Researcher and digital media artist based in London.
In my practice I use computation and digital technologies to creatively examine and engage with cultural and political issues such as Brexit, Human Computer Interaction and explore the influences and meanings behind the way knowledge and narratives are constructed.
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The story of the Modern English language is one of migration, invasion, absorption, colonial expansion and hybridisation. In the grand scheme of things it is still a young language. Although officially classed as a Germanic language it has drifted and morphed over the centuries to a point where it has very little mutual intelligibility with its neighbouring Germanic contemporaries. In its current form its lexicon is comprised largely from ‘borrowed’ vocabulary from diverse linguistic origins. Each word in the English language has a story. Each word has been on a ‘journey’ of sorts. These ‘journeys’ can be uncovered by studying a word’s etymology.
This book was created computationally using Processing and the Merriam-Webster Dictionary API. The program collects the etymological forms of each word from a provided text. The provided text in this case is: ‘New immigration system: what you need to know’, sourced from www.gov.uk. Each etymological form, such as Greek, Latin, Middle English etc. is represented by a different graphic. A key explaining the graphics is printed on the last page.
Firstly, each word is visualised by overlaying the graphics of each etymological form attributed to the word, one on top of the other. The more linguistic permutations a given word has historically occupied, on its journey to its current form in Modern English, the more dense the pattern. The following page is the corresponding text written in Latin characters. The text is run through the program a second time but this time reveals only the words that are left when everything but those of ‘purely British origin’ are left out, that is words that have no lineage other than Modern English, Middle English, Old English, and the languages indigenous to the British Isles.
The UK has begun the process of a major overhaul of its immigration policy in order to more strictly control who is able to enter and inhabit the British Isles. It is designed to reduce the flow of overseas nationals into the UK, the consequences of which will in turn reduce the freedom of movement for its own citizens outside of the UK.
Leave To Remain
Beyond Invisibility:
Rethinking Computer Interfaces
Jonas Grünwald and I collaborated to produce a research paper, artefact and video presentation. Our project explores the homogenising effects of consumerism on interface design and the possibilities of alternative narratives and aesthetics that displaces the human from the center to challenge the Western subject-centric nature of human-machine interaction.
We created a mobile weather app as the artefact in response to our research and as an experiment in alternative possibilities. The app delivers weather from a random region chosen by an algorithm. The user can see the interaction of other users in real time through coloured smudges appearing from touch interaction. If users touch the same place at the same time sparks fly. See link to article below for details.
Projection Mapping:
Subterrane
A 2D projection project using openFramworks and the ofxPiMapper addon. This project was an exploration in depth, symmetry and seamless movement. The shapes and symmetrical motion were inspired by cephalopods, jellyfish and Manfred Mohr's plotter works. These works were also the inspiration for using repetitive lines to create depth in a 2D composition.
Using the sin and noise functions, I manipulated a cardioid shape made from vertexes to find interesting symmetrical and asymmetrical forms which could flow, fold and bend seamlessly in and out of themselves. The aim was to create a kind of hypnotic pendulum motion that imbued the coded critters with a organic characteristic.
Marisa Di Monda
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