 The Prince song might be seven, and Alice Lee. Oh, sorry, we should go. Sorry, we gotta follow the notes. Okay, so I'm Alice Lee. I was born in the United States, born to immigrants from South Korea. So I grew up learning English and Korean simultaneously. We spoke Korean in the home, and then I spoke English outside the home. My name is Laden Bahmani. I was born and raised in Iran, and I've been in the US for 10 years now. And I speak English and Persian. To translate immediate between languages and cultures is a daily experience we share. As bilinguals, we use this process to navigate through familiar and foreign cultures. Translation is switching over from one code to another, hence jumping from one universe into another. It is the process of decoding the unfamiliar to make it accessible and approachable. Through displaying several installations, we invite communities to use translation as a tool to jump into other universes. We hope this translation process prompt individuals to think and imagine a more inclusive future. Using three different languages and alphabetic systems, English, Korean, and Persian, we started to collaborate and design interactive installations that facilitate experiences analogous to the decoding process of language translation. Language is a coding system only accessible to those who are able to decipher it. It has the ability to build community among those of common language and alienate those without. Since language and culture influence and reinforce each other, language has the power of connecting or disconnecting cultures and people. Our interactive installations set the stage for participants to play with and discover unfamiliar letter forms, languages, and ideas. While translating letter forms and connecting messages, the visitors access a new language and perhaps a new way of thinking. Our interactive installations set the stage for participants to play with and discover unfamiliar letter forms, languages, and ideas. While translating letter forms and connecting messages, the visitors access a new language and perhaps a new way of thinking. Similarly, our work aims to provide fun experiences with an unfamiliar language in the hopes to protect and promote the diversity of cultures. So UNESCO, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization, has been committed to preserving human writing systems, firmly believing that upholding writing systems will lead to the protection and promotion of diverse human cultures. Our first collaboration was the translate project to start this installation with design a tight face that responds to the needs of all three languages of Korean, Persian, and English. We'll share some general historical information on the Korean and Persian alphabets to provide some context to our type design. The Korean alphabet is the only completely native Asian alphabet and was designed by King Sejong in 1443. Consisting of 24 letters, the Korean alphabet distinguishes itself among writing systems of the world with its scientific qualities and its unusual linguistic fit to the Korean language. The consonants are arranged into five groups based on the speech organ from which the sounds originate. They are diagrams of the change in position of a particular speech organ when making a specific sound. So there's a strong connection between the sound and the graphic form. So for example, the M sound, M, is created by the lips and the B sound, B, is also created by the lips. Therefore, both symbols are based on the shape of the lips when pursed together to create that sound. This is from the Korean National Hunger Museum. So the Korean National Alphabet Museum in Seoul, South Korea, featuring different type styles and faces of the Korean alphabet. Korean was traditionally written from top to bottom, right to left. Presently, it mostly follows a top to bottom, left to right direction. It is written in syllable groups rather than each letter sitting side by side on a common baseline. There are no capital letters. Additionally, consonants can be doubled to intensify the tenseness of their sound. The Persian script was used by Akamene Kings to document trimoffs over enemies, even though the characters used in these inscriptions were familiar wedges of cuneiform. They were not 80 grams, but rather alphabetic syllables. After the adaptation of Islam, the spoken language remained Persian, but the writing system was displaced by the Arabic alphabet. Since the modern Persian alphabet evolved from Arabic, the Persian script is written from right to left and runs from top to bottom. This alphabet has 32 letters. The forms are used both as detached and as ligatures. In addition, there are no capital letters in the alphabet and no distinction of gender in the language. There are several styles of Persian calligraphy among the most famous styles is Nassali calligraphy style. These are some examples here. And another one is Shekhasen Nassali, which means broken Nassali, a variant of the previous style. With the advent of technology, many styles or tight faces were designed, which do not necessarily have similar curvilinear quality of the calligraphic styles. Okay, so examining the forms and the structure of each alphabet to note their similarities and differences, we set specific guidelines that would work across the three alphabets. The Korean alphabet has rectilinear forms while Persian has many curvilinear elements. We followed these guidelines. All letters should be put into a square and only horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines were used. So we see some Korean character examples within the grid, Persian characters, and some English characters, which might be familiar to some people. Even though the grid system created some limitations for all three systems, it was a way to unite these different alphabetic systems. In our first collaboration, we designed and installed an interactive