Alžběta Chmelíková

Language signs are usually what we share and grasp the world with. Although the shared reality is to large extent arbitrary and conventional, and its forms are universally accepted, the real world is seen quite differently in specific relations. This interactive installation is an analysis of the following processes: a) concretization, b) comparison of semantic maps. Language-based on digital visualization then becomes the main tool. It simulates the usage of language structures - the way that the recipient handles them, as well as the mutual relations among the structural elements.

Given the imminent experience with the language sign and what it stands for, we can see the concretization as a specific concept of the selected sign. The outcome of such a concept is a set of characteristics, attributes, and meanings of the particular sign - a semantic set where the individual signs exist in a mutual correlation. The original sign of the realization is a forest. The user of the installation is instructed to concretize this sign; in other words, they shall name all the associations that they make based on the sign “forest”. The picture made in 3D is ought to reinforce a conventional meaning of the sign “forest”. As the concretization process begins, the visual form of the forest starts to shatter (analogically to the proliferating language structure) and the empty spaces are filled with language signs with semantically correct relations; these are broadcasted through a connected program. The result of this process is semantic maps, which are the object of the second half of the research that focuses on comparing these maps. Data obtained from the individual concretizations are gathered into a database that allows a comparison of the concretizations, showing the similarities and differences. The semantic maps also allow for studying the possible influence of the previous sign concretization onto the concretization traced in the map. This, however, is not deemed as important, since the process is meant to be a game, not a comparison tool.

Installation was built with Unreal Engine 4 and Blender.