GASi President

Dear Fellow Members,

In the middle of the night, I find myself driving an enormous vehicle, a steel behemoth, down a congested highway; I can’t see the shape of the truck around me, nor feel the controls under my feet.  The steering wheel seems only vaguely connected with the direction of travel. I wonder whether I have a licence to drive this thing? We stop for a break and I feel around for the pedals. When I put my right foot on the gas, I’m surprised to observe that we are moving gently backwards.  “Oh, look at this,” I say, “this is interesting.”

For those who are planning and organising our next symposium, it is already figuring in their dreams and nightmares. GASI has set itself a task, which we have not attempted, before. We are creating a tri-lingual conference. The issue of language, always a profound influence on our meetings, will become the focus of our thinking.

We will conduct sessions in different languages – Spanish, Catalan, English – and who knows what others.  Occasionally languages will be segregated, at others they may co-exist, compete or combine. (I am reminded of how my young daughters would sometimes speak Spanglish.)

We will surely, at times, be left, as participants, in a state of not understanding.  Not, I suppose, a new experience for many of us – the work of interpreting English must be a familiar part of most members’ participation in international events.  But, in Barcelona there will be a different linguistic economy, where understanding and misunderstanding will be re-distributed amongst us, in unpredictable ways.

This can be a source of anxiety, for the organisers, presently, and for participants, later.  How will we make use of such a situation, which will depart from previous symposia in this crucial respect?  There is a search for technical solutions to the task of translation, but there is a limit to these.  We look for logistical arrangements that will provide adequate linguistic respite.  However, whatever the organisers devise, when it comes to it, we will be issuing an invitation to ourselves, to approach Barcelona in a spirit of creative uncertainty. We can anticipate frustration, complexity and a deeper appreciation of the benefits of confronting the limits of understanding.

Let us begin to prepare for this unprecedented venture. The readiness of participants to manage their own part, in the processes of understanding, will be more important than ever, in making a success of the Barcelona symposium.

In the meantime, we can now enjoy the accounts, in this edition of Contexts, of last July’s Summer School, in Ljubljana, and look forward to next year’s in Rijeka – not to mention the Winter Workshop in St Petersburg.

All the best,

David Glyn
dearjee@gmail.com