RAI RESEARCH SEMINAR 

A SEMINAR SERIES BY THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE

Thursday 29 September 2022 at 4.00 - 6.00pm (BST)  

This will be a hybrid event.
→ To join us in person at the RAI, 50 Fitzroy Street, W1T 5BT, please register your spot here. 
     Find more details on how to get to us below.
→ To join us on Zoom, please register here.

Natural language as geometry:
An exploration in 3D

Dr Alex Pillen (Associate Professor in the Anthropology of Language at UCL)

Natural language is a high-dimensional form that evolved through innovation and repetition over millennia. We tend to imagine language in the shape dictated by our writing system, as words on a page, or as sound. Here I will explore how one aspect of this high-dimensional form could be rendered in 3D. This presentation emerges from a collaborative project with Emma-Kate Matthews, from the Bartlett School of Architecture at University College London.  Contemporary software developed for the production of film and video animation became a tool to model natural language. The portrayal of a language excerpt as a digitally frozen shape enabled us to print natural language in 3D. Such 3D language objects not only extend the legacy of form-finding within computational design, but also allows for spatial intuition to help us get a more solid grasp of languages we may not speak.

Location:
50 Fitzroy Street, London, W1T 5BT  (Find it on a map here)
Nearest underground stations: Warren Street (Victoria and Northern Lines), or mid-way between Great Portland Street and Euston Square (both Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan Lines).
Nearest railway station: Euston Station

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