Some Name Some Noun Simply

About

the mine nays give never given self / been enter mine nays / way hollo volume needs keeps fill / these olds, these uncover what pre-person / with which one nay a-stay turn backs / with seven nays been given me / no possiblity at me be seven peal during that same time / spite this, nays mine destinations even

Some Name Some Noun Simply is a performative work written and directed by Nicoline van Harskamp. It departs from the language spoken in her video PDGN (2006): a future link language built up from the ruins of today’s global English. She created the script by applying distorting factors to existing non-standard forms of English. These distorters include characteristics of English currently spoken between non-native speakers; rules of link languages created in fiction; and traits of Creole languages from the past and present.

At Tenderpixel, she presents this language for a live audience in a short play, set in a not too distant future. People still move around the planet but much less quickly and frequently. On the way, they use a link-language that cannot be taught but only practised. Global travel and global trade have disappeared and global languages have changed. 

Some Name Some Noun Simply’s three protagonists arrive from different parts of the world at a place they call the Onomasticon. It is a former site where names were inflicted on people, or taken away from people, such as an immigration office or city hall. To them, it is a memorial site for a redundant system where names were tools of surveillance and a currency in data-mining industries. And although they are happy that the linguistic injury of naming has been put to an end, they each still have their sensitivities in relation to it. These come to light in their short encounter, which ends in an attempt to rename each other using nouns and verbs only.  

The same piece will be staged three times with a short break in between during which the visitors are welcome to visit the display on the ground floor. Visitors may watch the performance as often as they like.  

As a resource to the audience, a small publication with two different versions of the script is provided. One version in the language prior to distortion, taken from transcripts of actual spoken English; the other in fully distorted English, notated in International Phonetic Alphabet.

This piece was developed by the artist in collaboration with Berlin partners Archive Kabinett, Let There Be and Scriptings, and premiered at Archive Kabinett in September 2017. Subsequent stagings took place at the Veem House for Performance in Amsterdam. It was made possible with a financial contribution by the Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst.