Hi. So today, I'd like to share some works in progress. Since we are still realizing these works, we are largely working within the realm of intuition and mystery, still. So I'm going to try and describe some of the experiences that we're looking for through each of the works.
大家好,今天我想和你们 分享一些正在创作中的作品。 这些作品还在创作中, 我们很大程度上是 靠直觉和神秘感。 我现在尝试描述一下 从每个作品所得到的 一些体验。
So the first work is called the Imperial Monochromes. A viewer sort of unsuspectingly walks into the room, and catches a glimpse of these panels in a messy composition on the wall. Within seconds, as if the panels have noticed the presence of the viewer, they appear to panic and sort of get into a strict symmetry. (Laughter) So this is the sketch of the two states. One is total chaos. The other is absolute order. And we were interested in seeing how little change it takes to move from one state to the other state. This also reminded us of two very different pictorial traditions. One is the altar tablets of the 15th century, and the other is about 100 years ago, Malevich's abstract compositions. So I'm just going to take you to a video. To give you a sense of scale, the largest panel is about two meters high. That's about this much. And the smallest one is an A4. So a viewer enters the space, and they snap to attention. And after a while, if the viewer continues to remain in the space, the panels will sort of become immune to the presence of the viewer and become lax and autonomous again, until they sort of sense a presence in the room or a movement, when they will again snap to attention. (Laughter) So here it appears as if it's the viewer that's sort of instigating the sense of order among the panels, but it could also be the other way around, that the panels are so stuck within their preconditioned behaviors that they sort of thrust the viewer with the role of a tyrant.
第一个作品名为《单色帝国》, 一个观众懵懵懂懂地走进房间, 然后瞥见墙上的画板 胡乱的摆放着。 就在这一瞬间,画板彷佛注意到 观众的存在, 它们显得害怕,然后 就排列整齐、对称严格。 (笑声) 这是两种不同状态的草图。 一种是彻底混乱,另一种是绝对的有序。 我们感兴趣看到,从一种状态到另一种 要多么微小的变化。 这个也让我们想起 两种截然不同的传统图案。 一种是15世纪的祭坛桌, 另一种是约 100 年前 马列维奇的抽象作品。 现在给你们看一个视频, 为了让你们对尺度有个概念, 最大的画板约两米高, 大概是这样, 而最小的是一张 A4 纸。 一个观众走进来, 它们就迅速摆正。 过了一会,如果这个观众 仍然继续待在那里, 这些画板就好像 不受观众的存在所影响, 而变得慵懒而自己只管自己的事, 直到它们感觉到 房间里有人或者其它活动, 它们才会再次摆正。 (笑声) 看起来好像是观众的出现 使这些画板变得秩序井然, 但是也可用另外一种形式去理解, 这些画板卡在 预先设置的行为模式, 好像它们把观众推进 一个暴君的角色。
So this brings me to a quieter, small work called Handheld. The viewer sees a piece of paper that's mounted on the far end of the wall, but when you go closer, you see that it's a blank A4, or a letter-sized piece of paper, that's held on either side by two small hands that appear to be carved with a great deal of attention and care from a small block of wood. The viewer also sees that this entire sculpture is sort of moving very slightly, as if these two hands are trying to hold the paper very still for a long period of time, and somehow are not managing to. So this instability in the movement very closely resembles the unsteady nature of images seen through a handheld camera. So here I'm going to show you two tandem clips. One is through a still camera and the other is through a handheld camera. And you immediately see how the unsteady nature of the video suggests the presence of an observer and a subjective point of view. So we've just removed the camera and transferred that movement onto the panel. So here's a video. You have to imagine the other hand. It's not there yet. But to us, we're sort of trying to evoke a self-effacing gesture, as if there's a little person with outstretched arms behind this enormous piece of paper. That sort of likens it to the amount of strain to be at the service of the observer and present this piece of paper very delicately to the viewer in front of them.
