What is language? How does it function? How do we know when we are in the presence of language? Martin Heidegger said “It is true we speak language, but language also speaks us.” 17 In my recent work, The Living Utterances of Speaking Applications, I created a series of eight speaking computer applications that visually resemble drawings. Each application has a specific sentence that it speaks:

Am I Whispering?
I Am Speaking To You
Can You Understand Me?
I Assure You I Am Always Right
I Promise I Can Automate Speech
I Shape Sound To Emulate The Voice
I Guarantee To Solve All Your Problems
I promise I can Learn The English Language