Spring 2023

Tongue Twisters

Re-spatialization of Linguistic Geographies

Mentored by Mark Heller

Graduate School of Design

Harvard University

Language, creates spaces for meaning, translations and consent. Refugees and migrants often encounter borders through linguistic discrepancies that produce or disrupt their itineraries. Each map below corresponds to a geographic projection including the Middle East and Europe. Migration here, as a phenomenon is re-imagined and visualized as a force field, that produces vectors that trigger movement in particles. Therefore, the originating lines that emanate from origin countries get attracted to destination countries which absorb refugees. Each image maps one language, and its movement across a geography.