Thai Alphabet Has 34 Letters by Apichris Chotichoey

a journey of

Thai Alphabet Has 34 Letters a video documentary by Pattanakit Chotichoey

THAI ALPHABET HAS 34 LETTERS

hai urban lifestyle sh ifts from living simply nearby a canal to live in a complex city. Changing affects people to live faster. For people in mainstream, mobile phone has become a convenience tool for a person to create personal space apart from the crowd. Shopping mall has become a primary choice for relaxing, and has become the icon of urban lifestyle in this tropical country. Thai language is no exception, the rushed pace makes some rarely used consonant alphabets, disappear. 2 0 1 3 C O M M U N I C AT I O N D E S I G N P R O J E C T

SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN

PA R T 1

E SSAY

C O M M U N I C AT I O N D E S I G N P R O J E C T P R E PA R AT I O N I’m an idealistic person. Growing up in Nonthaburi, made me dream of peace, simple life and honest society. I value these things as the meaning of my life. Later on, since I completely moved to Bangkok in 2004, I had realized the ‘real’ world. I discovered myself that I dislike the mainstream trend, in the way that it doesn’t get along with my meaning of life and in the way that it is filled with business, rooted down in the city. Superficially, I enjoy daily life, friend and party. But, deeply, I always think about leaving this town. In the beginning of the project , I gathered 20 photos from my environment such as my place, my connection and my interesting. Then, I catagorized them into 5 sets of keyword: 1. Bangkok Middle-Class Born 2. Freedom / Bond ( Chained - Stuck ) 3. Thai Politic ( Democracy ) / Corruption 4. Adopt / Adapt 5. Civilization The first set is the duty in life. As a middle-class born, I have many responsibilities which I couldn’t realize since I was a kid. For example, I must work for money to take care my family; I have to study to get a degree, according to my parent’s will; And, I can’t leave these duties until I complete them. You might say “Don’t take them seriously, however, we are free to do the things we wanted to.” and I won’t deny that. But, in fact, It’s the honest limit that I can’t go beyond. I have to make money to survive with my family in the city. Sincerely, I think I’m stuck, and I think I’m not the only one here. Secondly, My school projects since 2nd year are involved with political issue every semester. It’s shameful that we have seen evidence of corruption many times but we can’t solve or even prevent it. Moreover, the political discrimination in Thai is very strong. Many protestors are strongly believe in their beloved politicians and trust them without critical thinking that, the politician might exploited them. Lastly, I interest on how Thai shallowly adopt the word ‘civilization’ since General Plak’s era. I think it should be about to develop manner and mindset, not only the dress and wealth, which is the mainstream value now.

Thai Alphabet Has 34 Letters

RESEARCH

R E SE A R C H

H U M A N B E H AV I O R & F R E E D O M We have freedom in our capital limit. We have freedom in our culture limit. We have freedom in the social class limit. We have freedom in the law limit. We have freedom in invisible power limit. We have freedom in next meal limit. We have freedom in breathing limit. I have freedom to think, that I canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t go beyond the limit. - Pattanakit Chotichoey

I research Social Contract by Jean Jacques Rousseau, Sigmund Freud and Human Behaviour. These are my conclusions: 1. We can control ourselves to do / participate everything; we accept that action with some reason. 2. We can learn to understand the different and respect each other. 3. We were born free but unequal. 4. We should use enough reason, feeling and instinct before believe and judge every case. George Orwellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 1984 also conveys people to question value and what the most people in society believe.

