Transliteracy Sue Thomas Xi'an (English)

Transliteracy: Crossing Divides
Xi'an Academy of Fine Art
1 July 2010
Professor Sue Thomas
Institute of Creative Technologies
De Montfort University
www.suethomas.net
1 WWW.TRANSLITERACY.COM

Transliteracy
多媒体读写能力
Duo Mei Ti Du Xie Neng Li
The ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks
1 WWW.TRANSLITERACY.COM

WWW.TRANSLITERACY.COM

The Transliteracy Blog
Authors
1/7/2010 Prof Sue Thomas - De Montfort University

The word 'transliteracy' is derived from the verb 'to transliterate', meaning to write or print a letter or word using the closest corresponding letters of a different alphabet or language.

The Chinese language is a good example of this, since it can be written both in characters: 多媒体读写能力
and in pinyin: Duo Mei Ti Du Xie Neng Li
English, however, has only one alphabet: Transliteracy

Unifying Ecology
The concept of transliteracy calls for a change of perspective away from the battles over print versus digital, and a move instead towards a unifying ecology not just of media, but of all literacies relevant to reading, writing, interaction and culture, both past and present.
It is an opportunity to cross some hitherto quite difficult divides.

Chinese Perspective?
I do not know how transliteracy will be understood in China. I would be extremely grateful for your comments and insights either today or by email to [email_address] or on the blog at http://www.transliteracy.com

Please share your thoughts with me!

Chauvet Horses
These horses were painted in the Chauvet caves in France around 32,000 years ago. The first evidence of writing appeared in Sumeria and Egypt around 3,000 years ago, by which time cities had been around for 7,000 years.

Transliteracy asks
How were people remembering and communicating for the thousands of years before writing?
Where are the similarities with the way we communicate today?
Has our addiction to print made us forget skills we had before?
Can digital media reconnect us with those skills again?

Literacy
Digital technologies force us to re-think what it means to be
'literate'

Social Media Revolution: Is social media a fad? WWW.TRANSLITERACY.COM

Media Literacy 2003
“ the ability to access, understand and create communications in a variety of contexts” (Ofcom, 2003)

Digital Literacy 1997
“ the ability to understand and use information in multiple formats from a wide range of sources when it is presented via computers,” (Gilster, 1997)

Convergence 2001
“ Part of the confusion about media convergence stems from the fact that when people talk about it, they’re actually describing at least five processes” (Henry Jenkins, 2001)
technological
economic
social or organic
cultural
global

Not linear
Transliteracy is the literacy of convergence.
Literacy is not linear, as McLuhan and Ong believed.

Marshall McLuhan 1964
“ In this electric age we see ourselves being translated more and more into the form of information, moving towards the technological extension of consciousness,” (McLuhan, 1964, p.63).

Walter Ong 1982
“ The shift from orality to literacy and on to electronic processing engages social, economic, political, religious and other structures,” (Ong, 1982, p.3).

Not just about computers
Transliteracy is not just about computers, but about all communication types across time and culture.
It does not privilege one above the other but treats all as of equal value and moves between and across them.

Holistic
The ecology of transliteracy is unifying and holistic.
Its focus is on interpretation via practice and production.
Its interest in lived experience, history, context and culture.

Karajá Indians in their traditional attire, Campinas, Brazil, 2005 WWW.TRANSLITERACY.COM

The Brazilian Rainforest Asheninka tribe
"Everything we use has a story. Each drawing which is passed from one generation to another is our writing; each little symbol has an immense story. As one learns a drawing, one learns its origin, who taught it, who brought it to us.”

Oral culture
They recognize the importance of literacy but not its supremacy so they are educating just a few people to make contact with other societies.
And “we also work with drawings and maps regarding territorial control because for us it’s new to work within a delimited territory.”

Socrates, Greece, 370BC
Socrates asserted that writing was an aid “not to memory, but to reminiscence” providing “not truth, but only the semblance of truth.”

Socrates said that readers would be:
“ hearers of many things and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the reality,”

(but)
We would not know this if Plato had not written down everything Socrates said!

Attention
How can we make connections between these different cultural approaches?
One way might be through attention.
N.K.Hayles has identified 2 kinds of attention:
Deep attention
Hyperattention

Deep Attention (Hayles 2008)
Concentrating on a single object for long periods
Ignoring outside stimuli
Preferring a single information stream
High tolerance for long focus times.