然后给我带来一个较安静 较细小的作品, 名叫《手提》。 观众会看到一张纸, 这张纸挂在墙的远方, 但如果你走近, 你会发现这是一张 空白 A4 纸,或信纸尺寸的纸, 两只小手握着 纸的两边, 看起来小手是由一小块木头 以极大的专注力 和细心雕刻出来的。 观众也会看到整个雕塑 一点点的移动, 两只手就像 要握住这张纸, 保持着长时间静止不动, 但不知怎么就是做不到。 所以移动的不稳定 就类似于手提相机 照出的图片。 现在我要向你们展示 两个串联的片段, 一个由静止的相机所拍摄, 另一个则由手提相机所拍。 你立刻就看到视频的不稳定 怎样显示出观察者的存在 以及一种主观的角度。 如此我们只要拿走相机, 把这种不稳定的移动转移到画板。 这就是那段视频。 你要想象另一只手的存在, 它还没在那里, 但对我们来说,在某种意义上, 正尝试不出风头地摆出姿势, 就像有一个小人躲在 这张大白纸背后伸出双手 把它拉紧, 为观众服务一样, 小心翼翼地把这张纸呈现在 观众面前。
The next work is Decoy. This is a cardboard model, so the object is about as tall as I am. It has a rounded body, two arms, and a very tall, head-like antenna, and its sole purpose is to attract attention towards itself. So when a viewer passes by, it sort of tilts from side to side, and moves its arms more and more frantically as the person gets closer. So here is the first test scenario. You see the two movements integrated, and the object seems to be employing its entire being in this expression of desperation. But the idea is that once it's got the person's attention, it's no longer interested, and it looks for the next person whose attention to get. (Laughter) So this is the final fabricated body of the Decoy. It appears to be mass-manufactured like it came out of a factory like vacuum cleaners and washing machines. Because we are always working from a very personal space, we like how this consumer aesthetic sort of depersonalizes the object and gives us a bit of distance in its appearance, at least. And so to us this is a kind of sinister being which is trying to distract you from the things that actually need your attention, but it could also be a figure that needs a lot of help. The next work is an object, that's also a kind of sound instrument. In the shape of an amphitheater that's scaled to the size of an audience as perceived from somebody from the stage. So from where I'm standing, each of you appears to be this big, and the audience sort of takes the entire field of my vision. Seated in this audience are 996 small figures. They're mechanically enabled to clap of their own free will. This means that each of them can decide if and when they want to clap, how hard, for how long, how they want to be influenced by those around them or influence others, and if they want to contribute to innovation. So when the viewer steps in front of the audience, there will be a response. It could be a few claps or a strong applause, and then nothing happens until the viewer leaves the stage, and again the audience will respond. It could be anything from a few feeble claps from members in the audience, or it could be a very loud ovation. So to us, I think we're really looking at an audience as its own object or its own organism that's also got a sort of musical-like quality to it, an instrument. So the viewer can play it by eliciting quite complex and varied, nuanced musical or sound patterns, but cannot really provoke the audience into any particular kind of response. So there's a sense of judgment and capriciousness and uneasiness involved. It also has an alluring and trap-like quality to it. So here if you see we're quite excited about the image of the head splitting to form the two hands. So here's a small visual animation, as if the two sides of the brain are sort of clashing against each other to kind of make sense of the duality and the tension. And here is a prototype. So we can't wait to be engulfed by 996 of them.
