New international network will put participatory culture at the heart of translation research
Dr Sarah Maitland (Translation Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London) and Dr Gan Sheuo Hui (Puttnam School of Film and Animation at LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore) are pleased to announce the launch of the international multidisciplinary research network Streaming, Meme-ing, Intervening in Meaning: Cultural Translation and the Transformation of Global Popular Culture Through the Creative Use of Online Participatory Technologies.
Led by Dr Maitland, and supported by the Goldsmiths-LASALLE Partnership Innovation Fund (PIF), the two-year project will deliver a programme of research workshops, public roundtables and knowledge exchange events aimed at investigating how global audiences are transforming popular culture content produced in other cultural and linguistic contexts through their creative use of online participatory technologies (including video-sharing platforms, static and animated image macro generators, video editing software and livestreaming services).
There is a thirst for popular culture content unhindered by national and linguistic borders. To engage in meaningful encounters with manifestations of culture produced outside their own locality, global audiences have turned to a range of freely-available online technologies to not only bridge the various divides that separate them from accessing the material successfully, but also to create pathways for others to share in the content alongside them. Cultural translation research suggests that in the passage from one audience to another, and from one cultural and linguistic context to another, original content is both translated interlingually and transformed creatively by the new audience it secures, facilitating more inclusive participation in global culture and opening up new ways of conceiving of original works and their meanings in the world. By charting creative interventions in the global dissemination of popular culture, this project will establish the foundations for better understanding the role of online technology as a tool of participation and promoter of transformative and inclusive experiences with global popular culture.
Dr Sarah Maitland will lead the Streaming, Meme-ing, Intervening in Meaning project, working closely with Dr Gan Sheuo Hui and the Puttnam School of Film and Animation at LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore. Sarah is Senior Lecturer in Translation Studies at the Department of English and Creative Writing at Goldsmiths, University of London, where she leads the MA in Translation and PhD programmes in Translation and Translation by Practice. Dr Gan Sheuo Hui is a lecturer at Puttnam School of Film and Animation, LASALLE College of the Arts, where she teaches contextual studies in animation and screen studies.
“I am pleased that the Goldsmiths-LASALLE Partnership Innovation Fund will allow Dr Maitland and Dr Gan to pursue their research project on the cutting edge in the field of cultural translation. The project widens our College’s concern with innovation and creativity as drivers of technological and societal change, and it strengthens further the engagement of our Department of English and Creative Writing with LASALLE College of the Arts.”
Professor Frank Krause, Head of the Department of English and Creative Writing at Goldsmiths, University of London
“I believe this project provides an outstanding opportunity to establish interdisciplinary collaborations based on research, involving staff and students. It also furnishes opportunities for the exchange of best practices through a platform for academic discourse that provides valuable research to both Goldsmiths and LASALLE.”
Christopher Shaw, Head of the Puttnam School of Film and Animation at LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore
“I’m delighted we can make this project a reality. By exploring the ways in which global audiences are using online technologies to participate actively in the consumption and creative transformation of popular culture content, we can better understand what open-access culture looks like and what still remains to be done when it comes to taking creative approaches to promoting more equitable access to global culture and including a more diverse range of audiences in the internationalisation of cultural products.”
Dr Sarah Maitland
“I am thrilled that this research collaboration with Dr Maitland is staff-initiated and warmly supported by the Goldsmiths-LASALLE Partnership Innovation Fund. I am looking forward to the exchanging of knowledge through our research workshops with researchers, students and industry players, that will allow us to reimagine the roles of the online technologies in its creation, dissemination and consumption.”
Dr Gan Sheuo Hui
To find out more about the project, please visit:
https://www.sarahmaitland.co.uk/culturaltranslationresearchnetwork/