Experiential Translation: Meaning-Making, Engagement and Agency across Media in a Multimodal World

The conjuncture of globalisation, increased migration and digitisation has created new spaces for communication, for social and cultural exchanges and encounters. Both in online and offline environments across the globe, we experience an increase in plurilingualism and multiculturalism. Further, digital technologies have made communication increasingly multimodal as we switch or swipe between images, text, memes, emoticons, audio etc.

With lock-down or social distancing measures in place across the globe in response to the current pandemic, online platforms have become the primary site of exchange for many of us. However, while there is exponential growth in the possibilities available for cross-cultural communication, divisions between social, ethnic or national groups are growing as xenophobia and extremism are on the rise.

Our world is simultaneously shrinking and expanding, with borderless digital platforms enabling factions and schisms on an unprecedented scale.

In today's complex societal ecologies where multiple languages and modalities are simultaneously available for communication, it is vital to develop enhanced literacies capable of fostering individual and community agency and engagement for this highly interconnected but fragmented world. We perceive the role of translation, between languages (interlingual) but also between media (intersemiotic), as central to such an undertaking.

Translation requires the close engagement of the translator with, and respect for, the source (be that text, sound or image) as well as the creative act of articulating the source in another language or, in intersemiotic translation, another medium. Within the framework of this network we are exploring intersemiotic translation as a method of creation and communication, as a method for learning and teaching, collaboration and participation within multilingual, multicultural and multimodal settings.

This includes understanding the many modes and modalities that contribute to meaning-making in cross-cultural communication (online & offline), language education and translation, and embracing the role of individual imagination and artistic creation in education and arts institutions (e.g. libraries, galleries, museums).

In an effort to bring together multiple perspectives and disciplines from scholars and artists in a range of language areas, the network includes colleagues from the UK, Portugal, Poland, Spain, Hungary, Italy and Hong Kong whose areas of expertise range from translation studies, theatre & performance studies and cultural & literary studies to curatorial studies, education, modern languages, music, the fine arts, and teacher & translator training.

While our research is grounded in the theories of these diverse disciplines (to be discussed at 3 events), we are jointly developing practice-based methods to facilitate a hands-on understanding of intersemiotic practice and how it can be applied more widely as a method for teaching and learning in multicultural educational and community settings. Much of our research will be conducted in the form of public community workshops (at local venues and/or online according to prevailing health guidelines ) exploring intersemiotic translation via creative methods (e.g. writing, performance, art-making).

These will lay the groundwork for the development of tools, protocols and ethical procedures for training educators, translators and community practitioners.

We will document and disseminate our progress on a public website via speculative blog conversations between network participants, videos and more formal academic reflections. Our final event will include a public exhibition of the artistic work created during our joint research. We will also present our findings in an edited volume on the pedagogical applications of intersemiotic translation in formal and informal settings.