Rob Stolte

Exploring the art of Learning, Language and Letters

Proto-Futura An Archaeology of Future Script

Installation

Proto–Futura is an ongoing research-based art project by Rob Stolte that explores the speculative futures of writing through its ancient origins. Drawing from early proto-alphabetic inscriptions carved in the turquoise mines of Serabit el-Khadim, the project reimagines script as a cultural practice rooted in sensory experience, intuition, and collective meaning-making.

In an immersive, participatory installation, visitors carve new, non-alphabetic signs into physical surfaces, liberated from conventional language systems. These intuitive gestures are documented and analyzed, forming a living archive of contemporary symbolic expression.

Bridging media archaeology and inclusive literacy, Proto–Futura investigates how writing might evolve beyond standardization and toward forms of communication that embrace neurodiversity, a re-connection between sound and symbol and post-technological embodiment.

Discover Proto–Futura

SHOP

The Stroke

Space as a perception of literacy

Unique artworks

A Pre-Literate Playground

Bridging the gap between illiterate and literate life

Unique artworks

Multiples

Limited edition photographs

Glyphs

Niche parfums based on the historical origin of the alphabet

Limited editions: SOLD OUT

A is for Ox

Where do our letters come from?

Open edition