For this sound project, I’d like to make a composition of manners in our daily conversation like "Hi, how are you? ", "Thank you", "You are welcome", "Bless you", “Excuse me”, etc. The inspiration for this project is probably from my own story. It’s about my language and culture barrier when coming to this country; particularly, it’s my first time facing those manners. The reason I choose this subject is because these manners are never used in my country (Vietnam); and it might be the main difference between my culture and the America's in communicating. On my first day here, I was totally overwhelmed by how polite and respectful people are. Therefore, I'd like to compose a project to let everyone could feel how I felt when being in a disparate culture. So I named this piece: "The manners"

The sound I used is not very heavy or light since I combined different layers of tones and voices. I recorded my own voice and my friend's voice. Then I used the change pitch/ tempo/ speed effect to make various voices. At the beginning, there is some silence or hesitation describing my strange reaction and confusion. But later on, my voice will be clearer and louder since I’m getting used to the way people communicating here. Also, I used different effects like changing the left – right side, amplification, echo, reverb and more in order to create spaces in my composition. Last but not least, I used different accents such as American, British, Chinese American, and African American since there is a diversity of ethnic groups here. 


Lynne Wong