design a dictionary 14

S, s
/ɛs/ Show Spelled[es] Show IPA 
–noun, plural S's or Ss, s's or ss. 
1. 
the 19th letter of the English alphabet, a consonant. 
2. 
any spoken sound represented by the letter S or s, as in saw, sense, or goose. 
3. 
something having the shape of an S . 
4. 
a written or printed representation of the letter S or s. 
5. 
a device, as a printer's type, for reproducing the letter S or s


O, o
   /oʊ/ Show Spelled[oh] Show IPA 
–noun, plural O's or Os; o's or os or oes. 
1. 
the fifteenth letter of the English alphabet, a vowel. 
2. 
any spoken sound represented by the letter O or o, as in box, note, short, or love . 
3. 
something having the shape of an O . 
4. 
a written or printed representation of the letter O or o. 
5. 
a device, as a printer's type, for reproducing the letter O or o.


F, f
   /ɛf/ Show Spelled[ef] Show IPA 
–noun, plural F's or Fs, f's or fs. 
1. 
the sixth letter of the English alphabet, a consonant. 
2. 
any spoken sound represented by the letter F or f, as in fat, differ, or huff. 
3. 
something having the shape of an F . 
4. 
a written or printed representation of the letter F or f. 
5. 
a device, as a printer's type, for reproducing the letter F or f. 


T, t
   /ti/ Show Spelled[tee] Show IPA 
–noun, plural T's or Ts, t's or ts. 
1. 
the 20th letter of the English alphabet, a consonant. 
2. 
any spoken sound represented by the letter T or t, as in tub, but, or butter. 
3. 
something having the shape of a T . 
4. 
a written or printed representation of the letter T or t. 
5. 
a device, as a printer's type, for reproducing the letter T or t. —Idiom 
6. 
to a T, exactly; perfectly: That job would suit you to a T. Also, to a tee. 




soft
   /sɔft, sɒft/ Show Spelled [sawft, soft] Show IPA adjective, -er, -est, noun, adverb, interjection 
–adjective 
1. 
yielding readily to touch or pressure; easily penetrated, divided, or changed in shape; not hard or stiff: a soft pillow. 
2. 
relatively deficient in hardness, as metal or wood. 
3. 
smooth and agreeable to the touch; not rough or coarse: a soft fabric; soft skin. 
4. 
producing agreeable sensations; pleasant or comfortable: soft slumber. 
5. 
low or subdued in sound; gentle and melodious: soft music; a soft voice. 
6. 
not harsh or unpleasant to the eye; not glaring: soft light; a soft color. 
7. 
not hard or sharp: soft outlines. 
8. 
gentle or mild: soft breezes. 
9. 
genial or balmy, as climate or air. 
10. 
gentle, mild, warm-hearted, or compassionate: a soft, grandmotherly woman. 
11. 
smooth, soothing, or ingratiating: soft words. 
12. 
not harsh or severe, as a penalty or demand. 
13. 
responsive or sympathetic to the feelings, emotions, needs, etc., of others; tender-hearted. 
14. 
sentimental or flowery, as language: soft, meaningless talk. 
15. 
not strong or robust; delicate; incapable of great endurance or exertion: He was too soft for the Marines. 
16. 
Informal . easy; involving little effort; not difficult, laborious, trying, or severe: a soft job. 
17. 
Informal . easily influenced or swayed; easily imposed upon; impressionable. 
18. 
lenient, permissive, or conciliatory, especially regarding something that is conceived of as dangerous or threatening: to be soft on communism. 
19. 
(of water) relatively free from mineral salts that interfere with the action of soap. 
20. 
(of paper money or a monetary system) not supported by sufficient gold reserves or not easily convertible into a foreign currency. 
21. 
(of a market, market condition, or prices) declining in value, volume, profitability, etc.; weak: a soft tourist season. Compare firm1 ( def. 7 ) . 
22. 
(of money) plentiful or available at low interest rates or on easy terms: a soft loan. 
23. 
soft-core. 
24. 
Metallurgy . 
a. 
(of a metal) easily magnetized and demagnetized. 
b. 
(of solder) fusing readily. 
c. 
(of a metal or alloy) fully annealed, so as to provide minimum mechanical hardness. 
25. 
Photography . 
a. 
(of a photographic image) having delicate gradations of tone. 
b. 
(of a focus) lacking in sharpness. 
c. 
(of a lens) unable to be focused sharply. 
26. 
Phonetics . 
a. 
(of consonants) lenis, especially lenis and voiced. 
b. 
(of c and g ) pronounced as in cent and gem. 
c. 
(of consonants in Slavic languages) palatalized. Compare hard ( def. 38 ) . 
27. 
Military . (of a missile-launching base) aboveground and relatively unprotected from enemy attack. 
28. 
Aerospace . (of a landing of a space vehicle) gentle; not harmful to the vehicle or its contents: a soft landing on the moon. 
29. 
Physics . (of a beam of particles or electromagnetic radiation) having relatively low energy: soft x-rays. Compare hard ( def. 40 ) . 
30. 
(of a delegate, voter, etc.) not committed to any one candidate. 
31. 
foolish or stupid: soft in the head. 
32. 
(of a detergent) readily biodegradable. 
–noun 
33. 
something that is soft or yielding; the soft part. 
34. 
softness. 
–adverb 
35. 
in a soft manner. 
–interjection Archaic . 
36. 
be quiet! hush! 
37. 
not so fast! stop! —Idiom 
38. 
be soft on someone, Informal . to be amorously inclined toward a person; have an affection for: He's been soft on her for years. 
Use soft in a Sentence 
See images of soft 
Search soft on the Web 


