— Sul parlare

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Language is neither universal nor transparent. It is an unstable field, crossed by gestures, writings, sounds, bodies, and devices that precede and shape it.
Sul parlare explores its materializations to dismantle the illusion of neutrality, suspending the primacy of the spoken word.

I have moved through languages, writings, gestures, sounds, and bodies to show that every sign carries a certain degree of opacity and resistance, and that language never fully coincides with itself.

What emerged is a book that speaks as much of languages and writings as it does of places, people, and sensations. It is an organism composed of many parts, a temporary alphabet whose structure I built without aiming to create a system.

Five main themes: language, writing, gesture, performance, and sound. Each theoretical chapter is accompanied by a visual verification, a provisional exercise, a partial gesture, an attempt to test what has been discussed on a theoretical level. These are not illustrations, but parallel forms of writing. For each main theme there are four project-based outcomes, one of which is always devoted to external contributions.

The result is not an ordered repertoire, but an unstable constellation of tests and interpretations : an archive that does not prove, but interprets. A way to shift perspective and recognize which language we speak, through which devices, and under which inherited conditions.

I don’t believe this thesis should be read as a complete theory: it was never meant to provide definitive answers, but to generate questions. A starting point that remains open. A reminder that language lives only as long as it stays partial and unstable.

MA Thesis Project - ISIA U 2025

Project
Chiara Rebolino

Thesis advisor
Luca Capuano

External contributions
Pascal Mijnssen
Nora Zeller
Alessandro Galli
Emma Cusinato
Lorenzo Urgesi
Fidel Thomet
Giacomo Nanni
Glorian Shtini
Martina Zullo
Ylenia Signorelli
Luciano Perondi
Alex Balgiu
Richard Niessen
Ben Cain
Anton Ripon
Yuri Tuma
Christina Kubisch
Caroline Profanter

Book
19 x 12,5 cm
734 pages

Font
Gestura, Text - Sociotype foundry

Paper
Shiro Eco, White, 90gr
R4 Next Gloss, White, 115gr

Print
Paolo Nava Studio, Milano

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Language is neither universal nor transparent. It is an unstable field, crossed by gestures, writings, sounds, bodies, and devices that precede and shape it. Sul parlare explores its materializations to dismantle the illusion of neutrality, suspending the primacy of the spoken word.

I have moved through languages, writings, gestures, sounds, and bodies to show that every sign carries a certain degree of opacity and resistance, and that language never fully coincides with itself.

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