I was introduced to the idea of viewing design through a translation lens by Heather Noel Turner and Laura Gonzales. In their article titled “Visualizing Translation,” they state: “Visualization, writ large, has always been embedded into translation, as translators expand beyond the constraints of alphabetic language to transform meaning for culturally and linguistically diverse audiences across contexts”. They argue that the process of translation isn’t limited to the act of encoding meaning from one language into another, but rather that translation is a process that encompasses movement across many activities like document design.
They then draw parallels between the process of Spanish to English linguistic translation to the process of translation being carried out by people converting alpha-numerical information into different forms of data visualization. They do so by placing a significant amount of importance on the roles pauses play within the translation process. They argue that “asking what is in the empty spaces, what is not visible, and what might be happening inside the computational processes and the connected reality around the edges of the computer screen can identify similar pauses, or moments of translation, where designers, writers, and communicators have space to index, recognize and visualize cultural knowledge”. Through their piece and the data visualizations they provide, one gains a feeling of the complexities held within translation work as well as the narratives that are woven into this process.
However, their most compelling argument, and the one that has made me lean into translation within design is their articulation of the role community places within translation work. They show how at the end of the day, translations are only possible through relationship building; the relationships between translators, the people whose information they are translating, the audience of the translated document, and the communities that surround all of the aforementioned parties. Additionally, they emphasize that it’s not just the relationships people hold with each other, but also the relationships these people hold with their languages, lived experiences, and histories. The authors state that: “all of these relationships can be further emphasized and more intricately understood by writing scholars through data visualization processes that highlight the importance of cultural–rhetorical work as central, rather than tangential to, contemporary writing practices”. This approach to data visualizations helps to further emphasize that the choices made within the design process have ethical considerations and material consequences for those whose data is being visualized.