𒑱 Read Between The Lines :)

Emojis, scare quotes, highlight, cartouches in Egyptian hieroglyphs, and many more elements of written texts exist between, around, or on top of the words themselves, and help us read between the lines. They may provide emotional cues 🤨, let the writer use a word without quite “believing” in it, tell us what to focus on, or make the name of an important person like Tutankhamun stand out… This festival will celebrate ancient and modern inventions for reading between the lines.

Activities will include experiments on ancient and modern writing, designing your own emoji, deciphering a Linear B tablet, making a cuneiform or an Egyptian hieroglyphic text look professional, watching a mosaicist at work, having your face painted, and refreshments!

There will be a ten-minute performance of a play directed by Paul O’Mahony. The main character will be an emoji, on a quest to prove that emojis have existed for centuries….what will the answer turn out to be? This will be performed at 4pm and 5pm, and will be followed by discussion with the audience.

The event is free and open to all ages. The event will be British Sign Language interpreted.

The event will be followed by a Labyrinth Escape Show, for which all are welcome to stay. (Please note that the Escape Show will not be BSL interpreted.)

If you have any questions, please email philomen.probert@wolfson.ox.ac.uk

This project is a collaboration between the Rumble Museum, Cheney School, the University of Oxford, and Università Ca’Foscari Venezia. It is generously supported by the University of Oxford’s PCER Fund; the Philological Society; the TORCH Performance Research Hub (University of Oxford); the Faculty of Classics (University of Oxford); the Faculty of Linguistics, Philology & Phonetics (University of Oxford); the Faculty of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies (University of Oxford); Wolfson College, Oxford; the Institute of Classical Studies; the General Fund for Assyriology (University of Oxford); the Iris Project; and the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies.