ISSN: 1579-9794

Hikma 21 (2) (2022), 41 - 63

Opera co-creation: from collaborative translation to artistic

co-creation in audiovisual translation and accessibility

Cocreación de ópera: de la traducción colaborativa a la

cocreación artística en la accesibilidad y la traducción

audiovisual

ANNA MATAMALA

anna.matamala@uab.cat

Universitat Autònoma Barcelona

ILAR ORERO

pilar.orero@uab.cat

Universitat Autònoma Barcelona

Fecha de recepción: 17/11/2021

Fecha de aceptación: 22/09/2022

Abstract: Research on collaborative translation has expanded in recent

years, with a variety of terms such as community or volunteer translation being

used to refer to these practices. This article focuses on the Traction project as

an instance of artistic co-creation between professionals and non-

professionals in opera, and it suggests that the Traction approach could be

usefully utilised in the context of audiovisual translation and media

accessibility. After an introduction to the challenges of 21st century opera and

their quest for new audiences, the article discusses the concept of artistic co-

creation. It also presents how opera co-creation is being assessed in Traction.

The co-creation process and its evaluation are then related to translation and

accessibility to propose artistic co-creation as a new approach to collaborative

practices which can benefit both professionals and non-professionals.

Keywords: Traction project, Opera co-creation, Evaluation, Audiovisual

translation, Accessibility

Resumen: En los últimos años ha aumentado la investigación sobre la

traducción colaborativa, con una considerable variación terminológica para

referirse a ella (traducción voluntaria o comunitaria). Este artículo presenta el

proyecto Traction como ejemplo de cocreación artística entre profesionales y

no profesionales del mundo de la ópera y propone trasladar el enfoque de

Traction al ámbito de la accesibilidad a los medios y la traducción audiovisual.

Después de describir los principales retos de la ópera del siglo

XXI y hacer

referencia a la búsqueda de nuevos públicos, el artículo desarrolla el

42 Opera co-creation: from collaborative translation to artistic co-creation […]

Hikma 21 (2) (2022), 41 - 63

concepto de cocreación artística. También presenta cómo se está evaluando

el proceso de cocreación de ópera en Traction. Este proceso y su evaluación

se relacionan con la traducción y la accesibilidad y se propone la cocreación

artística como un nuevo enfoque colaborativo que puede beneficiar tanto a

profesionales como a no profesionales.

Palabras clave: Proyecto Traction, Cocreación de ópera, Evaluación,

Traducción audiovisual, Accesibilidad

NTRODUCTION

In 2005 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural

Organisation (UNESCO) drafted the Convention on the Protection and

Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. The document defines

UNESCO’s (2005) general principles regarding cultural diversity. It aims to

give recognition to «the distinctive nature of cultural activities, goods and

services as vehicles of identity, values and meaning» (p. 6) and adopts a

universally humanitarian and participatory approach. For the United Nations

member states that ratified it, the Convention offers guidelines to support all

forms of cultural expressions and the actors working with them. It is in this

context that the Traction project, which is researching opera co-creation, was

born.

The article starts with a short introduction to the challenges faced by

opera as a form of cultural expression in the 21st century and the quest for

new audiences. It describes how co-creation can enable a transformation of

traditional opera, connecting it to communities that have important stories,

ideas, and experiences to express, through a participatory and collaborative

process. The article argues that the resulting social and co-created, multi-

voiced opera experiences enable this traditionally elite form of performance to

better connect with a broader audience. Additionally, such a participative

model of opera enriches traditional opera performances, reaching new

audiences and exploring novel digital and interactive representations. The

article also describes how this type of communal art supports community

development and empowerment among people at risk of exclusion, such as

migrants or young inmates in prisons. The article provides an overview of how

artistic co-creation has been defined in the literature and the many benefits

that have been identified therein. It describes how co-creation has been

understood in Traction and the evaluation framework that has been developed

to assess it. The second part of the article discusses how the model developed

in Traction could be applied to audiovisual translation and media accessibility.

Audiovisual translation aims to make content accessible to those who do not

understand the language and includes transfer modes such as dubbing,

subtitling, or voice-over. Media accessibility aims to make content accessible

Anna Matamala y Pilar Orero 43

Hikma 21 (2) (2022), 41 - 63

to those who cannot access certain components such as the audio or the

video in an audiovisual content. Media accessibility includes access services

such as audio description, audio subtitling, subtitling for the Deaf and

hard-of-hearing, or sign language interpreting. The focus is first put on

collaborative translation and the many approaches and terms used to refer to

these practices, such as community, crowdsourced, collaborative, or

participatory translation. Finally, ideas on how the Traction model could be

transferred to audiovisual translation and media accessibility are presented

before reaching global conclusions.

Traction has been funded by the European Commission from 2020 to

2022 and is working towards engaging new audiences through co-creation.

The objective of the project is to provide a bridge between opera professionals

and three specific communities at risk of exclusion for very different reasons.

The first group is migrants in the Raval neighbourhood in Barcelona. Although

the Liceu opera house is in a low-income multicultural neighbourhood, with a

high presence of migrants from the Philippines, Bangladesh, and Pakistan,

most of these migrants do not generally attend opera performances at the

Liceu. The second group is young people serving long-term jail sentences in

Portugal who, due to their background, have not generally been in contact

with opera. The third is people living in rural areas in Ireland who may live far

from the main opera theatres. Traction is based on three trials, understood as

experimental attempts which involve under-represented groups in opera in a

quest for a new model of opera which involves new audiences. The approach

has been to foster an effective community dialogue by implementing two

essential aspects to be addressed simultaneously. On the one hand, a

collaborative and innovative production toolset which establishes a novel

workflow for the co-creation of operas. On the other, the definition and

implementation of a community-centred methodology towards engagement

through artistic co-creation. An evaluation based on four key aspects

(technology, co-creation process, performances, and social impact) has

already shed some light on the impact of the co-creation process in opera

(Matamala and Soler-Vilageliu, 2021).

