What Language Will Look Like in the Future
︎  Featured in the 2024 CCS Student Exhibition

Focus

Speculative Design / Type Design / Design Storytelling

Means

Figma, Illustrator, Pitch

Collaborators

︎︎︎ Nina Bommarito

︎︎︎ Rachel Wixson

Timeline

6 Weeks

Summary

Metro Glyphs is a flexible system of glyphs aimed at improving communication amongst hypothetical nuclear apocalypse survivors. 

context

    Language is not a constant. Languages transform, merge with their neighbors, and even die. The most commonly spoken languages range from a few thousand years old to a few hundred years old. What would happen if the ability to speak our native tongue was suddenly stripped away from us? What if our language died?

    In the year 2073, the United States is the victim of a wide-scale nuclear bombing campaign. In order to survive amongst the radioactive wasteland, survivors must wear clunky protective suits. Thick masks make it difficult to discern what another person is saying. The electromagnetic pulse from the bombs disrupted technology, and the remaining radiation makes radio communication unusable. Citizens can no longer use technology to communicate, nor spoken word. A fully-written, glyph-based language becomes commonplace as a way to address these barriers. At least, that’s what happens in the dystopia Rachel Wixson, Nina Bommarito and I speculate. 

 

    When one thinks of dystopian futures, they might envision a surveillance state, or maybe artificial intelligence gone rogue. However, our group pondered the idea a future without any technology, a complete and abrupt return to sticks and rocks. Nuclear warfare seemed to be the most plausible culprit of this return. Research into the effects of nuclear radiation on the environment, body, and society was conducted, and we began to construct our story. What will language look like 100 years in the future, we were asked. Glyphs address the needs of the scavengers residing in the Metro Detroit’s techless wasteland, now known solely as Metro.

    Glyphs are based on common visual representations of objects, such as the sun being a circle or a person being a head and legs. The language itself contains no root from the United States’ most used language, English, as the US is projected to become increasingly multilingual as the years go on. Symbols are quick and easy to write within a dangerous environment, and the thick stroke weight of each glyph accounts for big, gloved fingers.

    It was important to create a system had distinct linguistic rules. These symbols can function alone, or can be merged together to form more complex “words.” Glyphs can be placed next to each other to create sentences. Sentences are simple and no-nonsense. Depending on symbol placement, a phrase can be made in past, present, or future tense utilizing an “anchoring” system. When sentences come together, paragraphs are read up to down, rather than left to right or right to left, accompanying a variety of native reading paths. Tone tags, inspired by human expressions, are placed underneath the anchor to modify sentences to express emotions that are obscured by masks.

group roles

    Rachel, Nina, and I all were responsible for conducting research and creating our story. We also collaborated on sketching and creating letterforms. Rachel put our glyphs out in the world by drawing them on physical surfaces and photographing them. I digitized our glyphs and created photoshop mockups, as well as presenting our final outcome to the class in costume.