Charles and Ray were a team. They were husband and wife. Despite the New York Times' and Vanity Fair's best efforts recently, they're not brothers. (Laughter) And they were a lot of fun. You know, Ray was the one who wore the ampersands in the family. (Laughter)
查尔斯和蕾.伊默斯是一个团队,也是一对夫妇。 虽然最近《纽约时报》和《名利场》杂志有很多关于查尔斯和蕾.伊默斯的报道, 但是他们经常被误认是兄弟。 而且他们是相当幽默的一对。 你知道,蕾是家里那个在脸上画“&"符号的人。 (笑声)
We are going to focus on Charles today, because it is Charles' 100th birthday. But when I speak of him, I'm really speaking of both of them as a team. Here's Charles when he was three. So he would be 100 this June. We have a lot of cool celebrations that we're going to do. The thing about their work is that most people come to the door of furniture -- I suspect you probably recognize this chair and some of the others I'm going to show you. But we're going to first enter through the door of the Big Top. The whole thing about this, though, is that, you know, why am I showing it? Is it because Charles and Ray made this film? This is actually a training film for a clown college that they had. They also practiced a clown act when the future of furniture was not nearly as auspicious as it turned out to be. There is a picture of Charles. So let's watch the next clip.
今天我们要把目光放到查尔斯的身上,因为今天是他的100岁生日诞辰。 但是当我谈论他这个人时,我其实把他们俩当成一个整体。 这是查尔斯三岁的样子。到六月他就100岁了。 我们会举办许多精彩的庆祝活动。 提到他们的作品 大多数人会想到家具-- 我猜你们可能认识这把椅子, 还有其他一些我即将展示的作品。 但是我们今天要从Big Top入手。 关于它,说到底,你们会问,为什么我要展示它? 是因为查尔斯和蕾制作了这部电影吗? 这个其实是为他们的小丑学校做的教程视频。 当人们还不觉得家具会发展得兴盛的时候, 他们自己也曾扮演过小丑的角色。 这是查尔斯的照片,我们来看下一段视频。
The film that we're about to see is a film they made for the Moscow World's Fair.
我们将看到的这部电影是他们为莫斯科世界博览会做的。
Video: This is the land. It has many contrasts. It is rough and it is flat. In places it is cold. In some it is hot. Too much rain falls on some areas, and not enough on others. But people live on this land. And, as in Russia, they are drawn together into towns and cities. Here is something of the way they live.
视频:这是我们的土地。 它包含很多反差。 有粗糙亦有平坦之处。 有些地方寒冷。 有些地方炎热。 有的地方暴雨不断。 有的地方旱灾严重。 但人们生活在这片土地上, 而且,和在俄罗斯的人们一样, 他们聚集到城镇和城市里来。 这是他们生活的一瞥。
Eames Demetrios: Now, this is a film that was hardly ever seen in the United States. It was on seven screens and it was 200 feet across. And it was at the height of the Cold War. The Nixon-Khrushchev Kitchen Debate happened about 50 feet from where this was shown. And yet, how did it start? You know, commonality, the first line in Charles' narration was, "The same stars that shine down on Russia shine down on the United States. From the sky, our cities look much the same." It was that human connection that Charles and Ray always found in everything. And you can imagine, and the thing about it is, that they believed that the human mind could handle this number of images because the important thing was to get the gestalt of what the images were about.
伊默斯.德米特里:现在在美国几乎看不到这部片子了。 当时它在七个屏幕上同时放映,有200英尺宽。 而且那时正处在冷战的高峰期。 尼克松与克鲁晓夫的“厨房辩论” 就在离放映厅50英尺的地方举行。 然而,这部片子是如何开头的? 你知道,由“共性”开头, 查尔斯叙述的第一句是: “俄罗斯上空的星光 同样洒在美利坚的土地上, 从空中看,我们的城市十分相像。” 查尔斯和蕾总是在事物中寻找人性的相通性。 你们可以想象,他们俩当时 相信人的思维可以一下子接受这么多图像, 因为重要的是在看这些图像时 寻找某一刻的顿悟。
So that was just a little snip. But the thing about Charles and Ray is that they were always modeling stuff. They were always trying things out. I think one of the things I am passionate about, my grandparents work, I'm passionate about my work, but on top of all that I'm passionate about a holistic vision of design, where design is a life skill, not a professional skill. And you know, those of us with kids often want our kids to take music. I'm no exception. But it's not about them becoming Bono or Tracy Chapman. It's about getting that music thing going through their heads and their thinking.