In this article, though, our aim is to go a step further and use the Traction

experience to suggest an innovative approach to collaborative practices in the

context of audiovisual translation and media accessibility by importing

concepts and methods from artistic co-creation. Although our focus is on

opera in Europe, some of the lessons learned could be transferred to other

international scenarios.

44 Opera co-creation: from collaborative translation to artistic co-creation […]

Hikma 21 (2) (2022), 41 - 63

1. OPERA FOR ALL

Opera is a unique art form where other artistic representations meet:

music, writing, singing, drama, poetry, plastic arts, and sometimes dance. This

complex alchemy makes an opera performance an extraordinary show,

monopolising the sight, hearing, imagination, and sensibility of the audience.

Opera, where all human passions are at work, is a key component of Western

classical music tradition and represents an important European cultural

heritage. According to Opera Europa (Walz, 2020), opera houses and theatres

in Europe represent a yearly turnover of 5 billion EUR, with more than 15,000

opera performances, 2,000 opera productions, 50,000 permanent jobs and 25

million tickets sold per year. This data leads to a vision of opera as a popular

art form; still, it depends heavily on public subsidy. The debate between the

opera financing model and the social parameters for public sector subsidy has

been rich. Opera Europa organised a session in the autumn of 2020 towards

drawing both quantitative and qualitative measurements to justify the ongoing

public subsidy model. Data gathered by Walz (2020) from a sample of 26

theatres from 16 countries show the majority (70%) were dependent on

subsidy for 70% or more of their income. Even the 30% with lower proportions

of subsidy relied on significant financial support from their state bodies.

Table 1 gathers the variables suggested for analysing the subsidy model and

associated social impact.

Quantitative

Qualitative

Social Impact

Number of performances,

revivals, premieres,

commissions

Artistic quality,

innovation, international

standards, craftmanship

Audience development

Audience and participant

statistics (physical and

other)

Range and/or focus of

repertoire

Learning programme

Geographic reach

Development of the art

form

Equality and diversity

(representation in

workforce, creation &

audiences)

Financial and income

targets

Talent development

Ecological sustainability

Anna Matamala y Pilar Orero 45

Hikma 21 (2) (2022), 41 - 63

Occupancy rates

Quality of governance,

management and

planning

Good practice, CSR

Actual and average ticket

prices

Table 1: Measurements for public support in opera

Source: Walz (2020)

The Opera Europe effort is to go beyond the cost-effective approach

(Graham et al., 1983). Still, the first item to measure social impact is the

traditional audience development (Blaug, 1977) either horizontally across the

territory or vertically with new audiences. Engaging new audiences, or

audience development, seems to be the biggest challenge since «[i]nducing

the uninitiated to start attending artistic events tailored to their untrained

tastes» (Blaug, 1977, p. 213) is very difficult when dealing with opera.

Popularising opera is not an easy task, though it has played a small role as

music scores in movies such as Apocalypse Now or Pretty Woman, TV series

such as Sex and the City (Seattle Opera, 2016), and in sport with Puccini’s

Nessun Dorma in football (Classic FM). Engaging new audiences is what

some opera houses are trying to achieve by reducing prices, proposing

escape games or networking events for under-30 spectators, to name three

activities. The commonality of all these approaches is the position of the opera

house at the centre of the opera experience. All these engaging exercises

depart from a top-down approach: opera theatres need to have an inclusive

policy because of partial public funding. Hence lowering prices—for

example—is believed to work towards social inclusion. Interestingly, the main

factor for customer satisfaction of opera audiences is the emotional response.

So, while all sorts of management policies have been developed in hopes of

attracting a more diverse audience, professional opera companies have not

invested in making an evening at the opera a source of emotional experiences

for their customers. The opera house asks audiences to join in their terms,

either in training schemes or with audience targeted performances, i.e.

children. Results from these efforts do not increase audience diversity. Opera

is still considered elitist and disconnected from society (Rentschler et al.,

2002), which clashes with data on the higher number of opera goers explained

by McCarthy et al. (2001) as an increase in the educational levels, and not the

percentage of the population who attends (Kawashima, 2000; Walker-Kuhne,

2001). According to Losada (2013), in the report for the financial company

Deloitte, the European opera spectator profile is a 54-year-old woman with

higher education residing in the same city as the theatre, who attends the

theatre by car, usually accompanied by her partner (36%), with an average

expenditure per person of 159 EUR. Again, the recommendation from the

46 Opera co-creation: from collaborative translation to artistic co-creation […]

Hikma 21 (2) (2022), 41 - 63

report is the need for transformation to make opera inclusive for a broader

audience. Though this report has not been updated, the Advisory Board for

the Arts report in 2020 has similar findings. Only 9% of opera goers are

«cultural surfers». That is, those who would attend in order to see a famous

or popular piece.

There are several reasons why the larger part of society, and especially

those most at risk of exclusion, are disconnected from cultural events in

general, and opera in particular. Persons with disabilities, migrants, and the

elderly are the largest vulnerable population, as reported by the UN agency

International Labour Organisation (n.d.). These vulnerable groups focus their

vital resources on surviving, and have financial, educational, and societal

barriers to integrate not only into the labour market, but into society and its

basic services, i.e.: education, health, housing, culture, etc. The most

widespread discrimination in Europe is that based on ethnic origin (Farkas,

2015), and disability—the European Disability Forum (n.d.) quotes over 100

million people with disabilities in Europe. Another fact to understand the

challenging engagement of diverse groups is that opera houses in Europe are

in big cities (Falck et al., 2011); hence, people from depopulated areas have

difficulties accessing them, and finally we have those who live in institutions,

such as inmates at prisons and patients in hospitals or in care homes. These

people may feel the stories addressed in opera do not speak to their own vital

experiences. Still, opera themes address universal emotions and can be

meaningful for audiences who are usually excluded (André, 2018). Opera

themes and librettos portray popular social issues, not only in previous

centuries but also in contemporary opera such as Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess

(1935) or Hans Abrahamsen’s Let Me Tell You (2013) (Kirk, 2001;

Satterthwaite, 2016). Opera themes and productions have an extraordinary

artistic capacity to express cultural diversity and the recognition of multiple

identities and voices in ways that move, excite, and inspire (Rentschler et al.,

2002; Sterne, 2016).

