Translation is Dialogue: Language in Transit

Abstract

Tucker has created a programme for people of all ages to understand intersemiotically what happens in the communication and creative process. Translation is Dialogue: Language in Transit uses the framework of the ongoing art installation, Translation is Dialogue (TID). TID introduces various theories of translation and points of entry on how to translate through an array of activities. It is argued that approaching an artwork through the lens of Roman Jakobson’s, Juri Lotman’s, and Peeter Torop’s perspectives on intersemiotic translation, semiosphere, and translational semiotics can help translators, artists and members of the general public to build a practice-led platform for problem solving and understanding creative issues.

Appendix

Sample Workshop Activitiesfor Implementing TID principles

Below are some examples for activities which explore both translation and art making and which I regularly use in TID workshops.

Scribble a Text Sketch

Write down in five minutes your observations of your current surroundings. What one notices and what one does not notice, supports Jakobson’s concept of the “dominant.”

Create in Real Time

Listen to something and document your reaction to the sounds. For example, the drawings, “Wavos” (Fig. 11.6 (L)) and “Zelos” (Fig. 11.6 (R)) were made in real time by Andi Thea as she was listening to Pineda’s description. Discuss why stylistic choices were made.

Fig. 11.6

(L) “Wavos.” Drawing by Andi Thea, 2010. (R) “Zelos.” Drawing by Andi Thea, 2010

Sound Out Sound Stories

Try to orchestrate sounds using only your mouth and body that tells a story. The aim is to have this gibberish speak to your audience with a clear communicative intention. As proposed by linguist and translation scholar Katharina Reiss, you can choose which communicative function you would like to utilize. She proposes the informative text type or “plain communication of facts,” expressive text type or “creative composition” and operative text type or ‘inducing behavioural responses’ (Reiss [1977] 1989: 108–9).

Call and Response

“When you hear a word, what is the first thing that comes into your mind?”

This can be done in a group of two or more. Somebody starts by saying a word and the person to their left responds to it instinctively. This goes around the group a few times keeping the momentum and pace steady and smooth. This activity refers to “‘thinking aloud’ or ‘concurrent verbalization’, which means that subjects are asked to perform a task and to verbalize whatever crosses their mind during the task performance” (Jääskeläinen2010: 371).

Name That Colour

Point to a colour and give it a title as if it were to be placed on a tin of paint. This simply demonstrates Jakobson’s concept of Intersemiotic translation. It can also be a point of discussion around the inclusion of culture, chromatic perception and subjectivity in a translation.

Make a ‘Literal vs. Free’ Translation

To better understand the two general translation strategies identified by Vinayand Darbelnet, direct translation and oblique translation otherwise known as ‘literal vs. free’ translation one can develop a piece of art by just viewing a piece of art as an inspiration ([1958/1995] 2004).

Come Again?

Person A shares a thought. Person B says what Person A just said, but in a different way. This banter of redefining can go back and forth for an indefinite amount of time. Try to go further with detail and explore different ways of paraphrasing, a translating technique that “involves changing whole phrases and more or less corresponds to faithful or sense-for-sense translation” (Munday 2012: 42).

Re-translate the Translated

Choose a TID artwork and make a translation. The direction you choose may reveal your relationship with the artwork. At the very least, it gives you a reason to make art and be creative!