45:24","slug":"little-red-comma-creating-your-own-spoken-word-track","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tusitalabooks.com\/2023\/07\/01\/little-red-comma-creating-your-own-spoken-word-track\/","title":{"rendered":"little red comma – Behind the scenes (Part 2): Creating your own spoken word track"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

In part one<\/span><\/a><\/strong>, we discussed some of the different concepts and formats used in our literary adaptations for the second edition of little red comma,<\/em> which was released between August 2022 and February 2023.<\/p>\n

This part looks at three poems originally written in mother tongue languages: \u201cChinatown I<\/a><\/b><\/span>\u201d by Tan Chee Lay, \u201cA Story, or History, Perhaps?<\/span><\/a><\/b>\u201d by Abdul Ghani Hamid, and \u201cThe Sunbird I Lost<\/a><\/b><\/span>\u201d by Krishnamurthy Mathangi.<\/p>\n

To foreground the aural qualities of the languages, we decided on an audio-led concept that allowed users to create their own spoken word track in an interactive, ‘hands-on’ and custom digital reading experience.<\/p>\n

\"little<\/p>\n

Engaging with literature in mother tongue<\/h3>\n

According to a 2021 report by Singapore’s National Institute of Education on the reading habits of bilingual children here<\/a>, children enjoyed and were more at ease reading books in English than their mother tongue.<\/p>\n

Since the little red comma <\/em>series features local poets and authors, the selection of literary works included writing in one of each major mother tongue language in Singapore \u2013 Chinese, Malay, and Tamil.<\/p>\n

Using sound effects and voiceovers<\/h3>\n

The poems and short stories selected for this edition of little red comma<\/em> centre on a common theme of how identity and belonging is indelibly associated with physical landmarks. All three mother tongue language poems, for instance, either focus on or mention different locations in Singapore such as Chinatown, Siglap and Katong in the eastern part of Singapore, as well as Whampoa.<\/p>\n

However, as evocative as images and maps can be, we wanted to try something different \u2013 using sound and voice instead to engage people. With young readers generally less proficient in non-English languages and thus less likely to read or listen to works originally written in these, our team felt there was an opportunity to emphasise the sonic aspects of the languages and their beauty.<\/p>\n

As the poems are also highly descriptive and emotive, music pieces of varying tempos from fast to slow were included to match the mood of each poem. Sound effects drawn from the text were also used, such as the sounds of Chinese dialects and street market noises from \u201cChinatown I\u201d.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Listen to a sample soundtrack created of \u201cChinatown I<\/a><\/b><\/span>\u201d by Tan Chee Lay<\/p>\n\nhttps:\/\/www.tusitalabooks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Chinatown-I-Soundtrack.wav<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

Creating your own unique soundtrack<\/h3>\n

When entering the microsite, you are first given two options: to either listen to the poem read out in its original language, or record your own voiceover.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Listen to a sample soundtrack created of \u201cThe Sunbird I Lost<\/a><\/b><\/span>\u201d\u00a0by Krishnamurthy Mathangi<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.tusitalabooks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Sunbird_soundtrack.wav<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

The next step invites further engagement with the poem by playing around with sound effects inspired by words and phrases in the text. As the voiceover plays, you get to tap on an interactive disc with various music and sound effects, to play these at different points in the poem as it is narrated.<\/p>\n

Once the poetry reading has finished playing, your custom soundtrack can then be downloaded and shared with friends! And if you don’t like how it sounds \u2013 simply restart the experience and continue playing with the site to record different sound compositions to your liking.<\/p>\n

\"little<\/p>\n

Here’s another sample soundtrack created of \u201cA Story, or History, Perhaps?<\/span><\/a><\/b>\u201d\u00a0by Abdul Ghani Hamid<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.tusitalabooks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/A-story-or-history-perhaps-soundtrack.wav<\/a><\/audio><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\"little<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

To invite closer reading of the poetry, we added another feature on the microsite too: an option for users to record their own reading of the poem.\u00a0This challenges people to practice reading poems in their own mother tongue, to create a customised spoken word track that is truly their own.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Create your own spoken word tracks<\/h3>\n

