Express Yourself!

E is for "Express Yourself!!!!!"

The the more you do it, the better you get.  And in our world today, there are SO many options and ways to express ourselves.  When you think of it, it's breathtaking...

...and yet there is so much misunderstanding.

Aside from the obvious messages when expressing ourselves, an understated part of expressing and communicating is incorporating verbal and nonverbal cues; to listening to what IS said or portrayed, and to what IS NOT; to carefully selecting visual objects or words while keeping in mind length, message medium, and the audience involved.


HOW DO YOU EXPRESS YOURSELF???  Here are some examples - enjoy them and leave your expressions in the comments.


Whether you express yourself with the faces you make, or the images you create

... be they comics
 

 ... photos

... or paintings, drawings, sculptures, etc.

The songs that you sing...

OR The way you move your the body and gifts you were given -as this Dance clip at Central Station, Antwerp Belgium shows..

And this Martha Graham clip expresses:

Or the words you share...Be they:
(Kenneth Branagh's) Shakespeare's Henry V Speech on the Eve of Saint Crispen's Day

Or. (Taylor Mali's) Slam poetry, relaying bravery, passion, and pathos

 

Others may take a completely different approach and express themselves through cooking, baking, decorating...

From: djssugarshack

The keys to successful expression are:

• experiment in multi-modal means of expression
• practice with others
• practice in front of a mirror or tape yourself
• keep track of others' reactions to your various means and modes of exprssion
• put your whole 'self' into it
• embrace it and have fun!

Some interesting tid-bits on expression:

1. Slam poetry is a multi-modal means of expression. While it is a verbal-visual-vocal retelling involving words, facial expressions, body posture and movement, voice volume adjustments,  and visual body cues.
2. Comic books are another means of multi-modal expression integrating visual and verbal communication.  While the writers select the essence of the story, artists enhance the message as readers integrate the art and word with their own stores of knowledge and experiences to construct the entire story.
3. Music and science:  Michaeleen Doucleff in Saturday/Sunday (Feb. 1-12, 2012) Wall Street Journal article, "Anatomy of a Tear-Jerker" notes that science has uncovered what in music evokes emotional reactions - in this case why Adale's "Someone Like You' makes listeners cry:

Twenty years ago, the British psychologist John Sloboda analyzed properties of songs that made people cry and found they contained an "appoggiatura" - a type of ornamental note that clashes with the melody just enough to create a dissonant sound, which when resolved releases a 'feel good' feeling.

"'Someone Like You' which Adele wrote with Dan Wilson is sprinkled with ornamental notes similar to appoggiaturas....[and] during the chorus, Adele slightly modulates her pitch at the end of long notes right before the accompaniment goes to a new harmony, creating mini-roller coasters of tension and resolution" said Dr. Guhn, psychologist at the University of British Columboia who co-wrote a 2007 study on the subject."

Martin Guhn and Marcel Zentner found that 'chill-provoking' musical passages shared at least four features: (1) "They began softly and then suddenly became loud. (2)They included an abrupt entrance of a new 'voice'. (3)They often involved an expansion of the frequencies played (ex. the voilins jump up one octave to echo the melody). (4) They contained unexpected deviations in the melody or the harmony.  Music is most likely to tingle the spine, in short, when it includes surprises in volume, timbre and harmonic pattern."

 Regardless of the mean or mode of expression, do it as Taylor Mali says..."with authority!"