Kulaktan kulağa — betulaksu

Betül AksuKulaktan kulağa, Chinese whispers or Arabic telephone
2018
Interactive installation

This installation explores how machine translation technologies carry cultural biases and reinforce Western linguistic dominance. The artist collected old photographs paired with stories written in her non-native English. These texts are then repeatedly translated into languages such as Turkish, Chinese, and Arabic before being translated back to English. The resulting distorted stories expose the ways automated systems struggle with and marginalize non-Western languages and perspectives.

By inviting viewers to engage directly with these fragmented narratives, the work challenges the assumption that technology is neutral. It highlights how language and meaning are shaped by power structures that privilege some voices while silencing others.

The title references a children’s game known in Turkish as Kulaktan kulağa, meaning from ear to ear, which centers on the simple act of passing a message. Its English equivalents, Chinese whispers and Arabic telephone, shift focus to the foreignness and distortion of the message. This contrast uncovers underlying cultural prejudices and questions how difference and error are framed through language and technology.

Exhibitions
2019 Peripheries, The Glucksman, Cork, Ireland
2018 The Art of Imperfection, Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria