Entering the Translab

Abstract

Abstract Collaborative translation practices have been receiving increased scholarly attention in recent years and have also given rise to attempts to conceptualise translation as an inherently collaborative phenomenon. In a parallel movement, though to a lesser extent, research from disciplines with a stake in collaborative processes has utilised translational thinking to interrogate collaboration afresh, both conceptually and practically. This paper charts the development of these two strands of research and discusses its potential, as well as the pitfalls arising from an as yet insufficiently linked-up approach between the various disciplines involved. It proposes the blended concept of ‘translaboration’ as an experimental and essentially ‘third-space’ category capable of bringing translation and collaboration into open conceptual play with one another to explore and articulate connections, comparisons, and contact zones between translation and collaboration, and to reveal the conceptual potential inherent in aligning these two concepts in both theory and practice.