Migrating Texts. Innovation and Technology in Subtitling, Translation and Adaptation

Migrating Texts. Innovation and Technology in Subtitling, Translation and Adaptation Institute of Modern Languages Research (IMLR), School of Advanced Study, University of London 04/05/2018 Workshop Leaders: Carla Mereu (Bristol); Katie Brown (Bristol); Kit Yee Wong (BBK) In the last decades, advances in digital communications and innovative technologies have deeply transformed the way texts are created and travel across material, linguistic, spatial and temporal boundaries. This is particularly evident in the everchanging landscape of the audiovisual translation (AVT) sector, but translation practices in publishing and theatre for example have also been largely affected. What tools were available to translation practitioners before the digital revolution? What can we learn from the transition from analogue to digital production? How has online software reformed translators’ access to work and their modus operandi? How has the job market adapted to the demand for a new profile of translator who is at the same time a language-cultural expert and tech-savvy? What new forms of adaptation are available today? Our discussions will consist of a morning and an afternoon session, both featuring a mixture of academic and industry speakers. The subtitling session (10:00-13:30) will explore advances in subtitling practice from a diachronic perspective. It will first discuss the origins and nature of written language on screen and the key role played by early, often non-professional, translators in the international circulation of moving images. It will then observe more recent technical developments in both textual and professional practice, underlining issues surrounding quality standards and access to the job market. The translation and adaptation session in the afternoon (14:30-18:00) will explore changes to reading, writing and publishing occasioned by technological innovation, from the ways we do translation (e.g. computer-aided translation methods) to the ways translations and adaptations are disseminated (e.g. digital storytelling platforms). The session will conclude with a practical exercise where attendees adapt a text for a digital storytelling platform.