W.6

On Translation: Building Sensory Language

Stauffer Communication Arts B (STAUF-B) – B115, FabLab

Friday 27th, 1:30 pm – 3:00 pm

Ranran Fan (University of North Texas)

This workshop experiments with sensory experience to carry out human conversations. It intends to supplement linguistic languages when they fail to communicate certain information such as uncommon instincts, unexpected responsive behaviors, and complex bundles of sentiments. It explores the possibility/impossibility of translation and empathy. Participants will improvise non-linguistic communicative forms collectively in a playful game setting. We will use a series of prompts to maximize and analyze the information that could be gathered through the senses of taste, smell, and touch. We will practice utilizing human common sense, scientific modeling, and non-fact-based faith to build a consensus of "talking and understanding" between two people and as a group. Participants are encouraged to put aside their familiar linguistic language system, embrace sensory story-telling and an alien perception of human experience.