Arian Shariaty

My reflective piece is a summary of all of my projects so far, a sort of digital presentation in web format. There are a few interactions, like hovering over texts that have a sort of glitched/deformed letters to see the original paragraph in English.

Idea:

My idea for this piece was an interactive web page that provides a brief summary and showcases my concepts, projects, and the definition of "Xenolalia."

Execution:

First, I began by designing the interface in Figma

Then the coding was done using HTML, CSS, and finally, JavaScript to give functions

The experimental project is a captivating exploration of Xenolalia, while evoking the viewer’s hearing abilities. Through a web format, the viewer is immersed in a symphony of 12 different languages, simultaneously reciting a poetic passage (about someone who’s experiencing Xenolalia). This cacophony of voices and scripts creates a bewildering experience, mirroring the sensation of encountering unknown languages. Despite the inability to comprehend the words spoken or written, the viewer can toggle between individual languages, contemplating the enigmatic nature of language. This project also shows the concept of the relation between language, mind, memory and Xenolalia. My goal was to design a new experience, as the last three projects were either involved reading (2D,4D), viewing (3D), and speaking (4D). Therefore, I came up with the idea of exhibiting this concept so that the viewers can experience Xenolalia using their ears.

Background:

One of the most common ways that people have experienced Xenolalia was after an incident that took their consciousness away or a rare phenomenon called "foreign language syndrome," which was reported of people speaking in a language they are not familiar with while asleep during the REM phase.

Whether these individuals went to comatose, temporary brain anesthesia, or brain injury, when they woke up they forgot their mother tongue and spoke a foreign language (without any educational background) or remembered their first language along with xenolalia.

Concept:

For my experimental piece, I had the idea to show this phenomenon related to Xenolalia through an abstract approach.

After explaining my concept to my classmates, using the feedback, I came up with the idea of writing a poem that's written by the person who's experiencing Xenolalia. The poem is written from his own perspective.

Then, here, it will get more interesting that while this poem is being written on paper, the script starts to change (translates) in the middle of the line as he's experiencing Xenolalia.

Original poem:

In whispers from a distant star, I hear words unknown, beyond comprehension. Their beauty enthrals, yet their meaning eludes me, slipping through my grasp like shifting sand. Each syllable a mystery, I struggle to understand, but in the midst of this confusion, I feel a sense of wonder. Suddenly, the words change, it's as if a door has opened to a new world, where the words fade into memory, and the new ones take their place effortlessly, like a long-forgotten melody resurfacing in my mind.

The handwritten script:

This was executed so that while the script was switching, the previous script would get closer to the next script, creating bad handwriting as a sign that the script was changing. There are also some inks faded between the scripts purposely to connect and blend them together.

Later I made a demo/concept poster by photography, editing the photos, layering images and the poem on it:

Here are the original images without the poem:

Concept Development:

After the first draft presentation, I received two main pieces of feedback that slightly changed the direction of this project.

In all of my projects so far, I have shown written forms of Xenolalia (2D, 4D), spoken forms of Xenolalia (4D), and visual forms (3D). The only form of Xenolalia I have not yet interpreted is auditory, which shows this concept by engaging the viewer's sense of hearing.

This project can be in a live format in which the texts are being written down, and the script switches while being written - if audio is involved, it will switch along with the scripts as well.

Ideas based on this feedback:

Making the audio component in web format, providing headphones, and having voices played in different languages along with the script. Users can interact by pausing the particular audio and listening to the rest.

Reversed vocal line

Change of colour in the back of the webpage

Visualizing the audio using every sound's frequency

Execution:

Since I wanted one voice to say the poems in all different languages, my voice actress had trouble speaking different scripts as the accent was not accurate and proper. An amazing tool that helped speed up this process and created a professional series of audios in different languages was rask.ai, an online AI Text-to-Speech tool that can translate into different languages and dub using your voice.

My 3D piece was formed through my research into Xenolalia's significance; the process progresses to designing a Papier-mâché sculpture representing consciousness, memory, and mind. The sculpture is covered with pages from dictionaries in different languages, symbolizing the knowledge of the language, while abstract typographies depicting Xenolalia are projected onto its surface.

Divided into four parts, these typographies convey the disjointed nature of Xenolalia, offering viewers a glimpse into the disconnection and confusion associated with this phenomenon. I tried to show the intricate relationship between language and the mind by inviting viewers to contemplate the complexities of language, phenomena of Xenolalia and consciousness.

More explanations about my idea, concept and execution are available in the previous posts related to my 3D project.

Here's a look at my final 4D project based on the feedback I received on the prototype/test version.

Feedbacks:

The card sizes can be bigger There should be a nice box designed for the cards There should be a brief guideline designed for the game

Reflection:

Since the 4D piece had only one boundary, as long as it included time as a main element, I decided to design a game which would engage the viewers and give them an experience similar to Xenolalia. My main goal in all of these projects is to show the relationship between language and mind and how people are connected through languages. In this game, Xenolalia takes on a playful interpretation, inviting players to guess unfamiliar random words in 17 different languages. Through this linguistic exploration, players engage with the essence of Xenolalia, as the words are picked based on their close connection/similarities in the other languages in the game. For example, does the word Okeanos in Greek sound familiar? It means Ocean! It’s like you know that word (representing language); meanwhile, you’re confused about how it sounds so familiar and how you know it.

