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Posted on Jan 06, 2008 in ambulatory | Permalink
I’m in Alexandria, Egypt, and it’s overwhelming—in a good way. And since I’m here on the government’s dime, I need to do something worthwhile. I want to do something of value.
I am faced with the dilemma of communication. The dilemma of determining an intended audience—not that that isn’t always a dilemma to be considered. But here, in Alexandria, there is the unavoidable: not speaking Arabic, written and verbal language is a barrier. The larger questions are: Why am I here? For whom am I doing this work? What is this work? Again, these are questions important to me in any context (and I should consider them more often). Only, now they become much more obvious in light of this new experience.
Much of my work relies on a textual component to give context and dimension to the visual. This is the nature of work that stresses conversation and participation, as well as the communication of research. I don’t ever balk at this—it is what it is. I like to think that those who will come to it will come to it; the work is not dumbed down, nor is it populist. Neither do I believe it is inaccessible or elitist. Conversely, I don’t pretend to privilege the visual as some universal language capable of transcending cultural, national, and linguistic barriers. Literacy is a complicated issue with any communicative language.
Nonetheless, I would like to do something here that engages a local audience, that aspires to the conversational and dialogical projects I believe in. I do have the assistance of locals who speak English well and could facilitate translation, but translation should be a peripheral concern and not relied upon, I think. This leads me to a pivotal question: What forms are available to me that Alexandrians are conversant in? Well, this is what I’m desperate to discover—and quickly!—through my explorations of the city and interrogations of my hosts at ACAF, who have already been so generous and helpful.