AUSIT NAT Presents: From translating across languages to interpreting across time: why working with museums might be a viable pathway for translators and interpreters in a post-AI world (Webinar)

Discover why your skills as a translator and interpreter are so valuable for museums and other cultural institutions.

Things are becoming quite challenging for translators and interpreters at the moment. We’re seeing lower rates, tighter timelines, and a noticeable shift in the industry as AI begins to reshape how language services are delivered. The expertise and insight we’ve built through years of training and experience are being tested as technology takes on a larger role. It’s a time of change — so how we can adapt, protect our value, and find new ways to thrive in this evolving landscape?

In this webinar, we look at one possible pathway for translators and interpreters to turn towards in a post-AI world—working with museums. Museums, galleries and heritage sites are institutions that play an important role in defining who we are and constructing the nation we live in. They are also, fundamentally, institutions engaged in interpreting. They translate the past for modern audiences and help us to understand what our heritage means. This makes museums a field that we can turn to as we look to use our skills and knowledge in industries outside of straight translation and interpreting. And this doesn’t just mean translating exhibits and interpreting tours. Museums are spaces where we can creatively apply our skills not just to translate across languages, but to interpret across time. If we can make this conceptual shift, if we can realise that the past is another country, a country that needs its own interpreters and translators, we may find that the future of human translation lies, in part, in interpreting our past.

Key Takeaways:

• Understand what “interpreting” means in a museum context: Imagine this: all your life you have been engaged in translating and interpreting, only to find out that there are organisations like Interpretation Australia…that have nothing to do with languages!
• Explore the common challenges when translating across time: How can we make the worlds inhabited by those from different times accessible to modern audiences? The challenges we face when doing this are much like those we face when translating languages. From dealing with complex terminology to using accessible language to empathising with our target audience—you already have these skills; all you need to do is “translate” them!
• Widen your perspective beyond language: Museum translation is not about working with languages, it’s about working across time. That is not just some cheesy ChatGPT platitude—this work can be done solely in English. The language doesn’t matter. The fundamental nature of interpretation remains the same: whether you are an interpreter of Spanish or an interpreter of Gold Rush Australia.

Biography of our Presenter - Michael Broughton

Michael was once a teacher of translation at the University of Melbourne and is now back there as a student completing his PhD. Outside of studying, Michael works as a translator of Chinese through his business mbChinese, and as an interpreter of Gold Rush Victoria at Sovereign Hill. Michael has an active interest in how translators and interpreters can navigate a future of meaningful work in a world increasingly shaped by AI technologies. This talk is an attempt to plot out one potential possibility of what that might look like.

Joining the Webinar

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Introductory PD.

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