Program


Welcome & coffee
Welcome
Introduction by the Moderator, Carina Fernandes
Marian Markelo
Opening ceremony
Tim Brookes
Where Does Writing Come From?
The origins and genesis of writing, both as a cultural manifestation and as an individual act, are far less clear--and far more interesting--than we are generally led to believe.  Drawing on his research for both the Entering Otherworlds exhibition and his forthcoming book By Hand, Tim Brookes examines the role of the imagination and the human body in initiating and shaping the act of writing.
Sarojini Lewis
A Shift of Identity
In A Shift of Identity, visual artist, curator, and researcher Sarojini Lewis (b. 1984, India/Sur/Netherlands) investigates the work of contemporary Bhojpuri (North Indian) artists from the diaspora in Mauritius, Suriname, and Guyana, who explore their complex identities and heritage through their art. She draws parallels between archival photographic material from an earlier generation of Bhojpuri migrants, the oral histories of her Afro-Surinamese relatives, and the artworks of renowned Indian artists. Lewis highlights inter-ethnic similarities in ritual practices and shared memories of Creole identities. She has been involved in significant projects that have stimulated a collective voice for Indo-Caribbean feminist artists within her own Dutch community and beyond. Through her art, Sarojini Lewis explores how co-constructing narratives can open up new questions and interpretations of archival materials. By analysing texts and visual representations, particularly photographic and cinematic ones, Lewis demonstrates how the incorporation of agency and hybridity has enabled the female indentured labour diaspora of the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean to disrupt structures of power by establishing diverse connections without a clear trajectory. This method connects contemporary art to the archive through her open-ended, autobiographical approach. Page Not Found
Books from Otherworlds

————————————— Lunch break
Guided tours or visit of the exhibitions Édouard Glissant Hans-Ulrich Obrist’s archive, Labyrinth Within by Razia Barsatie & Sarojini Lewis, The Department of Destruction by Shivani Gowda and Writing Systems of the Otherworld by Tim Brookes & Edgar Walthert.

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Hansje van Halem
Text, Textures, Textile
In her work, Hansje van Halem explores the fluid boundaries between typography, text, and texture. Through a playful and process-driven approach, she investigates how one thing can transform into the other. Her work reveals how letters, like woven threads, create both meaning and surface.
Louwrien Wijers
We live in language
‘Language is not just a tool, but is the domain which makes us human. It is not that we learn language, it’s more that language learns us. Man is made by language. We live in language. Language is the medium in which we all exist,’ said neuro-scientist Francisco Varela in our five-day symposium Art meets Science and Spirituality in a changing Economy in 1990 in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.
In this session, artist and thinker Louwrien Wijers revisits that moment, opening a dialogue with the audience on the nature of language, the legacy of the symposium, and the continuous conversation between art, science, and spirituality. Marianne Mispelaëre
From an hand to an other
What happens between us, within us, throughout the daily political challenge of living side by side? Marianne Mispelaëre listens to and observes language, then uses (her) hands to create conceptual works such as ’Autodafé’, “Library of Silences”, ‘Silent Slogan’, ‘For You Without You: Again You’, and ‘La Marseillaise’.
————————————— Coffee break

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So-Hyun Bae
Biscriptual Trilingualism
A look back at the research project Three Languages, Two Scripts, One Medium. Biscriptual Trilingualism. This research, carried out at the ANRT between 2018 and 2020, investigates a deeply personal form of multilingualism through (typo)graphic and literary experimentation.
Nunzio Mazzaferro, Franco Jonas & Ariq Syauqi
The Missing Scripts
As of today, more than half of the world’s writing systems—past and present—are excluded from digital communication. By securing their presence in the digital environment, the Missing Scripts program aims to preserve the rich diversity of writing practices. In this talk, Ariq Syauqi, Franco Jonas and Nunzio Mazzaferro will offer both theoretical reflections and practical insights into the core activity of the Missing Scripts research group: the inclusion of minority writing systems in virtual environments.
Anushah Hossain
At the Edges of Encoding: Experimental Scripts and the Limits of Unicode
The Unicode Standard underpins almost all digital writing today, shaping which scripts can circulate and endure online. Designed for permanence, it sets strict criteria for what counts as a stable, fully realized system, as once a script is encoded, it is there for life. But what does this mean for newer, experimental, or unsettled scripts then, those that do not yet clear that bar? Such systems may arise from creative experimentation or from efforts to represent marginalized linguistic communities. This talk examines the principles behind Unicode’s conservatism and highlights how communities have found, and continue to search for, new ways to use their scripts online, at the edges of encoding.
Entering Otherworlds Colloquium
Moderated by Carina Fernandes

————————————— Bar open + dinner + music