Abstract
This project reimagines tartan as a data-physicalization of Scots Gaelic. Extending ‘Radical Gaels’, a psycho-geographic soundscape that maps the identity, geographies and material history of Contemporary Gaels. Weaving Visual Language translates Scots waulking songs and geographies through cryptographic mapping to weave structure, using a Python-based binary matrix encoding system, illustrating the loss of Gaelic oral traditions. The resulting textiles act as linguistic archives and objects of cultural dissent. The project proposes a framework for museums to engage audiences through preserving information within the artefact itself, rather than exterior labelling. Theoretically, this work develops the idea of ‘culturally constrained physicalization’, where cultural legibility, provenance and the anthropology of making are treated as primary constraints that may legitimately override data fidelity. We propose a new methodology to combine the material and immaterial object, creating embodiment. It demonstrates how material–digital artefacts can preserve and perform intangible heritage, communicating the anthropology of making.
Keywords
Tartan, Gaelic, data-physicalization, GLAMs
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.2693
Citation
Drummond, E., Clarke, D., Sturdee, M., and MacLeod, F. (2026) Weaving visual language: Encoding Gaelic in tartan length to facilitate interaction with endangered languages, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.2693
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
Weaving visual language: Encoding Gaelic in tartan length to facilitate interaction with endangered languages
This project reimagines tartan as a data-physicalization of Scots Gaelic. Extending ‘Radical Gaels’, a psycho-geographic soundscape that maps the identity, geographies and material history of Contemporary Gaels. Weaving Visual Language translates Scots waulking songs and geographies through cryptographic mapping to weave structure, using a Python-based binary matrix encoding system, illustrating the loss of Gaelic oral traditions. The resulting textiles act as linguistic archives and objects of cultural dissent. The project proposes a framework for museums to engage audiences through preserving information within the artefact itself, rather than exterior labelling. Theoretically, this work develops the idea of ‘culturally constrained physicalization’, where cultural legibility, provenance and the anthropology of making are treated as primary constraints that may legitimately override data fidelity. We propose a new methodology to combine the material and immaterial object, creating embodiment. It demonstrates how material–digital artefacts can preserve and perform intangible heritage, communicating the anthropology of making.