Origin: 
before 1000; Middle English softe yielding, gentle, mild, Old English sōfte agreeable; cognate with German sanft 
—Related forms 
soft·ly, adverb 
soft·ness, noun 
o·ver·soft, adjective 
o·ver·soft·ly, adverb 
o·ver·soft·ness, noun 
su·per·soft, adjective 
ul·tra·soft, adjective 
ul·tra·soft·ly, adverb 
ul·tra·soft·ness, noun 
un·soft, adjective 
un·soft·ly, adverb 
un·soft·ness, noun 
—Synonyms 
1. pliable, plastic, malleable. 5. mellifluous, dulcet, sweet. 10. tender, sympathetic. 11. mollifying. 15. weak, feeble. 17. compliant, irresolute, submissive.

http://dictionary.reference.com/

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Exposed poster lighting, Soho.

design a dictionary 13

Went to the South London Gallery a couple weeks back and was really inspired by one piece in particular by Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard called 'Silent Sound.'

 'the tables are turned to heighten gallery visitors’ awareness of their own position as part of an audience, as a potential target for manipulation: subliminal messaging, we are told, is being employed within this immersive and powerfully moving sound experience.'

www.southlondongallery.org

Entering the little 'cubby' hidden away at the top of a dark stair case was a little scary, within a dark circular room/space were curved seating areas and a 'control' panel that lit up to correspond with the music. 

Although the experience inside this little space was really beautiful and almost bewitching it was also unnerving due to the prospect of some subliminal message.

But aside from that, to me, it felt like I was in the womb or something, like encased or protected, ready to forget about school and make myself comfortable.

The sounds were strangely comforting and enchanting, I almost felt like I was under a spell or something.

The artist's use of sound in this piece has definitely shown me the possibilities of sound and the very real affect it can have on people and how they feel.

Taking inspiration from this piece I really want to focus on how the audio in my piece evokes feelings/emotions and works with the visual communication to create something almost sensory, so that your left feeling as though you have a better understanding of the word 'soft.'

The white lines on the image above indicate where the zips will be.

I made miniature versions of each letter out of card, using tape as the stuffing and then covering them with the fabric. The idea is to film each miniature letter individually, zoom in and then cut to a close up of each larger letter (sleeping bag/pillow) and zoom out. I will then have whom ever is inside 'animate' the letter using soft, slumpy, mumpy, frumpy, billowy movements.

quick story board:

constructing the letters

testing shapes, experimenting with positioning of body inside letters:

The 'O' is particulary cosy and comfortable!

Today I was supposed to be filming with a 'proper' camera but couldn't cos my friend wasn't able to make it, so I made do with a 10 mega pixel camera! Needless to say the quality is not great but I'll consider it a draft!

