Community Centres as Sites of Translation: Placemaking in Edinburgh

Min-Hsiu Liao; Katerina Strani; Eilidh Johnstone

doi:10.18778/2083-2931.15.06

Authors

Min-Hsiu Liao Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5348-6281
Katerina Strani Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5791-0465
Eilidh Johnstone Independent Scholar https://orcid.org/0009-0008-4689-2426

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/2083-2931.15.06

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Keywords:

translation space, counter-translations, materiality, intersemiotic translation, translation practices

Abstract

This article presents a research project comprising a series of community initiatives in Edinburgh, a city which displays a disproportionately English-heavy linguistic profile, despite the cosmopolitan influences of both migration and tourism. Our case study created sites that can be conceptualised as translation spaces, where the dominant direction of translation is challenged and critiqued, or even temporarily reversed to reclaim urban space. The research team collaborated with local libraries and community centres to establish several sites of translation. This paper focuses on one key site: a series of art workshops led by refugee artists. Drawing upon the concept of translation space from Translation Studies, we explicitly thematised the role of language(s) and language exchange in these microsites, so that language traffic and dynamics could be observed, discussed, and challenged. In this way, this article contributes to the study of translation space in two aspects. Firstly, it demonstrates how contested language spaces can be analysed through translation practices manifested in various material modes, including interpretations (or, oral translations) provided by participants for one another in art workshops, and intersemiotic translation, from feelings through languages to artwork. Secondly, the paper reflects on how creating such microsites of translation can contribute to resisting the dominant direction of translation in the city.

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Author Biographies

Min-Hsiu Liao, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh

Min-Hsiu Liao is Associate Professor at the Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies, Heriot-Watt University. Her research focuses on multimodal translation within museums, heritage sites, and urban landscapes, emphasising the interaction between verbal, visual, and spatial semiotics.

Katerina Strani, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh

Katerina Strani is Professor at the Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies, Heriot-Watt University. Her background is in languages and politics, and her research interests are intercultural dialogue, racism and hate speech, language and heritage, through the lens of migration.

Eilidh Johnstone, Independent Scholar

Eilidh Johnstone is a researcher and translator. She completed her PhD in Translation Studies at Heriot-Watt University, and has spent time as a visiting scholar at Taipei National University of the Arts. Her research focuses on interlingual communication as an embodied interaction in three-dimensional space.

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