下一个作品名叫《诱饵》, 这是一个纸板模型, 物体大概跟我一样高, 它的身体呈圆形,有两条手臂, 和一条非常长的头状天线, 它唯一的目的是要 把注意力吸引到自己身上。 当一个观众经过时, 它会左右摇摆, 随着观众越走越近 它就越疯狂地挥舞着两条手臂。 这是第一个测试场景, 你看到两个动作整合一起, 这个模型好像 要把整体投入到绝望的表情。 然而我的想法是 它一旦得到这个观众的关注, 就不再对他感兴趣, 然后开始寻找下一个观众。 (笑声) 这是《诱饵》的最后一个制作, 它看来是大规模生产的, 就像工厂造出来一样, 比如吸尘器和洗衣机。 因为我们总会 在很个人的空间工作, 我们喜欢这种消费者的审美观念, 使物体非人格化, 而且至少在外表上, 让我们保持一点距离。 所以对我们来说, 这是某种险恶的意图, 试图把你的注意力分散 从实际需要注意的地方转移过来, 但是它也可以是一个 需要大量帮助的模型。 下一个作品是一件物体, 也算是一种乐器, 形状似是一个圆形露天剧场, 像某人从舞台上看到一个 按比例缩小的观众。 从我站着的地方 你们每个人大概就是这么大, 而观众也差不多 遮挡了我整个视线。 996 个小模型坐在观众席上, 它们可以按照自己的自由意志 机械地拍手, 意味着它们每一个都可以 决定是否拍手、什么时候拍手、 用多少力气拍手、拍手多长时间, 它们要怎样被周围的模型影响, 或者影响其它模型, 以及是否想推动创新。 当一个观众走到这些模型前, 它们就会发生反应, 可能是寥寥几声拍手声, 也可能是热烈拍手, 然后就没有动静了, 直至观众离开了舞台, 这些模型又有反应, 可能是观众席传来 几声有气无力的拍手声, 或是非常热烈的鼓掌。 因此对我们来说, 真的要把每个模型 看成一个独立的个体 或者是独立的有机体, 而且拥有一种像音乐的素质, 像一种乐器。 观众可以演奏, 引发相当复杂和变化多端的 微妙音乐或音效模式, 但是不能迫使模型 发出任何特别反应, 所以这是一个判断, 涉及反复无常和不安。 它也有一种像陷阱一样诱人的特质。 这里你可看到, 有关这个头部分割开 形成两只手的图像, 我们相当振奋, 这是一个小小的视觉动画, 就像脑袋的两边互相碰撞 要去表达 二元性和张力。 这是一个原型。 我们迫不及待地想 被 966 个模型包围。
Okay, this is the last work. It's called the Framerunners. It comes out of the idea of a window. This is an actual window in our studio, and as you can see, it's made up of three different thicknesses of wooden sections. So we used the same window vocabulary to construct our own frame or grid that's suspended in the room and that can be viewed from two sides. This grid is inhabited by a tribe of small figures. They're also made up of three different sizes, as if to suggest a kind of perspective or landscape on the single plain. Each of these figures can also run backward and forward in the track and hide behind two adjacent tracks. So in contrast to this very tight grid, we wanted to give these figures a very comical and slapstick-like quality, as if a puppeteer has taken them and physically animated them down the path. So we like the idea of these figures sort of skipping along like they're oblivious and carefree and happy-go-lucky and content, until they sort of sense a movement from the viewer and they will hide behind the fastest wall. So to us, this work also presents its own contradiction. These figures are sort of entrapped within this very strong grid, which is like a prison, but also a fortress, because it allows them to be oblivious and naive and carefree and quite oblivious of the external world. So all these real life qualities that I talk about are sort of translated to a very specific technical configuration, and we were very lucky to collaborate with ETH Zurich to develop the first prototype. So you see they extracted the motion cogs from our animations and created a wiggle that integrated the head-bobbing movement and the back-and-forth movement. So it's really quite small. You can see it can fit into the palm of my hand. So imagine our excitement when we saw it really working in the studio, and here it is.
好的,这是最后一个作品 名叫《边框跑者》, 意念来自于一扇窗, 这是我们工作室里一扇真实的窗, 你可看到,它有三种不同厚度的 木头部件, 所以我们用同样的想法 建造自己的框架或方格, 悬挂在房间里, 也可从两边看到。 这个格子里住着一个 小模型所组成的部落。 它们也有三种不同的尺寸, 就像在一个平地上 看到的视角或风景。 这里每个小模型也可以 在轨道上前后跑动, 也可以藏身于两条轨道之间。 跟这些非常紧密的格子相比, 我们希望赋予这些小模型 很漫画、很闹剧的感觉, 就像一个操纵木偶的人 真的在轨道上操纵它们一样。 我们喜欢这种感觉, 这些小模型跳来跳去、 没有烦恼、无忧无虑 逍遥自得, 直到它们感觉到观众的动作, 就会藏身到最牢固的墙后面。 对我们来说,这个作品 也表现出自己的矛盾。 这些小模型就像 被困在坚固的格子里, 像个监狱,但也可以说是城堡, 因为这个格子 让它们可以忘记烦恼, 变得天真逍遥, 几乎忘记外界的存在。 所有我提及到的特质 都是来自真实的生活, 可说是转化成一种 很特别的技术性设置, 我们非常荣幸 和苏黎世联邦理工大学合作, 制造出第一个原型。 你可以看到,他们从动画里 抽取动作,创造一钟摆动的动作, 结合了摇摆头 和前后的移动。 这个真的很小, 你可以看到我把它握在手心里。 当我们在工作室里 看到它真的在运转, 你可以想象我们是多么激动。 它就在这儿。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
Thank you.
谢谢
(Applause)
(笑声)