看完了这个小片段。 现在再说查尔斯和蕾, 他们总是在制作一些模型。 他们总是在尝试新事物。 我热爱我祖父母的作品。 我热爱我的工作。 但在我热爱的这些之上 最重要的是对设计的整体视角, 把设计当成生活技能,而不是职业技能的态度。 你知道,有孩子的人总是希望孩子学习点音乐。 我也不例外。 但并不是要孩子成为博诺(U2乐队主唱)或特蕾西.查普曼。 而是要让孩子的头脑和思考中有音乐的概念。
Design is the same way. Design has to become that same way. And this is a model that they did of that seven-screen presentation. And Charles just checking it out there. So now we're going to go through that door of furniture. This is an unusual installation of airport seating. So what we're going to see is some of the icons of Eames furniture.
设计也是一样,也得成为这样。 这是他们为那次七个屏幕的展示做的一个模型。 查尔斯在那儿调试着。 现在我们来谈谈家具。 这是个不同寻常的机场座位设计。 我们将看到的是伊默斯家具中的代表性作品。
And the thing about their furniture is that they said the role of the designer was essentially that of a good host, anticipating the needs of the guest. So those are cool images. But these are ones I think are really cool. These are all the prototypes. These are the mistakes, although I don't think mistakes is the right word in design. It's just the things you try out to kind of make it work better. And you know some of them would probably be terrible chairs. Some of them are kind of cool looking. It's like "Hey, why didn't they try that?" It was that hands-on iterative process which is so much like vernacular design and folk design in traditional cultures.
提起家具,他们说设计者扮演的角色 本质上就像一个 盼着招待客人的、热情的主人。 我们看到一些精彩的照片,这些真的很棒。 现在看到的都是模型,是次品。 不过我认为在设计这个领域不存在次品。 只是一次次尝试的产品 为的是越做越好。 你知道,它们之中有些的确会成为糟糕的椅子。 有些却看起来挺不错,人们会说“咦,他们怎么没试试这一个?” 这种动手操作的、反反复复的过程 很像传统文化中的 地方设计和民俗设计。
And I think that's one of the commonalities between modernism and traditional design. I think it may be a real common ground as we kind of figure out what on earth to do in the next 20 or 30 years. The other thing that's kind of cool is that you look at this and in the media when people say design, they actually mean style. And I'm really here to talk about design. But you know the object is just a pivot. It's a pivot between a process and a system.
我认为这也是现代主义和传统设计中的相似之处。 我觉得当我们考虑接下来20-30年究竟做什么时, 这是个真正的共同出发点。 另一个有意思的现象是: 通常人们提到“设计”, 他们想说的其实是“时尚风格”。 而我在这里谈的是纯粹的“设计”。 但你知道目标只是个中枢, 是“过程”与“系统”之间的中枢。
And this is a little film I made about the making of the Eames lounge chair. The design process for Charles and Ray never ended in manufacturing. It continued. They were always trying to make thing better and better. Because it's like as Bill Clinton was saying about Rwandan health clinics. It's not enough to create one. You've got to create a system that will work better and better. So I've always liked this prototype picture. Because it just kind of, you know, doesn't get any more basic than that. You try things out.
这是我自己做的一个小短片, 内容是关于伊默斯的休息室椅子。 对查尔斯和蕾来说 设计的过程从不止于生产, 而是继续发展下去,他们永远在尝试做得更好。 就像比尔.克林顿谈到卢旺达的卫生诊所时说的一样, 创造一个是不够的, 必须创造一个不断进步的系统使之越来越完善。 所以我一直很喜欢这张标准图片。 它真的是,你知道,简单到不能再简单了。 人们始终尝试着新事物。
This is a relatively famous chair. Its early version had an "X" base. That's what the collectors like. Charles and Ray liked this one because it was better. It worked better: "H" base, much more practical. This is something called a splint. And I was very touched by Dean Kamen's work for the military, or for the soldiers, because Charles and Ray designed a molded plywood splint. This is it. And they'd been working on furniture before. But doing these splints they learned a lot about the manufacturing process, which was incredibly important to them.
