2020-2022 

 

installation commissioned by ULB for the celebration of the Année des langues. 

In collaboration with Ohme, Latitude, and the department of linguistics of the ULB.

Speaking in tongues is a multimedia exploration of how to dissolve and rethink boundaries between languages we understand and those we don’t – or believe don’t – understand.The public is immersed in a soundtrack of stories told in different languages. The English translation of those stories is projected in real time onto the installation itself. Participants enter the structure one at a time, and there they interact with the voices they hear. This interaction is live streamed and plays with the written stories as well, creating a new form of communication which is both written and heard.

 

Chinese Whispers triggers a new interaction between different languages, encouraging users to find alternative ways of relating to unknown languages. In order to comply with the instructions, the user taps into a new, more instinctive way of listening and understanding.