Design e traduzione
Design and translation
The Italian verb ‘tradurre’ (to translate in English), derives from the Latin term ‘traducere’ and it’s composed by the verb ‘ducere’ (to bring) and the prefix ‘trans’ that means beyond or across. Similarly the English version ‘to translate’ originates from the Latin ‘translatum’, past principle of ‘transfero’, that means to bring beyond, or to carry over. Both definitions are clearly associated to the process of transformation, transposition of something from an initial stage to a final one, but they can be also connected to the concept of ‘culture’ that, as noted Torop (2002), operates largely through translational activities.
We’d like to demonstrate that the translation, in all its possible declinations, affects the design domain, representing not only the basis for a new design sensitivity, but also a new perspective for design’s innovation processes.
More broadly the connection between translation and design concerns, from our point of view, the research of different designed communicative modalities in a universe that is increasingly inter-linguistic, multimodal, inter-cultural, multimedia, trans-media, cross-media, and that requires more inclusion, interaction, collaboration and exchange.
Furthermore the continuous shifting of boundaries between disciplines, fields of knowledge and productive models, demands more design skills able to develop themselves as a process of translation between different codes and patterns, and thus it makes necessary to redefine not only the linguistic and interpretative sphere, but above all the critical and analytical thresholds of the designers who produce communicative artefacts.
This track is finalised to share a collection of contributes that are theoretical, methodological, analytical but also phenomenological and operative; the goal is to highlight and enhance systematically the close relationship between design and translation. In essence, we think that the concept of translation can be a distinctive characteristic of design culture: design can be intended in terms of translation and all design process involves translational pathways.
Design and translation
in Proceedings of DRS 2016: Design + Research + Society – Future-Focused Thinking, 50th Anniversary International Conference, Volume 3. Editors: Peter Lloyd & Erik Bohemia
Brighton (UK), 27-30/06/2016