Thai Alphabet Has 34 Letters

R E SE A R C H

T H A I FA S H I O N H I S T O R Y RATTANAKOSIN FASHION 1782-1851 King Rama I-III era Both woman and man are wearing like Late Ayutthaya era: Royal Lady - wearing golden pattern cloth and Sabai Royal Gentleman - wearing only Chong Kraben in various color, wearing shirt only in Winter Common Lady - wearing Chong Kraben and breast cloth, wearing shirt for formal Common Gentleman - wearing only Chong Kraben, no shirt 1782 - 1868 King Rama IV wants to prevent the country from being colonized by Western. Royal Lady - wearing golden pleated cloth, Sabai Pak, Tub Zuang, Pahurad. For accessories: belt, earring, ring, and necklace Royal Gentleman - changing hair style from skinny short to Western short hair and started to wear shirt Common Lady - round neck cloth and Chong Kraben or Sabai. Breast cloth had stopped using in this time 1868 - 1910 King Rama V westernized the country by assigning the uniform for soldier and officer in navy blue including socks and shoes. Gentleman started to wear underwear and having a longer hair cut (like Western). Lady - for common day, wearing round neck cloth and Chong Kraben with Sabai including socks and boots. Later Western clothes started to sell in Thailand and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s became popular. 1910 - 1925 King Rama VI Royal Lady - started wearing Sin cloth having Bob hair cut, using cosmetic Royal Gentleman - like King Rama V era, started to wear Prae trousers 1925 - 1944 According to the cinema and film, Western culture influence people Lady - tube skirt became popular instead of Sin cloth, western skirt started selling 1944 - Now Officially stopped wearing Chong Kraben and started wearing trousers, the uniform had westernised. In General Plak era, He campaigned the dressing rule for Thai people, to be Westernized. http://www.designer.co.th/10442

Thai Alphabet Has 34 Letters

EXPERIMENT

C M D P R O J E C T P R E PA R AT I O N Consequently, I produced 7 experiments in Communication Design Project Preparation Class, based on social and cultural issue. O CTO B ER 2 0 1 3 - DE C E M BE R 2 0 1 3

EXPERIMENT

GRADUAT E PRODUCT A chronological line of my face showing that it slowly become plastic-like. In the end, myself in graduation gown become a product in the universivtyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s package.

Thai Alphabet Has 34 Letters

EXPERIMENT

WH AT ARE W E DOING HERE MOM? Photographs of a primary school kid in Against Amnesty Bill Demonstration on Ratchadamnoen Avanue. I question the audience about the role of the kid in the protest. If his parents just bring him because nobodyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s home, or, is it proper to implanted the political idea to the kid?

Thai Alphabet Has 34 Letters

EXPERIMENT

Since last project, I had investigated my idea and found that my main subject is a child. According to my keywords and elements, I questioned about ‘the duty of being alive as a child in Bangkok’. On November 11th, I went to Against Amnesty Bill Demonstration on Ratchadamnoen Avanue. By assuming that children is too young to interest in politic by themselves, I try to find the children and interview them. Six out of ten subjects said that they came by the will of change with their family. The other four said that they were just following their parents.

Both groups are enjoy being there. I interest in the second group and question what are their role and duty? Are they abused? What were they doing there? From my point of view, DEMOCRACY in Thai is limited. The word itself is often used as propaganda by every political movement. The only benefit i see is, we can express our thought as much as it doesn’t harm other and we possibly take a polite respond back.

Thai Alphabet Has 34 Letters

EXPERIMENT

ANS WER S HEET Later, I try not to work with political issue. I rethink and move to the next keyword to ‘Freedom/Bond’ - education in Thailand. I try to reform the system of answer sheet: to use all Thai alphabets to be the choices. However, the result shows chaos of the system and it makes me realize the true core of answer sheet. It’s about the answer, not a choice.

Thai Alphabet Has 34 Letters

EXPERIMENT

Though I’ve been in Thai education institute from primary school to college, I’ve learn that I can’t spell Thai alphabet orderly correct. I was curious and I just want to know that do other students in my college shared this problem. Therefore, I create a sequence of video interview with my friend, senior and junior. Assuming that everyone should know it and spell correctly, the result shows that 7 of 64 can did it. The next day, I went to interview again for deeper information. The interviewee mostly said they proud to be Thai, but it’s hard to remember Thai alphabet order because: 1. Not every letter are used in daily life. 2. It has repeated sound. 3. 44 letters are too long to remember. 4. Compared with English, English has more simple melody to remember (for learning).