这把椅子比较有名。 之前的版本有个“X”形的底座,收藏家们喜欢那样的。 查尔斯和蕾却喜欢这把,因为它更好。 “H”形的底座实用得多。 这是个藤木片。 迪安.基曼为军队和战士所做的工作 令我十分感动。 因为查尔斯和蕾设计了一个模压制的胶合板藤木条,就是这个。 之前他们研究过家具, 但是做这些藤木条让他们学会了关于制作过程的很多东西, 这对他们实在太重要了。
I'm trying to show you too much, because I want you to really get a broth of ideas and images. This is a house that Charles and Ray designed. My sister is chasing someone else. It's not me. Although I endorse heartily the fact that he stole her diary, it's not me. And then this is a film, on the lower left, that Charles and Ray made. Now look at that plastic chair. The house is 1949. The chair is done in 1949.
我呈现了很多的内容。 因为我想让你们感受创意和图像的大杂烩。 这栋房子是查尔斯和蕾设计的。 我姐姐在追的不是我,是别人。 虽然我清楚这个人偷了我姐姐的日记,但他真的不是我。 左下角是查尔斯和蕾制作的一部片子。 再看看那把塑料椅。 你们看到的是这座房子在1949年的样子。 这把椅子就是在1949年做的。
Charles and Ray, they didn't obsess about style for it's own sake. They didn't say, "Our style is curves. Let's make the house curvy." They didn't say, "Our style is grids. Let's make the chair griddy." They focused on the need. They tried to solve the design problem. Charles used to say, "The extent to which you have a design style is the extent to which you have not solved the design problem." It's kind of a brutal quote. This is the earlier design of that house. And again, they managed to figure out a way to make a prototype of a house -- architecture, very expensive medium.
查尔斯和蕾 并不是为了时尚而时尚。 他们从不会说:“我们的款式是曲线,我们把房子做成曲线的吧。” 也不会说:“我们的风格是格子,我们把椅子做成格子的吧。” 他们关注的是需求。 他们试图解决设计上的问题。 查尔斯曾经说:“你越有设计风格, 越说明你没有解决设计上的问题。” 这句引言有点残酷。 这是那栋房子最早的设计。 同样的,他们设法做出了一个 房子的模型。建筑是非常昂贵的。
Here's a film we've been hearing things about. The "Powers of Ten" is a film they made. If we watch the next clip, you're going to see the first version of "Powers of Ten," upper left. The familiar one on the lower right. The Eames' film Tops, lower left. And a lamp that Charles designed for a church.
这部片子大家听说过一些。 "Powers of Ten"是他们做的一部片子。 来看下一个片断。 你们可以在左上角看到“Powers of Ten"的第一个版本。 右下角是为人熟知的版本。 左下角是伊默斯的影片Tops。 还有查尔斯为一所教堂设计的灯。
Video: Which in turn belongs to a local group of galaxies. These form part of a grouping system much as the stars do. They are so many and so varied that from this distance they appear like the stars from Earth.
视频:而它又是星系的一部分。 这就组成了一个系统 就像恒星组成系统一样。 它们数量巨大,各不相同,所以从遥远的地球看 他们像恒星一样。
ED: You've seen that film, and what's so great about this whole conference is that everybody has been talking about scale. Everybody here is coming at it from a different way. I want to give you one example. E.O. Wilson once told me that when he looked at ants -- he loved them, of course, and he wanted to learn more about them -- he consciously looked at them from the standpoint of scale. So here is the tiny creature. And yet simply by changing the frame of reference it reveals so much, including what ended up being the TED Prize.