2. A

RTISTIC CO-CREATION AND ITS BENEFITS

Co-creation is a term that has been used recently in many areas, but

its meaning is not always clear: in the field of education, co-creation is found

(Dollinger, Lodge and Coates, 2018; Bovill, 2020) next to participatory design

(DiSalvo et al., 2017), student engagement (Kuh, 2009), or partnership in

learning and teaching (Cook-Staher, 2014). In the field of public management

(Dudau et al., 2019), it is also being used next to other terms such as «co-

production» or «co-design». In fact, Dudau et al. (2019) acknowledge that

«the broadness of the ‘co-’ paradigm leads to significant conceptual fuzziness

[…]. The ‘co-’ concept is polysemic—it means different things to different

people».

Anna Matamala y Pilar Orero 47

Hikma 21 (2) (2022), 41 - 63

The origins of the term «co-creation» are to be found in the fields of

business and marketing, where Prahalad and Ramaswamy (2000) explore the

evolution of customers from passive to active players as a way to co-create

value. More recently, Ramaswamy and Gouillart (2010, p. 4) consider co-

creation «the practice of developing systems, products, or services through

collaboration with customers, managers, employees, and other company

stakeholders». Value co-creation has been the focus of extensive research

(Vargo and Lusch, 2008; Ranjan and Read, 2016; Rashid et al., 2018), and

co-creation has become a «trendy term used across the disciplines of

business, design and marketing to indicate new modes of engagement

between people in order to either create shared value or unleash the creative

potential of diverse groups» (Rill and Hämäläinen, 2018, p.

V).

In the artistic field, co-creation has been used to refer to audience

involvement (Brown et al., 2011) and, more recently, to the creation by

professionals and non-professionals, in what has been also termed

community or participatory art. However, as expressed by Walmsley (2019),

«the terminology surrounding arts participation is in a state of flux». In fact,

Walmsley (2013, p. 116) carries out a study based on a literature review and

interviews and concludes that an «all-encompassing definition of co-creation

remained elusive», but common traits emerged: «collaboration, agency,

interaction, invention, experience, value and exchange».

If we focus on audience involvement, Brown et al. (2011) refer explicitly

to co-creation as an instance of participatory audiences in a spectrum of

audience involvement. Co-creation is defined as «audience members

contribute something to an artistic experience curated by a professional

artist». At its left on the spectrum, crowdsourcing would be when «the

audience chooses or contributes towards an artistic product» and at its right

audience-as-artist experiences would be when audience members

«substantially take control of the artistic experience». At the other end of the

spectrum, one would find receptive audiences, who would be just spectating

or with an enhanced engagement.

In the context of Traction, co-creation is understood as the interaction

of «professionals and non-professionals, as in participatory art» (Matarasso,

2021, p. 32). The participation of professionals and non-professionals is

central to co-creation, but the role of the professionals may take different

forms. In this regard, Matarasso (2021) has developed a spectrum of artistic

co-creation, with less professional control at one end and more professional

control at the other. This spectrum shows the central position of power

relationships in the process of co-creation, but at the same time proves that

there is not a single valid approach to co-creation.

48 Opera co-creation: from collaborative translation to artistic co-creation […]

Hikma 21 (2) (2022), 41 - 63

In the context of Traction, the SAMP trial in Portugal is the one with less

professional control. SAMP is a music school in Leiria which has been working

in Leiria’s youth prison since 2004. In the Traction project, inmates have been

co-creating an opera performance with professional artists which premiered

in June 2022. Some initial performances took place in June 2021. INO is

working on a virtual reality community opera with Irish speakers from the

island of Inis Meáin and teenagers and adults from areas closer to Dublin,

together with professional artists. Finally, Liceu is involving people from the

Raval neighbourhood, including persons with disabilities, migrants, and

former sex workers. A showcase of the opera took place in March 2022 and

the community opera will premiere in October 2022. As part of the Traction

project, two main co-creation workshops have taken place to design the visual

identity of the opera and the choir performance. The traditions and constraints

of each opera production are different, hence the need to position them at

different points in a spectrum.

Artistic co-creation has been argued to have multiple benefits for non-

professionals. Matarasso (1997) offers an account of the evidence found of

the social impact of participation in the arts. More specifically, he provides a

list of 50 positive impacts in areas such as personal development, social

cohesion, community empowerment and self-determination, local image and

identity, imagination and vision, health, and well-being. The impact of

participatory art projects on persons with mental health needs (Hacking et al.,

2008) and the elderly (Beauchet et al., 2020) has also been proven in

literature. With a broader approach, Antonnen et al. (2013) suggest that the

art has a positive impact on the individual and on the community at different

levels. Regarding the individuals, positive outcomes are found at

material/health, cognitive/psych, and interpersonal levels. Regarding the

community, the benefits can be seen at economic, cultural, and social levels.

In order to prove this impact, evaluation instruments are needed. Davies

(2016) presents an account of different methods used across the Creative

People and Places programme 2013–2016 to respond to three key evaluation

questions posed by the funding agency: are more people from places of least

engagement experiencing and inspired by the arts? To what extent was the

aspiration for excellence of art and excellence of the process of engaging

communities achieved? Which approaches were successful and what were

the lessons learned? To answer these three questions, local evaluators used

different evaluation methodologies. For instance, the exhaustive Culture

Counts/Quality Metrics (Shared Intelligence et al., 2017) was one of the

methods adopted, alongside other tools measuring well-being (for instance,

the Warwick and Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scoring System) or social return

on investment. In Traction we decided to develop our own tools through a

bottom-up methodology which is described in the following section.

