MLA2013

About this Project:
Speak2MeInCode is structured as a guide to effective writing, yet the example sentences, definitions and writing advice point towards a romantic affair between a woman (the protagonist, I, she, me, her, Justine) and a married man (U, you, he, him, Mark).

About the Installation at MLA13:
The installation at the Modern Language Association Conference 2013 is called “Everywhere, Anywhere, Somewhere, Nowhere.” The name comes from an entry in On Linguistic Correctness: Usage Glossary, which is part of the main Speak2MeInCode Writing Guide.

Twelve posters are installed as part of the show Avenues of Access: An Exhibit & Online Archive of New ‘Born Digital’ Literature, an elit exhibit curated by Drs. Dene Grigar and Kathi Inman Berens. The exhibit is installed in room 312 of the Hynes Convention Center. The posters show locations in which the lovers may or may not have met; they were designed to bridge reality and fantasy by subtly referencing a conference similar to the MLA Conference itself. As Dr. Kathi Inman Berens states in her curatorial statement:

“Some e-lit actually capitalizes on the fluid attention of a mobile reader. Laura Zaylea’s “Speak2MeInCode,” a work commissioned especially for this MLA show, is a locative romance that intends to disperse the reader’s attention across story, device and social space. Set at a fictional convention, “Speak2Me” begins as a guide to grammar and good writing but transmutes into an illicit romance. Readers will walk around the Hynes Convention hall pulling bits of story onto their mobile browsers via QR codes. As they do so, the rhythms and ambient sounds of the bustle between panels will intrude upon their concentration, adding verisimilitude to the story’s theme.” (Read more)

Each poster has a QR code that brings the reader into a different narrative moment. Six “somewhere” posters bring readers to stories that take place in specific locations; six additional posters link to stories set in more abstract notions of space (“everywhere,” “anywhere” and “nowhere”).

For those who cannot visit the gallery in person or who do not have QR code readers, the pages can be accessed by clicking the images below.

On Friday night, Speak2MeInCode will be part of the Avenues of Access elit reading/performance event at Bordy Theater. (watch the video)

Exhibit Hours:
Thursday, January 3rd – 12pm – 7pm
Friday, January 4th – 9am – 5pm
Saturday, January 5th – 9am – 7pm

Reading:
Friday, January 4th – 8pm at Bordy Theater, Emerson College
216 Tremont Street, Boston, MA 02116