Since the vision of the 4D assignment in this course is basically any medium that involves time, I thought of an interactive game that makes people/viewers spend their time playing it. Meanwhile, they would experience the feeling of Xenolalia through the similarity among languages (Lexical similarity). I made a survey and asked my classmates to tell me what languages they know besides English to collect this data for designing my game. As a result, I got 15 languages, including Urdu, Farsi, Korean, Greek, Chinese (Mandarin), Spanish, Tagalog, German, Italian, Swahili, Ukrainian, Hebrew, French, and Russian.

I finally came up with the idea for my experiment to depict the journey that happened to the people who had experienced Xenolalia in a coma, but why coma? Because it’s the most common factor in all these cases that created this phenomenon. After my groupmates' comments, I came up with the idea of showing these changes/transfer of language knowledge using a script in a language that, in the middle its language changes to a different language. Another classmate mentioned something about using imagery instead of text that the image colour would change to black and white and suddenly red and green, representing the same concept.

I wrote this poem from someone who's experiencing Xenolalia and decided to handwrite it and, in the middle, switch the language.

Original poem:

In whispers from a distant star, I hear words unknown, beyond comprehension. Their beauty enthrals, yet their meaning eludes me, slipping through my grasp like shifting sand. Each syllable a mystery, I struggle to understand, but in the midst of this confusion, I feel a sense of wonder. Suddenly, the words change, it's as if a door has opened to a new world, where the words fades into memory, and the new ones take their place effortlessly, like a long-forgotten melody resurfacing in my mind.

Handwritten with the language switch:

By choosing my concept for a 3D project about Xenolalia, I decided to create a sculpture using papier mache technique. This sculpture (representing consciousness, memory and mind) is a form of an abstract human shape with no face. These are my progress between February 21-28

Step 2: I used a balloon as my base to cover with the glued wet newspapers. The biggest challenge with my base material was stabilizing the balloon in a fixed position without moving much.

Step 2: After covering the whole balloon with 2 layers of newspaper and letting each layer fully dry for a whole day, I covered the thin layers with ticker paper, heavier glue and acrylics.

Step 3: I'm creating the neck using a piece of heavyweight paper to create a base form, fixing it using glue gun and papier mache on top of it to create the form.

Next, I will complete the sculpture by adding a layer of dictionary papers.

Transparent papers (Projection pieces):

After getting strong light sources and testing some of my previous experiments on transparent paper to check the reflection, I came up with the idea of having pieces of paper installed from above. These papers will have a piece of type but not clear. While light hits them, their reflection together will create the word Xenolalia on the head covering the dictionary texts. Here are some of the different pieces I designed and assembled together to create "Xenolalia" typography.

For the 4D project, I'm planning to design a game using cards.

Since the vision of the 4D assignment in this course is basically any medium that involves time, I thought of an interactive game that makes people/viewers spend their time playing it. Meanwhile, they would experience the feeling of Xenolalia through the similarity among languages (Lexical similarity).

I made a survey and asked students to tell me what are some other languages they know other than English to collect this data for designing my game.

I came across the idea of making my sculpture using papers from a dictionary book.

By using pages from a dictionary book, which is a repository of language, in the creation of the sculpture, I will be engaging with the essence of language itself. This can evoke a sense of exploring unfamiliar linguistic territories akin to the experience of xenolalia.

For making the sculpture, I will be using a technique called Papier-mâché, which is an intentional choice because it involves shaping and moulding paper into new forms. Similarly, xenolalia involves a transformation of communication, where meanings are expressed through unfamiliar words and structures. The act of sculpting consciousness from dictionary pages symbolizes the transformation and reconstruction of meanings and concepts, much like the process of understanding and expressing oneself in a foreign language during xenolalia.

Exploring Papier-mâché

I decided to try building something at first to become more familiar with this method before try making my final 3D project.

Here are some of the images of this helmet I made:

I really want to focus on the psychological, spiritual and supernatural nature of Xenolalia for my 3D. Using elements like colours, lights and signs. While colours and signs aren't linguistic in nature, they can convey messages or meanings, particularly in spiritual or cultural contexts, so in a broad sense, one could consider them a form of non-verbal communication that people would recognize everywhere without learning them; factors such as the feeling individual would have to certain colours and how each colour affects people's mood, or ability to turn right while seeing the right arrow. That's basically a sort of Xenolalia.

A moving optical illusion can evoke the sensation of Xenolalia, especially when it involves typography. Viewers will step into a space where they are surrounded by dynamic, shifting visuals that mimic the experience of encountering an alien or otherworldly language. My goal is to create a moment for them to try to read the typography of Xenolalia that changes from English to Farsi/Arabic. While the frames are changing, they would see the deconstructed letters changing to a different language.

Concept

Prototype:

Since my idea involved lots of handwork, I decided to make this small prototype of the first couple of pages before heading towards the final booklet. The cover has the word Xenolalia split into four lines coming out of a white rectangle to show a form of language and words forming and shaping out of nothingness/scatch. The blurry paper attached at the back of it makes the second page hard to read and creates this form of confusion while the viewer would recognize some familiar letters.

The third page is a scan of my mother's handwriting, reminiscing about the deep emotional and cultural connection I have with my mother tongue, with rectangle holes in the random parts showing the letters of my Mother in both English and Farsi. I tried to show the experience of knowing my mother tongue and similarities with the concept of xenolalia. Since we don’t remember the process of acquiring our mother tongue, it can feel as if we’ve always known it, similar to the feeling some attribute to xenolalia, where a person speaks a language they’ve never consciously learned. The second aspect of emphasis on the word mother is because of the similar sound or letters it has in common within 30+ different languages; that can create an experience akin to Xenolalia, where the language/word seems strangely familiar despite being unfamiliar.