伊默斯.德米特里:你们看过这部影片, 它好就好在涉及到人们所说的“尺度”。 每个人展现尺度的方式都不同。 我举一个例子。 E.O.威尔逊有次告诉我, 他喜欢看蚂蚁,当然也想多了解蚂蚁, 他有意识地从尺度这方面去看蚂蚁。 你们现在看到的是蚂蚁这个小东西。 仅仅把参照系改变, 它就展现了这么多东西,后来他甚至获得TED大奖。
Modeling, they tried modeling all the time. They were always modeling things. And I think part of that is that they never delegated understanding. And I think in our family we were very lucky, because we learned about design backwards. Design was not something other. It was part of the business of life in general. It was part of the quality of life. And here is some family pictures. And you can see why I'm down on style, with a haircut like that. But anyway, (Laughter) I remember the cut grapefruit that we would have at the Eames house when I was a kid. So we're going to watch another film.
人们始终在制作模型。 我觉得原因之一是他们没有把理解派上用场。 我感觉我的家庭很幸运。 因为我们是倒过来学设计的。 设计不是别的, 是总体生活的一部分, 是生活质量的一部分。 这是一些家庭照。 大家可以看出为什么我的造型不怎么样,发型会搞成这样。 不提这个了,(笑声) 我记得我还是孩子的时候,伊默斯全家切柚子的情景。 我们再看一部影片,
This is a film, the one called Toys. You can see me, I have the same haircut, in the upper right corner. Upper left is a film they did on toy trains. Lower right is a solar do-nothing toy. Lower left is Day-of-the-Dead toys. Charles used to say that toys are not as innocent as they appear. They are often the precursor to bigger things. And these ideas -- that train up there, being about the honest use of materials, is totally the same as the honest use of materials in the plywood.
这部影片叫“玩具”。 你们能看见我,在右上角,还留着那时的发型。 左上角是他们拍的关于玩具火车的片子。 右下角是个太阳能玩具,没什么实际功能。 左下角是些鬼节玩具。 查尔斯曾经说玩具并没有它们看起来那么单纯, 它们常常是更大事物的前兆。 这些主意——比如那列火车 在对于材料的坦率运用上 和胶合板本质上是一样的。
And now I'm going to test you. This is a letter that my grandfather sent to my mom when she was five years old. So can you read it? Lucia angel, okay, eye.
现在我要测试你们。 这是我母亲五岁时外公写给她的信。 你们能读懂吗? 露西娅小天使, 好的,“我”(原文谐音)
Audience: Saw many trains.
观众:“看见了很多火车”
ED: Awl, also, good that the leather crafter's guild is here. Also, what is he doing? Row, rowed. Sun? No. Well is there another name for a sunrise? Dawn, very good. Also rode on one. I ...
伊默斯.德米特里:“而且……幸好这有皮革工匠的提示。” “而且”,他做了什么?“坐,坐了”(原文谐音) Sun太阳?不对,有近义词吗? “一趟”(原文谐音),非常好。 “而且坐了一趟,我……”
Audience: You had, I hope you had --
观众:“你度过,我希望你在……”
ED: Now you've been to the website Dogs of Saint Louis in the late, in the mid-1930's, then you'd know that was a Great Dane. So, I hope you had a
伊默斯.德米特里:如果你去过“圣路易斯的狗”这个网站 20世纪30年代中后期的一个网站, 那么你会知道这个。 继续,“我希望你在”
Audience: Nice time, time --
观众:“……派对上……”
ED: Time at. Citizen Kane, rose --
伊默斯.德米特里:“度过了” “美……”
Audience: Rosebud.
观众:“美丽”
ED: No, bud. "D"'s right. At Buddy's --
伊默斯.德米特里:不,“美”是对的,“美好”
Audience: Party. Love.
观众:“……时光,爱你的爸爸”。
ED: Okay, good. So, "I saw many trains and also rode on one. I hope you had a nice time at Buddy's party." So you guys did pretty good, cool. So my mom and Charles had this great relationship where they'd send those sorts of things back and forth to one another. And it's all part of the, you know, they used to say, "Take your pleasure seriously."
