Glossopoesis and Glottotechnia: The Art and Science of Language

The Third Language Creation Conference

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The Language Creation Society and the Brown Literary Arts Program are pleased to announce the 3rd (almost-annual) conference on constructed languages (conlangs). The conference is open to contributions and discussions about all forms, techniques, and especially motivations for creating languages, whether as works of art, subsidiary components to literary efforts, solutions to communication problems, research tools, or teaching tools. We particularly look forward to the interaction of language creators and interested writers of fiction and poetry.

The conference will be held on the Brown University Campus in Providence Rhode Island March 21-22, 2009. Traditional conference sessions and literary readings are limiting for the kinds of broad interaction that we would like to foster so we are planning on several types or participation, so that everyone will be able to contribute:

• Posters: Many people want to talk about projects that completed or in progress. A poster may be the ideal format, writing systems, sample sentences, points of grammatical interest -- put whatever you'd most like to show off in your project on a big piece of paper and be ready to talk with people who are interested.
• Traditional papers: For those whose research results or critical thinking demand a structured argument or presentation, there will be presentation sessions.
• Tutorials: How-to information is always welcome. Tutorial sessions on topics like "creating your first language," phonology, syntax, languages human brains can't seem to understand (just to pick a few at random) -- all would be welcome. No-one understands all about how natural languages work -- and constructed languages are not even constrained by that, so tutorials at all levels can be informative for everyone.
• Unconference sessions: at LCC 2, Panel and discussion sessions, as well as other collaborative activities were verey successful. We'd like to continue and perhaps expand that tradition by taking some ideas from the Compter world and having slots for self-organized group sessions, where we'll help attendees organize conversations around topics of interest.

We have been lucky to be able to schedule the conference in the Brown/RISD Hillel House, and as we overlap with the Brown vacation, we have access to the building as a whole, meaning that we have room for posters, presentation sessions, impromptu meetings, and formal readings. We will even be able to enjoy the garden, weather permitting!

We will make every effort to document the proceedings as fully as possible in images, sound and video, and to make these available on physical media and the internet.

Providence is a frequently overlooked gem. The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) is an art school with a great small museum; Brown has some great library collections, and a beautiful campus; Benefit street, a few blocks from the conference location, has one of the highest concentrations of restored colonial homes in the country; Johnson and Wales University downtown has a fantastic cooking and hotel school, so that good food and restaurants are abundant, and the presence of university students also means that there's good food cheap for those on a budget.

We are accepting proposals and suggestions for sessions (tell us what you want, even if you can't do it all yourself, as we may be able to make it happen) immediately. We will be updating the site and sending further announcements with more practical details and program news.

This is a great opportunity to meet interesting people, learn and share knowledge, and have fun with a group of people in a small city with the amenities of a much larger one, due to its fascinating history, friendliness to artists, world-class educational institutions, and enthusiastic citizens.