LingLand. The city writes (on) the walls. The linguistic landscape of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. A photographic tour
When: Tuesday, March 14, 2023
What time: 8:45 a.m., tour: 9:00-11:00 a.m.
Where to meet: At the main entrance of the New Building of the Faculty of Philosophy
What you need: A charged cell phone with camera, interest in your surroundings and/or graffiti.
Would you like joining in?
As there is a limited number of participants (45), students interested in attending the workshop can register through the following form.
More information
Dear students,
Have you ever consciously strolled around your campus and its surroundings by looking more closely? If not, our project The city writes (on) the walls. The linguistic landscape of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (LingLand) in the framework of Lab of Language research and didactics and the Deutsch-Mittelmeerisches Netzwerk Sprachwissenschaft (DeMiNeS) will give you the opportunity to do so in the form of a participatory photo tour in which we will go into the field together.
You will have the opportunity to see that walls, signs and billboards are often carriers of comprehensive messages and images of (sub-) cultural narratives. These can be classified by means of multiple perspectives. These messages can be often found in diverse languages, which in turn provides information about global linkages and linguistic diversity in cities as cultural melting pots. In the course of the tour, we will inspect the urban, socially defined space of the university campus.
Who writes or sprays what? How is writing made and by what means? Are there also linguistic codes? Do these differ in different cultural milieus? What role does the political and social context play in the production of messages displayed? Can you detect puns and idioms? Is there a target audience for the messages?
As soon as you see something interesting, you should also document it photographically, so that we can later collect, archive and compare our material. We want to create together a digital database, with the aim to draw attention to communication via linguistic artifacts in public space and to examine this kind of communication for linguistic analysis. Our corpus will serve a national, but also cross-national comparison, which should show global interconnections, but also differences. The database thus offers potential for use on a scientific as well as public level. By means of different approaches and the involvement of students, a scientific discourse on urban spaces and their design will emerge. The project LingLand should contribute to making visible the linguistic landscape of Thessaloniki, which is created by its inhabitants, but also by its visitors.
Organizers: Prof. Athina Sioupi, Prof. Anastasia Stamou, Lucie Olet (Erasmus+ Trainee), Zacharoula Kampouri (BA student), Alexandra Gaitatzi (MA student)