Here’s a weird one. Sinless gets behind Bar Code designs, an odd project in which people can flirt and hook up with a form of sign language for those too cool – or simply too lame – to talk or offer to buy somebody a drink.
Bar Code sends registered users a new sign to learn every week or so. We registered for the list but are thus far pretty skeptical. It reminds us a little of Esperanto, that experiment in universal language that was supposed to bring cosmopolitan travelers together but is mainly utilized by awkward people trying to shortcut learning an actual native tongue.
Dissemination of the hipster signs depends on word of mouth but we don’t see it working unless a critical mass is already out there using it. Otherwise those willing to get savvy will just be out there with limbs akimbo, monkeying an artificial social langue only they and maybe five other people in the universe understand, which gives us something new to laugh about, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. For us, anyway.
