Parsons School of Design
BFA Communication Design
Thesis 2013

Parsons School of Design
BFA Communication Design
Thesis 2013

Wikitongues
Daniel Bogre Udell

Wikitongues is an opensourced documentary project, dedicated to recording the world’s 7,000 languages as fluid vehicles of individual expression. I have been busy creating a thorough body of content by conducting video interviews with a diverse array of speakers, and harnessing the power of social networks to diffuse this content on a global level.1 In doing so, I have been able to build a growing community of followers excited by and engaged with the phenomenon of diversity. As an individual who has traveled from a young age had the privilege of living abroad twice in Spain, I have always been fascinated by diversity, and particularly by its foundational expression, language, which exists at the intersection of the individual and collective; we express ourselves with language, and use it to identify with others. My long-term goal for Wikitongues — documenting every language in the world — is far beyond the scope of a year. Thankfully, the excitement that Wikitongues has generated online has helped facilitate its transition from an individual project to a team effort, driven by the passion of a small but nonetheless open group of students and linguists from four countries. By the end of 2013, I plan to have expanded our collection of languages and our content’s global reach, as well as having implemented an open-sourced website so that anyone interested in our effort can contribute by uploading their own videos. 1 Wikitongues videos have reached 2,000 people from fifty different countries. We currently hail from The United States, Canada, Switzerland, and Spain.

Jonathan Abbo

Nick Abreu

Silao AJ Afano

Amel Afzal

Jeongkyun Ahn

Frederico Afrange de Andrade

Cynthia Bacall

Piper Black

Shravika Bothra

Zipporah Burman

John Bussiere

Noelle Campbell

Susana Castro

Nate Cepis

Yi-Shan Chang

Lisa Seoyeon Cho

Paul Jay Choe

Sara Chou

Saiq'a S. Chowdhury

Iee Deun Eden Chung

Caitlin Clingman

Evon Coleman

Rachel Cutler

James Czyz

Mae Decena

Stephanie De Jesús

Jonathan De La Rosa

Carlos De León

Kristie DeLouise

Dawa Dolma

Erica Efstratoudakis

Alexis Dawn Ely

Beril Esin

Sofia Falcon

Francisco Flores

Erik Freer

Ying Joyce Fu

Carina Giacomelli

Ermioni Giakou

Isabel Castillo Guijarro

Alex Hack

Shaobo Han

Paulina Ho

Lauren Hodges

Jenny Holt

Vicky Huang

Jess Hutchison

Joanna Izzo

Hasita Kamlesh

Elizabeth Kenney

SoJung Kim

Jihae Kim

Michelle H. Kim

MJ Minjung Kwon

Alleson Lai

Alfred Lam

Yejin Lee

Michael Leng

Christina Lu

Chris Lunney

Maketa Mabane

Amanda Maduri

Sara Maier

Tara Mann

Jenn Martins

Caroline Mathews

Andrew McCausland

Anna McKendrick

Bryan Meador

Melanie Mencarelli

Julio Montás

Jenni Mällinen

Burak Nehbit

My Nguyen

Jacqueline Oh

Melisa Ozkan

Boram Park

Caroline Partridge

Xing Hai Piao

Brenna Pladsen

Stephanie Porzio

Rocco Rada

Jay Ramirez

Joelle Riffle

Elizabeth Rodriguez

Yvonne Romano

Juan Carlos Santos Andrade

Ariel Scala-Perykasz

Shelly Seroussi

Betty Shang

Leslie Shapiro

Jennifer Haesoo Shim

Jeemin Shim

Amos Shin

Ben Shotwell

Robyn Silev

Nika Simovich

Axel Hammarskiöld Spendrup

Lesley Sakinah Steele

Naomi Sundberg

Britt Tapsall

Sabina Telagis

Daniel Bogre Udell

Azalea Vaseghi

Will Warner

Courtney Wells

Belinda Whiteman

Bryce Williams

Anita Wong

Chu-yi Wu

Giselle Nari Wynn

Katherine Yaksich

Kyungwon Yang

Emily Zhong

Michael Zoppo