Any on- or off-line project that explores different cultures, languages, and people is sure to almost always win my heart. As an American who has been fortunate to travel, volunteer, and live abroad, I have often worked hard to counter the negative stereotypes people tend to have of us “Yanks,” either due to our politicians, corporations, a bad movie they saw, or a loud tourist they encountered. I’ve often been jealous of people from other countries because I tend to get the impression from my country and others that it’s the USA and EVERYONE ELSE. How wonderful it would be to fit in with EVERYONE ELSE and be a part of the world.

Bzzzpeek, by Agatha Jacquillat and Tomi Vollauschek, is an online project that is truly about THE WORLD. In this project, we are able to click on an animal or vehicle. We are then presented with up to seventeen representations of our choice, made different by the various flags representing their language or country. So, by clicking on a police car, for example, we hear that the English one makes a “woo woo,” the German car goes “ta tu tah tah,ta tu tah tah,” the South Korean car says “bee bo bee bo,” and the Pakistani car goes “nee no nee no.”

This project explores the similarity of children everywhere mimicking the world around them and celebrates the differences in which different cultures interpret the audible world. Because most of the sounds have been contributed by 2-7 year-olds who are native speakers of their respective languages, there is an atmosphere of innocence and multiculturalism–Globalization in a good way…

This project also takes submissions and offers to add languages not yet represented. Even though the American police cars are not represented (they go “weeeeeer weeeer,” unlike Great Britain’s “woo woo”), I will happily just think of myself under the category of “English Speaker” and enjoy this growing and developing project that represents THE WORLD.

A special feature from Net Art Review. You can find more reviews and information about the NAR team at http://www.netartreview.net
2004 © Kristen Palana. All right reserved