The Archive of Non-Existant Languages which Kunstradio will present at the beginning of the year 2004 is an ongoing and continuously growing project by Eva Egermann. It reflects her interest for self-developed (fantasy) languages which are not decipherable for outsiders. These are recorded within the course of the research process and are archived by means of consecutive numbering and classification in categories. The method for defining the languages merely describes the form of their recitation, e.g. monologue, dialogue, singing etc., and is absolutely neutral.
There are manifold situations in which a new, and only for a specific group of individuals understandable language is created, for instance by manipulating or deconstructing an existing language. Children, especially twins, often invent exclusive childrens' languages which guarantee them a special kind of privacy towards their parents. On the other hand, adults, too, repeatedly create so-called secret languages - a form of coded language - namely in situations when they want to screen information or need to protect themselves from somebody (an oppressor, enemies, or a superior) or something (the law). Language per se, and even more secret or self-invented languages, always functions as a means of identification; at the same time, it is also a natural way of communicating. Here, methods of in- and exclusion are applied. Everybody is familiar with a playful way of dealing with existing languages, for instance when someone has no basic knowledge of a language and therefore kind of "invents" it. Who hasn't experienced somebody gibbering pidgon-like abstract versions of Chinese, Norwegian, Albanian, Russian? And how do these unintelligible, sometimes whispered, sometimes sung mono- and dialogues effectuate the listeners?
The artist Eva Egermann is also aware that art, too, has a language of its own which provokes exclusion and implies that one must learn this specific language in order to be able to take up a dialogue. Before and during the Kunstradio broadcast listeners can add to this archive of, in a way, global sounds by leaving messages with their fantasy and secret languages on an answering machine resp. by posting them to the Kunstradio website.