a pseudo-graph showing linguistic attributes on its two axes: “Standards In Death” versus “Impressionist Statistic in Units of Black and White”.
The idea arose during my daily dose of world radio programs offered by an established broadcaster. I heard reports of various global conflicts and struggles. Those touching the heart are often those that seem to involve some fatal ending to one or other of the main actors in these more-than-stories.
These stories, intangible and beyond the walls that enclose my mind, pull my sense of empathy between that of alienating storytelling and personal calls for action. This mechanism is fueled by the struggle between subjectivity and objectivity. The latter has been of ongoing interest to me.
Such struggle, I believe, is most sensitive within journalistic work. Arguably scientific endeavors too (involving verifiable and falsifiable data and processes) require objectivity as well as rigorousness. These are however ideally established within controlled environments; such as a laboratory. On the other hand, linguistic chemistry, such as catalyzed by journalistic research and on-the-spot reporting across media and global broadcasting systems, can affect large communities in very immediate manners and in degrees of high individual connotation.
Death is traumatic yet it is part of the holistic process of becoming. How is it spoken of? How does it affect the identity and story related to the deceased? How does it affect those inflicted with grief? How do individuals and communities realize and box the reality of such quasi variations of death?
Why is social status associated with “assassination” or simply with being “killed?” How come the word “butchered” has been used for both women or children as well as cattle? What makes an enemy crush-able as bugs have been referred to?
This visual poem—poetically transmediating data visualization into poetic freedoms—is entitled “Standards in Death.” It plays with the perceived superficiality in the reporting of profound events yet also unearths a hint of a linguistic pattern; a subjective association due to repeated association of one verb with one life, creating an objectified reality.
Standard in Death
The man of status was assassinated
The man of war has fallen
The man of age has passed on
The man of the streets was murdered
or simply killed
The man of enemies was crushed
the bugs too
The woman and child were butchered
the cattle too
The innocent were massacred
each finds their reported standard in death
animasuri’13
Beijing