Interview Question: 1. Are you Thai / was born in Thailand? 2. Do you proud to be Thai? 3. Do you think Thai language is a part of Thai culture? 4. Do you proud with Thai language? 5. Can you spell Thai alphabet orderly correct? 6. Can you spell A-Z? 7. What makes these 2 languages different to memorize, as a Thai learner? 8. Can you suggest a better way to memorize Thai? 9. Will you learn to spell Thai alphabet orderly and correctly after this interview (if you can not) ? 10. Being forced to memorize Thai alphabet in a primary school is effective or not?

Thai Alphabet Has 34 Letters

EXPERIMENT

ก - ฮ S ONG I tried to make people memorize Thai alphabet order easily by composed a pop song in my style. กขฃคฅฆงจฉชซฌญฎฏฐฑฒณดตถทธนบปผฝพฟภมยรลวศษสหฬอฮ

Thai Alphabet Has 34 Letters

EXPERIMENT

U NDERSTA NDING LETTER is a fundamental of WORD. WORD is a fundamental of SENTENCE. There is no use remembering the order of alphabet, if we can use them to communicate.

I realized that alphabet is the fundamental for sentence. And we use sentence to communicate, not alphabet. So I created layers of each element which can combine to be the sentence “ฉันเข้า ใจภาษาไทย” (I understand Thai).

Thai Alphabet Has 34 Letters

I did a research more about the origin / element of Thai language. Moreover, I went further to interview students from other universities. The result shows that totally 10 out of 90 can do it correctly. Then, I slowly look at the skipped alphabet and the stop point by each interviewee along with daily life alphabet usage research. I generate the opacity of every Thai consonant alphabets.

RESEARCH

EXPERIMENT

DI SA PPEA RING T HA I I went back to the result of interviews and transcode them to a visual, showing every Thai alphabets. For each alphabet, the more people forgot it, the more it transparent.

Thai Alphabet Has 34 Letters

EXPERIMENT

BRAI LLE EXPERIMENT I tried to do an experiment with uncommon communication code.

Thai Alphabet Has 34 Letters

E SSAY

P R O J E C T P R E PA R AT I O N R E F L E X T I V E This class gives me a new vision and a new method of thinking. I learn how to have a good research for the reliability of the topic, to be open-mined to every side of the story - not to make the work with bias, then I can choose which side to tell the story and to draw back from the topic that I can’t move on. From several experiments, I know myself that I’d like to show the overall information (or questioning) and let the audience judge by themselves more than convincing one-sided story. Documentary could be my style to continue on. Curiosity is motivation for the project. I learn to critically think and question many things to open up my vision and explore possibilities as much as I can do. The project also reminds me to do a lot of visualization. It’s important whether I didn’t use it in the end but I won’t know where it leads me to.

Thai Alphabet Has 34 Letters

E SSAY

MY P HOTO FRO M GE R AR D M E R M OZ WO R DK S H O P S OA+ D 2 0 1 3

Thai Alphabet Has 34 Letters

PA R T 2

P R O C E SS O F

C O M M U N I C AT I O N D E S I G N P R O J E C T Though the traditional Thai culture image is disappearing, identity and lifestyle from daily life of Thai are clearly outstanding and known as Modern Thai Culture. JA N UA RY 2 0 1 4 - M AY 2 0 1 4

R E SE A R C H

HUMAN CREATE THEIR OWN VALUE AND

MEANING OF LIFE In existentialism, the individual’s starting point is characterized by what has been called “the existential attitude”, or a sense of disorientation and confusion in the face of an apparently meaningless or absurd world. Sartre’s ontology is explained in his philosophical masterpiece, Being and Nothingness, where he defines two types of reality which lie beyond our conscious experience: the being of the object of consciousness and that of consciousness itself. The object of consciousness exists as “in-itself,” that is, in an independent and non-relational way. However, consciousness is always consciousness “of something,” so it is defined in relation to something else, and it is not possible to grasp it within a conscious experience: it exists as “for-itself.” An essential feature of consciousness is its negative power, by which we can experience “nothingness.” This power is also at work within the self, where it creates an intrinsic lack of self-identity. So the unity of the self is understood as a task for the for-itself rather than as a given. A central proposition of Existentialism is that existence precedes essence, which means that the most important consideration for individuals is the fact that they are individuals—independently acting and responsible, conscious beings (“existence”)—rather than what labels, roles, stereotypes, definitions, or other preconceived categories the individuals fit (“essence”). Each individual—not society or religion—is solely responsible for giving meaning to life and living it passionately and sincerely (“authentically”). There is no meaning in the world beyond what meaning we give it. This meaninglessness also encompasses the amorality or “unfairness” of the world. People define themselves; such persons are themselves responsible for their identity. w w w. i e p. u t m . e d u /sa rt re - ex/ e n.w i kip e d i a . o rg /wi k i /E xi st e n t i a l i sm

