RUIL's artwork 'Gurrk' features in Melbourne Science Gallery Blood exhibition

Blood: Attract and Repel is open until September 23rd!

Gurrk: How does language evolve? And do the words we use define our identity?

RUIL team members Nick Thieberger and Rachel Nordlinger have been instrumental in creating the Gurrk display, an artwork featured in the Melbourne Science Gallery exhibition, 'Blood: attract and repel'.

Gurrk means blood in the Woi wurrung language of the Wurundjeri people, the traditional custodians of the land that is now part of Melbourne. The original inhabitants of Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, belonged to over 700 different nations. These groups spoke hundreds of different languages, making Australia one of the most linguistically diverse places on Earth. Fewer than 150 of these languages remain in regular use and all but a few are now considered endangered.

Originally produced by Norman Tindale in 1974, the Tindale Map is an attempt to represent the languages of the Aboriginal people of Australia. This interactive version allows you to explore the vast array of languages through one word, blood. The memetics (evolutionary transfer of cultural information) of human language can be visualised across Australia.

Visit the Melbourne Science Gallery at the Frank Tate Building, The University of Melbourne, from now until September 23rd.