#kaduatán

[dedalvs]

Kopikon Presenters: John Quijada

Today we continue with introductions to our Kopikon presenters with John Quijada!

John is a conlanger, musician, artist, and board game designer. John is best known for creating the Ithkuil language. Ithkuil is a philosophical language whose aim is to pack as much information into as small a space as possible as unambiguously as possible. The result is a language that isn't really possible to learn and use on the fly, but produces fascinating, meditative thought experiments in the form of a translation. An infamous regarding Ithkuil being taken up by a group of Russian terrorists was detailed by Joshua Foer in The New Yorker (read "Utopian for Beginners" here).

John will be presenting at 2:30 p.m. in Copley Formal Lounge at Georgetown University, September 23rd, 2023. To register, go here. The full schedule is listed below:

10:00 a.m. Opening remarks by David & Jessie

10:15 a.m. Sally Caves

10:45 a.m. Carl Buck

11:15 a.m. Break (20 minutes)

11:35 a.m. Sylvia Sotomayor

12:00 p.m. David Peterson

12:30 p.m. Lunch (90 minutes)

2:00 p.m. Paul Frommer

2:30 p.m. John Quijada

3:15 p.m. Break (30 minutes)

3:45 p.m. Music (Jillian and Andrew Aversa)

4:15 p.m. Jessie Sams

4:45 p.m. Break (15 minutes)

5:00 p.m. Biblaridion

5:45 p.m. Marc Okrand

6:30 p.m. Closing remarks by David & Jessie

[max1461]

Which version of Ithkuil are the Kaduatán songs in? Ithkuil 2004? I think they must be because I hear ejectives in there.

[dedalvs]

Here’s the latest song from Kaduatán, the band that’s composed of John Quijada (everything but lead vocals) and me (lead vocals). This song is called “Synaesthesia”, with lyrics written in Ithkuil by John who is a synaesthete. This one’s a wild one. Go to about the 10:08 mark for an unbelievably awesome synth solo. That’s all John. This one had some fun vocals and vocal fills to do; was a lot of fun to record (though it took a long time due to my schedule). Hope you like it!

[dedalvs]

I just saw the Ôrödyagzou video and really loved it. Are you intending to do a lot of music in the future?

Thanks! Music is literally the thing I love the most, but I doubt it. I’m always happy to sing vocals for John Q.’s music, but it’s very, very difficult. I do a million different takes because, as I explained to him, I feel like I only have so much focus, and I can use that focus to make sure the musicality is right, or that the pronunciation is right, but not both. John usually ends up putting several takes together to get something he’s happy with.

Anyway, now I have too much other stuff going on to actually do music, and I am getting older. If I had the opportunity to do things differently, I would’ve stopped sabotaging myself when I was younger because I was too embarrassed to sing in front of people. Then I might’ve actually gotten training and practice early on and be in a place where I could be doing stuff now. But that’s all right. My life is pretty great, and there’s always karaoke. :)

Oh, also in case it wasn’t clear, I’m responsible for the vocals; John Q. does all the music. I play guitar and bass, but I can’t actually play well enough to perform, and the music I can come up with is nowhere near as complex or interesting as the music I like to listen to. (Or the music we do in Kaduatán, I should say. I listen to all kinds; some of it I can play.)

Finally, because it probably couldn’t be gleaned by following my Tumblr, I love the Meat Puppets. Their music is epic.

[dedalvs]

This is the latest video for Kaduatán, the band consisting of John Quijada (song writer/lyricist/background vocalist) and me (vocalist), with all the lyrics written in John’s conlang Ithkuil. If you have a strong aversion to clowns, may not want to watch this video; just listen. They’re not horrifying clowns, just weird, clownish clowns. Seemed relevant because this song is called “The Clown Song”. Anyway, enjoy!

[dedalvs]

Yo, I discovered Kaduatán a couple days ago, through a post in r/conlangs announcing the release of Îndarna, and I'm really digging the songs (my favorite is Unk’àtân at the moment). Really excited for another one!

Thanks! “Unk’àtân” started out as my favorite (when I just heard the music), but with the lyrics, “Îndarna” is my favorite at the moment. John’s amazing at writing this stuff. I hope a full band will pick his music up one day so we can hear a live version.