YO or OY, say what? Creative place-making through metrolingual artifacts in a gentrified Brooklyn neighborhood

This talk investigates a metrolingual language object and “creative placemaking” in Dumbo, Brooklyn within the era of late capitalism. It is an analysis of how two simple letters “O” and “Y”, when put together create two short words “OY”  and “YO” yet carry exponential meaning about metrolingual language ideologies, language users and powerful social agents. An example of heteroglossic play and linguistic creativity, Deborah Kass’s multilingual artwork is at the crossroads of social, cultural, political and linguistic boundaries of diverse communities in urban space. Drawing on interview data with the local Brooklyn-based artist herself, this talk focuses on how Kass’s artwork was fabricated and re-contextualized for public space, use and consumption, but paid for by a private, influential individual gentrifier and his local real estate development company. In short, it is a local narrative about key players within urban development schemes driving consumer cultures through unique selling propositions (USP) within late capitalist societies laying the foundations for language to emerge and become a cultural, material and embodied artifact reflecting global marketing practices and the semiotic landscaping of newly gentrified urban hubs.