Being in Translation

Being in Translation was a paper delivered with Dr Emily Saline at the Teaching Culturally and Linguistically Diverse International Students in Open or Online Learning Environments: A Research Symposium​.

‘Becoming Lost and Found in Translation’ is a participatory co-designed research project involving University of the Arts London students and staff. It investigates how acts of translation can enhance learning, critical thinking and help foster a sense of community amongst a diverse home and International student cohort in open and online learning environments.

Our approach blends design, education theory and translation theory: we are particularly interested in the ways translation enables us to explore transitions from one state to another, liberating and decolonising curricula and how translation itself advances thinking in design education.

The project was co-created with international students on their design degree. They developed interactive tools and designs, including an Instagram site (bla.bla.bla.translation) where new students were invited to introduce their experience aiming to encourage reflection on belonging, design, and the role of language and translation for new students, as well as what living in translation means.

bell hooks says in, Teaching to Transgress, “To hear each other (the sound of different voices), to listen to one another, is an exercise in recognition. It also ensures that no student remains invisible”.

This interactive presentation introduces a project developed at the University of the Arts London to create an online a space for students to correspond, in multiple languages, to share heritages and to learn about different cultures.

The starting point of our project asked students to translate our collaboratively constructed London College of Communication ‘Design School Manifesto’, into over 45 languages that are some of the ones spoken at UAL. Students were encouraged to display their translations and interact by correcting, amending, discussing the translations both verbally and through drawing. Students then moved on to other discussions, dialogues and collaborations in online spaces.

During the London Design Festival 2020 we launched an interactive Instagram, bla.bla.bla.translation. This is a place where the Design School Manifesto can be translated, reworked and reimagined through a series of regular challenges, take overs, live events, online workshops, and stories. These spaces encourage reflection on belonging, design, and the role of language and translation in community building, as well as what living in translation means. One key component is to encourage all students (including English native speakers) to encounter and interact with other languages and cultures through online guided reflection.

After presenting the project, we engage the participants in online interactions with the Becoming lost and Found in Translation Padlet used by students and staff at UAL as a form of Q & A.

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