What does “translate” mean? We often think of translation as the process of converting words from one language to another. But what about when one translates text into art? What is being translated?
Last winter a group of students in Teresa Jayne’s class at the Tyler Art School of Temple took on this task by examining textual documents here at HSP and in the Special Collections Research Center of Temple University. They studied a variety of kinds of sources from twelve collections – scrapbooks, journals, letters, flyers and pamphlets – to learn about experiences of immigrants and citizens in the U.S. from the 1727 to 1975. The students then created responses in a variety of media that melded the historic with contemporary concerns.
While their products were meant to be temporary works of art for one assignment, HSP staff were so impressed that we are displaying them now alongside the historic documents that inspired the art. Students also composed artistic statements about their thought process. Phrases from the statements are displayed with the works, with the full text on the iPads.
How would you have translated these sources?
HSP acknowledges Teresa Jaynes for her ingenuity in developing the course and thanks Teresa, her students, and Temple University for their generosity and flexibility in helping us mount this display.