Thinking through language in virtual worlds

SL without language - that is to say, unspoken and unspeaking objects, objects unspoken-for, these objects parallel the diegeses of silent cinema - moving among them, but then what? what are the moments of narrative or other devices conveying meaning, other than design, etc. So language is critical, and there are signs/signboards everywhere, not to mention notes handed (down) to one upon entering SL - all this. But if language inheres to the object, if the object is always already inscribed, the possibilities open up perhaps? So on one hand, there are speaking objects, and on the other, objects with inscribed textures. The latter can be stationary signs/signboards; they can also be (in SL 2 viewers) videos separately assigned to separate surfaces, or objects in their entirety. In both cases, it appears as if the objects were speaking, were in some sense linguistic - as if language were in the world, not so much of, or beyond, it. So these works - recent works - of mine work with speaking objects - now here are two, minus the sound and dynamism. For the rest, there are a number of video files at http://www.alansondheim.org/ - I suggest http://www.alansondheim.org/thinking.mp4 or http://www.alansondheim.org/Okukin.mp4 or http://www.alansondheim.org/america.mp4 - there is also http://www.alansondheim.org/becoming.mp4 - all of these recent, as of today - and I do want to thank everyone for the possibilities of this residency as well!