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The tree is used as a symbol to communicate the danger of languages slowly dying out. Like a tree, languages are growing stronger and developing into different directions- like accents and dialects for instance. A tree grows taller and the root is the foundation for many strong branches, which grow dozens of other branches.
The tree represents different languages and culture with three words repeating a mantra of ‘culture, literacy and knowledge’ in various languages through the boughs. It is thought these are the ideals and objectives most sought from the mother language event.
The mantra becomes more coherent towards the branch ends of the corresponding culture to signify a shared understanding in that group. The languages are jumbled around the trunk and roots suggesting cultures cohabiting and understanding each other through learning other languages. It can also be interpreted as conflict and separation leading to suffering and ignorance.
It also communicates five languages English, French, German, Arabic and Chinese because we aimed to communicate a range of different languages and culture. All of the languages displayed in the tree are spoken by people all around the world. The photos in the leaves signify generations of people in that culture, and the babies (buds) show the language flourishing with new generations adopting it.
Other parts of the tree are dying out and the leaves (people) are falling to the ground as other languages die with them and are not passed down to new generations. These weaker branches cannot sustain themselves and die back towards the roots, meaning that stronger, more widely spoken languages taker over. The tree no longer appears healthy with all these dead parts.
The quote is used to support the whole idea of nurturing languages and the wider understanding that comes with it, concerning knowledge and culture. The tree is there to visualise what exactly is lost when languages die.
The background of the poster is created out of many pictures showing people in different situations related to culture. The images are coloured in blues in brown as the sky and earth at the bottom of the poster. At last the images are blurred and the opacity got decreased make it adequate to go with the tree, which is the main focus of the poster.
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