Inclusivity Through Translation — Alice J. Lee & Ladan Bahmani
Channel: TypeCon
Date: 01/02/2021

Recorded during TypeCon2019: “Nice” in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Translation is “switching over from one code to another; hence: jumping from one universe into another.” — Vilem Flusser, Towards a Philosophy of Photography

Language is a coding system only accessible to those who are able to decipher it. It has the ability to build community among those of common language and alienate those without. Since language and culture influence and reinforce each other, language has the power of connecting or disconnecting cultures and people. Working with three different languages and alphabetic systems — English, Korean, Persian — we design interactive installations that facilitate experiences analogous to the decoding process of translation.

We will present how our work invites communities to jump into other universes by playing with interactive puzzles. In the puzzles, the letterforms act as mediators for a specific culture. While translating letterforms and connecting messages, the visitors access a new language, and perhaps, a new way of thinking. Introducing the similarities and differences between our languages, we challenge the dominance of English as the main mode of communication and seek to make the unfamiliar more approachable and accessible.