Learning French

When I was in high school the mother of a friend of mine was trying to learn Italian in preparation for a long family trip to Italy. This preparation involved covering their entire house in little Post-it notes with convenient labels naming the object the note was stuck to, or the objects in the drawers, cabinets, refrigerator, etc. Needless to say, the temptation to mix up the Post-its was too much for a group of teenagers to bear. The idea that we could move labels—so easily—and completely change her understanding of language amazed me. The study of broken signified and signifiers through play is the basis of deconstruction and, not knowing it at the time, that is exactly what we were doing—we set out to deconstruct her Italian language structure. Each rhyme she created in her head to remember words would be, in fact, wrong. The interesting aspect of our little game only revealed itself to me years later—can language be wrong? In the context of their home, the Italian she was learning was functional as another language for her and her husband, only when spoken in Italy would the “correctness” of their understanding change.
           “Learning French” takes my teenage experiences to the ridiculous by taking the story of a young couple and placing them in a situation where the female character is desperately trying to learn French for an impending move to the country and the husband does not wish to leave. The Post-it notes floating in the piece each represent an element of the story—a short film, a series of still photographs, or a single still photograph. Their movement is a play on N. Katherine Hayles concept of “flickering signifiers.” She argues (in short) that digital signifiers flicker instead of float. Here, they do both. After clicking on a Post-it, viewing the “reverse” of the note (the depth behind the word) the scene eventually takes its place in the narrative at the bottom of the stage. The narrative action (after all Post-it notes are clicked) tells of the complete rise and fall of the French language: in my apartment. The signified and signifiers are mixed up, the language is elusive, and the ambiance tricked. Each piece of the narrative can be switched back to the original word that, in a way, gave birth to the scene depicted. This switching back and forth demonstrates the arbitrary, yet contextually contrived, way in which we associate objects and actions with language. Yet, even if the viewer has little to no interest in the theoretical framework for the piece, I hope the visual discovery is interesting and beautiful, and, perhaps, the little story might be of some enjoyment (albeit slightly exaggerated and quasi depressing).

*Thanks to Katie Lynch for all of her work on the Flash coding and troubleshooting in this piece.

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