ON TRANSLATION – THE INTERNET PROJECT is part of a series of works exploring issues of transcription, interpretation, and translation. The Internet project was conceived in 1995 and produced in 1997, based on the common children’s game known as “telephone”, “stille post”, “téléphone arabe” or “chinese whispers.” In 23 different countries, translators have been asked to translate a sentence about communication systems from one language to the next. Adopting an image of a spiral as a metaphorical interface for the project, Muntadas invites consideration of the ways meaning continually passes from one person to the next, and the ways it invariably mutates, or can easily be manipulated.
Muntadas has created a very straightforward conceptual structure for ON TRANSLATION – THE INTERNET PROJECT, yet it nonetheless challenges the limits of technological and language barriers. users can read backstage notes on the complex conception and production of the project, differing translations to date, articles and essays related to the translation process, or they can post their own pertinent translations, texts or links as part of this ongoing work.