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Nervenadel
Stb_Assistent/in GL Stand
Nov 6, 2014 15:16
9 yrs ago
2 viewers *
German term

Durchblickstation

German to English Art/Literary Tourism & Travel Viewing device
Looking for suggestions on rendering the term for the fixture referred to in this article:
http://www.meinstutensee.de/2013/02/ubergabe-von-durchblicks...
I need a succint, meaningful term that would also be understood without a lengthy explanation.

Thanks
Proposed translations (English)
2 +1 then and now viewing station
4 +3 "peephole to the past"
3 +4 a window to the past
3 +1 Neighbourhood Nostalgia Boards
3 +1 viewing frame
3 +1 time passage
3 transparent history station
3 Viewport board
2 on-street historical viewing frame

Discussion

Coqueiro Nov 6, 2014:
Yoko Ono, 1971 A hole to see the sky through

http://blog.acehotel.com/post/64911073212/a-hole-to-see-the-...

;-)
freekfluweel Nov 6, 2014:
Back-to-the-Future hole ;-)
philgoddard Nov 6, 2014:
I don't think any term you choose will be self explanatory. People won't be familiar with this idea, so they will need to have it explained. I've suggested a translation.
Robert Schlarb (asker) Nov 6, 2014:
I am not translating that article but a text with an isolated mention of a similar device. It needs to be self-explanatory to the point that the average tourist with English as a second language will at least get the idea.
philgoddard Nov 6, 2014:
Is the article the text you're translating?

Proposed translations

+1
1 day 29 mins
Selected

then and now viewing station

My attempt at a term that might be understood by a tourist. This term would apply to the entire fixture, whereas "viewing frame" really only refers to the window-like feature forming part of the entire display. It also gets across the comparison idea.

See the original design referred to in the Stutensee article posted (hover over the vertical lines on the right to see all of the images)

Gelber Rahmen: Situation vorher – weißer Durchblick-Rahmen: Situation jetzt.
Ein spielerisches Element weckt Interesse …
… und sorgt für Durchblick.
Rückseite mit Projektdaten und Lageplan.
Dokumentation des Erreichten
http://www.xxdesignpartner.de/projekte/ausstellungen.html#th...

Here is the closest thing I could find in English. This Then and Now Tour gives visitors, among other things a frame or framer:

A blue cardboard frame that allowed visitors to better frame a scene for comparison to photos in the booklet

There are also fixed frames:

Stop 2 had a metal frame to help visitors look at the current scene and compare it to a historic photograph. (This metal frame looked like the frame we provided visitors in their bag of materials.) Stop 5 (Figure 4) had a similar metal frame to help visitors line up the transparency (Figure 3) with the current view of the rotunda.
http://www.exploratorium.edu/vre/pdf/thenNow_rp_07.pdf
Peer comment(s):
agree billcorno (X) : I like your idea. Maybe "time-comparison"?
8 hrs
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Definitely a case for distributing points among several contributors, but this one also appealed the most to my proofreader, so you win with a majority of two"
+3
32 mins

"peephole to the past"

As the article explains, these are display boards explaining the history of specific buildings and other sights, with rectangular cutouts framing the buildings so you can compare their current appearance to what they used to look like.

I've put the term in quote marks because it will be a new concept to readers, just as the German term is explained in the article.

You won't find this in Google - it's a very unusual concept, possibly unique to this town, so I've coined a term.
Peer comment(s):
agree Dorothy Schaps : Yeah! I was trying to think of something along the lines of 'peephole' too!
23 mins
agree Cillie Swart : I really like this - it makes perfect sense
30 mins
neutral Jaime Hyland : "peephole", apart from its Police Academy I to IV associations, is too small.
19 hrs
agree Wendy Streitparth : Yes, my instant idea too.
22 hrs
Something went wrong...
+1
47 mins

Neighbourhood Nostalgia Boards

I have also made up a term - I like this because it specifically refers to the fact that the boards say something about the history of specific area or neighbourhoods.
Example sentence:

The Neighbourhood Nostalgia Boards provide a holistic view into the area's history, helping them to make sense of its current state.

