If I asked you to picture the air, what do you imagine? Most people think about either empty space or clear blue sky or sometimes trees dancing in the wind. And then I remember my high school chemistry teacher with really long socks at the blackboard, drawing diagrams of bubbles connected to other bubbles, and describing how they vibrate and collide in a kind of frantic soup.
如果让你描绘一下空气, 你会想到什么? 大多数人想到的或是虚无的空间, 或是湛蓝的天空, 或是随风摇曳的树木。 而我回想起我的高中化学老师, 穿着长袜站在黑板前, 画着彼此相连的泡泡的示意图, 讲述着空气分子好似在沸腾的热汤中 如何颤动如何碰撞。
But really, we tend not to think about the air that much at all. We notice it mostly when there's some kind of unpleasant sensory intrusion upon it, like a terrible smell or something visible like smoke or mist. But it's always there. It's touching all of us right now. It's even inside us. Our air is immediate, vital and intimate. And yet, it's so easily forgotten.
不过说真的,我们并不十分在意 我们身边的空气。 只有当空气中混杂着令人不快的 刺激我们感官的东西, 比如难闻的气味或是烟雾熏人 我们才会有所在意。 但是空气一直存在着。 它就在我们身边。 它甚至存在于我们体内。 我们的空气与我们息息相关。 不过却总是被忽略。
So what is the air? It's the combination of the invisible gases that envelop the Earth, attracted by the Earth's gravitational pull. And even though I'm a visual artist, I'm interested in the invisibility of the air. I'm interested in how we imagine it, how we experience it and how we all have an innate understanding of its materiality through breathing. All life on Earth changes the air through gas exchange, and we're all doing it right now. Actually, why don't we all right now together take one big, collective, deep breath in.
那么究竟空气是什么? 它是各种不可见气体的混合, 受到地球引力覆盖在地球表面。 尽管我是个视觉艺术家, 我对于空气的不可见性也很感兴趣。 我很好奇我们怎样去想象它, 我们怎样去体验它, 以及我们怎样通过呼吸 对空气的重要性产生天生的理解。 所有生物都通过气体交换 改变着地球上的空气, 此时此刻我们也正这么做。 说实在的,我们何不一起 做一次大型的集体深呼吸呢?
Ready? In. (Inhales) And out. (Exhales)
准备好了吗?吸气。 然后呼气。
That air that you just exhaled, you enriched a hundred times in carbon dioxide. So roughly five liters of air per breath, 17 breaths per minute of the 525,600 minutes per year, comes to approximately 45 million liters of air, enriched 100 times in carbon dioxide, just for you. Now, that's equivalent to about 18 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
你们刚刚呼出的气体, 与呼入之前比二氧化碳的含量提高了一百倍。 粗略估计每次呼吸5升的空气, 每分钟17次呼吸, 每年525600分钟, 总计大约4500万升空气, 因为你一人, 其中二氧化碳提高了一百倍。 那就相当于18个奥林匹克泳池的体积。
For me, air is plural. It's simultaneously as small as our breathing and as big as the planet. And it's kind of hard to picture. Maybe it's impossible, and maybe it doesn't matter.
对我而言,空气是多层次的。 小的方面它与我们呼吸相关, 大的方面它可以和星球相关。 所以很难描绘它。 也许是不可能完成的, 但这或许并不重要。
Through my visual arts practice, I try to make air, not so much picture it, but to make it visceral and tactile and haptic. I try to expand this notion of the aesthetic, how things look, so that it can include things like how it feels on your skin and in your lungs, and how your voice sounds as it passes through it. I explore the weight, density and smell, but most importantly, I think a lot about the stories we attach to different kinds of air.
