The Der Die Das Project

Art Direction • Sculpture • Photography

As anyone that’s ever tried learning another language knows, memorising all of the new vocabulary is generally the least of your troubles! Different languages have their own grammar rules and seemingly bizarre word ordering that often widely deviate from what we’re used to. The German language is certainly no exception.

One such troublesome pest is the definite article; all three of them, their other three variants, and all sixteen different instances with which you can use them. The three main articles der, die, and das are used for masculine, feminine and plural, and neutral words, respectively. Still with me?

Needless to say, trying to wrap all of this around my brain while also trying to remember basic vocab was not going well. Until one day, being the visual thinker that I am, I decided to apply (stereotypical) colours to each articles’ gender. Masculine gets blue, feminine is paired with red, and neutral receives beige. I started imagining all of these new objects and places I was learning about in their specific colours. So because a market place is masculine, I just pictured an entire market scene (stalls, vendors, customers, fruit and veg—everything!) spray painted blue. And now I will never forget that it’s der Marktplatz!

I also started using the common mnemonic device of visualising what a new word sounds like or reminds me of in English, and burning that image in my mind. The weirder, the better! And thus, The Der Die Das Project was born.