How To Do Things With Non-Words

Harun Morrison

“I became aware of ‘non-words’ via an issue of the Journal of British Language and Communication Disorders that belonged to my sister, a speech therapist. It featured a table of 40 pairs of non-words of increasing complexity. Here it has been replicated and enlarged. The poster is accompanied by the voice of Zurich based artist and musician Lea Rüegg singing the words. Speech-therapists use non-words as a diagnostic tool to gauge language skills (especially phonetic decoding ability). Non-words follow the typical structure of a word in a given language, but do not exist. The person being tested cannot rely on pre-familiarity and other social factors. The title of this work riffs on language philosopher J.L. Austin’s text How To Do Thing With Words (1955/1962).” Harun Morrison.

Originally commissioned as part of ‘Not Standing In Place’, a project by Vlatka Horvat & Tim Etchells, Zurich: Theater Spektakel Festival, 2021.

Bio:
Harun Morrison is an artist and writer based on the inland waterways in the UK. He was the 20/21 recipient of the Wheatley Fine Art Fellowship, hosted by Birmingham School of Art, Birmingham City University and Eastside Projects. He is currently Designer and Researcher in Residence at V&A Dundee. His forthcoming novel, The Escape Artist will be published by Book Works in 2023. Since 2006, Harun has collaborated with Helen Walker as part of the collective practice They Are Here. Harun is currently showing work at Nieuwe Vide project space in Haarlem, Netherlands (‘Mark The Spark’ 17.03 – 15.05.22) and has a forthcoming exhibition at the Horniman Museum this summer. He is currently part of the APAP Performing Arts Network.