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Article published In: Technology
Edited by Franz Pöchhacker and Minhua Liu
[Interpreting 26:2] 2024
► pp. 201–230

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Space, body and presence

An analytical framework for remote interpreting

 | University of Graz
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with University of Graz.

Published online: 8 July 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/intp.00105.jer
Abstract
The trend towards remote interpreting has caused a radical change for interpreters worldwide, one that has shifted their workplace from well-known physical spaces to new digital spaces. Research to date has documented specific settings, language combinations and/or interpreting modes, and it has usually focused on certain forms of remote interpreting (e.g., video remote interpreting, video relay service). The combinations of different characteristics and factors in remote interpreting are almost infinite, however, and single terms fail to depict and cover all possible variations. This article proposes an analytical framework that uses conceptualisations of space, body and presence to analyse interpreting assignments in digital spaces, regardless of language combination, setting and mode. Two examples are used to illustrate the application of this framework: a hybrid conference and a meeting in virtual reality (VR), both of them involving sign language interpreting. The use of VR has undergone a substantial increase in the past few years, having developed rapidly. It is therefore possible that future interpreting assignments might take place in this new digital space. The application of these two scenarios shows that the analytical framework can be used both to reflect on past and to anticipate future assignments.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Building blocks of the analytical framework
    • 2.1Spatial triad
    • 2.2Physical body, lived body and represented body
    • 2.3Social presence theory
  • 3.Building the analytical framework
  • 4.Applying the analytical framework to interpreting scenarios in digital spaces
    • 4.1Testing the framework on a hybrid conference
    • 4.2Future challenges: Virtual reality?
  • 5.Conclusion
  • References
References (59)
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