I went into this project wanting to see how much I could distort the meaning of a single piece of text. After a little thought on how I could accomplish my goal I was reminded of a translation assignment I was given several semesters ago. The assignment required me to translate a poem from French to English, and since I had no experience with French at the time I opted to use an online translation tool, Babelfish. What I learned when I attempted this translation was that Babelfish does not take metaphorical language into account and something always seems to be lost in translation. My previous experience with Babelfish gave me the idea to see how a single paragraph would stand up to a translation gauntlet of sorts. The paragraph I chose was an excerpt from “Notion of a Yankee Parson” by George L. Clark. I found the piece by searching aimlessly through archive.org, and the reason I chose this particular paragraph is because it is rife with metaphorical language and I wanted to see Babelfish struggle. The next step was to put the excerpt through the gauntlet I had envisioned, and that is precisely what I did translating the paragraph from English to Greek, Greek to French, French to Dutch, Dutch to English, English to Russian, and finally from Russian back to English again. The end result was something completely different from the original paragraph. Portions of the paragraph hadn’t quite made it through the gauntlet and remained in a sort of inter-lingual limbo of sorts, and the parts that did come out the other end were warped beyond comprehension. The question I had to answer now was, “What do I do with this abomination?”
The answer to my question came from my love of Dadaist artwork and my previous experience with photoshop. I decided to make a collage in the same vein of Dadaist collages by using the lines of the distorted paragraph that Babelfish had spit out. I wanted the collage to reflect the breakdown in language and meaning that the paragraph had experienced and I used a number of techniques to accomplish that goal such as the use of different fonts and colors for different parts of the text. I placed the different lines in an odd relation to one another and used different distortion techniques such as the manipulation of opacity and the flipping of pieces of text. The end result of all these distortion techniques and odd placements was a visual jumble similar to the jumble experienced by reading the end result of the translation gauntlet. Overall, I was quite pleased with the outcome, and I had a blast working through this project.

For Reference here is the original paragraph and the end result of the Babelfish translation:
The optimism which is the minister's business
is not the glittering hue of hopefulness which
leads one Micawber-like to expect to pluck ripe
clusters of grapes where there is not even a vine.
George Macdonald's bright eyed little woman,
whose eyes were like a morning in June, was al-
ways saying, "Something good is waiting for you
yonder, if you will only have patience to go on
until you reach it." But even she would perhaps
lose a little of her radiant sunshine if she knew
she was living beyond her income. Cheerful-
ness is like a gold-mine beneath a threadbare car-
pet, a silver tongue speaking from a meager li-
brary, but there must be gold and intelligence
somewhere near.

L' optimism which minister' ; ? l' the risky undertaking s of n' no by color of l' to emit; hope that plug of micawber-teneinde for qu' it waits that it [madisei] a ripe number of the grapes where of n' the year of the harvest of grapes even does not exist. George Macdonald' ? s [of mpirmpilomatis] few of the woman, whom the eyes as the morning in June were, there was he speaks means already, " ? Something of the order waits far, in proportion to you you will only have a patience for jusqu' to continue; [otoy] you reached it." ? But even possibly it its number by the irradiation of hours heats in the sun smaller s' to lose; he knew qu' it lived relative to its income. Lively ontstaan it as l' echter-mijn under animal of house worsened auto' s, language in the money which d' he says; is thin [li] one, but has qu' it is necessary; there are l' as and l' information some shut portion.

I found this photo using Crative Commons Search and it was posted by the user forestgladesiwander
Copyright info: This image can be shared under the condition that the work is attributed in the manner specified the artist or licenser. This image may be remixed under the condition that the resulting work uses the same or a similar license as the one this photo is under.

Manifesto Project

The goal of the New Order of Digital Artwork is to create a non-profit, universally accessible style of art that fully embraces the computer technologies and changes in social dynamics brought on by the internet that have helped shape and define life in the 21st century. Computers and the internet are both powerful tools that afford a large number of people the ability to access and disseminate vast amounts of information at remarkable speeds, and it is our belief that the artistic community should embrace these tools. With the help of these tools it is possible for artists around the world to create a universal art with the potential of creating a common ground amongst all the people of the world. During these volatile times it is key for various cultures to see eye to eye with each other and the creation of a universal artwork is a huge step towards a universal cultural understanding. Peace and harmony is within our grasp and it is the duty of artists around the world to begin this process.

We believe that the classic forms of art such as painting, sculpture, and even the writing of novels are limited in their scope and are therefore outdated and obsolete. The dissemination of these forms of art is made difficult by their reliance on physical materials, therefore the proliferation of these forms of artwork have been deemed counter productive to the creation of a universal art. All art must use elements of computer technology and be easily accessible via the internet if it is to be accepted by the New Order of Digital Artwork as a legitimate piece of art that has helped contribute to the creation of a universal art.

It is our belief that all art should be created with the single-minded goal of the creation of a universal cultural understanding amongst all the people of the world and should therefore be free of outside influences such as the desire of fame and wealth and other personal matters that are counter productive to the proliferation of mutual cultural understanding. Therefore, the New Order of Digital Artwork will only recognize anonymous pieces of art that have garnered absolutely no profits for the artist in question. We refuse to accept the unwanted influences of money and popularity and the greed and selfish desires that they inevitably bring with them. Our focus must be on the selfness pursuit of unity and understanding amongst all of the world’s inhabitants and wealth and fame have to place in that pursuit.

It is our belief that all art should contain elements of the artists own culture. One of the primary goals of the New Order of Digital Artwork is to influence and develop cultural understanding all around the world through the use of digital art and with the help of computer technologies and the internet. It is impossible to accomplish this task if the artwork in question is devoid of cultural influences. Therefore, The New Order of Digital Artwork will only recognize artwork with clearly recognizable cultural influences that help to contribute to the understanding of the culture/cultures in question.

Peace and Harmony is within our grasp and as artists we have the ability to help facilitate a universal artwork that helps to proliferate a mutual cultural understanding. However, this goal can only be accomplished with the help of the amazing new technologies that the 21st century has brought us. We here at the New Order of Digital Artwork encourage all artists to abandon older, outdated art forms and embrace digital art and the creation of a universal art.