The Thought Occurs

Monday, 10 November 2025

UNIVERSITY NEWSLETTER ENTIRELY IN BIRDCALLS AND INTERPRETIVE GESTURES

Event Title: “The Avian Gazette: Communiqué in Chirp and Motion”

Location: The Central Quad, under the Grand Oak of Semiotics
Organised by:

  • Department of Nonverbal Communication

  • Society for Kinetic Correspondence

  • Bureau of Ornithological Linguistics
    Editor-in-Chief: Featherina Tweetwise (they/them)


PHILOSOPHY

Written words are instruments of linear oppression.
Letters, punctuation, and paragraphs enforce hierarchy and deadlines.
Only through birdcalls, flapping sequences, and interpretive gestures can knowledge traverse the campus unshackled.


CONTENT STRUCTURE

1. Academic Announcements

  • Research grants communicated through a murmuration of pigeons in the Quad.

  • Grant eligibility, deadlines, and funding amounts transmitted via flute duets and wing-spread signals.

  • Example: A high-pitched trill with three clockwise loops = “Full funding for interdisciplinary chaos approved.”

2. Campus News

  • Faculty promotions announced via synchronized dance on rooftops at sunset.

  • Cafeteria menu changes broadcast by students performing interpretive gestures corresponding to taste and aroma.

  • Library hours conveyed through woodpecker-style tapping sequences on windows.

3. Event Calendar

  • Lectures: communicated via rhythmic hopping patterns on the lawn, interpreted live by designated “avian translators.”

  • Social events: announced through coordinated tail-feather displays and chirp harmonics.

  • Student clubs: represented by color-coded wing flags and wing-beat tempo.


FACULTY TESTIMONIAL: DR. LINA FERNTANGLE (she/they)

“I never knew how liberating it could be to announce office hours by whistling in a pattern of minor thirds.
Students now appear exactly when their vibe aligns with the rhythm, and office traffic has never been smoother—or stranger.”


STUDENT EXPERIENCE: ZIN (they/fae)

“I don’t read the newsletter anymore.
I listen. I watch. I interpret.
Some days the flapping means ‘seminar,’ other days it means ‘pop-up emotional labyrinth in the quad.’
Learning has become a full-body, multisensory experience.”


VISUALS

  • Screens across campus project animated silhouettes of birds performing interpretive dances.

  • QR codes are replaced with feather symbols; scanning requires mimicking the feather’s movement.

  • Emergency alerts now issued via synchronized bird whistles, decoded by trained interns in matching avian hats.


SLOGAN

“The word is free. The letter is a cage. Chirp, flap, gesture: this is how we know.”

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