An essay on BLDGBLOG about James Joyce’s Ulysses. At least is starts there. Although the book is full of metaphors, allusions and pretty much every other trick in English language, the author suggests its a form of “descriptive realism”. And being that way, could you use Ulysses to make a map of Dublin? (that, actually, was impetus for Fictional Convergences). But taking it further, what if Ulysses was written before Dublin existed–could you feed it into a CNC and create Dublin?
The essay talks a little about word-objects: how you might be able to create a language out of 3D forms, citing Quipu. Which, now that I think about it, could be an idea for a project. It’s an interesting space: objects can have abstract meanings and language a form, but they are usually not explicitly tied. How might a tangible language be formed, fit together into sentences? What if the sound a letter-object made when you dropped it was its pronunciation. How might the visual, tactile, and auditory senses go together in this language?
I don’t think I am smart enough for this.