Language Justice and Sai i putum

Project Type: Research, Video Production, Creative Annotation, Interactive Image
Themes: Creativity, Language Justice, Educational Technology, Indigenous Languages of El Salvador

The Challenge Space

What fosters creativity and advances dignity in our self-expression and articulation? How might we orient the design of educational technology to be culturally relevant and sustaining? My research and exploration encompassed the intersection of these questions.

The Response

Inspired by my research on indigenous epistemologies and indigenous languages of El Salvador, I sought to apply a critical speculative lens in creating an artistic expression on language justice that offered a response to the concepts of language justice and how decolonizing technology may look in concrete action? Looking at a particular educational tool of the past, El Silabario Hispanoamericano, a phonetic guide to the Spanish language, I offer my reimagining of what the tool may look like if it had been designed to revitalize a dormant indigenous language.

What came out of this research and creative exploration:

1. I created an interactive image of my original artwork to offer an introduction to Sai i Putum (Lenca Potón), a dormant indigenous language of El Salvador. The interactive image features depictions of words in Lencan dialects (as available, based on the work of Linguist Alan R. King), in Spanish, and in English. I also include cultural references and links to additional resources.

2. A suggested reading and multi-media list for further exploration and learning about these topics.

3. I created a video (8m 6s) about my research and artwork. I talk about the historical context, literature insights, artwork, language justice, and ed technology.

The Artifacts

The following are artifacts from my research and artistic expressions.

Click on image to view embedded elements.

Video (8m 6s), I talk about the historical context, literature insights, language justice and educational technology: