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Can You Hear My Accent?
Can You Hear My Accent? is my final major project for the MA Graphic Design Communication course at UAL Camberwell College of Art. A sociolinguistic project combining situated publishing with sound and performance, it explores how Central and Eastern European workers in the UK are judged by their accent, regardless of how strong their knowledge of English (written and spoken).
The project includes a short publication containing written reports made by different workers of Central & Eastern European background, featuring original typeface Glagolik, and visuals inspired by Central & Eastern European folk art and the Croatian licitar heart design. These interact with audio clips of the same reports being read aloud by these workers in their native accent, included as the sound element of the project.
Doctor
Engineer
Banker
Plumber
Carer
Nanny
The Glagolik typeface design is inspired by the ancient Glagolitic script, or Croatian glagoljica - known as the oldest Slavic alphabet. Reflecting my Croatian heritage, it was designed specifically for the project, used throughout the publication in on the title pages and the front cover.
Additionally, a short performance piece contributes to the project, with the aim of rewriting the narrative on Eastern Europeans due to an identified link between accent bias and media representation of Eastern Europeans and their common association with antagonistic roles in film and theatre. It was made in collaboration with London-based Romanian actress Maria Forrester, as a mock-audition tape of Forrester reciting the monologue of the character Helena from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Filmed in the style of a professional audition tape, Forrester begins the monologue in the standard, RP-leaning English accent typically associated with Shakespeare plays, but halfway through reverts into a strong Romanian accent - her native accent prior to emigrating and beginning her acting career in the UK.
Can You Hear My Accent? will be displayed in full at the upcoming Postgraduate Design Show at UAL Camberwell in November 2025, with visitors participating in the interactive element of how the workers' accents may be perceived differently in writing vs. speech. The full project includes the short publication and the accompanying audio (presented on an mp3 in a laser cut box), along with the full alphabetic display of Glagolik (laser cut into wood), instructions for the interactive task, a guest book for visitors to add their feedback, plus the screening of Maria Forrester's audition tape.
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