The Translation Lab: Rooting Practice in Vernacular Logic

This workshop is a practical environment for designers who want to identify and interrupt extractive logic embedded in everyday design language. It focuses on making visible the terms and assumptions that quietly shape briefs, objectives and outcomes before any design work begins.

In this workshop, Maswanganyi guides participants through a hands-on process of linguistic auditing and rooted translation, helping them recognise where inherited terminology drives defuturing outcomes. The emphasis is on replacing surface-level transliteration with deeper shifts in logic that reorient design decisions toward life-centric, regenerative foundations.

Attendees leave with a working method for examining their own briefs and projects, a clearer understanding of how language alters design behaviour, and practical tools for re-anchoring their practice in vernacular logic that supports plural futures.