falseFriends.cpp is an interactive codework poem written using the ProgramMigrating Language, which seeks to represent my personal experience of living between languages (Italian and English) through code poetry. Based on the structure of C++, the poem forefronts my experience, while offering multiple routes through the text depending on the reader’s interpretation of English/Italian false friends (words that sound similar across languages but have different meanings).

There’s also an interactive version of the poem, which sits at the centre of my interactive essay. The hypertext poem is non-linear and uses both languages in a series of nested ‘if statements’ that circle back to the beginning, offering no closure – all contributing to the notion of queering the algorithm and embracing an idea of multiplicity beyond the binary either/or, in favour of a lived experience of and and and.

            
            //
            //  falseFriends.cpp
            //  
            //
            //  Created by Giulia Carla Rossi on 03/05/2022.
            //
            
            #import ProgramMigrating Language library
            
            //declaring your variables of identity
            public bool movimento;
            public string countryOfArrival;
            public string paeseDiNascita;
            public vector  people;
            public vector  expectations;
            public Self newSelf;
            public int integrazione&&assimilazione;
            public Lingua languageOfArrival;
            public FalseFriend pretend[ere];
            public float English;
            public float Italiano;
            
            
            private string livedExperience;
            private Lingua madreLingua;
            private bool shame;
            private bool roomForSelf;
            
            if (paeseDiNascita != countryOfArrival) && (madreLingua != languageOfArrival) {
                movimento = true;
                newSelf.setup();
                expectations.begin();
                
                if (pretend[ere] == "faking") {
                    languageOfArrival.setup(English);
                    if (roomForSelf == true){
                    
                        augmentPortableSociety();
                        //you can become so much more
                        //than you ever thought you could
                        //when you contained only one
                    
                    }else if (roomForSelf == false){
                    
                        barattaIdioma();
                        integrazione&&assimilazione++;
                        //glossolalia è la sesta fase de lutto
                        //dopo il sacrificio e prima dell'arresa
                        //alla perdita di un punto di vista familiare in favour of a foreign
                        //set of imagery nested deep inside your throat
                        //syntactic bile rising and no silver platter at the end to catch it
                    }
                    
                }else if (pretend[ere] == "demand"){
                        languageOfArrival.setup(Italiano);
                        se (selfTranslate().size() < selfBetrayal().size()){
                    
                            shame = true;
                            people.push_back(newSelf);
                            expectations.update();
                    
                        }altrimenti{
                    
                            livedExperience.drawString("you carry your own meaning with you");
                            semanticTrigger();
                            //follow the sematic trigger and draw your own conclusions
                            //there is no giusto or sbagliato
                            //no single layer of interpretation
                            transHumance(); //and loop forever
                            transLate[nt](); //what is smuggled inside a language
                        }
                }
            }