Both plant and animal species disappear at a fast pace as a result of human activity. Preserving the variety of life forms is of great importance for nature itself, but also for human beings. An area with a high biodiversity also has a wide variety of culture and language. And the other way around: it is proven that if nature's diversity decreases in an area, the same happens to the languages and their scripts. When culture and language disappear, knowledge gets lost. Both culture and nature are increasingly becoming a derivative economic utility.
From Aztec to Xia-xia and from Arabic to Zapotec: 45 different writing systems come together in 'The Labyrinth of the Scripts'. A game-like installation that forms a new part in 'The Palace of Typographic Masonry', a new institute as a plea for the wealth and diversity of the graphical languages. 'The Labyrinth of Scripts' opens with a presentation by Dirk van Weelden.
In the framework of 'The Labyrinth of the Scripts' two lectures will be held on 17 November:
- Egyptologist / Assyriologist Uzume Wijnsma will talk about the relationship between writing and power from her own research period: the Persian Empire knew a vast amount of languages and scripts, with various functions. For example, the Persians (founders of the first world empire, 539-330 BC) began the tradition of trilingual inscriptions to indicate the variety of their peoples: a powershow in ancient times, in which script was used as a symbol of domination.
- Huda Abi Farès (founder of the Khatt Foundation, Center for Arabic Typography) will talk about ‘Typographic Matchmaking in the Maghrib’ a typographic research project, in which teams of designers developed trilingual font families that harmoniously combine the Arabic, Tifinagh and Latin scripts. Although they contain an enormous wealth of aesthetic variation and expressive capabilities, both the Maghribi writing style and the Berber Tifinagh script have never been thoroughly investigated in contemporary (digital) typedesign.
Lectures and finissage: Friday 17 november, 20:00 – 22:00,
Expobar, Eef Kamerbeekstraat 1006, Zeeburgereiland, Amsterdam.
Tram 26, stop Bob Haarmslaan. Free entrance.
Made possible by: Gemeente Amsterdam Stadsdeel Oost, Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst en Woonkerkgebouw Nautilus.