Universal Expression

Universal Expression is a speculation of what language could become due to the expanding use of virtual & augmented reality. A handwriting system which is drawn in a three dimensional environment – presenting language off the page and allowing it to float in space.

If we step back–is it possible to view all languages across the world as dialects of the human language? What if there was a written communication system that allowed the entire world to communicate no matter what language you spoke?

The system is a logographic script – similar to Chinese in the way that one character = one word. For example, the idea of an object or concept is given a logo which represents it. Unlike the phonetic system we use in which individual characters are strung together to form words which have meaning. It plays on the idea that words bear arbitrary relationships between what a word looks like and its’ meaning.

By dissecting the same word written in the top four most used languages across the world (Chinese, Spanish, English and Hindi) – I extract forms from each to create a new character, drawn as a three dimensional structure in virtual reality. This character is then re-drawn a number of times – being simplified more and more at each stage – until the form is simple enough to be read but complex enough to be differentiated between others.

Universal Expression is an exploration of composition in a three dimensional environment. The end result is a form of artistic expression born from a methodical yet random system of combining the same word written in four languages. This three dimensional form is merely a few lines floating in cyberspace until I assign it a meaning or an understood value. Does this then become the first character of a new born language?

For now, it is me attempting to communicate the ideas behind my piece of art. It is only until you and everyone around you accepts that this form/character means what I say it means, that it can become a language.