AS - C()n Du It by Katarzyna Giełżyńska – a case of a total translation of an electronic literature work

Abstract

Translation, or adaptation, of film poems, animated or kinetic poetry and other multimedia works, poses a number of questions for translation theory and practice. Dealing with such pieces involves bringing into the target language and culture multiple formal layers of the work, not only text, but also sound, image and motion. The interplay of signifiers between the various media layers of the work amplifies the constraints to be addressed by the translator, making the concept the basic unit of translation. The English translation by Aleksandra Małecka of the 2013 online collection of 29 video poems by Katarzyna Giełżyńska was premiered at the ELO Media Arts Show in June 2014. This paper is an attempt to analyze the strategies for translating multimedia work, taking up the example of C()n Du It as a case study. One of the points of departure for the analysis of the poetics of the artist's clips, which draws from the logic of logotypes, ads, and minimalist digital works. It attempts to place the new challenge within established paradigms and strategies for the translation of conceptual works of literature. Special attention is devoted to the political question of untranslatability and possible means of addressing it in the translation and curating of such projects. Even if through tackling sound, text and image, the wordplay, puns and multiple meanings are presented to the English-speaking audience, there remains the question of the context, which is particularly important in minimalist, conceptual works. The translator/curator must address the question of whether the work should be presented visibly and markedly as a translation, alongside the original and with curatorial comments on the underlying cultural tradition, or as an independent whole. An extreme response to the cultural impossibility of translation is abusive subtitling. The “abusive translations” added to the collection by Piotr Marecki constitute a performance that strongly comments on these issues. The review of possible approaches to equivalence in translating multimedia works is followed by a discussion of what this type of task entails for the description of the craft of translation and how it challenges conventional perceptions of the role of the translator. Multimedia translation often requires the collaborative effort of a number of specialists, posing questions about the status of the author and the translator, arguably redefining their relationship, as well as that between the original and the translated work.

Keywords

• kinetic poetry
• electronic literature
• abusive subtitling
• translation
• localization