LANGUAGES OF THE FUTURE
Issue 3, Winter 2025/26
Guest-edited by Flora Sagers and Josh Weeks
EDITORIAL
FLORA SAGERS & JOSH WEEKS
The guest-editors of this Think Pieces journal issue introduce the theme, Languages of the Future, and provide an overview of the wide-ranging contributions.
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NELLI SHKARUPINA, RENATE LURDESA BAUMANE
What constitutes an archive? This piece examines architecture as a political medium, a form of geopolitical memory and propaganda, and an alternative form of archive.
Reclaiming Chersonese
NELLI SHKARUPINA, RENATE LURDESA BAUMANE
What constitutes an archive? This piece examines architecture as a political medium, a form of geopolitical memory and propaganda, and an alternative form of archive.
Architecture as a Manifesto
NELLI SHKARUPINA
What role did the manifesto play in architect Bernard Tschumi’s work? And what role did his work play in the development of the (architectural) manifesto?
Non-human Poetry: Eighty Days
MARILYN ALLEN
What happens when we collaborate with a non-human on the creation of poetry?
Becoming Aliens
BART KUIPERS
In an effort to develop a universal language that extraterrestial life forms could understand, it is suggested that we need to put ourselves in their position. We need to become aliens.
Language that Diminishes the Future
JINZHAO KAN
What does language convey, and what does it accomplish? An analysis of the clinical dialogue in Sarah Kane’s play 4.48 Psychosis and the reversal of its language between psychiatrist and patient.
Blood Cells in Crosstalk
MALLIKA SEKHAR
What language do the red and white blood cells in our bodies speak? The manga turned anime, Cells at Work! and Cells at Work! Code Black, features anthropomorphised cells of the human body and might give us a clue.
Teaching French, not French Toast
DANY JACOBS
How do you teach French in a country where French toast is more popular than French? A reflection on the decay of multilingualism.
Libraries of the Future
FLICK KEMP
How can we ensure that libraries are not just keepers of knowledge, past and present, but a place where futures are nurtured? An exploration of the potential that libraries hold, deny and could have.
When the Footnote Fails
ISHAN TRIPATHI
Can we imagine scholarly discourse without the footnote? Maybe not. But what if the footnote as a language has failed and in its place appears… the internet meme?