Mother Tongue - Deadline for Submissions extended 23 December 2010

14th December, 2010

INDIGO, the International Indigenous Design Network, is pleased to announce that the deadline for submissions for Mother Tongue has been extended until 23 December 2010. Thank you to all who submitted a response. If you haven't yet participated, here's your chance to do so!

Launched by INDIGO, the International Indigenous Design Network, Mother Tongue, is an innovative online exhibition that seeks to capture the power of language - verbal and visual, formal and informal.

Language is not only a product of human life - it is a pre-requisite that humans require to form relationships. As a fundamental form of expression, language binds people together. But not all languages are spoken. A language can be visual - made up of complex ideas of truth deeply rooted in symbols, custom and imagery.

Intended to stimulate creative dialogue, Mother Tongue offers designers a forum to respond to the position that indigenous language iconography, process and design knowledge can and should play an integral role in contemporary design. This cross-cultural platform will honour languages at risk and encourage collaborative projects that deepen our understanding of people's culture in our visual world of this 21-century.



"We need a culture shift. Can design reconcile differences?" says David Lancashire, Chair of the INDIGO Advisory Group. "Let's begin a journey of understanding - fostering a new respect for life, nature and the natural world. Let's value the principles of truth, honesty, generosity, equity and kinship."

Mother Tongue is an open, multi-disciplinary, online exhibition. It is open to designers of all disciplines, students of design, poets and writers. Participants are invited to submit responses in the form of a poster, a photograph, a poem, a product, a piece of architecture - that interprets the spirit of Mother Tongue. Submissions will be accepted in image, video and audio formats.

To nurture inclusiveness and promote dialogue, all submissions will be presented as a digital gallery on www.indigodesignnetwork.org

Mother Tongue builds on Icograda's strategic priorities of unity and engagement," says Russell Kennedy, Icograda President. "Its ambition is to create a space for designers to collaborate around a theme that promotes cultural diversity as a core value and to celebrate indigenous knowledge as a contemporary and living culture in our global community."

The Mother Tongue Brief is live now on the INDIGO website.

The deadline for entries is extended to 23 December 2010

For more details and to download the call for submissions visithttp://www.indigodesignnetwork.org/?p=838