Mistaken Human Babelfish
I am in Berlin spending time at transmediale.06 which has been an interesting mix of fascination, frustration and consternation. But more of that when I'm back in London and have had time to reflect on and process my impressions.
Yesterday we went to one of the conference panels, 'Mistakology', which promised to examine the mistakes and accidents built in to technology, taking the suggestion that "...technical dysfunction is 'repressed' by modern society..." as its starting point. The Canadian artist Norman White has made interactive and computer-based pieces for decades, and came up with some interesting and cautionary reflections on the uses of the latest technology, but more of him in a later post. Claus Pias's talk was in German. I could have had simultaneous translation but, having just the day before had my pocket almost picked by a guy on the S Bahn (he wasn't successful and I fear his career as a fingersmith might prove not too fruitful as I could feel the tugging on my pocket), I was feeling reluctant to leave my passport with the transmediale garderobe as deposit for the radio headphone device. So, instead I made my own translation based on my feebly non-existent German and guessing at what the words might mean from their sounds.
As though translated by a human version of Babelfish in honour of all the bizarre and sometimes poetic results of mistaken online translation, here is an extract from my translation of Herr Pias's talk:
Overfull messing German light, vilest kind of perfection, habitats come after plus minus. Writer the error. They mashed up contradiction and uncertainty. Concept overcomes mistakes.
Forever night.
Rolling over performance competence, the lot of decanters is a mathematical definition. Transcend the lime shine stump? I can't. Unfasten three wagons. Cybernetic technical umbrellas.
The night light arises.
Understanding the crumbling dimension as text for the conservatorium. Unfastening the technical hat, it is not a cider economy.
Tonight Beamerlooper makes a brief appearence at Club Transmediale as part of the looppool project.
Yesterday we went to one of the conference panels, 'Mistakology', which promised to examine the mistakes and accidents built in to technology, taking the suggestion that "...technical dysfunction is 'repressed' by modern society..." as its starting point. The Canadian artist Norman White has made interactive and computer-based pieces for decades, and came up with some interesting and cautionary reflections on the uses of the latest technology, but more of him in a later post. Claus Pias's talk was in German. I could have had simultaneous translation but, having just the day before had my pocket almost picked by a guy on the S Bahn (he wasn't successful and I fear his career as a fingersmith might prove not too fruitful as I could feel the tugging on my pocket), I was feeling reluctant to leave my passport with the transmediale garderobe as deposit for the radio headphone device. So, instead I made my own translation based on my feebly non-existent German and guessing at what the words might mean from their sounds.
As though translated by a human version of Babelfish in honour of all the bizarre and sometimes poetic results of mistaken online translation, here is an extract from my translation of Herr Pias's talk:
Overfull messing German light, vilest kind of perfection, habitats come after plus minus. Writer the error. They mashed up contradiction and uncertainty. Concept overcomes mistakes.
Forever night.
Rolling over performance competence, the lot of decanters is a mathematical definition. Transcend the lime shine stump? I can't. Unfasten three wagons. Cybernetic technical umbrellas.
The night light arises.
Understanding the crumbling dimension as text for the conservatorium. Unfastening the technical hat, it is not a cider economy.
Tonight Beamerlooper makes a brief appearence at Club Transmediale as part of the looppool project.
posted by Steven Ball at 10:35 am
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