Spoken Panorama

Spoken Panorama is a discursive mapping project. It transcribes panel discussions and conversations and maps them into a single panorama. The panoramas then become a point of discussion in their own right, giving participants and audiences a deeper insight into the discourse they took part in. They can be shown digitally or physically.

The transcription is divided into segments of one or two sentences. Each segment is then converted into a numerical vector and placed in a 384-dimensional embedding model, so that statements saying similar things sit close together even when they use different words. This model is then reduced to two dimensions, converting the discourse into a panorama that can be read at a glance.

The project traces its lineage to the work of Mark Lombardi and the tradition of panorama painting. Where the nineteenth-century panorama showed an entire landscape or battle in a single view, Lombardi rendered entire networks of power on one sheet. Here the subject is a discourse, with everything said across a discussion laid out so it can be read at once.

Upcoming

Spoken Panorama: Video Sound Art Festival, 18–22 November 2026, Fondazione Galleria Milano, Milan

Spoken Panorama: STPI Print Show and Symposium, 23-24 January 2027, Singapore