Summary
Fall 2021 launch
The Knowledge Alphabets H-Lab focuses on the problem of translation in natural and digital languages. We aim to redefine translation theory today in the light of new developments in artificial intelligence (AI), machine translation, bio-translation, aesthetic practices and forms of knowledge production that are translation-based, or that define translation in a particular way as epistemology, transference, methodology, and mode of interpretive cognition. We hope to achieve a better understanding of how translation works in AI, deep learning and predictive processing by focusing on the unit of translatability. We will investigate what a knowledge alphabet is today and how it is related (or not) to its particular medium, whether vowel, letter, script, alphanumeric cipher, algorithm, bitmap, pixel, meme, RNA molecule, semantic or syntactic linguistic function, trans-literative icon, acoustic value, or meme. In broadest terms, the H-Lab aims to define a professional growth-field at the disciplinary juncture of literature and media studies, humanities and computational sciences.
Lab Team
- Emily Apter
Professor, Department of French and Comparative Literature - Aaron Doughty
Doctoral Candidate, Department of Media, Culture and Communication, Steinhardt - Jeanne Etelain
Doctoral Candidate, Department of French, Arts and Science - Alexander Galloway
Professor, Media, Culture and Communication, Steinhardt - Nicole Grimaldi
Doctoral Candidate, Department of Comparative Literature, Arts and Science - Nabil Hassein
Doctoral Candidate, Department of Media, Culture and Communication, Steinhardt - Ivan Hofman
Doctoral Candidate, Department of Comparative Literature, Arts and Science - David Kanbergs
Doctoral Candidate, Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, Arts and Science - Sam Kellogg
Doctoral Candidate, Department of Media, Culture and Communication, Steinhardt - Alexander Miller
Doctoral Candidate, Department of Comparative Literature, Arts and Science - Amanda Parmer
Doctoral Candidate, Department of Media, Culture and Communication, Steinhardt - Caleb Salgado
Doctoral Candidate, Department of French, Arts and Science - Pierre Schwarzer
Doctoral Candidate, Department of French, Arts and Science - Meg Wiessner
Doctoral Candidate, Department of Media, Culture and Communication, Steinhardt - Yuanjun Song
Doctoral Candidate, Department of Comparative Literature, Arts and Science