“For the past year, I have been constructing a language named “Loop Script”. I want

Loop Script to be the language that functions in a space where time does not exist,

similar to the space in my imagination and memory.

Loop Script starts as a visual component in the Mothermap series, which is part of my

long-term world-building project titled My Land. In the project, I make up maps,

tales, scientific research, and video games about an imagined territory that exists

outside of time and, consequently, outside of human history. I consider it a

hypothetical environment where any viewer must abandon their cultural legacy and

learn how to navigate a world built from scratch.

I did not start Loop Script with a clear reference in hand. I invent and learn the

language at the same time, without the burden of forcing it to make immediate

sense. Loop Script shows up as both drawing and writing. In Loop Script, a word can

be formed in two ways. On one hand, it can start as a visual form from which I find

suggestive meanings. On the other hand, it can start as a symbol to which the

meanings are assigned, and I will find out if those meanings stand up over time.

I cannot remember all the words. This is why each time I look at Loop Script

writing, I feel that I am reading both myself and another person. The writing is

meant to be both a monologue and a discourse. I don’t want Loop Script to have any

phonetic properties so that it can be written and read, but not spoken.

Loop Script is written mostly by applying graphite powder on paper, erasing the

shapes, and shading them. There are three basic elements. Subject 0 is the voice of

the void, it is put on paper using the blackest ink I have. Subject 1 is the voice of the

speculator, drawn by re-shading the erased parts on the paper. Subject 2 is the voice

of the believer. It looks similar to Subject 1, but has a cast shadow, indicating that it

touches the “ground” and never “moves”.

Besides drawings on paper, the language can take other forms. I have created an 8-bit

video game that reveals the definitions of some of the words in Loop Script, and 3Dprinted

sculptures influenced by Loop Script’s vocabulary. Working with different

mediums for Loop Script, I hope they allow the language to evolve into different

forms. In this way, I can communicate with familiarity and strangeness at the same

time.”

Hà Ninh Pham

Available works