Kyle Johnson will make a (short) presentation with Diane Lillo-Martin and Andrew Nevins on the structure of language at the 2014 Science Festival in Rome on Saturday, January 25. The Festival this year is devoted to linguistics and language, and will include talks by many well-known linguists, including Noam Chomsky who will also be the subject of an “opera” which is described thusly:
A talk-opera by Emanuele Casale for instrumental ensemble, voice, electronics and images Conversations with Chomsky is a musical opera featuring characters who “interpret” themselves, without acting a part, on a virtual stage – the video screen. Various characters follow and interact with one another at the threshold between reality and evocation: the linguist and activist Noam Chomsky, an internationally renowned scholar and professor at the M.I.T.; legendary names such as those of Margaret Thatcher, Milton Friedman, Ronald Reagan and Salvador Allende; and university students. Far from being a work of political propaganda, Conversations with Chomsky seeks to combine themes related to activism within an audiovisual framework vaguely inspired by melodrama. The central theme is the current contrast between two impulses found within individuals and societies: collectivism and mutual aid on the one hand, and competition and individualism on the other.
Check out the full schedule here.