Peer comment(s):
neutral philgoddard : This is good, but it loses the idea of the hole, which is important.
8 mins
Neighbourhood Rabbit Hole? (with special thanks to Alice in Wonderland)
agree Dorothy Schaps : This is great too! It could be more help to Robert as I get the impression that he doesn't have much space for a detailed explanation.
12 mins
Something went wrong...
+4
1 hr

a window to the past

pretty banal, but more or less self explanatory
Peer comment(s):
agree Edwin Miles : Banal? Perhaps. But this seems a relatively conservative situation. This is what I'd choose, or possibly "window on the past."
4 hrs
The main thing, is that just about anyone can imagine something here. Thanks!
agree James Nixon : I agree with this option as well as "peephole to the past" but putting my agreement here as it sounds more natural and won't require as much explaining.
5 hrs
I like peephole, but I believe it is not general enough in this context and could generate confusion among ESL tourists. Thank you!
agree Donald Jacobson
11 hrs
Thank you Donald and have a lovely weekend!
agree Harald Moelzer (medical-translator)
15 hrs
Thanks Harald, enjoy your weekend, if you can!
Something went wrong...
+1
3 hrs

viewing frame

It focuses the mind of the viewer on a specific feature. When Le Corbuiser built a house on Lake Geneva, he deliberately limited the view the resident had of the lake's expanse.
Peer comment(s):
agree Jaime Hyland : It's a physical oblong hole made in a public information board for people to look through. Like the frame made by a film director with his index fingers and thumbs of his two hands, except cut into a public sign. It's pictured on the website posted.
16 hrs
Thanks.
Something went wrong...
4 hrs

transparent history station

I don’t think the idea of a hole is as important here as Phil suggests simply because Germans don’t really think of a (physical) hole in phrases like “Ich hab’ da keinen Durchblick mehr’ or ‘Ich muss mir erst mal Durchblick verschaffen’ etc. This colloquial meaning (Durchblick = comprehension/understanding) is the one that most people will be familiar with and I don’t recall any instances where the article talked about any kind of setup or device for people to peep through (= durchblicken). That said, that doesn’t mean that my entry is any good, but we’ll see.
Peer comment(s):
neutral Jaime Hyland : It appears to be an actual hole in a sign. It's pictured on the site.
15 hrs
Something went wrong...
+1
1 hr

time passage

now I can't get Al Stewart out of my head

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 6 hrs (2014-11-06 22:08:32 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Really showing your age here I only know the 2004 version. :-)
Note from asker:
Not sure that's the best answer, Cilian, but now I can't get "Roads to Moscow" out of my head
In all fairness, I wasn't shaving yet at the time ;-)
Peer comment(s):
agree Cillie Swart : Nice, gets the hole concept in cleverly
0 min
thanks (the "whole concept" wäre mir lieber)
neutral Jaime Hyland : It's not a passage ... it looks more like an oblong hole. Like the frame made by a film director with his index fingers and thumbs of his two hands, except cut into a public sign.
18 hrs
yeah, like a tunnel, or passage...// allowing the viewer to pass back in time
Something went wrong...
19 hrs

on-street historical viewing frame

This suggestion probably describes fairly accurately the idea shown in the picture on the site to which the asker linked.

Poetry it ain't!

Something went wrong...
1 day 15 hrs

Viewport board

I've pinched the term viewport from computer graphics (and slightly changed its reference).
Cf. Wikipaedia: "In web browsers, the viewport is the visible portion of the entire document. If the document is larger than the viewport, the user can shift the viewport around by scrolling." (Document here corresponds to full real-world panorama.)
Anyway viewport is something to work with in my view and also immediately understandable

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Note added at 1 Tag23 Stunden (2014-11-08 14:44:36 GMT)
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History viewports?
Peer comment(s):
neutral James Nixon : It might be immediately understandable in your field, but with the number of second language speakers that will be reading the English, I doubt they would readily understand this concept.
1 day 18 hrs
Something went wrong...
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