machine that renders meaning

1) the subject

langue (tongue):
the abstract system of language internalized by a given speech community

parole (speech):
the individual act of speech

The meaning of a word or name is created by its collective use and common referent.The langue is a domain which contains every intended meaning of every act of speech. Every meaningful utterance of a given word is a parole, or act of speech. Acts of speech pile upon one another and the peak of the pile is the paradigm of a word's meaning. The paroles make up the langue, but the langue is what determines the meaning of the parole.

2) the idea

My machine will collect and record the parole and reflect the langue of the color names red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. It will also comment on the subjectivity of color perception and conditional relativity, by contrasting position of the langue in locations of different lighting conditions. Why color ? Color appears on a spectrum – red becomes orange becomes yellow becomes green becomes blue becomes violet becomes red. Within the prior sentence you see the divisions that we have imposed on this continuum in order to have discrete signifiers for regions within the spectrum. Color is a prime subject for the collection of instances into a collectively defined paradigm. It is also fascinating to me in light of the inherent privacy of color perception.

3) the expression

The machines (3 in total) will be spherically shaped. The diameter of the sphere is the visual color spectrum and the axes are white and black. Each sphere will placed in a nearby locations with distinct lighting conditions. People who walk by wil be asked to outline the borders of each of the 6 color signifiers by tracing a path on the surface of the sphere with a finger. The machine will record the touch data and send it to a display which will show where the paradigm of each color occurs, how great a variation occurs between people, and answers to all of the following questions.

4) The purpose

Where is the langue? What is it's shape? How homogeneous are the parole? Does the langue move over time? What outside conditions affect the langue?