Anna Matamala y Pilar Orero 49

Hikma 21 (2) (2022), 41 - 63

3. ASSESSING ARTISTIC CO-CREATION IN TRACTION

To assess an artistic co-creation process it is fundamental to define the

specific aims and objectives of the co-creation process in a certain context so

that the results can be compared with the set aims and objectives. In addition

to this, Traction also aims at defining a general map of indicators to guide the

evaluation of any artistic co-creation process, following a user-centric

methodology (Orero and Matamala, 2016). To this end, a series of interviews

were planned with key stakeholders with experience or knowledge about

artistic co-creation. 19 interviews took place, including nine males and eight

females and two participants who did not provide information about their sex,

with ages ranging from 28 to 70. The profiles were diverse: artists, funding

agency representatives, directors, cultural venue managers, and

non-professional artists with experience in co-creation, among others. The

interviews were oral, individual, semi-structured, and took place online in

2020. See Matamala and Soler-Vilageliu (2021) for further procedural details.

A thematic analysis of the interviews, carried out with the software Taguette

(Rampin, Steeves and DeMott, 2021), allowed us to propose a preliminary list

of indicators. This list was then discussed in a focus group with four

participants (an expert in co-creation and one representative from each of the

trials) and two facilitators. During this discussion, it was agreed to:

a) Differentiate between indicators that relate to the process, to

the artistic product, and to both.

b) Differentiate between outcome indicators and output indicators.

The former gathers factual data on the activities and outputs

generated by the project, whereas the latter evaluates the

changes that take part because of the co-creation.

The final map is shown in Table 2.

50 Opera co-creation: from collaborative translation to artistic co-creation […]

Hikma 21 (2) (2022), 41 - 63

The indicators related to the process are mainly related to non-

professional participants and consider the following aspects (Matamala and

Soler-Vilageliu, 2021): their profile and how many sessions they attend,

paying special attention to the fact that numbers are retained. Their

engagement, a term to encompass their active participation, motivation,

interest, and enthusiasm, is considered a key indicator, alongside the fact that

the different participant profiles, both professionals and non-professionals,

can contribute in a balanced way to the co-created performance. The fact that

participants find shared elements among each other, and that there is good

communication and a connection between professionals and non-

professionals is included under the indicator «mutual understanding». The fact

that bonds of trust and friendship are being developed («relationships») and

the satisfaction with the process are also included, along with the project

evolution, which considers how the project takes its own journey and adapts

to new developments.

There are also indicators related to the output, i.e. to the performance.

In this regard, the fact that there is a final output is a quality indicator per se,

next to media impact and artistic quality. In the context of Traction, this quality

is assessed by using Matarasso’s proposal, which considers craft, originality,

ambition, resonance, and feeling. In terms of the audience, the number of

people attending and the diversity of their profile is considered a quality

Process

•Non-professionals:

•Profile

•Participation

•Engagement

•Balanced

contributions

•Mutual understanding

•Relationships

•Satisfaction

•Project evolution

Artistic product

•Artistic product

•Quality

•Media impact

•Audience

•attendance

•profile

•response:

•feeling represented

•personal change

•satisfaction

•Non-professionals

response:

•feeling represented

•satisfaction

Process and product

•Community impact

•Non-professionals:

•personal change

(empowerment,

relationships)

•learning

•Professionals:

•personal change

(relationships,

attitudes)

•learning

•Institution:

•institutional change

(attitudes,

programme, practice)

Table 2:Traction map of evaluation indicators

Anna Matamala y Pilar Orero 51

Hikma 21 (2) (2022), 41 - 63

indicator. Traction considers that the audience response should be measured,

especially in terms of feeling represented in the artistic performance,

experiencing a personal change (for instance, thinking about new topics or

changing previous beliefs), and satisfaction. Traction considers that the

responses of the non-professional artists should also be gathered, especially

in terms of feeling represented and being satisfied by the final performance.

Finally, there are indicators which are related to both the process and

the product, namely the fact that the community talks about the project and

feels involved in it (community impact) and the changes that take place at

different levels: non-professionals may experience a personal change in terms

of increasing self-esteem, changing their view of the world, feeling more

empowered, whereas professionals may experience an attitudinal change.

Institutions may also change due to the co-creation experience and in all

cases a good indicator of success is learning, i.e. the acquisition of new skills.

These indicators have been used in the context of Traction to carry out

a mid-process evaluation which has proven to have a positive impact on

participants. In the case of inmates, although co-creating an opera was seen

as a way of getting out of their cells at the beginning, a true appreciation of

opera develops feelings of bond and trust. Participants acquire new skills and

project these learnings into a future outside of the prison. At the same time,

professional artists change their views and prejudices against inmates, and

audience members become more aware of inequalities. In the case of Liceu,

a co-creation process between students from an arts school and creatives

from an occupational centre for persons with disabilities, together with a

professional artist, has yielded positive benefits for all: there has been a

growing mutual understanding and many skills have been acquired, as

reported by the participants. Finally, at INO, the different writing, visual design,

and composition workshops developed with professionals and

non-professionals have produced high levels of engagement and satisfaction,

with the acquisition of new skills and an increased interest in the arts as

relevant outputs.

4. F

ROM COLLABORATIVE TRANSLATION TO ARTISTIC CO-CREATION

The previous sections have presented the Traction approach to

co-creation and its evaluation, as well as the context in which the project was

born. In this section, a proposal is made to view collaborative translation in a

new light. A discussion of how co-creation and related terms have been

considered in translation and how artistic co-creation could be understood

within the framework of translation studies is presented, inspired by the

Traction experience.

52 Opera co-creation: from collaborative translation to artistic co-creation […]

Hikma 21 (2) (2022), 41 - 63

Translation has been considered an artistic creation. Levy, in his

seminal work The Art of Translation (1963), described the creative nature of

the process of translation, analysing both the creation of the new text and its

reception for literary translation, with a focus on poetry. Levy’s approach

shows how the translator, in his case identified as one person, decides which

features are chosen to be rendered in another language, culture, and time.