Thai Alphabet Has 34 Letters

E SSAY

BEING ME AND EXISTENTIALISM According to my previous work, I learn that Thai alphabet order is being forgotten by Thai young, the next generation of ‘Thai’. More than 50% of interviewee claimed that Thai alphabet order is only the fundamental, the main core of it is to be the base of ‘communication’ and they choose to ignore the order. Therefore, some alphabets are disappearing from their memories. The question to the audience is : How do you feel when you see young natives choose to ignore the fundamental of their unique language. From John-Paul Sartre’s theory of Existentialism. I conclude that: 1. Man is condemned to be free. 2. Life is temporal; nothing is ours. 3. Everyone has freedom to express in different way and that is one’s ‘existence’ value. 4. We have to take responsibility for every action of ours. I feel that I fully have my right to think, to say and to do. I don’t like urban society such as Bangkok because it makes life more complex. For example, we have to make money and may be start up a business to survive. I think it’s a chain for middle-class people. I want to disappear from this huge society. I want to live peacefully with my family. — I want to be no one.

Thai Alphabet Has 34 Letters

E SSAY

DISAPPEARING FROM SOCIAL ‘Disappear’ is the connection between my previous work and Existentialism, So, I conducted a research about Thai disappearing culture / element to support my idea. Surprisingly, I found 3 interesting topics to move on: Thai dance, Thai music and Thai child play. From an interview about disappearing Thai, I open up my vision about disappear: 1. Disappearing culture might unpopular at the time. 2. Sometimes, It takes time to understand old culture aesthetic. 3. Besides royal play (Khon), common people in old time usually preferred a short and effective entertainment (La Korn Nork). Therefore, the value of them is not decrease, but from time to time, people left those things out there. For Thai dance or local play, people doesn’t ignore them, but there are countless entertainment at this moment which caught more attention from mainstream. Business is survival, in the city.

Thai Alphabet Has 34 Letters

EXPERIMENT

DISAPPEARING THAI I u se g r i d sy st e m fro m m y p re v i o u s wo r k t o be a p l at fo r m t o exp re ss m y fe e l i n g t hro u g h t y p o g ra p hy. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m not satisfy with this experiment. My advisor, Helena Pitko, suggested me to pick up my song and develop that thing.

R E SE A R C H

KEYWORD Disappear Urban (Bangkok) Capitalism (Business) Freedom Responsibility

FEELING I want to disappear from business society / capitalism

IDEA 1. Business Society is not good for me. 2. I want to be nobody in the society. / I try to run away from spotlight. 3. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m happy to be alone. 4. Disappearing is my desire.

DIOGENES one of the founder of cynicism. He prefers simple life and nature, rather than artificial good. He tried to demonstrate that wisdom and happiness belong to the man who is independent from the society which civilisation is regressive He taught by living as an example.

Thai Alphabet Has 34 Letters

EXPERIMENT

VIDEO#1 I learn that I speak a lot through my work. So, I decided to use VIDEO as a main experiment medium from now and I choose to start with my song. For generating story and direction, I tried to capture my vision before I go to bed as a moment of disappear. I usually sleep at morning. So, I decided to shoot by long exposure. STORY STRUCTURE city > student travel by BTS > BTS crowded > leaving to temple > make a merit to empty ash vault > burn black incense > night tree

REPRESENTATION 1. me / my thought = student 2. city life = BTS 3. capitalism = coins in incense burner 4. disappearing from society = respect the death ( Thai culture ) 5. happiness of being alone = tree at night

Thai Alphabet Has 34 Letters

EXPERIMENT

VIDEO#1 Fro m m y exp e r i m e n t l a st se m e st e r, I c ho o se t o l e t 1 0 c o n so n a n t a l p ha be t s i n m y so n g d i sa p p ea r by 2 m e t ho d s: p u t si l e n t i n st ea d a n d TV st at i c i n st ea d . Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s too conceptual and representation in the work is not that clear. I feel good with it, but I have to develop for the audience to understand more.

R E SE A R C H

I expand my idea to make it clear and constructed. I also read ‘99 to 1 : Wealth Inequality’ and ‘Paradoxocracy’ to expand my vision about CAPITALISM. I found inequality everywhere, even in democracy / monarchy. I’ve got my new IDEA. 1. Capitalism separate people (invisible fence/wall) 2. I don’t want to be in spotlight : being alone ( in goodtone might be to share the wall with someone) To generate a represent for wall/shared wall, I listed numbers of wearing accessories, clothes and end up with mobile phone.

PEOPLE CHOOSE TO HAVE A DISTANCE USING TECHNOLOGY FOR PERSONAL SPACE

Thai Alphabet Has 34 Letters

R E SE A R C H

CONCEPTUAL MV STUDY from Genesis - Land of Confusion Weird Al - Fat Tame Impala - Lucidity Tame Impala - Feels Like We Only Go Backward Tame Impala - Expectation Björk - Isobel Daft Punk - Around the World The Work of Director : Stephane Sednaoui I learn new method of story telling and weird visual effect. I’ve got a new idea for my representation. This is my own photo for color tone reference, captured from CMD studio SoA+D, edited from VSCO Cam.

Thai Alphabet Has 34 Letters

EXPERIMENT

VIDEO#2 I exp re ss m y p re fe r t o be a l o n e i n m y p e r so n a l sp a c e t ha n be i n g i n so c i e t y. I c ho o se m o bi l e p ho n e t o sho w t he se p a rat i o n . After I’ve done, I found that the video didn’t get along with the sound. It talks too much in depth about myself in limited time. I’m thinking of making a longer version(short f ilm?) or simplify the story more.

EXPERIMENT

Thai Alphabet Has 34 Letters

EXPERIMENT

VIDEO#3 Li v e p e r fo r m a n e exp e ri m e n t wi t h 2 p ro j e c t e d c ha n n e l v i d e o. a bo u t Tha i c u l t u re a n d m y fe e l i n g t o d i sa p p ea r fro m so c i e t y. I realize that in this video, these 2 channels are distracting each other. Moreover, me naked is too much in realistic. Another problem is a combination between video and sound. It’s still didn’t get along. In this video, I add drum + bass + electric guitar to f inal part of the song. Anyway, after concult with P’Jin Worramet, a professional guitarist. I found that the song doesn’t have enough ‘space’ for the audience to think while watching this video.

R E SE A R C H

Thai Alphabet Has 34 Letters

EXPERIMENT

M U S IC D I R E CTI O N A N D CO N C E PT & R E CO R DI N G DAY

Thai Alphabet Has 34 Letters

R E SE A R C H

THAI LIVING CULTURE Thai people has lived by the river since old time by the eveidence. Thai has many culture which have a relation with river and canal. Because Thai donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have a serious business in general, life speed in that time is slow. From my point of view, culture is the stamp of time. When most of the people in society agree to do something the same, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the culture. The culture change by time and we have to accept that.

Thai Alphabet Has 34 Letters

EXPERIMENT

By realizing culture is present, I simplify the representation of my work into transportation and communication in Bangkok, captured daily life at Siam Paragon - Central World.

Thai Alphabet Has 34 Letters

EXPERIMENT

FINAL VIDEO Thai urban lifestyle shifts from living simply nearby a canal to live in a complex city. Changing affects people to live faster. For people in mainstream, mobile phone has become a convenience tool for a person to create personal space apart from the crowd. Shopping mall has become a primary choice for relaxing, and has become the icon of urban lifestyle in this tropical country. Thai language is no exception, the rushed pace makes some rarely used consonant alphabets, disappear.

In editing part, after Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got unexpected footages, I visually accelerate the speed of movement from subject and the video from slow to fast; and correct the color as the eyes see. I feel good with my work :)

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