Laura M. Schwengber

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Laura M. Schwengber (Photo Chris Civitillo 2019)

Laura M. Schwengber (born December 11, 1989 in Lübben ) is a German sign language interpreter . She has been known nationwide since 2011 for her interpretation of music with sign language in music videos , since 2012 also at live concerts and since 2013 on television.

Career

Schwengber had originally flirted with a career as a musician: As a child and adolescent, she completed courses in early musical education , dance , recorder , singing and choir as well as guitar and acting at the Dahme-Spreewald district music school . Through her best friend, whom she has known since she was twelve and who became deaf and later also blind, Schwengber said he came across sign language. After graduating from high school in 2009 at the Paul-Gerhardt-Gymnasium in Lübben, Schwengber first completed his first courses in German Sign Language in Berlin and then began studying sign language interpreting in Magdeburg . She later moved to the Humboldt University in Berlin , where she studied Deaf Studies (language and culture of the deaf community), sign language, sign language and audio education and English. Alongside her studies, she worked as a job assistant in a sign language office. At the Office for Teacher Education , she finally passed the exam to become a state-certified interpreter for sign language.

A fellow student told Schwengber that the North German Radio in 2011 someone for his program N-Joy sought that the day of the deaf , the music video "Only briefly to save the world" from Tim Bendzko translated into sign language. Her studies also dealt with interpreting music, but not “very deeply”. Schwengber learned the skills and movements largely self-taught. Many more songs followed, including "Love is my rebellion" by Frida Gold , "Your strengths" by Silly , "That's not everything" by Nena , "I know nothing" by Xavier Naidoo , the "Haus am See" by Peter Fox or “boy” from the doctors and “yes” from Silbermond .

Schwengber interpreted a tour of Keimzeit live for the first time in 2012 , and in the following year she was already on the tour posters. This was followed by concerts by the Wise Guys , AnnenMayKantereit , Peter Maffay , Max Mutzke , Revolverheld , the Babelsberg Film Orchestra and many more. In October 2013 she and Heinz Rudolf Kunze on the ZDF talk show inka! her first TV appearance. In July 2018 she performed together with Markus in the ZDF television garden . In May 2017 and May 2018 she translated the music at the Eurovision Song Contest in front of an audience of millions on television. In 2018 she had her first appearance at the hard rock and metal festival Wacken Open Air . In addition to 50 to 60 concerts a year, she translates at meetings, conferences and in the Bundestag .

In 2017, the online report of the Hessischer Rundfunk for hr2-kultur, "Die mit den hands tanzt" (dances with hands) about Laura M. Schwengber, received the Grimme Online Award in the category "Knowledge and Education".

Music interpreting

The challenge for Schwengber is to portray the emotions that the music triggers in her. When a singer cries, she tries to make it look like that in herself too. When a singer freaks out, she hops along. Their own claim to their performances is a matching overall picture instead of an exciting show on the stage with a corner for the disabled next to it. For music without text, Schwengber works with images - for example in Smetana's symphony “ Die Moldau ”. Schwengber calls this "sign poetry". With modern pieces, she can be explained in which situation the composers created their work and what they wanted to tell. If none of that helps, she still has two options: She thinks up something - "or the ballerina is better off". Her priority is always given by style and mood, then rhythm and melody . With a wave-shaped hand movement, Schwengber gives z. B. Pitch and rhythm. The text comes at the end. Text passages such as B. "No fear of heights, great cinema for the two of us" from the play " Breathless through the night " does not translate literally, but either with "Cinema - beautiful - for us" or "Everything prepared - for us" in connection with a beam, as she sees the content interpretation as more relevant. In the song “Purple Clouds” by Marteria , Yasha and Miss Platnum , Schwengber added the gesture of the rising sun to the line of text “We'll stay awake until the clouds are purple again” in their translation of the song, since this is about partying until Sunrise goes.

criticism

Schwengber also has prominent critics within the deaf scene. The blogger Julia Probst keeps music interpretation in general for "as superfluous as athlete's foot." While the NDR referred to conversations with the Deaf Association for its music videos with Schwengber , Probst quotes the ORF , according to which "the extroverted gestures [...] are more reminiscent of a dance show than a translation and cause a visual flood". Similar to Schwengber, a sign language interpretation of the Swedish contribution to the ESC 2015 had become viral hype , listeners were enthusiastic and CNN wrote of the " Michael Jackson of sign language". The ORF reported, however, that deaf people find this only moderately funny, the posture must be much calmer. Julia Probst regards song translations by Schwengber as corruption , they do not have the quality of deaf native speakers. Schwengber's performance would be "more dance [...] than pure sign language", it "does a lot of things uncleanly". As a positive counterexample, Probst names the deaf sign language interpreter for Ann Sophie's ESC song "Black Smoke", but generally advocates investing more budget in accessible programs with subtitles , sign language interpreters and audio description .