伊默斯.德米特里:好的,很好。 连起来,“我看见很多火车,而且坐了一趟。 我希望你在派对上度过了美好时光。” 你们大家挺厉害的,不错。 我母亲和查尔斯关系密切, 他们经常互相写这样的东西。 这也符合他们所说的 “认真地娱乐完全享受乐趣”。
These are some images from a project of mine that's called Kymaerica. It's sort of an alternative universe. It's kind of a reinterpretation of the landscape. Those plaques are plaques we've been installing around North America. We're about to do six in the U.K. next week. And they honor events in the linear world from the fictional world. So, of course, since it's bronze it has to be true.
这些照片里是我的一个项目 叫做Kymaerica流纹岩音频。 它就像另一个宇宙 把风景都重新展示。 这些饰板我们在北美到处都在做。 下周我们要在英国做六个。 它们为各世界中的事件赋予荣誉。 当然了,它是青铜制,所以肯定是真的。
Video: Kymaerica with waterfalls, tumbling through our --
视频:Kymaerica流纹岩音频和瀑布 一起坠落到我们的……
ED: This is one of the traditional Kymaerican songs. And so we had spelling bees in Paris, Illinois.
伊默斯.德米特里:这是Kymaerica流纹岩音频的传统歌曲之一。 我们在伊利诺伊州帕里斯市举办了拼写比赛。
Video: Your word is N. Carolina.
视频:你的词是N. Carolina北卡罗来纳。
Girl: Y-I-N-D-I-A-N-A.
女孩:Y-I-N-D-I-A-N-A。
ED: And then Embassy Row is actually a historical site, because in the Kymaerican story this is where the Parisian Diaspora started, where there embassy was. So you can actually visit and have this three-dimensional fictional experience there. And the town has really embraced it. We had the spelling bee in conjunction with the Gwomeus Club.
伊默斯.德米特里:领馆区其实是个历史景点。 因为在Kymaerica流纹岩音频的故事里 帕里斯人最早的流散就是在这里开始的。 你可以去拜访,并且在那儿 体会三D立体的科幻感觉。 这个城镇欣然接受了它。 我们和Gwomeus俱乐部联合举办了拼写比赛。
But what is really cool is that we take our visual environment as inevitable. And it's not. Other things could have happened. The Japanese could have discovered Monterey. And we could have been born 100,000 years ago. And there are a lot of fun things. This is the Museum of the Bench. They have trading cards and all sorts of cool things. And you're kind of trapped in the texture of Kymaerica. The Tahatchabe, the great road building culture. A guy named Nobu Naga, the so-called Japanese Columbus. But now I'm going to return you to the real world.
但最酷的事情是:我们常把视觉环境看成无法避免的, 其实不然。 其他事情可以发生的。日本人完全可能首先发现蒙特利公园。 我们完全可能产生在十万年前。 很多事情很有意思。这是长凳博物馆, 他们有供人收藏的卡片。 还有其他有趣的东西。 你就好像陷入了Kymaerica流纹岩音频的纹理之中, 例如伟大的道路修建文化Tahatchabe。 一个叫信长的人, 被称作日本的哥伦布。 不过现在我要带你们回到现实世界。
And this is Cranbrook. I've got a real treat for you, which is the first film that Charles ever made. So let's watch that. Nobody's ever seen it. Cranbrook is very generous to let us show it for the first time here. It's a film about Maya Gretel, a famous ceramicist, and a teacher at Cranbrook. And he made it for the 1939 faculty exhibition. Silent. We don't have a track for it yet. Very simple. It's just a start. But it's that learn-by-doing thing. You want to learn how to make films? Go make a movie. And you try something out.
这里是克莱恩布鲁克院校,我有个惊喜给你们, 这是查尔斯制作的第一部影片。 来看吧,从没有人看过呢。 克莱恩布鲁克慷慨地让我们在这里第一次看这部影片。 影片是关于玛雅.格莱特尔,著名陶瓷艺术家,也是在克莱恩布鲁克的老师。 影片是为1939年教师展览而制。 无声电影,我们还没有影片的声效。 非常简单,只是刚开始,但熟能生巧。 你想学习做电影吗?去做部电影吧, 尝试新事物。
But here is what's really great. See that chair there? The orange one? That's the organic chair. 1940. At the same time that Charles was doing that chair, he was doing this film. So my point is that this scope of vision, this holistic vision of design, was with them from the beginning. It wasn't like "Oh, we made some chairs and got successful. Now we're going to do some movies." It was always part of how they looked at the world. And that's what's really powerful. And I think that all of us in this room, as you move design forward, it's not about just doing one thing. It's about how you approach problems. And there is this huge, beautiful commonality between design, business and the world. So we're going to do the last clip. And I've shown you some of the images. I just want to focus on sound now. So this is Charles' voice.