Hyper Attention (Hayles 2008)
Switching focus rapidly between different tasks
Preferring multiple information streams
Seeking a high level of stimulation
Having a low tolerance for boredom

Who is researching transliteracy?
Our recent transliteracy conference featured papers on:
ethnography, reading practices, fiction, convergence, digital art, geography, music, comics, interactive graphics, remote audiences, film adaptations, the networked book, critical theory and interactive fiction.

Most of the work is happening around library science
Bobbi L. Newman
Librarian by Day
Columbus, GA, USA
Award winning website
http://librarianbyday.net/

Libraries and Transliteracy Bobbi L. Newman www.librarianbyday.net http://www.flickr.com/photos/aliasgrace/69731338/

For years libraries have focused on literacy, the ability to read, write and interact. http://www.flickr.com/photos/heycoach/1197947341/

People need to be literate in order to be involved in and contribute to society. http://www.flickr.com/photos/zoologist/21317261/

Access to information was through the written word. http://www.flickr.com/photos/98469445@N00/327471676/

Libraries took up the call for literacy. http://www.flickr.com/photos/meredithharris/2129346469/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/spursfan_ace/2328879637/ Times are changing.

It is no longer enough to focus solely on the ability to read and write. http://www.flickr.com/photos/mgrap/1206462482/

Technology is evolving rapidly. http://www.flickr.com/photos/baldheretic/2675744701/

Our patrons need us to change. http://www.flickr.com/photos/digidragon/3046266667/

Libraries need to take on the task of ensuring all people are transliterate. http://www.flickr.com/photos/ava_babili/623981238/

Transliteracy is the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media. http://www.flickr.com/photos/fijneman/2971210465/

Soon people will need to be transliterate in order to be involved in and contribute to society. http://www.flickr.com/photos/zombizi_rip/1781535606/

It is already happening. http://www.flickr.com/photos/levoodoo/3735045243/

Facebook privacy settings are complex and change frequently. http://www.flickr.com/photos/rattodisabina/2460905893/

It is not just on the fun sites. http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_mum1968/396209370/

Government agencies are no longer issuing print forms. http://www.flickr.com/photos/sbluerock/376090573/

Banks are sending alerts and account balance information via text messages. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonjon_2k8/340305918/

Your health insurance plan has a website and you have an account. http://www.flickr.com/photos/chickenlump/2038512161/

The price of computers is dropping allowing more people to own one. http://www.flickr.com/photos/librarianbyday/3686346119/

Free WiFi access points are increasing, allowing more people internet access. http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianjmatis/3631670054/

For many people these are new experiences. http://www.flickr.com/photos/sovietuk/378834651/

Experiences they can have with no training, no supervision and no support. http://www.flickr.com/photos/ipfixe2a/3938950350/

If we only focus on literacy we are failing our patrons. http://www.flickr.com/photos/photograham/294717421/

In order to best serve our patrons we need to move from literacy to transliteracy. http://www.flickr.com/photos/blackbutterfly/3051019058/

How do we shift our focus to transliteracy? http://www.flickr.com/photos/margolove/1810357551/

Talk with your coworkers and colleagues about it. http://www.flickr.com/photos/deapeajay/3016206629/

Talk with your patrons about it. http://www.flickr.com/photos/amagill/3252897830/

Add it to your strategic plan, mission statement and goals. http://www.flickr.com/photos/mohanm/1115980165/

Commit to it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chanwj91/3575432061/ For more information on transliteracy visit www.librarianbyday.net/transliteracy

Transliteracy is an open source idea
We invite you to help develop it
www.transliteracy.com

Transliteracy
Duo Mei Ti Du Xie Neng Li
The ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks

Chinese Perspective?
I do not know how transliteracy will be understood in China. I would be extremely grateful for your comments and insights either today or by email to [email_address] or on the blog at http://www.transliteracy.com

Please share your thoughts with me!

Write for us!
写我们！
Can you write about transliteracy in China?
Join the Transliteracy Blogging Team!

Thanks to the student translators!
谢谢（ Thank you!!)
谢谢帮我翻译的人：顾强 Gu Qiang 庞磊 Pang Lei 龚芸 Gong Yun

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Transliteracy Sue Thomas Xi'an (English)

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