Hypertext Translation: Appropriation (Remixed Remediation), Performance and Transmedia Navigation

The class will be tasked with producing a translation of the Anlgo-Saxon poem, “The Wanderer.” I envision this in the context of an introductory course. However, the final product, the translation, will not be privileged. Rather, the goal of the project is to preserve traces of the process of translation. These traces will be preserved through hypermediating the text across a variety of digital and analog mediums, each engaging in different modalities. The outcome is a multimodal translation, which engages its audience visually (through images, videos and alphanumeric text) and aurally (through sound recordings).

The remediation process begins with the print version of the poem contained in Peter S. Baker’s Introduction to Old English (featured on the previous slide). They will be urged to make use of the glossary in the back of Baker, as well as, the digital Dictionary of Old English produced by the University of Toronto. Thus the element of transmedia navigation begins, with students making use of print and digital sources to produce their translation. http://tapor.library.utoronto.ca/doe/ http://tapor.library.utoronto.ca/doe/?E00577 https://www.doe.utoronto.ca/pages/index.html

They will then produce an interlinear gloss of the full 115 lines of the poem. This manuscript gloss will include information such as case tense, definition, and unit of speech. Additionally, in the margins, they might note other uses of words attested to in the DOE.

They will then remediate the manuscript to a digital version to be uploaded to their personal page on the course wiki. They will then begin to annotate their translation using hyperlinks. These links might lead to images of their gloss, such as the image on the previous page (which I have posted on Twitter). These links might also lead to OED entries detailing the historical uses of words in the text, or links to the Toronto DOE which detail the Old English grammatical information. Other links might extend to pages on the wiki in which students account for translation choices.

http://www.oed.com/

The final remediation will be in the form of an audio recording of an oral performance of the poem, which they will upload to Soundcloud, and hyperlink to the final word in their translation. Through the process of remediating the text across mediums, involving a variety of sources, the students think transmedia navigation in reverse, i.e. rather than follow an existing thread of knowledge, they become active producers. https://soundcloud .com/user- 681895241- 300575504/the- wanderer?utm_sou rce=soundcloud&u tm_campaign=shar e&utm_medium=t witter

The objective of this project is for students to think the translation process as part of a larger participatory culture. By framing it this way, the translation itself functions as an instance of appropriation (translation = remixed remediation). The process through which it is produced involves transmedia navigation. The final iteration of the poem is a performance. The project is in line with contemporary composition theory insofar that it privileges process over product, and digitally preserves traces of the various mediations that went into its composition.