The fact that the translator plays an active role does not always render an

artistic creation. This is suggested by Holmes (1988) and reflected by

Snell-Hornby (1991, p. 20): «I find the debate as to whether translation is an

art or a craft rather pointless: it is usually a craft and often art—and sometimes

it is both». While all the previous authors looked at translation as a human

endeavour, O’Brien (2011, p. 17) defines collaborative translation broadly as

«when two or more agents cooperate in some way to produce a translation»,

but she then goes a step further and also extends the concept to hybrid

machine-human interaction.

The unstable terminology and fuzzy boundaries found in other

disciplines is also reproduced in the field of translation studies. Terms such as

«CT

» (community, crowdsourced, and collaborative translation), «volunteer

translation», or «participatory accessibility» are to be found in the literature,

together with the most recent term «co-creation». Co-creation has been used

by Chen (2020) or Moore (2018) to define literary translation: «it’s a kind of

co-creation. A work requiring two authors: one, the original who invented the

shape and the narrative, and the second who made it sing in a new tongue».

Pym (2011) focuses on the crowdsourcing phenomenon by looking at the

professional nature of the service versus amateur, the voluntary and free

nature of any collaborative action. His approach leads to an unclear remark:

Although now widespread in technology businesses, the main

disadvantage of the term is that it is a cheap mutation of the standard

business practice of «out-sourcing», which is the only way anyone

could justify the word «crowd» (because it sounds like «out»). The

term thus lacks specific reference. Recommendation: Volunteer

translation (q.v.). The hyphenated «crowd-sourcing» has the virtue

of marginally greater clarity and significantly smaller presumption of

widespread acceptance (Pym, 2011, p. 77).

4.1. Participatory translation in audiovisual translation and media accessibility

It is in the field of audiovisual translation where the concept of

participatory translation is studied most and in all the different audiovisual

translation modalities, from subtitling (Orrego-Carmona, 2019) to video game

localisation or audio description. Gambier (2012) highlights three challenging

issues (professional practice, impact of technology, training) and refers to the

Internet communities of fansubbers and amateur subtitlers. Pérez-González

Anna Matamala y Pilar Orero 53

Hikma 21 (2) (2022), 41 - 63

and Susam-Saraeva (2014) use the term «participatory», where the focus is

on the non-professional background of the translators. Pérez-González

(2018) also uses the term «co-creation» when exploring emerging

collaborative subtitling practices, referred to as «transformative subtitling», by

fan networks for the «benefit of other members of their transnational

communities of interest». His focus is on the impact of transformative subtitling

on commercial media content, but our interest lies in how he uses the term

«co-creation». In fact, Pérez-González (2018, p. 4) refers to these

communities as «participatory networks of co-creators», «active audiences»,

or «consumers-turned-producers». He argues that there is «a clear move

towards a regime of co-creation between producers and users of media

content where transformative subtitling takes on a performative function,

fostering mutual recognition». Jiménez-Crespo (2017) provides a detailed

account of how crowdsourcing and online collaborative translation have been

defined and implemented, the main difference being in the initiator of the

translation process and who has control over the process: a company or

organisation or a self-organised community. However, he does not use the

terms «co-create» or «co-creation» in his monograph.

Different scholars have discussed the participatory nature of translation

with a more or less philosophical, professional, financial, or sociological slant

according to their agency. From the industry approach, and still in audiovisual

translation studies, Bernal-Merino (2006, p. 34) comments on video games

that «The new business model for developing video games is one that makes

the creative department work almost simultaneously with the localization

department. This is what I mean by shared authorship». Pym’s (2011)

financial considerations are also commented by Bernal-Merino (2016) and

Mangiron (2018) in the field of video game translation. Both authors mention

the nature of crowdsourcing translation as a popular and cheap response from

gamers with small languages translation needs. Joining forces in a

collaborative translation, they work against the industrial trend of video game

exclusive distribution in large languages. From a sociological approach,

Saadat (2017)

investigates Iran's structural rules and resources driving and

conditioning translation activity in what he calls «translaboration», a

portmanteau from «translation» and «collaboration» which takes place in the

cloud. Through translaboration, agency of control over the discourse is shifted

resisting the state rules—the dominant discourse. As with any collaborative

activity, the outcome is to empower the source text, or the translator, or both,

hence measuring the empowerment and impact is at stake. From the field of

media accessibility, Benecke (2014) described the production approach for

audio description where a blind person always collaborates in the production

process. This is borrowed by Di Giovanni (2018), who coins the term

«participatory accessibility», defined as:

54 Opera co-creation: from collaborative translation to artistic co-creation […]

Hikma 21 (2) (2022), 41 - 63

Thus, participatory accessibility refers to the design, creation,

revision and consumption of access services in an inclusive way: the

blind, partially sighted and non-blind; the deaf, hard of hearing and

non-deaf; children and adults; they can all work together in the

making of truly shared access services for the media, for live

performances, for museums. In fact, when referring to participatory

accessibility, even the word 'services' becomes inappropriate: what

is created and enjoyed should rather be seen as an inclusive

experience, not merely a service (Di Giovanni, 2018, p. 158).

From the methodological approach of participation, Campbell and Vidal

(2020) have developed cross-disciplinary theoretical conceptualisations of

transmedial practices with workshop discussions as a methodological

approach for the analysis. This participatory methodology is also exploited for

audio description in museums by Wang et al. (2020). Their reception study

measures the level of empowerment and independence experienced by

visitors, and especially people with sight loss. Participatory art is increasingly

becoming a normalised creative modality.

4.2 A new proposal: artistic co-creation in audiovisual translation and media

accessibility

What we have seen so far, though, is that collaborative or participatory

processes have been given different names and generally involve a) only

non-professionals, and b) professionals and end-users, especially in the field

of media accessibility. Our innovative proposal is to transfer the Traction

approach to the field of audiovisual translation and media accessibility and

suggest a third possibility: the co-creation of professionals and

non-professionals as a tool for transformation. This communal approach can

coexist with professional translation and with volunteer translations. Both

approaches have their place in the cultural world, with different aims and

objectives.

