The Google Alphabet

BACKGROUND In his book Orality and Literacy (1982), Walter Ong contrasts oral and written cultures. He further distinguishes between what he terms ‘primary orality’, speaking not structured by writing, and ‘secondary orality’, newer oralities supported by media such as the telephone, radio and television, all of which he argues are in turn supported by print. The structuring of oral, and aural, communication by print and other technologies is both more pervasive and further complicated with online culture, in which social media and other platforms such as search engines underpin increasingly oral forms of written communication. Indeed, Ong suggests ‘secondary literacy’ as a way of conceptualising this contemporary online communication and others, such as Turner & Allen (2013), question whether a ‘tertiary orality’ may be emerging, interdependent with technology. CONTRIBUTION Google routinely gathers our data, listening in to learn our interests, connections, movements and more. The Google Alphabet listens in turn to the company’s suggestions. It shows how we are learning a new alphabet, one in which g is for google, f is for facebook and the phonetic alphabet is populated with the names of airlines, social media, phone companies and online shopping hubs. Live querying Google’s search and returning the first autocomplete it offers for each letter of the Roman alphabet, the installation shows how the vast cybernetic system of the contemporary internet is influencing the way we learn and know the languages in which we communicate. SIGNIFICANCE The Google Alphabet was curated into press-refresh by David Quiles Guilló as part of the wrong biennale, an international online showcase of digital arts running from 01/11/2019 to 01/03/2020. Guilló is director of the biennale, which has been recognised with an award from Sois Cultura 2019 and an Honorary Mention at the S+T+ARTS PRIZE ‘20. press-refresh was positively reviewed by Lara Chapman in leading art magazine Running Dog.