Audiences: Exploring Reception and Participation in Subtitling, Translation and Adaptation

Date
17 May 2019, 9.30am - 6.00pm

Venue

Room 349, Third Floor, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU

Workshop Leaders:

Carla Mereu (Bristol); Katie Brown (Exeter); Kit Yee Wong (BBK)

***Free training generously supported by the London Arts & Humanities Partnership**

What does it mean today to be a member of an audience? How do we, as 21st-century viewers and readers make sense of translated texts? Do existing theories of convergence culture and audience participation account for user-generated practices of subtitling, translation and adaptation? The fifth edition of Migrating Texts will address these questions during a one-day workshop featuring short presentations from a mixture of academic and industry speakers. Participants will have the opportunity to explore innovative research methods in the study of audiences of translated texts to inform their own projects.

Our discussions will consist of a morning and an afternoon session, featuring a mixture of academic and industry speakers, and a final round-table.

The subtitling session (10:00-13:00) will explore the space of audience research in subtitling. We want to look at the technical aspects surrounding the study of audiences, such as user response surveys as well as experiments with eye-tracking technology that collect gaze data to map out viewers’ experience. How does the appearance of subtitles change the viewing process? What do we mean when we talk about viewing, reading and subtitling speed? Can audience design help us improve subtitling quality (assessment)? We also aim to discuss the spontaneous and/or crowd-sourced participation of communities of viewers in (non-commercial) subtitling, highlighting the controversial nature of this user-generated practice. We will hear the experiences of translation practitioners and industry professionals and question whether the increased availability of subtitled content is helping UK media reach a wider audience.

The translation and adaptation session in the afternoon (14:00-15:45) asks how audiences of adaptations and translations can be studied. How can we know what audiences expect from an adaptation or a translation and whether these expectations are met? In what ways audiences become cultural actors, taking an active role in the adaptation or translation process? How do audiences shape the markets for adaptations and translations?

The day ends with a round-table (16:00–17:30) on researching audiences, where the speakers and attendees can discuss practical and methodological issues.

For more information and to book a place, visit https://modernlanguages.sas.ac.uk/events/event/16971