The Discontent of Voice and Image – The Task of The Audiovisual Translator

How can translation be used as a critical method in audiovisual practice?

Through mapping, reconstruction, and enactment, the purpose of this research project is to form new perspectives on the meaning and function of translation in audiovisual media.In the current media landscape, machine translation is turning into a global auxiliary language. Media platforms have built in translation functions, sometimes so well integrated that users hardly notice.

Audiovisual translation is often treated as a neutral codification or practical means for cultural adaptation.

But there is no neutral approach to translation, it is a process of distortion and recontextualization, based on ideologies of community, publicity, and identity.Situated between translation and film practice, this project sets out to investigate subversive and non-conformist approaches to audiovisual translation.

That is, practices that run counter to political structures, and practices that do not apply to conventional manifestations of translation.The research investigates a space between dubbing and voice-over, presuming that such a position gives room to expand on and experiment with the translational act, and its relation to sound and image.

It extends over three years in two parallel processes: 1) Building of an open audiovisual archive that maps practices of audiovisual translation. 2) A series of enactments that critically demonstrate forms and strategies of audiovisual translation through performance and film.