spoiler alerts kinda:)
Arrival is a science-fiction film based on the short story “Story of Your Life” (1998) by Ted Chiang. It follows linguist Louise Banks as she tries to establish communication with aliens that arrived on earth.
We read “Story of Your Life” in Commslab! I knew that Arrival was based off of it, but this was my first time watching it. I don’t remember much of the story, but I went back to my blogpost:
The story focused a lot on distinctions between the heptapods’ written and oral language, but this was kind of just briefly mentioned in the movie. I was curious what they would make the heptapods’ and their language look like in the movie, and whether they could pull it off. I think they did a good job. The visual design of the words and sentences (spiral shapes with variations) were well done and similar to Chiang’s description of them being like mandalas/sketches. I think what was more powerful was how the movie depicted the heptapods’ communicating: it involved them shooting ink (?) from their limbs, which would form a logogram. The ink would then dissolve.
I looked into who designed the language, and it was artist Martine Bertrand, with input from computer scientists Stephen and Christopher Wolfram, and graphic designer Aaron Morrison. Bertrand said in this article that she emphasized mystery. The clues that she got from the production designer were: “NO HUMAN, IN A CIRCLE, CURSIVE, WE DON’T KNOW AT BEGINNING IF IT’S A LANGUAGE OR THREAT”.
Qualities: fluid so it doesn’t look human. should give off an ominous effect but also intrigue the audience.
A computer scientist coded the language. Stephen Wolfram is the founder of Mathematica, a computing system that visualizes data. I actually had no idea and didn’t really think about use of code after finishing the movie. Their process is available on Github which is pretty cool.
Project B
I still have to brainstorm for project b more, but I can consider Arrival for inspiration because they both involve communication and manipulating time.
Communication was the main issue of the movie, the challenge of the artists, and project b asks us how we’ll communicate with users 1000 years in the future via a website. I also remember something Yehwan Song said, which is that learning coding is challenging for some native Korean speakers, as coding is associated with the English language, so learning English is another barrier/prerequisite before being able to code. So the project can be a chance to consider how to communicate with a greater variety of people regardless of background/culture
Time is a major concept subverted by the movie too, as it uses a nonlinear narrative and time travel (one of the heptapods says that they’ve come to earth so they can help humans because in 3000 years time they’ll need to ask humans for help). Louise also becomes self aware at the end and realizes something future her must tell present-day her–which raises the question of how do we connect with people/ourselves in the future?
I think my favorite part of the film was the score! I don’t think it would’ve been as powerful without it.
thank you Marcele, Eric and Leon for screening
https://creativechair.org/martine-bertrand/
https://creativechair.org/stephen-wolfram/
In ‘Arrival,’ Aliens Just Don’t Understand (and Neither Do Humans)
https://thelongshot.substack.com/p/the-staying-power-of-arrival
https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2016/11/23/503109667/the-arrival-of-the-hectapods-time-holds-the-key-to-everything
https://postdigitalgraphicdesign.com/interview/19/pdgd-itw-yehwansong/