This mobile language laboratory aims to crisscross the North of France and to meet the inhabitants to record different ways of speaking in French and in regional languages.
To achieve this goal, it is composed of :
- A recording studio
- A platform for processing digital recordings
- a triple mediation instrument with displays, a tablet application and an Internet portal
The cosy and graphic interior layout, the technical configuration of the equipment, the soundproofing of the bodywork and the acoustic treatment of the recording studio improve the quality of the product.
It was also made possible by close collaboration between the teams of Toutenkamion, the National Center for Scientific Research (NCSR) and the artist Guykayser. The exterior visual was created by Ruedi Baur, Vera Baur and Maxime Leleux of the design agency dix—milliards—humains and Guykayser.
We are pleased with the truck, the quality of the work and the support!
Olivier Baude, NCSR scientific supervisor and project manager
Multi-function cultural and scientific mobile project
This traveling collection of sounds will contribute to the sound portrait of language practices in France, an unprecedented project at the national and even international level.
It is a main resource for research, education, and artificial intelligence-based language technologies.
It's also a resource center for the mastery of French intended for activities for the public concerned.
Finally, its touch of originality lies in a dialogue between artistic and scientific approaches. The dialogue between arts and sciences continues with the production of digital works, one of which is "on board" in the truck: Spoken topography - a work by Guykayser, an interactive walk through the landscape of the languages of France.
Ministerial inauguration of the Mobile Language Laboratory
This cultural and scientific project is led by the Ministry of Culture in collaboration with the NCSR.
It was inaugurated during the French Language and Francophonie week by Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin, Minister of Culture.
In two days of presence at the castle of Villers-Cotterêt, future international city of the French language and the Francophonie, more than 8,000 people have learned about this new national innovative system and more than 500 have visited it.
Genesis of this mobile sound collection project
The author of the great History of the French language, Ferdinand Brunot, was the first to concern himself about recording and preserving the sound traces of language facts, by creating the famous Speech Archives in 1911 from a fundraising project throughout France. It was about, thanks to the phonograph, just invented, of recording, studying and preserving oral testimonies of the spoken language.