The collaboration of professionals and non-professionals could take

different forms in the world of audiovisual translation and media accessibility,

involving some of the modalities mentioned before, such as subtitling or audio

description. For instance, a professional or a group of professionals could

work with non-professionals to generate subtitles for a co-created

performance. In the context of Traction, one could think of migrants in the

Raval neighbourhood wishing to add subtitles in multiple languages, but also

of the students in Ireland who may want to add this accessibility layer to their

co-created performance. Another example could be the co-creation of an

audio description for a co-created performance involving a professional

describer, the non-professional actors, and even users with sight loss. In this

context, a fruitful dialogue could take place among the different agents. In all

Anna Matamala y Pilar Orero 55

Hikma 21 (2) (2022), 41 - 63

these scenarios, the co-creation process could benefit all groups:

non-professionals would increase their linguistic and communication skills and

their accessibility and multilingualism awareness. Professionals would

enhance their understanding of multiculturally diverse situations which would

allow them to acquire new social skills. It would also be possible to explore

more creative approaches to audiovisual translation, since non-professionals

may be less constrained by existing standards and regulations. As with the

Traction spectrum of co-creation mentioned earlier, the audiovisual translation

and media accessibility co-creation processes could also fall onto different

places of the spectrum, including processes with a stronger or weaker

professional control, but always with the presence of paid professionals,

contrary to some of the current participatory processes.

Co-creating audiovisual translations and media accessibility services

following the Traction approach could adopt some of the following guidelines:

• Both professionals and non-professionals need to be involved

in the co-creation process.

• The role of professionals and non-professionals should be

clearly defined. All participants should understand their role and

agree to it.

• Ethical aspects should be considered during the co-creation

process. All participants need to be involved voluntarily and

sign the relevant forms so that their contribution can be used in

the resulting performance.

• The artistic co-creation process should have a clear aim with a

positive impact on all participant profiles.

When assessing this impact, the Traction map of indicators presented

above could be used as a starting point, but focus group discussions and

interviews with relevant stakeholders could contribute to define the

specificities of audiovisual translation and media accessibility co-creation

processes. One could hypothesise that the aspects related to the process

would still be valid, but some of the indicators in the artistic output would need

to be revisited as the output is not a performance. For instance, one could

expect a co-creation process in the fields of audiovisual translation and media

accessibility to be successful when participants are engaged and satisfied,

when relationships grow and there is a mutual understanding. One could also

expect non-professionals to enhance their linguistic skills. In terms of

professionals, co-creation processes could be an opportunity to learn about

environments they are not familiar with. It is when defining the indicators for

the artistic output that some fine-tuning should be necessary, as the way it is

shared with the audience can have an impact on its reception. It is not the

56 Opera co-creation: from collaborative translation to artistic co-creation […]

Hikma 21 (2) (2022), 41 - 63

same if the content is to be broadcast on the Internet (for instance, a subtitled

video) or if the content is a live performance (for instance, a live audio

described opera performance). It is beyond the scope of the article to propose

such revised map of indicators.

ONCLUSIONS

The article has provided a short overview of the challenges faced by

opera in its attempt to become a democratic and socially accepted creative art

form in the 21st century. It can be said there is a lack of unified terminology

and methodology to analyse the impact of opera at social, artistic, or political

levels. This leads to uneven data. Furthermore, the source of existing

literature varies from academic and scientific approaches to ad hoc reports

from a variety of sources. The fact that opera is no longer a European art form

demands for new research approaches.

Opera satisfaction, at a personal level, is related to the emotional

response it generates. To this aim, personal engagement in the opera

production was considered towards highlighting personal impact. The article

has explained how artistic co-creation has allowed non-professionals to

expand their agency in the arts beyond the consumption of content into the

actual co-creation of artistic works. Through a literature review, we have

proved how this process of co-creation, and its resulting output, has a positive

impact on the agents involved in the co-creation process. Traction has been

used as a case study, but the Traction agent-grounded approach resonates

well with translation studies concepts such as collaborative translation.

Discussions on the role of non-professional translations and

collaborative approaches abound not only in the literature but also in daily

practice. Communities of fansubbers, crowdsourcing projects, volunteer

translation, and participatory audio description are some of the examples

mentioned in this article. Cooperation among different professionals has

become a normal practice. These days, live subtitling for example is

performed by a team of subtitlers who take turns and cooperate with

technicians. Audio describing movies is often carried out by a team of

describers to speed up the process and meet the tight deadlines required by

studios. The idea of one single professional behind the production of one

piece is increasingly detached from reality. This is more poignant when

translators these days use internet resources not only for documentation, but

also for troubleshooting with peers through specialised blogs. Technology

allows for participatory creation processes, be it for music composition,

translation, or performances.

Our proposal here takes a step further and proposes that artistic

co-creation can be understood as the collaboration of professionals and

Anna Matamala y Pilar Orero 57

Hikma 21 (2) (2022), 41 - 63

non-professionals and can be seen as a tool for transformation also in

audiovisual translation and media accessibility. This communal approach can

coexist with professional translation (without the participation of

non-professionals) and with volunteer translations (without the participation of

professionals). All approaches have their place in the cultural world, with

different aims and objectives.

The collaboration of professionals and non-professionals could take

different forms in the world of audiovisual translation and media accessibility,

as already presented in the previous section: from co-created subtitles to

co-created audio descriptions, to name just two. There is still room for further

research. For example, it remains to be seen how artistic co-creation in this

field could be evaluated. To this end, a map of indicators inspired by the

Traction proposal could be developed. It also remains to be seen in what

audiovisual transfer modes and access services the co-creation process

would be more useful. It would also be relevant to research how audiovisual

translation and access services co-creation could be integrated into processes

of artistic co-creation from the very beginning. Despite the many open

avenues, this article has set the foundations of future research by presenting

an overview of how artistic co-creation has been approached in opera within

the Traction project and by suggesting ways to adopt a similar approach in

audiovisual translation and media accessibility.

CKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research has received funding from the European Union Horizon

2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement number

870610. Both authors are members of TransMedia Catalonia, a research

group funded by the Catalan government under the SGR funding scheme.

EFERENCES

Advisory Board for the Arts. (2020). Opera Patrons ABA Audience Survey

Data https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5cddadfebfcd3e0001fa3b

7c/t/5fdab19d3a07f16c2d9de5b8/1608167843092/Opera_AudienceSu

rveyReport.pdf

André, N. (2018). Black opera: History, power,

engagement. Doi: https://doi.org/10.5406/j.ctv80cb7d

Antonnen, R. et al. (2016). Managing Art Projects with Societal Impact.

Helsinki: Sibelius Academy Research Report Publications.

Beauchet, O., Lafleur, L., Remondière, S., Galery, K., Vilcocq, C., & Launay,

C. P. (2020). Effects of participatory art-based painting workshops in

geriatric inpatients: results of a non-randomized open label trial. Aging

58 Opera co-creation: from collaborative translation to artistic co-creation […]

Hikma 21 (2) (2022), 41 - 63

Clinical and Experimental Research, 32(12), 2687-

2693. Doi:10.1007/s40520-020-01675-0

Benecke, B. (2014). Audiodeskription als partielle Translation: Modell und

Methode. Münster: LIT Verlag.

Bernal-Merino, M. Á. (2006). On the translation of video games. Journal of

Specialised Translation, 6, 22 - 36. https://www.jostrans.org/issue06/a

rt_bernal.php

_____ (2016). Glocalization and Co-creation. Trends in International Game

Production. In A. Esser, I. R. Smith, and M. Á. Bernal-Merino. (Eds.),

Media Across Borders: Localising TV, Films and Video Games (pp.

202-220). London: Routledge.

Blaug, M. (1997). Rationalising Social Expenditure - The Arts. In M. Posner.

(Ed.), Public Expenditure. Allocation between competing end (pp. 201-

220). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bovill, C. (2020). Co-creation in learning and teaching: the case for a whole-

class approach in higher education. Higher Education, 79, 1023-1037.

Brown, A. S., Novak-Leonard, J., and Gilbride, S. (2011). Getting in on the

act. The James Irvine Foundation.

Campbell, M., and Vidal, R. (2020). Poetry translation through sound, image

and motion – the workshop as method of enquiry in transmedia

practice. Transmedia Turn? Potentials, problems, and points to

consider. E-conference 8-10 December 2020. https://sisu.ut.ee/sites/d

efault/files/transmedia/files/tmt_book_of_abstracts_2020_01.pdf#page

=84

Chen, L. (2020). Translation as Co-creation with the Author. TRanscUlturAl,

12(2), 79-90.

Classic FM. https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/latest/football-songs/

Cook-Staher, A. (2014). Student-faculty partnership in explorations of

pedagogical practice: a threshold concept in academic development.

International Journal for Academic Development, 19(3), 186-198.

https://doi.org/10.1080/1360144X.2013.805694

Davies, S. (Ed.) (2016). Evaluation in participatory arts programmes: A

selection of approaches, models and methods developed across

Creative People and Places. UK:Creative People and Places.

Anna Matamala y Pilar Orero 59

Hikma 21 (2) (2022), 41 - 63

Di Giovanni, E. (2018). Participatory accessibility: Creating audio description

with blind and non-blind children. Journal of Audiovisual Translation

1(1), 155-169.

DiSalvo, B., Yip, J., Bonsignore, E., and DiSalvo, C. (2017). Participatory

Design for Learning. London: Routledge.

Dollinger, M., Lodge, J., and Coates, H. (2018). Co-creation in higher

education: towards a conceptual model. Journal of Marketing for Higher

Education, 28(2), 210-231.

Dudau, A., Glennong, R., and Verschuere, B. (2019). Following the yellow

brick road? (Dis)enchantment with co-design, co-production and value

co-creation in public services. Public Management Review, 21(11),

1577-1594.

European Disability Forum. (n.d.). https://www.edf-feph.org.

Falck, O., Fritsch, M., Heblich, S. (2011) The phantom of the opera: Cultural

amenities, human capital, and regional economic growth, Labour

Economics, 18 (6), 755-766.

Farkas, L. (2015). Analysis and comparative review of equality data collection

practices in the European Union. Data collection in the field of ethnicity.

Brussels: European Commission.

Gambier, Y. (2012). The position of audiovisual translation studies. In C.

Millán and F. Bartrina. (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Translation

Studies (pp. 45-59). Abingdon/New York: Routledge.

https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9780203102893.ch

Graham, R. J. C., Norman, J. M, and Shearn, D. C. S. (1983). Cost effective

opera subsidy. The Journal of Operational Research Society, 34(10),

953-960. https://doi.org/10.2307/2580894

Hacking, S., Secker, J., Spandler, H., Kent, L., and Shenton, J. (2008).

Evaluating the impact of participatory art projects for people with mental

health needs. Health and Social Care in the Community, 16(6), 638-

648.

Holmes, J. S. (1988). Translated!: Papers on Literary Translation and

Translation Studies. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

International Labour Organisation. (n.d.). Declaration on Fundamental

Principles and Rights at Work.

60 Opera co-creation: from collaborative translation to artistic co-creation […]

Hikma 21 (2) (2022), 41 - 63

https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---

declaration/documents/publication/wcms_decl_fs_90_en.pdf

Jiménez-Crespo, M. (2017). Crowdsourcing and online collaborative

translation. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

Kawashima, N. (2000). Beyond the division of attenders and non-attenders: a

study into audience development in policy and practice. Centre for

Cultural Policy Studies. University of Warwick: Coventry.

http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/35926/1/WRAP_Kawashima_ccps_paper_6

.pdf

Kirk, E. K. (2001). American Opera. Urbana and Chicago: University of

Chicago Press.

