A Visual Translation of the Pandemic

Abstract

Abstract In 1923, Walter Benjamin published translations of Baudelaire’s poetry with a prefatory essay developing the idea that translation is not only the practice of addressing foreign readerships, but rather a process of authorship in which the original text is amplified with further significance. The authors use the term translation with a meaning that is not only linguistic but also visual. They analyze the coronavirus pandemic by translating scientific literacy through the techniques of natural language processing and data visualization. The Cartography of COVID-19 results from a visual translation that invites readers to explore the current pandemic from a different point of view that extends their perception.