Week 6

This week I look at constructed languages, attempting to understand how I can go on to build one of my own. I also embark on design testing as I try to construct my own letters.

Resource reflection

Constructed languages

Following upon my weekly wrap up from last week, I wanted to look into other constructed languages, such as Esperanto, in order to understand more about the development of them.


Solresol
Solresol was created by a French composer, and consists of do, re, me, fa, sol, la and si (Audiolang, Ca- 2010-2022). What I found very interesting about this language is that the parts can be communicated in a range of ways: the 7 parts have names, colours, musical tones, numbers, shapes, and sign language sings, which makes it great for secret codes and messages (Audiolang, Ca- 2010-2022). This diversity is great in terms of using all our senses to feel a language, and therefore something I could consider adopting.

The limited nature of this language is also fascinating, as I don’t think I’ll be able to construct a comprehensive and advanced language for my project. Looking into the word and sentence structure of this language could therefore be a helpful guide if I choose to develop a language with verbal meaning.

Fig. 1: Giel 2005. Conlang Solresol. [digital illustration]

Toki Pona
Toki Pona was created by Sonja Lang, who’s aim was to “understand the meaning of life in 120 words” (Sonja Lang, 2021). In an interview with Radio-Canada, Lang says:

Toki Pona looks at the human experience, and simplifies it through a lens of 137 words. So from those base words, you can combine them and create new meanings and can express the totality of the human experience. That’s the vision.

(Sonja Lang and Radio-Canada, 2021)

As with Solresol, I’m fascinated by this simplistic approach to language – partly because I will have to restrain my project, but also because my language only meant to communicate aspects from specific themes such as nation identity and immigration.

Our immigration policies and nation structures are hugely complicated, and of course I understand that you can’t just break down national borders and let everyone do what they want. However, with my project I am taking a very black and white approach, almost as a speculative take on what was to happen if we didn’t have borders. Given this black and white approach, I think it would be suitable to take a minimal approach to my language development, and perhaps restricting myself to a specific amount of words/signs/parts.

Fig. 2: Unknown maker. ca. 2002-2022. No title [Toki Pona typeface]

Esperanto
What I like about Esperanto is that it has an ideological purpose, in resemblance with my project (Theil, 2021). It’s aim is to build world peace by giving all nations a politically neutral language (Theil, 2021). If this is the aim for Esperanto, my language’s aim would perhaps be to enhance equality or to build a common understanding amongst different groups of people by neutralising our national belonging. The aim could also be to “remove” Norway’s national borders, in order to truly let the country embrace it’s politic notion of equal opportunities for all.

Metahaven: Facestate

Fig. 3: Metahaven 2008. Facestate. [exhibition]

In last week’s tutorial, Ben suggested to look at Metahaven’s project, Facestate, which explores a speculative state inspired by social media. In an accompanying article, Metahaven quotes Peter Van Ham:

Like commercial brands, we talk about a state’s ‘personality,’ describing it as ‘friendly’ (i.e., Western-oriented) and ‘credible’ (ally), or, in contrast, as ‘unreliable’ (‘rogue state’).

(Metahaven, 2008)

Similar to how Facebook portrays itself as neutral and democratic, when one could argue that it’s in fact not (Andrea Hyde, 2011), Norway is portraying itself as good and kind. However, I would argue that although the country is a wonderful place to live, with a range of welfare structures in place, Norway is not entirely good when in fact it’s part of Nato, not doing much for the environment, and not taking in that many refugees.

These reflections could potentially inform a more negative approach in my project. For example, the language could communicate the positive values of Norway, whilst also having an element of doubt –something that would make “readers” question those positive values.


Ideas testing

I still wasn’t sure which of my ideas I wanted to go ahead with, if even any of them. I therefore decided to continue the second phase by doing quick tests of them all.

Sketches: Constructed visual language

My first idea from last week was to develop a constructed visual language or writing system. To test the idea, I decided to take inspiration from how constructed languages such as Esperanto is made, by attempting to merge various existing writing systems together.

I began by line drawing letterforms from various writing systems, and annotating them afterwards. This was an attempt to gain a stronger insight on the movement and construction of the different alphabets.

Through annotation I established some interesting key words that could potentially be used to inform a constructed language. Movement was evident in a lot of them (something I don’t find with Latin letters), and this word also related well to my project theme. When attempting to mimic Arabic, I noticed that a lot of the shapes tends to move beyond constructed areas/boxes (in Latin, the letters aren’t descending beyond another line of text). This notion of moving beyond invisible lines could also be very relevant for my project.

Further, I moved on to extract some components from each of the writing systems, which I then used to construct some basic letterforms:

I further experimented briefly with some of the letterforms in Glyphs:

Although I wasn’t overly excited about these outcomes, the digital sketches led to further reflection:

With the bottom right experiment I began to see a resemblance with Norwegian nature, due to the spiked tops and wavy ends (mountains and rivers). Experimenting further with Norwegian nature in this way could be interesting.

Whilst working I tried to imagine how my constructed letterforms would look in different type styles (serif, sans serif, script). If going ahead with this direction, I could potentially explore Norwegian typography in archives, using design history as a reference to inform the style of my constructed type.

If I choose to go ahead with this idea, it would be interesting to explore movement and going outside invisible lines in further type experiments, in reference to prior reflections.


Context reflection

As I was feeling slightly stuck with my project, I decided to ask my partner, who’s a UX designer, for feedback. He suggested to reflect on potential contexts which my language could be applied to, in order to inform ideation.

