One among your moments: the myrioramic potential of drawing translation

Morfill, Sally Elizabeth (2018) One among your moments: the myrioramic potential of drawing translation. Doctoral thesis (PhD), Manchester Metropolitan University.

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Abstract

This practice-based research investigates the relationship between drawing and different aspects of language, as found in and between speech, movement and writing. It describes a drawing practice in which translation functions as the primary methodology. The thesis contains documentation of process alongside reflection on the researcher’s own work. The research seeks to elucidate methods of drawing translation with reference to literary translation, and particularly Vilém Flusser’s ‘self-translation’ (that which continually returns to and moves beyond its origin). Processes of capture and translation are evident in three distinct bodies of work that identify the mediating drawn line in terms of the ‘vernacular,’ the ‘contagious,’ and the ‘myrioramic.’ These works reveal the ephemeral gesture as drawing, and the potential of the line to migrate between the image and forms of writing. Produced independently or in collaboration, the context of these works encompasses the gallery wall, the space of performance, or screen-based animation. Iterative translations, derived from identical starting points, denote the line as a fluid signifier that establishes meaning only through relation. Interconnectedness and interchangeability, as fundamental conditions of the work, are demonstrated through the visual and conceptual device of the myriorama or Endless Landscape. The written text captures the mobility of thinking through a self-reflexive transparent methodology that aligns this form of drawing practice with literary translation. This extends discourse on drawing through questioning notions of its immediacy through the interruptive delay of translation. A particular kind of post-structuralist drawing is thus proposed; in which deferral as a strategy, and the indeterminacy of the isolated line as signifier is acknowledged. The (imprecise) process of translation, supported by digital process, points to underlying Derridean ideas relating to deferral and self-presence. Drawing, translation and writing exist as interconnected rather than discrete constructs that resist closure and reveal multiple potentialities for practice.