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Natasha Tontey

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Natasha Tontey & Bianca Winataputri, Disclaimer, October 2019

I was thinking that here in the age of iOS, we speak through keyboards and the emoji speaks within us. The form of communication is certainly changing and evolving. However, surveillance technology evolves together with this new mode of communication. What the missionaries do when they go to the Indigenous communities to teach religion is make a dictionary. In my imagination and fictional thinking, it would be really great if the Indigenous community has a communication method that is impossible to transcribe.

(Note: the conversation in Bahasa Indonesia follows the English-language text. A version of Natasha Tontey’s work 'Church of Xenoglossia', referenced in the interview, is hosted on Disclaimer.)

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