médiatrice

English translation: media-based [practice]

18:14 Feb 2, 2019
French to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Art, Arts & Crafts, Painting / Modern art
French term or phrase: médiatrice
This is from a text talking about an art exhibition and the kind of pieces that the different types of artists will be creating.

"Les designers, architectes et urbanistes développent d’autres pratiques textuelles, expérimentales, anthropologiques, médiatrices, filmiques, numériques in situ ou en laboratoire"

I feel like it's something to do with media but I can't find any definition of this kind to back it up.
Emily Gilby
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:09
English translation:media-based [practice]
Explanation:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=FsDXCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA161&lp...

But beyond questions of economic necessity, the collaborative nature of academic institutions and the space of the classroom itself has a relationship to discursive and media-based practice. To produce in this way is to engage in conversation. Where art had, until the 60s, often been associated with the solitary individual at work in the studio, media-based and conceptual practices like video and performance often depend on collaboration and cooperation in order to come into being.
https://www.artsresearchcooperative.com/about/

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Note added at 31 mins (2019-02-02 18:46:24 GMT)
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I should have made it clear that I think, given the context, that there is a typo in the French. It might be worth checking with the client. Otherwise, it would stick out rather like a sore thumb in the sentence.

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Note added at 1 day 1 hr (2019-02-03 19:57:55 GMT)
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Cultural mediation is a role associated with museums and similar institutions. Theoretically speaking, all public art, architecture and such like plays a mediating role in the public realm. It is essential to its nature. Therefore, it would be a totally redundant thing to insert into this sentence. It is for this reason above all else that I don't think this can be correct as a translation. Of course, all of this depends on the author having written something that is actually cogent, which is not always the case ;-)

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Note added at 1 day 21 hrs (2019-02-04 15:53:04 GMT) Post-grading
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Thank you, Emily :-)
Selected response from:

Helen Shiner
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:09
Grading comment
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +2[of] cultural mediation
Eliza Hall
4media-based [practice]
Helen Shiner


Discussion entries: 36





  

Answers


1 day 19 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +2
[of] cultural mediation


Explanation:
"Cultural mediation is the process of building bridges between the cultural and social realms, and the building of new relationships between the political, cultural and public spheres. It covers a broad spectrum of practices ranging from audience development activities to participatory and community arts. Its ultimate goal is to make every person, visitor and spectator a true cultural player."
https://www.culturepourtous.ca/en/cultural-professionals/cul...

I think that's what this is about. How you want to rework the sentence in converting it from French to English is up to you -- those long chains of adjectives you sometimes get in French sentences are a pain; you can't do that in English without sounding vague and precious and ineffable, and sometimes you can't do it at all because the French adjective doesn't have an adjectival form in English.

But something like this could work:

"...develop other practices, which can be textual, experimental, anthropological, cinematic, or may use computers or cultural mediation, and may be done on site or in the laboratory."



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Note added at 1 day 20 mins (2019-02-03 18:35:13 GMT)
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PS: See my discussion post for why I think this is about cultural mediation.

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Note added at 1 day 21 mins (2019-02-03 18:36:39 GMT)
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PPS To Helen Shiner: if this text were just about art then yes, they could've said interactive art, but it's broader than that. It includes architecture and urban planning. "Interactive architecture" is not a thing (wow that would be interesting though! Haha.

Eliza Hall
United States
Local time: 11:09
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
disagree  Helen Shiner: I disagree. One could argue that all art or architecture plays a role in the public realm in terms of cultural mediation, unless it has no public interface at all, i.e. is made solely for the maker's own purpose. This is a museological term. Just wrong.
7 mins
  -> Cultural mediation practices fits perfectly as a concept. It doesn't fit linguistically because it's >1 word and not an adjective, but that's often a problem encountered when translating the long chains of adjectives so beloved of French writers.

agree  Ben Gaia
35 mins

agree  David Vaughn: This seems like the most likely meaning here, the field and concept of the artist and/or institution interacting directly with the public/consumer.
4 hrs
  -> Exactly. Thanks.

agree  Ph_B (X): See discussion [+ just for info, why "cultural"?]/Quite, and I too used it in FR in the discussion. Just seemed to me that here, it's adding sthg to the source text.
14 hrs
  -> Thanks (and I agree this isn't a clumsy sentence; as you said, it's very natural in this type of French writing). Why cultural? Because that's what we say in English -- "cultural mediation" is the term. It includes but is broader than art.
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11 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
media-based [practice]


Explanation:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=FsDXCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA161&lp...

But beyond questions of economic necessity, the collaborative nature of academic institutions and the space of the classroom itself has a relationship to discursive and media-based practice. To produce in this way is to engage in conversation. Where art had, until the 60s, often been associated with the solitary individual at work in the studio, media-based and conceptual practices like video and performance often depend on collaboration and cooperation in order to come into being.
https://www.artsresearchcooperative.com/about/

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Note added at 31 mins (2019-02-02 18:46:24 GMT)
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I should have made it clear that I think, given the context, that there is a typo in the French. It might be worth checking with the client. Otherwise, it would stick out rather like a sore thumb in the sentence.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 day 1 hr (2019-02-03 19:57:55 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Cultural mediation is a role associated with museums and similar institutions. Theoretically speaking, all public art, architecture and such like plays a mediating role in the public realm. It is essential to its nature. Therefore, it would be a totally redundant thing to insert into this sentence. It is for this reason above all else that I don't think this can be correct as a translation. Of course, all of this depends on the author having written something that is actually cogent, which is not always the case ;-)

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Note added at 1 day 21 hrs (2019-02-04 15:53:04 GMT) Post-grading
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Thank you, Emily :-)

Helen Shiner
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:09
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 348

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Barbara Cochran, MFA
0 min
  -> Thanks, Barbara

neutral  Charles Davis: As I've pointed out above, this, in principle, translates "pratiques médiatiques". It might be a typo, I suppose...
12 mins
  -> Yes, I'm guessing a typo, too.

agree  philgoddard: I don't think it's a typo - it gets some Google hits, and I think this has to be the meaning.
20 hrs
  -> Thanks, Phil.

disagree  Eliza Hall: Media-based = médiatique. If that's what the writer meant, why not choose the correct word? See my discussion post if you care :)
1 day 0 min
  -> Eliza, I and several others here believe that it may be a typo or a misused term. However, to put your argument back to you, why if it is meant to mean interactive art would the author not use the correct French for that? Why not post an answer yourself?

disagree  David Vaughn: Not impossible, but I doubt this is the meaning. There is nothing redundant about evoking cultural mediation, quite the opposite, it is mentioned everywhere in France today. It is not the work that is mediation, anymore than it is filmique.
1 day 4 hrs
  -> You seem confused. I’m certainly NOT arguing that it is.
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