CTIS Seminar: Translation in Museums: A Geosemiotic Analysis
| Dates: | 25 October 2018 |
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| Times: | 14:00 - 14:00 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | School of Arts, Languages and Cultures |
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| Who is it for: | University staff, Adults, Alumni, Current University students, General public |
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| Speaker: | Michelle Min-Hsiu Liao |
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Multimodality has received considerable critical attention in translation studies over the last decades. However, how translations interact with or within three-dimensional material space is still under-researched. This study proposes to use geosemiotics (Scollon & Scollon 2003) and space syntax (Hiller and Tzortzi 2011) as the theoretical frameworks to explore this new territory. In this talk I will present a case study of translations in St. Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art in Glasgow. This case study takes the view of museum as a multimodal space, and is underlined by two assumptions: first, space is an intrinsic aspect of human activities, not just background; second, meaning is constructed not only through properties of spaces but also relations between spaces. To operationalize the analysis of spaces, I investigated the museum in four ranks of spaces: museum surroundings, the museum building, exhibition rooms, and displayed objects. The aim of this case study is to explore whether, and (if so) how translated museum texts may affect how target readers perceive the museum space, and their experience in this multi-faith museum.
Speaker
Michelle Min-Hsiu Liao
Organisation: Heriot-Watt University
Biography: Min-Hsiu Liao is Lecturer of Languages and Intercultural Studies at Heriot-Watt University. Her recent research projects explored various aspects of museum translations, including how museum texts interact with visitors, how national identities are embedded in museum texts, and how narratives of trauma travel through time in memorial museums. Her articles on the topic of museum translation have been published in a range of interdisciplinary journals, including Museum and Society, Journal of Specialised Translation, Translation Spaces, Tourism Management, and East Asian Journal of Popular Culture.
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Theatre D
Simon Building
Manchester
