Please join us for the next meeting of the Experiential Translation Online Seminar. We're delighted to host two presentations: Riku Haapaniemi and Mattia Thibault on InterReal: Exploring Interreal Translation in the Media Multiverse and Zeina Dghaim on her digital project The Translation of Flower Theories.

The event will be hosted by Dr Ricarda Vidal (Department of Culture, Media & Creative Industries, King's College London). The seminar is free and open to all.

Abstracts

InterReal: Exploring Interreal Translation in the Media Multiverse
Riku Haapaniemi and Mattia Thibault
University of Tampere

The InterReal research project (ERC-StG) investigates the ongoing emergence of a media multiverse. The media multiverse indicates the shape that our mediascape is acquiring and is comprised of all kinds of media-generated alternate realities integrated with and co-existing alongside the primary physical reality, ranging from immersive Virtual Reality (VR) and layers of Augmented Reality (AR) to the permanent worlds of digital games. Within the multiverse, different objects and subjects move across these realities thanks to forms of interreal translation. Interreal translation, in turn, refers to the semiotic mechanisms that permeate the multiverse: specific forms of intersemiotic translation that transfer objects, spaces, and subjects across realities. The InterReal project combines approaches from speculative research and translation studies (TS) to advance our empirical understanding of interreal translations, develop our methodological capacity to approach them, and create a theoretical framework to understand the media multiverse.

This presentation provides a brief overview of how our InterReal research team will accomplish these goals. We propose that a semiotic perspective on translational phenomena can provide a detailed understanding of the inner mechanisms of interreal translations (in terms of participants, products, processes, and contexts), while a speculative approach can offer a critical look at the present opportunities and future possibilities related to the development of the media multiverse. InterReal will combine the two approaches into an innovative methodology that: 1) applies semiotic and translation-theoretical methods to a new object of study, and 2) imports the methodological approach of speculative design from human-computer interaction into the field of translation with the aid of a semiotic framework. InterReal explores creative work as a means of critical engagement through speculative design and utilises translation concepts to map the complex interrelations between physical spaces and objects, digital media, and human experience. This way, InterReal expands the research field of TS – along with a number of neighbouring disciplines, from semiotics and media studies to the digital humanities in general – towards multiversal research.

Project Presentation: The Translation of Flower Theories
Zeina Dghaim
Western University London

Inspired by three flowers—Alstroemeria, Bird of Paradise, and Passiflora—Translation of Flower Theories is an experiential art translation project that reimagines the essence of these blooms in alternative realities through three distinct artworks. This project delves into the process of translating the natural world into other forms of existence, inviting viewers to reflect on the meaning of inspiration, the role of nature in creative processes, and the meditative practice fostered through art-making.

In this presentation, I will discuss and present the documented process of translating the flower patterns and colours into artwork. The translation process holds equal if not greater importance than the outcome. Documenting this process also becomes an act of life activation, engaging directly with life itself in the pursuit of translation.

Speakers' Info:

Dr Mattia Thibault is an Associate Professor in Translation in the Creative Industries at Tampere University and has a PhD in Semiotics and Media (Turin University). His research interests include semiotics and translation, extended realities, speculative research, and playfulness in the built environment (real and digital). He is the leader of the InterReality Research Group which focuses on the relations between different virtual spaces (and their inhabitants) and their connections with the “real” world. He is PI of the projects InterReal (ERC-StG), NEXR (Business Finland Co-Research) and Mobility Mindshift (funded by Net Zero Cities, EU).

Dr Riku Haapaniemi is a postdoctoral researcher in the InterReality Research Group at Tampere University, Finland. He works as a project coordinator for the InterReal research project. His PhD in the field of Translation Studies concerns the concept of materiality and its implications for translation research from the perspective of semiotics and textual theory.

Dr Zeina Dghaim is an artist, researcher, designer, and museum collections specialist with over a decade of experience working at the intersection of art, culture, and technology. Her artistic practice examines human perceptions, connections to dreams, beauty and the natural world, brought to life through surrealist representations and performances. In addition to her art practice, Zeina helps museums foster stronger connections with their collections, enhancing accessibility and engagement. She is the founder of Camellia Studios, a creative space dedicated to art, installations, and other whimsical explorations that ignite a sense of awe and wonder.