1
This project explores the role of design in language preservation, focusing on Scottish Gaelic as a case study. With personal ties to the language and its cultural significance, the work examines how design can highlight and intervene in the erosion of endangered languages. A series of cultural probes explores the connection between language and memory, weaving together personal history with broader systems that sustain and evolve a language. Through photography, video, and object-making, the project examines how language is preserved, adapted, and sometimes lost.
Photographs, videos, and audio recordings were collected from a childhood home in Scotland, capturing personal history and lived experience. These materials serve as both documentation and reflection, emphasising the personal narrative as a crucial element in understanding the shifting dynamics of language and memory.
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
A publication was developed using a simple yet intentional method of folding, stacking, and binding pages with a rubber band. An initial test book helped refine the layout and image sequencing, ensuring the narrative reflected a deeply personal experience. The challenge lay in structuring the visual story in a way that felt authentic and immersive.
21
22
23
Two versions of the final publication were created: a complete version and a redacted counterpart. The redacted version mirrors language loss and memory erosion, inviting viewers to consider what it means to be disconnected from one’s linguistic and cultural heritage. The publication incorporates Gaelic translations and imagery from Scottish popular culture, referencing formative experiences and cultural touchpoints. These elements ground the work in place and identity, highlighting the intersection between language and personal history.
Materiality played a key role in shaping the project. A thin, slightly translucent paper was chosen for its resemblance to hymn books from childhood, carrying a nostalgic and tactile quality. Its imperfections, creases and misalignments became part of the work, embracing the fragile nature of memory and preservation.
26.
A personal vocabulary list was embedded within the publication, featuring Gaelic words tied to daily life and personal memory. Words that may seem ordinary to others carry deep significance, acting as linguistic anchors to place, experience, and heritage.
27
A video component was created to further immerse the viewer, offering a first-hand perspective of the environment. Footage of family interactions, landscape transitions, and redacted imagery is layered with environmental audio and interview segments, reinforcing themes of memory, language, and loss.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
Grandpa
Bet
Hillside 1
Hillside 2
Book
Pole
Shed
Kitchen
Utensils
Coaster
Stop
Chippy
Morrison St.
+
Wellfired
Lunch
Fold
Notes
Bind
Covers
Full Version
Redacted Version
Tea Cake
Paper
Vocab list
Nobody talks to each other anymore