Translating the Deaf Self: engagement and exploration through artistic transformations

由AHRC翻译文化研究创新资助计划资助的“翻译聋人自我”项目，涉及一个由聋人和听力研究人员组成的多语言和跨文化团队，他们首次研究了通过口译了解聋人的一致和终身经历对健康、代理和身份的影响。出现这种情况，不是因为某人是聋人，而是因为大多数社区，在大多数方面，不是一个通过手语访问的社区。因此，口译员是日常生活中的一个事实。聋人自我在日常生活中被调解，在绝大多数的互动中，身份通过被解释的自我被认识和表演。从本质上讲，该项目侧重于探索聋人如何通过翻译被认识为一种永恒的存在状态（他们觉得自己真的被看到了吗？），这种经历如何影响他们的幸福，其他人如何(即，当他们只通过口译员与聋哑人交流时（他们觉得自己真的了解聋哑人吗？），以及口译员对代表聋哑人以确保他们被其他人了解的感受。总之，我们发现，每个利益相关者群体对翻译后的聋人自我本质的认识各不相同，但本质上，对这一概念的质疑是创新的，所有参与者都感兴趣。我们还发现，在英国手语中传播研究成果并与英国聋人社区成员进行进一步讨论时，产生了更多的问题，并有明确的动机参与关于翻译聋人自我概念的对话。这项后续资助将使项目团队能够进一步与英国聋人社区团体就“翻译的聋人自我”的概念进行接触，但以一种创造性的而不是学术的方式；随着权力平衡从学术/研究控制向社区控制的转变-为在日常实践中共同创造翻译聋人自我的范围，性质和意义开辟了新的可能性。我们将安排4位驻场聋人艺术家，分别在4个不同的地方与公营及第三界别的合作机构合作，进行一段时间的活动，观察聋人与听者如何透过传译员互动。然后，艺术家们将创作视觉艺术产品来代表“翻译的聋人自我”的概念。艺术家们将创造机会与当地聋人社区进行对话，讨论他们对翻译后的聋人自我的看法，以指导他们的艺术过程，并将在每个主办机构内组织小规模的展览，然后我们将所有艺术家和他们所有的艺术产品聚集在伯明翰聋人文化中心的一个中央展览中，这是聋人艺术网络的中心。最后的展览将持续一个月，但所有的艺术作品也将在一个定制的网站上以数字方式呈现，并配有视频片段，其中包括项目描述和英国手语艺术作品，以便让跨国聋人社区参与到对翻译聋人自我的持续思考中。这个后续项目将横跨两个相关的AHRC主题：翻译文化和关怀未来，通过视觉和艺术手段探索聋人社区对翻译后的聋人自我的价值观和信念，以了解聋人手语使用者未来的挑战和贡献。

The 'Translating the Deaf Self' project, funded through the AHRC Translating Cultures Research Innovation Grant Scheme, involved a multilingual and cross-cultural team of Deaf and hearing researchers who examined, for the first time, the impact on wellbeing, agency and identity of a consistent and life-long experience of Deaf people being known through interpreters. This situation arises, not because someone is Deaf, but because the majority community is, in most aspects, not an accessible one through a signed language. Therefore interpreters are a fact of everyday life. The Deaf self is mediated on an everyday basis and identity becomes both known and performed through the interpreted self in the vast majority of interactionsEssentially, the project focused on exploring how deaf people feel about being known through translation as a perpetual state of being (do they feel they are really seen?), how this experience impacts on their wellbeing, how others (i.e., hearing people) perceive Deaf people when they only communicate with them through interpreters (do they feel they really know them?), and how interpreters feel about representing Deaf people to ensure that they are known by others. In sum, we found that the recognition of the nature of the translated Deaf self varied according to each stakeholder group, but essentially that the interrogation of this concept was innovative and of interest to all participants. We also found that when disseminating the research findings in British Sign Language and engaging in further discussion with members of the British Deaf community, more questions were generated with a clear motivation to participate in dialogue about the concept of the Translated Deaf Self.This Follow-on-Funding will enable the project team to engage further with British Deaf community groups about the concept of the Translated Deaf Self, but in a creative rather than academic way; with a shift in the balance of power from academic/research control to community-based control - opening up new possibilities for the co-creation of the scope, nature and significance of the Translated Deaf Self in everyday practices. We will curate 4 deaf artists-in-residence located in 4 different places with collaborating public and third sector partner organisations for a one-off contained period of time to observe how deaf and hearing people interact via interpreters. The artists will then create visual art products to represent the concept of the Translated Deaf Self. The artists will generate opportunities for dialogue with local Deaf communities about their perceptions of the Translated Deaf Self to guide their artistic processes, and will organise small scale exhibitions within each host organisation, before we bring all the artists and all their artistic products together in one central exhibition at the Deaf Cultural Centre in Birmingham, which is a hub for the Deaf Arts Network. The final exhibition will be in place for one month, but all the art works will also be represented digitally on a bespoke website along with video clips featuring descriptions of the project and the artwork in British Sign Language, in order to involve transnational Deaf communities in on-going consideration of notions of representation of the Translated Deaf Self.This Follow-on project will be co-located across two related AHRC themes: Translating Cultures and Care for the Future exploring Deaf communities' values and beliefs about the Translated Deaf Self through visual and artistic means in order to understand future challenges and contributions for Deaf sign language users.