ART AS TRANSLATION
Jorge Luis Borges outlined two types of translation, one through literal interpretation, the other through paraphrase. One reaches for exactitude, the other turns to substitution.
Either way, the concept of translation can be applied beyond the medium of text: a painting inspired by a poem, for instance, can be seen as a translation. An artist who draws inspiration outside their medium has more room for invention. The greater the distance between the source of inspiration and the resulting expression, the more original that expression tends to be.
César Aira illustrated this point in his novel The Literary Conference. According to its narrator, our originality is in direct proportion to the diversity of books on our reading lists—we can trace our favorite authors in their influences and stop there, or we can read something entirely at odds with our taste. To take this further, a painting inspired by a poem can turn out more original than a painting inspired by another painting. We don’t even need to make art in order to feel the benefits of this approach—our daily decisions can be rooted in the last book we read, rather than in our opinions and expertise.
ASSIGNMENT 7: ADAPTATION PT.2
Pick one of the texts below and do an indirect adaptation, doing whatever you like with it: editing, cutting, adding, rewriting, or omitting entirely and doing a purely visual adaptation.
Ask yourself how the new version is different from the original, what changes in the translation, what can only be done in one medium, and not in the other.
The text may be hand-lettered or typeset, depending on the style and application.
All of the stories must be read before the day of the class.
Format: 8,5x11” vertical