I'll be editing tomorrow, but due to technical difficulties (enough of the excuses right?) with the zoom it may not turn out to be as I intended. We shall see .. I hope all goes well!

design a dictionary 12

So today was exhausting! But i got a lot done .. as it stands all I have to do is attach the zzzzip to the 's' and they're good to go.

I made some miniature versions of them that I will be zooming into; so that just the colour is apparent, then cutting to a close up of the larger scale ones and then zooming and adding movement with someone inside etc to create various illusions and visual effects.

Some friends and I will be 'animating' the letters, creating little 'puffs, pulls, punches' and movements that create a sense of softness and comfort, soft nature, sweetness ... 

The overall all feel of the film will be that of a child's educational television programme such as 'the clangers' , 'the flumps' , and 'sesame street' etc.

I had a little trouble constructing the  's' because of its awkward shape and the fabric's tendency to stretch and warp but overall, considering the amount of time I had, i'm pleased .. now I just need to get filming.

In the meantime here are a couple of inspirational clips off of youtube, a few childhood favourites that animate the letters of the alphabet using sound and movement, creating various characters and allowing us to learn through colour, play, song, repetition and interaction:

design a dictionary 11

design a dictionary 10

Today was spent making the pattern pieces for these giant letters ... and to be honest I'm wondering whether I'll be able to get them done in time, as I also want to make a video. 

I've decided to attempt to make them reversible so that you can climb inside and be enveloped in fleece but also that they can look fluffy for the onlooker ... and be an interesting subtle creamy beige furry mass of a letter.

I'm also thinking of having the centre of the 'o' be a 'hatch' to climb in and out of, so you basically unzip the centre, climb inside and then zip your self in .. so you'll end up being able to really stretch out in this giant circular envelope of juicy soft stuff. 

I don't know why I only have pictures of the 'f ' ... I've finished making the pattern pieces for all the letter except the 's' which is taking longer than intended because of it's annoying shape. I also need to buy more fleece, poor bank balance! jeeeez ... 

Ideally I'd like the final piece to be a video installation ... I was inspired by this late 70's kid's show called 'The Flumps' which I'm a fan of :

I just love the sensibility and the clever simplicity of it, not to mention it's visual appeal. I feel like kid's programmes are so into force feeding some sort of educational or moral message, and in a very 'smiley middle aged man wears red jumper, brings out the finger puppets and then sings' kind of way ..  or in a 'saturday morning, poorly produced CGI cartoon' kind of way.

The music in the opening of  'The Flumps' is so simple, honest and charming and really makes me think of round furry characters .. 

I'm visualising a video in which people in the 'sleeping bags/body bags' limp, jump, hop into shot. I love the idea of people inside them animating the word in a 'flumpy, frumpy, uncoordinated' way, bumping into one another, possibly tripping etc ... I'm also thinking of the idea of being 'softly spoken' and having a motherly voice and then a child's voice read aloud the definition of the word 'soft' whilst the visuals happen, and then maybe having a live demo of how to wear one.
We'll see.. anyways .. knackered!

design a dictionary 9

clown - outside fancy dress shop in soho

sculpture/public art - shepherd's bush

design a dictionary 8

making the giant pillow bag thing:

lining: fleece

outer part: cotton

seriously, stick your head in that and you're lost .. its really soft.

design a dictionary 7

I went fabric shopping in soho and shepherd's bush today:

fluffy stuff and candy colours and polka dots and stripes ...

 There were some really lovely soft furs and things but nothing soft enough in white ... so i think im gonna stick with this fleecey stuff i found in primarni for the lining ..

There was also the idea of possibly using some ugly fugly faux fur in disgustingly bright colours ..

In the end i settled for some polycotton in four lovely pastel shades:

I chose these ones in particular because they are very 'ice-cream parlour, candy coated, sweet, soft' colours and because they feel like bed sheets!
The plan is to have the lining be soft fleece and then the outer layer will be these fabrics .. so each letter of 'soft' will be a different colour ..
Also, the zip arrived today:

I really like the fact that it's chunky and white, sort of toy-like and goes well with the colour pallette ..

Also spotted these in urban outfitters:

Quite good for construction ideas ..