The introductory program
If granted asylum in Norway, all refugees must take part in introduksjonsprogrammet (“the introductory program), where participants learn:

1. Norwegian
2. Social studies
3. Course in life skills
4. Work- or education-oriented element

(Barne-likestillings-og inkluderingsdepartementet, 2021)

Although I couldn’t possibly translate this program, I could potentially develop an additional course or publication. This publication could be given at the state of arrival, rather than when having received asylum, in line with the speculative concept of not seeing nations or borders.

The publication could for example introduce people to a speculative non-border Norway, containing a language guide (to the constructed language), societal studies (visual piece on the value of equal opportunities for all), life skills (practicing typical Norwegian values) and education (perhaps something to do with the flow of people, or a guide on finding one’s personal path, as education in Norway is free).

ID-document
I could also attempt to design a non-nation passport, looking at identity factors beyond body and nation of origin. The passport could be written in the constructed language, with it’s own typeface.

Asylum centre
In the documentary series “Unwanted” (looked at in prior weeks), I observed the gloomy atmosphere of Norwegian asylum centres. Taking a more serious approach, I could potentially look at this atmosphere, and develop a visual outcome for the inside space.


Trailer, research question and summary statement

This week I received my formative feedback, meaning I could begin to define my research question, summary statement and project trailer (to be handed in on Monday in week 7).

Research question

In the feedback, Celine suggested to specify my question as I start to define my project. Since I had defined my project quite a bit since handing in the draft treatment, I decided to re-articulate the question right away:

  • How can constructed languages help immigrants connect with unfamiliar places?
  • How can a constructed language help immigrants connect with Norway?
  • How can constructed language be used to comment on Norwegian immigration policies?
  • How can a constructed language be used to break down invisible borders in Norwegian society, so that people of all origins can feel a sense of connection to the country?

I felt that the last question reflected my current direction very well, and therefore sent it to Celine for additional feedback.

Summary statement

I had already written a summary statement, and so rather than beginning from scratch, I re-articulated this, ending up with the following final text:

Growing up in Norway, I have always been told that people in my country have equal opportunities in life, and that this freedom comes from living in a welfare state. Looking at our immigration policies however, it becomes clear that Norway does not provide equal opportunities for all, beyond our own borders. Instead, regulation of immigration separates Norwegians as people from the rest of the world, making us as habitants the “lucky ones”.

With nations comes languages, and with languages comes invisible borders. The lack of Norwegian fluency can impose an impression of someone not belong – not saying that immigrants do not belong in Norway, but rather that verbal language can create an illusion of being or not being connected to a place.

In order to open up conversations about Norwegian immigration policies, I will develop a non-verbal language, that does not recognise borders or nations. I will not be attempting to speak from an immigrant’s perspective or to develop a perfect solution to Norway’s immigration issues. Rather, I will attempt to comment on the banality of how our state of origin determines where we are allowed to go and where we are allowed to stay.

Project trailer

As I didn’t have much visual material to showcase at this stage, I decided to simply combine a shorter version of my summary statement with images I had collected from archives, and the moodboards from last week:

Fig. 8: Reigstad 2022. Week 7 Trailer

Weekly wrap up

It’s been good to finally start testing this week, even if I didn’t come as far as I would have liked with the outcomes. By analysing various writing systems, I was able to notice that the latin alphabet has very little movement, compared to other systems such as Arabic and Sanskrit. Moving forward I think movement should become an important keyword for visual reference, as this ties in nicely with flows of people (immigration).

Over the next two weeks I hope to explore further ideas from the moodboards for example by looking at how Norwegian nature could inform shapes and constructed letters, and also how various type styles could be used for these letters.

At this point I still haven’t managed to schedule an interview, and so this will become another focus point for next week.


REFERENCES:
Andrea Hyde (2011) Metahaven’s Facestate. Available at: https://walkerart.org/magazine/metahavens-facestate (Accessed: 26 February 2022). Audiolang (2010)

Solresol. Available at: http://audiolang.info/en/solresol/ (Accessed: 26 February 2022).

Barne-likestillings-og inkluderingsdepartementet (2021) Introduksjonsprogram, Regjeringa.no. regjeringen.no. Available at: https://www.regjeringen.no/nn/tema/innvandring-og-integrering/asd/Verkemiddel-i-integreringsarbeidet/introduksjonsprogram/id2343472/ (Accessed: 4 March 2022).

Metahaven (2008) Brand States: Postmodern Power, Democratic Pluralism, and Design – Journal #1 December 2008 – e-flux. Available at: https://www.e-flux.com/journal/01/68478/brand-states-postmodern-power-democratic-pluralism-and-design/ (Accessed: 26 February 2022).

Sonja Lang (2021) Toki Pona (official site). Available at: https://tokipona.org/ (Accessed: 26 February 2022).

Sonja Lang and Radio-Canada (2021) Toki Pona: A Universal Language to Discover. Available at: https://tokipona.org/universal_language.html (Accessed: 26 February 2022).

Theil, R. (2021) ‘esperanto’, Store norske leksikon. Available at: http://snl.no/esperanto (Accessed: 26 February 2022).

LIST OF FIGURES:
Figure 1. Immanuel GIEL. 2005. Conlang Solresol. Wikipedia [online]. Available at: https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fil:SolresolFarben_ecritures.png

Figure 2. Unknown maker. ca. 2002-2022. No title. [Toki Pona typeface]. Linjasuwi [online]. Available at: https://linjasuwi.ap5.dev/ [accessed 4 March 2022].

Figure 3. METAHAVEN. 2008. Facestate. Walker Art [online]. Available at: https://walkerart.org/magazine/metahavens-facestate

Figure 4-7: Ingrid REIGSTAD. 2022. Experiments. Private collection: Ingrid Reigstad.

Figure 8: Ingrid REIGSTAD. 2022. Week 7 Trailer. Private collection: Ingrid Reigstad.