TYPORALITY 99

What implications do the application of digital media have for the area of language? The phenomenon that is labeled language encompasses many features. In order to facilitate my meanderings through the topic of language and digital media I have to define the specific space within which my wanderings will take place.
From my perspective as a graphic designer, I have an interest in the graphic representation of language, literally the characters out of which words are built and the structuring of these words so as to communicate information in the most effective and at the same time appealing, accessible way. Language perceived also as, letters, symbols, notation, or type. Language as text and typography. Navigation through bodies of text, structuring of information/know-ledge, language as interface.
From my perspective of being brought up in a bilingual [English /Dutch] environment, a certain sensitivity to the origins, logic and implications of language in relation to cultural identity has evolved naturally.
Language in a physiological sense emanates, at one end of the process, from the human vocal tract, where it materializes in the form of minute but individual soundbytes [phonemes] which, when bound together by specific conventions, rules, rhythms and pitch, form speech.
Typorality is a term that I coined in an attempt to describe my experimental work of the last year. It is the merging of the words typography, typing and orality. In the work itself, these three notions come together in a concrete form. Typography is the representation of language through letters and layout, typing refers to the input of text using a keyboard, and orality refers to language as spoken sound. Digital media can give language life beyond the finality and finiteness of a printed text or the temporal /fleeting quality of speech. Language can now be manipulated, stored, edited, animated and generated. It can move around in a three-dimensional space and be connected to other sources of information both visual and aural.
This has consequences for how writers write, how readers read, and how an audience listens, perceives and speaks. Important for me also is that it has consequences for how language could be pre-sented in a formalistic sense from the point of view of a graphic/-information designer.
It is my intention to address these consequences in the following text.

	TYPORALITY
Graduation project for the MFA-programme at Media-Gn,center of emergent media, Groningen,, The Netherlands. An investigation involving the representation of spoken language, and a fascination for the sounds of which spoken language consist.	INTRODUCTION FROM MY FINAL THESIS FOR MEDIA-GN This serves to illustrate some of the ideas and notions that I have explored for my graduation project at Media-GN. The intregal text of the thesis can be accessed by following this link .
Digital media can give language life beyond the finality and finiteness of a printed text or the temporal/fleeting quality of speech. Language can now be manipulated, stored, edited, animated and generated. It can move around in a three-dimensional space and be connected to other sources of information both visual and aural. This has consequences for how writers write, how readers read, and how an audience listens, perceives and speaks. (from my thesis written for Media-Gn, June 1999) loops an excerpt from the project Shockwave is needed any reactions or questions? back 9nerds.com	What implications do the application of digital media have for the area of language? The phenomenon that is labeled language encompasses many features. In order to facilitate my meanderings through the topic of language and digital media I have to define the specific space within which my wanderings will take place. From my perspective as a graphic designer, I have an interest in the graphic representation of language, literally the characters out of which words are built and the structuring of these words so as to communicate information in the most effective and at the same time appealing, accessible way. Language perceived also as, letters, symbols, notation, or type. Language as text and typography. Navigation through bodies of text, structuring of information/know-ledge, language as interface. From my perspective of being brought up in a bilingual [English /Dutch] environment, a certain sensitivity to the origins, logic and implications of language in relation to cultural identity has evolved naturally. Language in a physiological sense emanates, at one end of the process, from the human vocal tract, where it materializes in the form of minute but individual soundbytes [phonemes] which, when bound together by specific conventions, rules, rhythms and pitch, form speech. Typorality is a term that I coined in an attempt to describe my experimental work of the last year. It is the merging of the words typography, typing and orality. In the work itself, these three notions come together in a concrete form. Typography is the representation of language through letters and layout, typing refers to the input of text using a keyboard, and orality refers to language as spoken sound. Digital media can give language life beyond the finality and finiteness of a printed text or the temporal /fleeting quality of speech. Language can now be manipulated, stored, edited, animated and generated. It can move around in a three-dimensional space and be connected to other sources of information both visual and aural. This has consequences for how writers write, how readers read, and how an audience listens, perceives and speaks. Important for me also is that it has consequences for how language could be pre-sented in a formalistic sense from the point of view of a graphic/-information designer. It is my intention to address these consequences in the following text.