\"littleredcomma<\/a> \"littleredcomma<\/a>\u00a0\"littleredcomma<\/a><\/p>\n

Chinatown I<\/span><\/a><\/b>
\nby Tan Chee Lay
\n<\/strong>Originally written in Chinese and translated into English by Teng Qian Xi, “Chinatown I” is a poem about the polyphony of Chinese dialects that once filled Singapore\u2019s Chinatown.<\/p>\n

A Story, or History, Perhaps?<\/span><\/a>
\n<\/b>by Abdul Ghani Hamid
\n<\/b>Originally in Malay and translated into English by Annaliza Bakri, “A Story, or History, Perhaps?” (2008) is a melancholic rumination on sweeping transformations of the land and intergenerational change in the eastern part of Singapore.<\/p>\n

The Sunbird I Lost<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/b>
\n<\/strong>by Krishnamurthi Mathangi
\n<\/b>Originally in Tamil and translated into English by the author, this poem reflects on both everyday and life-changing encounters in a neighbourhood.<\/p>\n

\n

Educator\u2019s Guides<\/h3>\n

For educators looking for ideas on how you can use literary works in the classroom, Esplanade Offstage <\/strong>offers the following educator\u2019s guides:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n

\"little<\/a><\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n<\/td>\n

<\/td>\n\"little<\/a><\/i><\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

For English literature and language arts learners<\/h3>\n

– A Story, or History, Perhaps? by Abdul Ghani
\n& Chinatown, I by Tan Chee Lay<\/a><\/b>
\nExplore the main themes of social history and urban development and consider how texts explore sociocultural practices, beliefs and values.<\/td>\n

<\/td>\n\n

For Chinese language learners
\n<\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n

– <\/b>Chinatown, I by Tan Chee Lay<\/a><\/b>
\nThese educators’ guides are contributed by Nah Dominic, a PhD candidate at Singapore’s National Institute of Education.<\/p>\n

 <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\n

About little red comma\u00a0<\/em><\/h2>\n

little red comma<\/em>\u00a0fuses Singapore literature with digital media, through web adaptations of diverse works by established and emerging homegrown writers as well as literary pioneers.<\/p>\n

The second edition of the series featured a total of seven works, with one adaptation launched each month from August 2022 to February 2023, featuring original soundscapes, audio readings and illustrations by local creatives.<\/p>\n

Commissioned by Esplanade Offstage, little red comma<\/em> is produced by digital storytelling studio Tusitala and supported by the National Arts Council.<\/p>\n

Visit all the microsites here<\/b><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  In part one, we discussed some of the different concepts and formats used in our literary adaptations for the second edition of little red comma, which was released between August 2022 and February 2023. This part looks at three poems originally written in mother tongue languages: \u201cChinatown I\u201d by Tan Chee Lay, \u201cA Story,… <\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":11329,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[551,566,24,25,549,27,28],"tags":[580],"yoast_head":"\nlittle red comma - Behind the scenes (Part 2): Creating your own spoken word track - Tusitala<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Featuring three mother tongue poems from little red comma: \u201cChinatown I\u201d by Tan Chee Lay, \u201cA Story, or History, Perhaps?\u201d by Abdul Ghani Hamid, and \u201cThe Sunbird I Lost\u201d by Krishnamurthy Mathangi\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tusitalabooks.com\/2023\/07\/01\/little-red-comma-creating-your-own-spoken-word-track\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Behind the scenes: Concepts behind little red comma works (Part 1)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"little red comma 2nd edition, featuring 7 digital adaptations of local poets and authors\u2019 works by Tusitala for Esplanade Offstage.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.tusitalabooks.com\/2023\/07\/01\/little-red-comma-creating-your-own-spoken-word-track\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Tusitala\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-07-01T10:00:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-09-13T11:45:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.tusitalabooks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/little-red-comma-2nd-edition.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"samantha\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"samantha\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tusitalabooks.com\/2023\/07\/01\/little-red-comma-creating-your-own-spoken-word-track\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.tusitalabooks.com\/2023\/07\/01\/little-red-comma-creating-your-own-spoken-word-track\/\",\"name\":\"little red comma - 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