Kuh, G. D. (2009). The national survey of student engagement: Conceptual

and empirical foundations. New Directions for Institutional Research,

141, pp. 5-20. https://doi.org/10.1002/ir.283

Levy, J. (1963). The Art of Translation. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

Losada, F. (2013). Opera, A European Worth. Deloitte. https://www2.deloitte

.com/content/dam/Deloitte/es/Documents/acerca-de-deloitte/Deloitte-

ES-Opera_Europa_The_economic_impact_of_Opera.pdf

McCarthy, K. F., Brooks, A., Lowell, J. F., and Zakaras, L. (2001). The

Performing Arts in a New Era. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation.

https://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1367.html

Mangiron, C. (2018). Game on! Burning issues in game localisation. Journal

of Audiovisual Translation, 1(1), 122-138.

Matamala, A., and Soler-Vilageliu, O. (2021). Defining and assessing co-

artistic co-creation: the TRACTION proposal. Arte, individuo y

Sociedad, 34(3), 851-867.

Matarasso, F. (1997). Use or ornament? The social impact of participation in

the arts. Stroud: Comedia Publishing Group.

Matarasso, F. (2021). TRACTION deliverable 3.2. Opera co-creation

(preliminary report). Project report.

Moore, J. (2018). The Art of Translation. A literary translator talks about her

craft. Canadian Art, July 23. https://canadianart.ca/essays/the-art-of-

translation

Anna Matamala y Pilar Orero 61

Hikma 21 (2) (2022), 41 - 63

O’Brien, S. (2011). Collaborative translation. In Y. Gambier and L. van

Doorslaer. (Eds.), Handbook of Translation Studies (pp. 17-20), vol. 2.

Amsterdam: Benjamins.

Opera Europe.

https://opera-europa.org

Orrego-Carmona, D. (2019). A holistic approach to non-professional subtitling

from a functional quality perspective. Translation Studies, 1-17. doi:

https://doi.org/10.1080/14781700.2019.1686414

Orero, P., and Matamala, A. (2016). User-centric audio description: a topsy-

turvy research approach. In A. Manco and A. Mancini. (Eds.), Scrittura

brevi: Segni, testi e contesti. Dalle iscrizione antiche ai tweet (pp. 376-

387). Naples: Università degli Studi di Napoli «L’Orientale».

Pérez-González, L. (2018). Co-creational subtitling in the digital media:

Transformative and authorial practices. International Journal of Cultural

Studies, 16(1), 3-21.

Pérez-González, L., and Susam-Saraeva, S. (2014). Non-professionals

Translating and Interpreting. The Translator, 18(2), 149-165.

Prahalad, C.K., and Ramaswamy, V. (2000). Co-opting Customer

Competence. Harvard Business Review, January/February 2000.

Pym, A. (2011). Translation research terms: a tentative glossary for moments

of perplexity and dispute. Translation Research Projects, 3, 75-110.

Ramaswamy, V., and Gouillart, F. J. (2010). The power of co-creation. New

York: Free Press.

Rampin, R., Steeves, V., and DeMott, S. (2021). Taguette (Version 0.10.1).

Zenodo. doi: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4560784

Ranjan, K. R., and Read, S. (2016). Value co-creation: concept and

measurement. Journal of the Academic Marketing Science, 44, 290-

315.

Rashid, Y., Waseem, A., Akbar, A. A., and Azam, F. (2018). Value co-creation

and social media. A systematic literature review using citation and

thematic analysis. European Business Review, 31(5), 761-784.

Rentschler, R., Radbourn, J., Carr, R., Rickard, J. (2002). Relationship

marketing, audience retention and performing arts organizations

viability. International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector

Marketing, 7(2), 118-130.

62 Opera co-creation: from collaborative translation to artistic co-creation […]

Hikma 21 (2) (2022), 41 - 63

Rill, B., and Hämäläinen, M. (2018). The art of co-creation. London: Palgrave

Macmillan.

Saadat, S. (2017). Translaboration. Collaborative translation to challenge

hegemony. Translation and Translaguaging in Multilingual Contexts,

3(3), 349-369.

Satterthwaite, S. (2016) Opera Houses on Main Street. Where Art and

Community Meet. New York: Oxford University Press.

Seattle Opera. (2016). https://www.seattleoperablog.com/2016/05/top-10-

most-recognizable-opera-pieces.html

Shared Intelligence, The Mighty Creatives, and Pickthall, S. (2017). Testing

the accessibility of Arts Council England’s Quality and Participatory

Metrics. https://impactandinsight.co.uk/reports/

Snell-Hornby, M. (1991) Translation studies: Art, science or utopia?. In K. van

Leuven-Zwart and T. Naaijkens. (Eds.), Translation Studies: The State

of the Art. Proceedings of the First James S. Holmes Symposium on

Translation Studies (pp. 13-23). Amsterdam/Atlanta: Rodopi.

Sterne, J. (2016). Opera, Media and Technicity. In K. Henson. (Ed.),

Technology and the Diva (pp. 159-164). Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

UNESCO. (2005). Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the

Diversity of Cultural Expressions. https://en.unesco.org/creativity/conv

ention

Vargo, S., and Lusch, R. (2008) Service dominant logic: Continuing the

evolution. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 36(1), 1-10.

Walker-Kuhne, D. (2001). Building community-based audiences for the arts.

Part 1 and 2. http://www.artsmarketing.org.

Walmsley, B. (2013). Co-creating theatre: authentic engagement or inter-

legitimation? Cultural Trends, 22(2), 108-122. http://dx.doi.org/10.108

0/09548963.2013.783176

Walmsley, B. (2019). Co-creating art, meaning, and value. Audience

engagement in the performing arts. New directions in cultural policy

research. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Walz, D. (2020). The social impact of subsidy. Opera Europa. https://opera-

europa.org/es/node/6184

Anna Matamala y Pilar Orero 63

Hikma 21 (2) (2022), 41 - 63

Wang, Y., Crookes, D., and Harding, S.A. (2020). Evaluating audio description

and BPS visitor experience in Titanic Belfast. Journal of Audiovisual

Translation, 3(2), 246-263.