Untitled (River) (2024)
Languages are interconnected, moving, and interacting with one another. The choice of a bilingual text is also my response to the idea of translation. "Dịch là diệt" ('Translation is elimination'), but translation also gives new meanings and layers. The original and the reproduction should be treated equally as two bodies of mutual interactive works. Translation is adaptation.
Languages also sound. Phonetics is international, national, and regional; collective, interpersonal, and personal. The sound of languages signifies, shapes, and reshapes community and humanity. However, this idea is challenged in the age of AI with the rise of text-to-speech, speech-to-text technology, and natural language processing models.
The "voices" are contributed by Google Translate (Vietnamese and English versions).