According to an article in the German Deaf newspaper, Schwengber's music video and concert translations had the advantage "that deaf people received a lot of attention," but "unfortunately again in an area where deaf people were forced to have one of the most important cultural achievements of the hearing". Interpreted music causes discomfort for some pigeons, like the bland taste of their favorite food with a cold. Devoting the main focus to music in reports on deaf people is just as politically and culturally incorrect as inviting devout Muslims to a talk show on the subject of “ethical and moral treatment in pig breeding and slaughter”.

Even Martin Zierold criticized in interpreting the often poetic lyrics in sign of hearing sign language interpreters, the special cultural characteristics were not considered. This requires the extra-linguistic competence of deaf sign language interpreters. At a Keimzeit concert with Schwengber in Freiberg in December 2014 , the Freie Presse described Zierold as happy and grateful to be able to experience the concert so intensely, and quoted him as saying “I need visual music”. Zierold sees Schwengber's talk show appearances as ethically problematic when she answers questions about the deaf culture - which, as a hearing person, she only knows secondhand.

Web links

Commons : Laura Schwengber  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Maxi Schmeißer: This is how music videos are created in sign languages ( Memento from October 16, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) In: NDR . 22th January 2014.
  2. ↑ Keimzeit gives a concert with a sign language interpreter . In: The world . March 8, 2014.
  3. ↑ a b Stefan Strauss: Without words . In: Berliner Zeitung . 4th March 2013.
  4. ↑ a b c Julia Schaaf: When you can suddenly see music . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . 18th June 2017.
  5. ↑ Paul Schulz: Music that can be seen . In: Volksstimme . 4th August 2018.
  6. ↑ Markus & Laura M. Schwengber with "I want fun" . In: ZDF television garden . July 22, 2018.
  7. ↑ a b c Ruth Schneeberger: “I still have to add a bit of drama to it” . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . May 11, 2018.
  8. ↑ Sign language interpreter at Wacken Open Air . In: Schleswig-Holstein magazine of the NDR . 3rd August 2018.
  9. ↑ Hannes Soltau: More than just sound waves . In: Tagesspiegel . March 12, 2018.
  10. ↑ Deaf at a concert? In: hr2-culture .
  11. ↑ Grimme Online Award 2017 - Who dances with her hands . In: Grimme Online Award .
  12. ↑ a b Liane von Billerbeck : “I pass on what music does to me” . In: Deutschlandfunk Kultur . 22nd December 2017.
  13. ↑ Anja Tiedge, Christine Lehner and Thies Schnack: Who sings with her hands . In: Spiegel Online . 3rd August 2013.
  14. ↑ Volker Behrens: This sign language interpreter is a music translator . In: Hamburger Abendblatt . July 30, 2015.
  15. ↑ Julia Probst : Music interpreting is as superfluous as athlete's foot . ( Memento from November 8, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) In: MeinAugenschmaus ( Blog ). October 11, 2017.
  16. ↑ More subtitles on NDR television - "Light language" new on offer . ( Memento from August 16, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) In: NDR . July 16, 2015.
  17. ↑ a b Julia Probst : More music videos instead of more REAL accessibility in the television program ?! ( Memento from November 14, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) In: MeinAugenschmaus ( Blog ). July 18, 2015.
  18. ↑ André Anwar: "The Michael Jackson of Sign Language" . In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger . March 27, 2015.
  19. ↑ Sonia Neufeld: “You don't have to hear to feel” . ( Memento from April 5, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) In: ORF . April 1, 2015.
  20. ↑ Julia Probst : Song translations by Laura Schwengber in # sign language do NOT have the quality of deaf native speakers! Corruption stop. In: Twitter . September 7, 2015.
  21. ↑ Julia Probst : Because for her it is more of a dance than pure sign language. That is why it does a lot of dirty work. And the interpretation is not neutral. She always brushes this criticism aside and says it's a question of type. But that's not a question of type. In: Twitter . May 12, 2018.
  22. ↑ "Black Smoke": The song in sign language . In: eurovision.de . 2015.
  23. ↑ Karin Schmidt: Deafness plus music in the media . In: German Deaf newspaper . 11/2014.
  24. ↑ a b Martin Zierold : Music interpreting - an optical illusion? In: pride-parade.de . June 24, 2018.
  25. ↑ Thomas Reibetanz: When the music comes through the parquet . In: Free Press . 22nd December 2014.
  26. ↑ Martin Zierold : She has forgotten deaf musicians or deaf sign language artists. Native signers have to be there! In: Twitter . January 31, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Schwengber, Laura M.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sign language interpreter
DATE OF BIRTH December 11, 1989
PLACE OF BIRTH Luebben