Mechanisms so Kind. 2016
interactive print installation
Let us consider Google’s rules of dialogue with the world. (Boris Groys)
When one surrenders their script into Google translate, there is a sense of serendipity that the resulting text will derive the same meaning
or perhaps something better altogether, than their original content. As Google translates each word irrelevant of context and syntax, genuine submissions become unintentionally poetic. Each language equipped with idioms, grammatical structure and nuances of its own is inevitably bastardized, and a simple translation is lost without the human capacity to determine the most appropriate outcome.
Upon translating and re-translating the most commonly entered terms (“How are you?” “Thank you.” “I love you.”) I find tragically poignant responses that are perhaps apt, considering my crude attempts to comprehend the complexity of another language using such an imperfect program. On the cusp of being bilingual I find myself shifting between two tongues, Mandarin and English. Where Shifu (master) is a term applied to the most adroit in their field, but also colloquially applied to someone as unskilled as a green grocer.
An homage to both Google translate and traditional Chinese letterpress, Mechanisms so kind invites you to brazenly assume you, the shifu, understand the complexities of language, tradition and culture through an interactive installation, with a take home souvenir.