User:Aitantv/ABC

ABC

A 5-channel video prototype where five subjects recite their first alphabet in sync. As the video proceeds the alphabets form a polyphonic register shifting in and out of time. Echos of one alphabet ricochet into another. I'm interested in the power dynamics and hierarchies that form between languages. In Europe, English is often the predominant language due to the globalised mix of persons. How did English come to dominate its allies? Where does this leave other languages? Does one's Mother tongue begin to fade? Notably subjects in this experiment struggled to remember their first alphabet, learning it again through their utterances. How does a language change our thinking patterns? As Ursula le'Guin observes in 'Babbel 66', language is a weapon.