INTERPRETATION IN A WORLD OF INTERPRETATIONS

Often, misinterpretation in the present affect our ability to understand the importance of objects and actions in the past. It it this confusion that skews our concept of the vernacular through a projection of current values.

The vernacularization of actions and objects from the past has the potential to inform the present through narratives, not unlike the practice of future-making that is so entrenched in contemporary design. We are living in a moment where we have the tools to both reconstruct history and construct the future.

The awareness of present-day misinterpretation offers us the foresight to help future societies better interpret our values through a coherent understanding of the different actions, objects, and discussion that define our lives in teh present– our vernacular. In response to this, we have created a generative system to elevate historical specualtion by future generations. The system documents the relevance between the actions, objects, and discussions that permeate our lives at present, which will allow for richer stories of vernacular to be created in the future. The system is felxible and inclusive, allowing for multiple views and thoughts to collect in one place– a democratic database.

‘Human Centered Vernacular’ is the system in which we attempt to democratize the process of generating vernaculars by contextualising current– and potentially signiificant– actions, objects and discussion. The system accumulates and compiles potential vernaculars that can then be cross-referenced and assigned value by participants. Ideally, the system will be widely deployed to a broad range of audiences, with the goal of providing a more holistic picture of the current context in order to more accurately determine vernacular in the future. 

It is important to note that because our individual feeds– social, media, news, conversations, cultural references– provide the content and context for this collection of potential vernacular, there is the risk of producing an echo chamber effect. The system therefore becomes stronger not only as the number of people contributing increases, but also as their diversity grows.