Still image from the animation 'Inside a radio'. Like the images below, it also represents a sort of speech visualisation.
These videos, made using a mirror, a laser pointer and a vibrating speaker, were translated into a series of prints for Megalo Print Studio's 2019 Print+Science collaboration exhibition. My collaborator was linguist Julia Colleen Miller (College of Asia Pacific, Australian National University) who supplied me with the sound files: field recordings of counting in three languages from Western Province, Papua New Guinea, which seemed appropriate in 2019, the International Year of Indigenous Languages. The counting in these recordings reflect the base-six, or senary numeral system. The communities where these languages are spoken hold the yam to be a vital food source and culturally important in their daily life. It is a method of counting yams for public ceremonial events.
LEFT: Language: Wara. Spoken in Yokwa, Western Province, Papua New Guinea. Speaker: Lucy Recorded on
26 August 2013 by Julia Colleen Miller.
RIGHT: Language: Nen. Spoken in Bimadbn, Western Province, Papua New Guinea. Speaker: Darlene. Recorded on 23 September 2013 by Julia Colleen Miller
26 August 2013 by Julia Colleen Miller.
RIGHT: Language: Nen. Spoken in Bimadbn, Western Province, Papua New Guinea. Speaker: Darlene. Recorded on 23 September 2013 by Julia Colleen Miller