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Community Interpreting: A video installation by Bettina Henkel

This video installation with DVD players controlled in sync is part of the artistic program of the opening reception of Ars Electronica 2002 and the Linzer Klangwolke. This year Ars Electronica, Brucknerhaus and ORF Upper Austrian Regional Studio jointly present the opening.

In this work two deaf persons, a woman and a man, tell each other jokes in sign language – sign-language jokes. These jokes are specifically based on visual, spatial and motional elements for which there is no equivalent in spoken language and which cannot really be translated. Sign language differs from spoken language in that it is non-linear in structure. Content, consisting of iconographic and arbitrary portions, is represented 'as movement' and 'in space.' The title Community Interpreting comes from the context of translation studies and refers to the inscrutable context-sensitive aspects of interpreting/translating.

The conversation involving joke-telling was recorded by three cameras simultaneously along the three axes in space (x, y, z). The video shows views of the two persons from in front, in profile and from above at the same time. The three projections present different jokes in parallel or one after the next, one joke being signed by Alexey and one by Gitta Svetlof-Palecek each. Subsequently, the fields within each narrative unit undergo dynamic changes, trading positions, so that they are recombined in all possible spatial constellations. There is no exchange of fields between the two narrative units, these stay separate entities throughout.

The viewer will try to extract meaning from the signed content and probably notice that the two protagonists are telling each other jokes, or at least something funny. Their interaction is so affirmative that the viewer is fascinated even though we, being hearing people, do not 'understand' anything.

The project will be presented at the Opening Reception of Ars Electronica and the Linzer Klangwolke on September 7th, 2002, 6:30pm at the Brucknerhaus.






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