Text Illuminations

Abstract

This installation is an interactive representation of a search for the meaning of reconciliation after mass atrocity. It is a product of the AHRC funded research project "Art and Reconciliation: Conflict, Culture and Community" - a partnership between 3 universities: Kings College London, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and University of the Arts London (UAL). The artwork is a response to text mining in Balkan languages conducted by LSE team. The artist and the political scientists joined to discuss the process of interdisciplinary collaboration to convert quantitative text analysis into a designed object. Milic conducted research about the representations of the word "reconciliation" in Croatian, Serbian and Bosnian languages. This enquiry led her to the laser cutting technique with Perspex which she has been experimenting with for creating her art piece. Milic created a word game that includes acrylic letters contained in the word 'reconciliation'. The letters are suspended in a specially constructed dark room, they can be moved up and down, and their various combinations form different words, such as nation, coalition, creation, NATO, etc. Some words also transition from one language into another. For example, 'rat' means war in Serbian-Bosnian-Croatian languages. Words can also be faded in and out with a torch that is provided. It tackles the problem with data visualization that is often expected from artists and designers in the process of beautifying research outputs of scientists. Her work is a different response to scientific research as it reflects on it whilst in the process. It demonstrates change in the modus of interdisciplinary collaboration and explores how "reconciliation" discourse can change through design. Text Illuminations gives new prominence to the words and their meanings and the suspension of words in a three-dimensional space – that mimics the method in a palpable way. This design research engages with a raft of socio-political processes and opens up learning across disciplines.