最厉害的是 看到那把椅子了吗?橙色的?那是把1940年的有机椅子。 查尔斯做那把椅子的同时 也在做这部影片。 我想说的是,查尔斯和蕾自始至终 都有宽大的视野、顾及整体的视野。 这并不是说“我们做了椅子,很成功, 现在我们来做电影吧。” 一切都是他们看待世界的一部分,这才是真正强大的地方。 我觉得对于这间屋子里的所有人,当你们把设计向前推进时, 它并不只关乎一件事。 而在于你如何处理问题,在这一点上, 设计、商务和这个世界之间都有巨大的、美丽的共通之处。 请来欣赏最后一个片断。 我给你们看了一些图片了,现在来关注声音。 这是查尔斯的声音。
Charles Eames: In India, those without, and the lowest in caste, eat very often, particularly in southern India, they eat off of a banana leaf. And those a little bit up the scale eat off of a sort of a low-fired ceramic dish. And a little bit higher, why they have a glaze on a thing they call a thali. If you're up the scale a little bit more, why, a brass thali. And then things get to be a little questionable. There are things like silver-plated thalis. And there is solid silver thalis. And I suppose some nut has had a gold thali that he's eaten off of.
查尔斯.伊默斯:在印度,尤其是在印度南方, 种姓制度中最低级的人 经常从香蕉叶里吃东西; 稍微高等级的人 从低火制作的陶瓷碗里吃饭; 再高一点等级 他们在一种叫"塔利"的东西上加层釉; 再再高一层 用黄铜塔利; 再之后就有些离谱了。 例如还有人用镀银塔利, 还有纯银做的塔利。 我确定还有人曾经 用过金子做的塔利,
But you can go beyond that. And the guys that have not only means, but a certain amount of knowledge and understanding, go to the next step, and they eat off a banana leaf. And I think that in these times when we fall back and regroup, that somehow or other, the banana leaf parable sort of got to get working there, because I'm not prepared to say that the banana leaf that one eats off of is the same as the other eats off of. But it is that process that has happened within the man that changes the banana leaf.
甚至更夸张也有可能。 而这些人不仅有能力 也有一定知识和理解力的人 更进一步——他们用香蕉叶吃饭。 我认为当我们 回到过去并重新编制自我的时候, 不知怎么地 香蕉叶的寓言 很有道理。 因为虽然我不想说 某个人用的香蕉叶 和别人用的一样。 但是人类自身的变化过程 改变了那片香蕉叶。
ED: I've been looking forward to sharing that quote with you. Because that's part of where we've got to get to. And I also want to share this one. "Beyond the age of information is the age of choices." And I really think that's where we are. And it's kind of cool for me to be part of a family and a tradition where he was talking about that in 1978. And part of why this stuff is important and all the things that we do are important, is that these are the ideas we need. And I think that this is all part of surrendering to the design journey. That's what we all need to do. Design is not just for designers anymore. It's a process. It's not style. All that great thinking needs to really get about solving pretty key problems. I really thank you for your time. (Applause)
伊默斯.德米特里:我一直盼着和你们分享这段话。 因为我们必须提到这个, 我还想分享这个。 “信息时代之后将是选择时代。” 我真的相信我们就处在那样的时代。 这个家庭和这份传统在1978年产生这样的话 作为其中一员,我很荣幸。 这些之所以重要 我们做的所有事情之所以重要 是因为我们需要这些点子。 这都是臣服于设计之旅必须的部分。 这也是我们需要做的。 设计不再只属于设计师了,它是个过程,不是风格。 所以伟大的思想都需要 实际地解决关键问题。 真的感谢你们的时间。 (掌声)