通过我的视觉艺术实践, 我试着不去浓墨重彩地描绘空气, 而是试着使它变得真实可感。 我试图拓展美学的概念, 这样它能包括你的知觉, 你的皮肤和肺对于空气的感觉, 以及你的声音在空气中传播后的情况。 我探索着空气的重量、密度和气味, 最重要的一点, 关于不同的空气衍生的各种故事 我思考了很多。
This is a work I made in 2014. It's called "Different Kinds of Air: A Plant's Diary," where I was recreating the air from different eras in Earth's evolution, and inviting the audience to come in and breathe them with me. And it's really surprising, so drastically different.
这是我在2014年完成的一个作品。 它叫做“不同的空气:地球日记”, 这个作品里我把地球演变中 不同时期的空气进行了重新制备, 并邀请观众参与其中与我一同呼吸。 这真的不可思议,非常不同。
Now, I'm not a scientist, but atmospheric scientists will look for traces in the air chemistry in geology, a bit like how rocks can oxidize, and they'll extrapolate that information and aggregate it, such that they can pretty much form a recipe for the air at different times. Then I come in as the artist and take that recipe and recreate it using the component gases.
虽然我不是个科学家, 不过大气科学家会找寻 空气在地质中留下的痕迹, 比方说岩石如何被氧化, 他们会推断并综合整理信息, 所以他们能够分析出 不同时期空气的成分配方。 身为艺术家的我获得了这个成分配方, 按配方用组分气体进行了再次制备。
I was particularly interested in moments of time that are examples of life changing the air, but also the air that can influence how life will evolve, like Carboniferous air. It's from about 300 to 350 million years ago. It's an era known as the time of the giants. So for the first time in the history of life, lignin evolves. That's the hard stuff that trees are made of. So trees effectively invent their own trunks at this time, and they get really big, bigger and bigger, and pepper the Earth, releasing oxygen, releasing oxygen, releasing oxygen, such that the oxygen levels are about twice as high as what they are today. And this rich air supports massive insects -- huge spiders and dragonflies with a wingspan of about 65 centimeters. To breathe, this air is really clean and really fresh. It doesn't so much have a flavor, but it does give your body a really subtle kind of boost of energy. It's really good for hangovers.
我对于那些生物改变空气的时期十分感兴趣, 同时空气也会影响生物的进化, 比方说石炭纪的空气。 大约3亿5千年前至3亿年前, 那是个以巨型生物闻名的时代。 历史上首次,演化出了木质素。 那是维持树木硬度的成分。 因此树木有了稳固的树干, 它们逐渐生长,变得越来越大, 散布整个地球, 不断释放着氧气, 那时的氧气含量 大约是今天的两倍多。 这充足的氧气含量孕育了巨型昆虫, 巨型蜘蛛和翼展约65厘米的蜻蜓。 那时的空气呼吸起来是那么纯净清新。 它并没有什么特别的味道, 但是它的确可以使你的身体充满能量。 对醒酒很有效(氧气含量高)。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
Or there's the air of the Great Dying -- that's about 252.5 million years ago, just before the dinosaurs evolve. It's a really short time period, geologically speaking, from about 20- to 200,000 years. Really quick. This is the greatest extinction event in Earth's history, even bigger than when the dinosaurs died out. Eighty-five to 95 percent of species at this time die out, and simultaneous to that is a huge, dramatic spike in carbon dioxide, that a lot of scientists agree comes from a simultaneous eruption of volcanoes and a runaway greenhouse effect. Oxygen levels at this time go to below half of what they are today, so about 10 percent. So this air would definitely not support human life, but it's OK to just have a breath. And to breathe, it's oddly comforting. It's really calming, it's quite warm and it has a flavor a little bit like soda water. It has that kind of spritz, quite pleasant.