poster. Using light, shadow, and hand gestures, using light, shadow, and hand gestures, participants interact with static, transparent, acrylic letter forms that are installed perpendicularly to the wall. The letter forms spell out translate in English, in Korean, and Persian. This analog process allows participants to play with light and shadow to create endless ephemeral moving forms on the wall as they try to decode the words. With additional static visual elements in black vinyl, we create an interactive posters for viewers to play and discover. Here's some documentation of some of the gestures and movements prompted by the piece. Facilitating a simple action of shining a flashlight, we observed participants of the interactive poster installation readily engage with our piece. People of various ages and heights approached this installation, grabbed a flashlight, and started to shine it against different parts of our wall. Several participants could play simultaneously, creating an interaction not only with a single light source, but also in combination with others. They were encouraged to play and discover through the motion of the light. Since the letter forms were placed perpendicular to the wall, deciphering the shape of the letters depended on a participant's involvement. Their gestures and body placement in relation to the wall contributed shadows of themselves, influencing what was revealed. So after that piece was completed, we continued our collaboration, building off of that piece, to design and install six interactive pieces in a show we titled Two Decode. And this took place at the Washington Pavilion in Sioux Falls, South Dakota this past April. Our goals were to create a series of pieces that engage visitors to directly interact with the letter forms, and to offer an interplay between the familiar and unfamiliar for the viewer, to move, to shift, and to decode. By designing simple interactions, we set the stage for the viewers to activate the static forms and become participants. Through the physical movements, letter forms are completed, similarities and differences are highlighted, and hints are revealed to complete the puzzles. In several of the pieces we will present, we incorporated an additional component, idioms or figures of speech, as defined by Oxford Dictionary. An idiom is a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words. Usually idioms are not literal and tend to represent or reference timely cultural effects that require additional cultural fluency to decode their meanings. Therefore, idioms are interesting examples of the interplay between culture and language. You explored idioms in some of the projects that we will share with you today. So the first piece, the alphabet wall installation is large scale and features all three alphabetic systems in vinyl. It takes up the largest area of the exhibit and it is what the visitors first see when they enter the gallery. It functions as an introduction to and a learning tool for the three alphabetic systems and letter forms, and it includes alphabetic pronunciation keys. Connecting similar sounding consonants from all three alphabets, the installation shows the common formal elements between the M sound in English and Korean and the M sound in English and Persian, for example. Both Korean and Persian sheets can then be flipped on top of the incomplete English letter to complete that English letter. The sheet can be, oh, I'm sorry, I just said that, to reflect the traditional writing direction of each system. The Korean letter is placed above the English letter and the Persian is placed to the right of the English letter. And this interaction is a way for the participants to grow familiar with similar sounding letter forms among the three languages. So here's another example showing the common formal elements between the L sound in English and Korean and the L sound in Persian. English and Korean and the L sound in English and Persian. So the alphabet wall installation with pieces of letter forms on acrylic sheets visually connects the formal elements of similar sounding letter forms across two languages. The participants flip the sheet, which are attached to the wall with hinges to complete a letter form, exploring the range of movements that connect and disconnect the common visual element between the two letter forms. Through this interplay of flipping up and down, right and left, the participant learns the sound symbols of Korean and Persian through their familiarity of the English language. This in turn empowers them with new knowledge to decode the other interactive puzzles in the exhibit. Alphabet pronunciation keys for Korean and Persian are installed in vinyl at the far end of the wall and can be used as keys to decode the other puzzles. A key for Morse code is also included as the next puzzle includes the coding system of Morse code. We were drawn to Morse code because of its binary coding components, like a dot or a dash or short or long sounds or flashes of light. And we experimented with layering in this additional coding system into some of the pieces. So the adjacent piece, we incorporated this Morse code that I was just telling you about to complete idioms and draw Korean and Persian letter forms with ribbon by connecting the dots of the Morse code letters. There are two puzzles here, two idioms to be completed by decoding the Morse code to connect the dots in the correct sequence. And once you do that, the ribbon will draw an outline of a Korean or a Persian letter form. The left half draws two Korean letters, the right half draws two Persian letters. On the left, the dots connect to spell out a blessing in disguise. So the first Korean letter is a B sound for blessing, the second is a D sound for disguise. And on the right, the dots spell out great minds, think alike. The first Persian letter is the M sound for minds and the second is an L