Listen to the top most spoken languages, and reconsider the world map by language & listening rather than country
Listen to the top most spoken languages, and reconsider the world map by language & listening rather than country
Responding to Cildo Meireles’s sonic vision of the Tower of Babel, we invited participants to listen to the most widely spoken languages across the globe and to reconsider the world map by language and listening, rather than country. This series of audio works form sonic postcards — snapshots of each language. Collecting speech and song from online radio stations, news channels and live web cams, we’ve sought to capture each language in a two-minute mix. The audio was gathered at midday in the respective locations to ensure a chance selection process, free from bias. Where needed, environmental sounds were also sourced from online databases.
This workshop is a platform for listening, discussing and re-thinking communication. Having listened to a language, contributions by writing / drawing in response on a postcard are invited. All postcards are attached to the language map.
What did you hear? Tell us about your experience of listening – what do you recognise? What do you assume? Can you hear patterns or distinct qualities in some of the works? Do you understand words, sentences or meaning; and if not, what do you hear? Can you hear opinions, emotions, memories, histories?
In making this work, we aim to celebrate language through a sound-led forum and investigate constructs of communication, understanding and ultimately borders.
All 14 language tracks can be heard on the Sound Map website:
