Natural language as heritage code

Description

At first glance, programming languages and natural languages seem fundamentally different. Programming languages are primarily used by humans to instruct computers, while natural languages facilitate human-human interactions. Natural languages evolve through history, geography, and culture, exhibiting rich diversity. In contrast, programming languages exhibit limited variation and are primarily text-based, unlike natural languages which are expressed through speech, writing, signs, and gestures.

This workshop will explore whether a unified perspective on natural and programming languages is possible. We aim to explore how such a perspective can challenge existing research in creative/live coding and linguistics. We hope this will help establish a new interdisciplinary field where languages—both natural and programming—are conceptualized as heritage codes.

We will bring together researchers and practitioners in linguistics, live coding (live use of programming languages in the creative arts), and artistic research, approaching coding languages as tools for human-human interaction, potentially in the context of indigenous/non-western language contexts, and for the purposes of human expression through music and dance.

Period	20 Apr 2026 → 22 Apr 2026
Event type	Workshop