Abstract
What does it mean to open translation? The term implies the movement of translation beyond any closed or finite task. In widespread usage, it refers to a new participatory ecology of translation emerging on the internet. Practitioners of open translation operate in peer production networks, utilising free and open source software tools to produce translations that are freely available to as many people as possible. Theirs is a collective and distributed practice. For many it provides a platform from which to contest the status of translations as derivative works and the institution of individual authorship that underlies intellectual property rights. As such it can challenge an important building block of contemporary capitalism. This article supports and contributes to the project of open translation by asking how practitioners represent their practice. I am interested not only in how open translation is performed but also in the political motivations of its proponents. Drawing on studies that question the proposition that discrete languages exist before the act of translation (Sakai 1997), I investigate how open translation figures the relation between languages. I also ask if the collective subject constructed through such collaborative translation practices is a political figure adequate to the production of the common.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 1-8 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Transeuropeennes : International Journal of Critical Thought |
Volume | 24 |
Publication status | Published - 2009 |
Keywords
- Internet
- translators
- language and the Internet
- machine translating
- open source software
- translation