On
January 23rd 2004, De Geuzen was invited to do a workshop as
a part of Digitales,
an annual event operating at the intersection of digital technology
and feminism.
Our perimeters
were given in advance:
* We were asked to work at Atel,
a job retraining centre in Antwerp.
* We would be given an office space with 15 PC's equipped with
the standard business software, Microsoft Office and Explorer.
* Microsoft's' Word Art would be our only means of producing
graphics
* We were told the participants would come from a variety of
backgrounds and speak different languages; therefore, our common
language would be either Flemish or English.
With this in mind,
we designed the workshop around two key ideas, language as allegiance
and solidarity as ornament. Playing with these themes, we wanted
to combine the digital with the analogue, the high-tech with
basic handy-craft.
We brought with
us:
* inkjet transfer paper
* an iron
* 50 meters of coloured satin ribbon
* our own collection of Fripperies and Trimmings: a set of words
and punctuation which can be coupled in various ways to express
solidarity.
Participants:
Peter Cornelis, Heidi Jacobs, Katia van Cauteren, Kristof
Vekemans, Jurgen Vautmans, Fulgence Nzabintwali and Emile
Jyamubandi
NOT,
FOR, US, THEM, YOU, ALL, ME, WITH, BUT, OR, !, ?
This minimal collection of pronouns, prepositions,
conjunctions and punctuation, can be configured and reconfigured
endlessly to form temporary coalitions.
Test possible configurations here:
The words have no meaning in
and of themselves, but through grammar and context
they acquire resonance.
After introducing the English
list, we then began translating the words into different
languages spoken by various individuals in the group.
Online
Language Translators is a full collection of translators
ranging from Albanian, to Swedish, to Mandarin, to Punjabi and
Swahili
