Title
Sing-Song
Description
A visual and vocal representation of the Trinidad and Tobago dialect. With this project, I wanted to showcase a part of who I am. The official language spoken on my island is English. However, through the years the languages of the peoples that inhabited the island were mixed to form a unique dialect. There is Amerindian (the indigenous tribes), African, Asian and European influence in the unique words we speak.
Sing-Song invites the user to learn the language by trying to speak it. The user selects a word from the library, they get to view its pronunciation, meaning, sentence use and also hear the pronunciation of the word. While the pronunciation is played, a visual representation of this sound is shown on the screen. Using the select button on the control panel the user can scroll through the words. Using the record button, the user can record their attempt at saying a selected word. When the recording is played back, a visual representation of their speech is shown on the screen.
Visual Documentation
ITP Winter Show 2015 Exhibition
References & thanks
My main reference for this project was the Trinidad and Tobago dictionary, Cote Ci Cote La by John Mendes. I received assistance from residents Sharon, Jason, Pedro and Moon for the project over these past two months. When I came up with the idea of showcasing my language I went to Sharon and we brainstormed creative ways to go about doing this. She gave me great direction and as a result Sing-Song was conceived. Jason, through his P5 sound workshops and personal meetings, assisted me with understanding how sound can be transformed into an image that is more designed and beautiful. My serial communication would not work and Pedro broke it down for me. His instruction provided the remedial help I needed to ‘get it’. Moon helped me structure my code and really explained proper coding practices. The assistance I received from these residents was invaluable and I thank them dearly.
Code
Code : The code for this project includes a JS file, a JSON file, and sound files.