BioCUBE.2009:Phoenix,AZ.
Research Conducted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has found a valuable marriage between biodiversity and language diversity. As language diversity declines so does bio-diversity, suggesting an understanding of our natural environment is locked in language. According to UNESCO, more than 2,400 languages in the world are in danger of extinction. With 153 endangered indigenous languages existing west of the Mississippi River and 16 in Arizona, this issue is of particular importance in the American West. Phoenix is home to three endangered indigenous languages; O’odham , Yaqui, and Piipaash (Maricopa).
BioCUBE attempts to engage the urban phoenix population to consider our role in an age of attempted sustainability and ponder how our relationship with indigenous Phoenix languages can contribute to ecological, environmental, and cultural knowledge.
BioCUBE is a multimedia interactive space where the Phoenix indigenous language of O’odham is alive. The public is invited to enter the space and experience the language. The experience is recorded in real time and can be emailed into the world wide digital vain from the BioCube. Orthography derived from the language of O’odham Ñiok was used in the creation of this installation.
Product of BioCUBE: Over 200 hundred people sent an image of themselves via email with O’odham script projected on to their chests.
