Greetings wordling

Greetings Wordling – or the Climate Journal as it is known by students – is an initiative developed by Catalina Mejia Moreno with Eliot Haworth, the Climate Forum and the MA Architecture at CSM which brings together voices of all students of the M-Arch (2024-25) as they critically and collectively engage with questions of climate and language. Greetings Wordling is an invitation to think about and engage with questions of climate that go beyond the quantifiable. To sit with its inherently relational nature. To think of the agency of language in shaping possible futures for all within this transitioning planet, and to think about its role in shaping socio-ecological understandings of climate within architectural and spatial practice. It is an invitation to collectively shape our language as it relates to the multiple climate crises that the planet we co-inhabit is facing. Its a collective reflection that considers language to be at the service of life.

When used as a verb, the term wordling might describe the making or inhabiting of words and has its origins in the forthcoming publication Inga Kaugsay / Habitar Inga / Inga Dwelling authored by Musu Jacanamijoy, Pedro Jajoy, Catalina Mejia Moreno, Juliana Ramirez and Jhon Tisoy. It acts as a translation of the Spanish term ‘palabrear’ which refers to the act of bringing to life ideas, thoughts, dreams, visions and more through the spoken word. Simultaneously, it embodies an ancestral methodology: a collective practice to enliven the spoken word and to profoundly engage with discourse honouring the spirit it carries. Often practised within ‘círculos de la palabra’, word-sharing gatherings that bring community members to interchange spoken word with this conscious intention. When used as a noun, a wordling suggests a being made up and constituted of words. Which is to say, every living thing when seen under the lens of language. Beyond this, wordling, also draws on the concept of worlding, or making of worlds born from the question: ‘What kinds of worlds are needed at this time of ecological crises?’ In short, wordling, as an act, a mode of thought, or a fundamental state of being, draws attention to the way in which language continuously reflects, shapes and creates the world around us.