New Worlds, New Words | Alicia Escott & Heidi Quante

TL;DR

The Bureau of Linguistical Reality was founded to create new words that describe the emotions and experiences related to climate change and other environmental shifts.

Transcript

• We founded the bureau because we were lacking words and a greater lexicon to describe emotions and experiences we and others are having as our world rapidly changes due to climate change and other anthropogenic events. - In 02014, we came together during an unusually warm winter. (audience laughing) As sentient beings, we were enjoying this unsea... Read More

Key Insights

• 😖 The Bureau of Linguistical Reality was founded to fill the lexical gap in describing emotions and experiences related to climate change.
• 🍉 The term Psychic Corpus Dissonance (PCD) captures the contradictory feelings during unseasonable weather.
• 🔑 The bureau invites participants to create their own words and synonyms to expand the lexicon for environmental changes.
• 🖐️ Linguistic relativity plays a crucial role in understanding and conceptualizing our rapidly changing environment.
• 💦 The bureau's work highlights the connection between language, thought, culture, and worldviews.
• 🪡 The need for new words reflects the urgent need to comprehend and communicate the effects of climate change.
• 🔑 Participant-generated words like onbehagenweer and blissonance add nuance and cultural context to the discussion of climate change.

Questions & Answers

Q: Why was the Bureau of Linguistical Reality founded?

The bureau was founded because there was a need for words to express the emotions and experiences related to climate change and other anthropogenic events that are rapidly changing our world.

Q: What is Psychic Corpus Dissonance (PCD)?

PCD is a term coined by the bureau to describe the conflicting feelings of joy and concern experienced during unseasonably warm weather that should be winter. It captures the dissonance between enjoying the weather and worrying about its underlying causes.

Q: How do participants of the bureau contribute?

Participants create their own words and synonyms to capture their unique experiences. For example, onbehagenweer, meaning eerie weather, was created by Gita Sonnenberg to describe the unsettling feeling of watching others enjoy a weather that indicates climate chaos.

Q: What is the significance of the Bureau's name?

The name of the bureau is inspired by the linguistic relativity hypothesis, which suggests that language influences how we perceive and understand the world. The bureau recognizes that without the right words, we cannot fully grasp the changes happening in our environment.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• The Bureau of Linguistical Reality was created to address the lack of words and vocabulary for describing emotions and experiences related to climate change.

• The bureau's first official word, Psychic Corpus Dissonance (PCD), describes the unsettling feeling of enjoying unseasonably warm weather while worrying about its implications.

• Participants of the bureau have created their own synonyms, such as onbehagenweer (eerie weather) and blissonance, to capture their experiences of climate change.