Concept & approach
What is the
Language Station?
The PLURI Language Station, or ‘Sprache(n)labor’ (Language(s) Lab), is a movable starting point. It brings materials, practices and questions to set up your own Language(s) Lab in different places – for example at school, in a museum, in an educational institution or in public space.
The Language(s) Lab works with an extended understanding of multilingualism. This includes not only different languages, but also registers, dialects, youth languages, sounds, scripts, gestures and other forms of expression. Together with each group, we explore which languages, voices and forms of expression occur in a place, how they are used and what they mean to the people involved.
Language itself becomes material. It can be collected, written, spoken, printed, taken apart, changed and put back together.
At the same time, language is not neutral. Names, accents, words, scripts and ways of speaking can mark belonging, but they are also judged, ranked or ignored. The Language(s) Lab therefore combines artistic practices with a discrimination-critical perspective on multilingualism.
The box
What’s inside
- Practice cards in three areas – collecting linguistic material, activating and circulating language, and space as a living laboratory. Each card suggests a concrete artistic practice and shows which materials are needed, how to get started and how the work can be continued.
- Impulse cards belong to the practice cards. After a practice, they bring questions about multilingualism, belonging, linguistic norms and power into the conversation. The front is for working directly with the group; the back gives facilitators a short background and tips for going deeper.
- Blank cards leave room for new practices and your own impulses that you try out – so the set can keep growing through experiences from different groups and places.
- Space tool: a mobile box of materials for marking, collecting, attaching and making visible. With tape, strings, clips, trays, blank cards and a variable plug-in system, a group can create its own Language(s) Lab on site.