sound for like within the word alike. And here's just a little video of me doing that movement. So another thing that we wanted to highlight is that we wanted our pieces to be accessible to people of all ages and all heights. And so we were mindful to make the interactive components of varying heights and reach. The second project is the word search puzzle which invites participants to scan through many English letters with a flashlight to discover a particular word in order to complete an idiom. Small transparent sheets with a word search puzzle in English are suspended in front of a large opaque sheets of large opaque sheets featuring hints in all three languages. The hints are presented by the translation of the words in Korean and Persian by the placement of the small transparent sheets in relation to the large sheets of printed paper behind them. Participants move the light on the transparent sheets to cast large shadows of the letters onto the printed sheets to find the words. The combination of the words make an idiom which is a puzzling aspect of different languages. The idiom used is you and I speak the same language. The movement of the flashlight and the flexibility of moving the small transparencies help the participants find the words and discover the message. In the static installation, light and participants interaction with the piece create motion with an English letter form resulting in finding the hidden words. As an extension of this project, the word search puzzle piece encouraged participants to use light and motion as a new way of solving an ordinary game, even though participants were familiar with this type of puzzle, the lack of prompts and additions. This doesn't work. It doesn't work. It doesn't go down. Okay, we'll just go to the next one. Exploring more similarities and differences between the languages, we created a fill-in-the-blank type puzzle that features similar sounding and similar meaning words between Korean and English and between Persian and English. There are six puzzles here, three Korean words on the left and three Persian words on the right. The Korean or Persian word is shown on the left with black magnetic spaces to the right, showing how many letters in the similar sounding, similar meaning English equivalent words. For example, the top features the Korean word money. It's phonetic spelling in English and small type below. The answer is an English word that sounds like money, which also happens to have the same meaning. In this case, the answer is many. The Persian example is an English word that sounds like moosh. The answer is mouse. Mouse, both words moosh in Persian and mouse in English mean the same thing. Persian and English share similar roots, but Korean and English are very different, so these similarities are pure coincidence. Magnetic white acrylic letters are available for participants to interact with and solve the puzzles. Here's a photograph of people interacting with the puzzles. And here is it, oops. Here's a video. And again, we wanted this to be accessible by people with all heights. So our next project was a digital interactive puzzle that was projected, and it involves a word puzzle that a participant activates with a simple click of a mouse. So the same idiom is translated from English into Korean and into Persian, so that means that all three languages were spelled out using English letters. Each click of the mouse randomly switches each word from the idiom into one of the three languages. So it's a game of comparison and deduction to figure out the idiom. Can anyone figure out the idiom? And the next and final project that we'll share with you. So we're both very interested in exploring the dynamic between analog and digital elements, and so these little micro bits have the ability to just two display letter forms on their 25 LED lights, but they also have two physical buttons. We programmed five micro bits and placed them around the gallery at various heights, activating small unexpected spaces. Each one contains a piece of an idiom. They were numbered one through five to give an extra kind of hint for the hunter. So if you find each one, you can find each one to piece together the complete idiom. You press A for the Korean language, B for Persian, and like with the alphabet wall, where both the Korean and the Persian came together to complete the English. If you press A and B simultaneously, that will give you the English version. Lastly, to help our visitors and participants, we provided a handout that described the puzzles and provided prompts and hints. The front featured instruction for each puzzle and prompts. The back provides the answers, but mirrored to add a level of complexity. So in conclusion, there are many different languages and cultures, and therefore many different ideas and perspectives in our global society. English is the dominant language of global business, programming languages, and the internet. Even though English has commonalities with many other languages, it does not offer certain flexibilities. So if various perspectives, even more various perspectives are involved in designing interactive systems, programming languages, and even design tools, perhaps they would offer more flexible and customizable platforms for more accessibility across many different cultures. These pieces are an attempt toward an inclusive system in which people of different backgrounds come together to play with multiple languages to decode puzzles that require interaction. Our installations call for an actor to complete the piece, and this direct engagement acts as a potential introduction to new roles through new languages. We believe the more perspectives we're equipped to understand, the more we are able to contribute to facilitate and engage with communication systems that are accessible across languages and cultures. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.