还有大灭绝时期的空气—— 那是大约2亿5250万年前, 恐龙出现之前的时期。 从地质学上来讲真的是一段短暂的时光, 大约20到20万年时间, 非常短暂。 这是地球历史上最大规模的灭绝, 甚至比恐龙灭绝还要严重。 这一时期近九成的物种灭绝了, 许多科学家一致认为, 那时空气中的二氧化碳含量剧增 是由于那时的火山爆发, 还有温室效应失控。 那时氧气的含量不到今天的一半, 大约只有10%。 显然这样的空气并不适合人类生活, 但是勉强能够呼吸。 奇怪的是,它呼吸起来也很舒服。 它使人平静,它给人温暖 它甚至有一点点苏打水的味道(二氧化碳含量高)。 它令人愉悦。
So with all this thinking about air of the past, it's quite natural to start thinking about the air of the future. And instead of being speculative with air and just making up what I think might be the future air, I discovered this human-synthesized air. That means that it doesn't occur anywhere in nature, but it's made by humans in a laboratory for application in different industrial settings.
我们在回顾过去的空气的同时, 自然也会畅想未来的空气。 在探索空气的路上, 我为了构成可能的未来空气, 我发现了这种人工合成的气体。 这意味着它并不是天然产生的, 而是在实验室中人工合成, 在不同行业中有实际应用。
Why is it future air? Well, this air is a really stable molecule that will literally be part of the air once it's released, for the next 300 to 400 years, before it's broken down. So that's about 12 to 16 generations. And this future air has some very sensual qualities. It's very heavy. It's about eight times heavier than the air we're used to breathing. It's so heavy, in fact, that when you breathe it in, whatever words you speak are kind of literally heavy as well, so they dribble down your chin and drop to the floor and soak into the cracks. It's an air that operates quite a lot like a liquid.
它为什么代表了未来的空气? 这种气体有非常稳定的分子结构, 当它释放后便会与空气融为一体, 在它分解前有300至400年的稳定寿命。 相当于12到16代人。 而这未来的气体有一些感官上的特点。 它密度大。 是我们习惯了呼吸的空气密度的8倍。 实际上当你吸进这厚重的空气, 就连你说的话也会变得低沉厚重, 它从你的下巴滴到地板上, 渗到裂缝里。 这是一种很像液体的空气。
Now, this air comes with an ethical dimension as well. Humans made this air, but it's also the most potent greenhouse gas that has ever been tested. Its warming potential is 24,000 times that of carbon dioxide, and it has that longevity of 12 to 16 generations. So this ethical confrontation is really central to my work. (In a lowered voice) It has another quite surprising quality. It changes the sound of your voice quite dramatically.
如今这种气体也遇到了伦理问题。 人类制造了这种气体, 同时它也是截至目前 温室效应最明显的气体。 它的保温性能是二氧化碳的24000倍, 并且它的持续时间有300至400年时间。 所以这一伦理上的矛盾是我工作的重点。 (以低沉的声音)它有另一令人惊讶的特性。 它可以神奇地改变你的声音。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
So when we start to think -- ooh! It's still there a bit.
所以当我们开始思考—— 哦,它还在对我的音调产生影响,
(Laughter)
(笑声)
When we think about climate change, we probably don't think about giant insects and erupting volcanoes or funny voices. The images that more readily come to mind are things like retreating glaciers and polar bears adrift on icebergs. We think about pie charts and column graphs and endless politicians talking to scientists wearing cardigans.
当我们思考气候问题, 我们也许并不会考虑 巨型昆虫和火山爆发 或是滑稽的音调变化。 我们心头浮现的画面更多的是 冰川消融,漂浮在冰山上的北极熊。 我们想起饼状图和柱状图 还有无止境的政治家和科学家之间的对话。
But perhaps it's time we start thinking about climate change on the same visceral level that we experience the air. Like air, climate change is simultaneously at the scale of the molecule, the breath and the planet. It's immediate, vital and intimate, as well as being amorphous and cumbersome. And yet, it's so easily forgotten.
也许是时候开始换个角度, 从我们感受空气的本能角度来思考气候变化。 与空气类似,气候变化也是发生在分子层面、 呼吸的层面和星球的层面。 它与我们息息相关, 却又令人难以捉摸。 同时,它也容易被忽视。
Climate change is the collective self-portrait of humanity. It reflects our decisions as individuals, as governments and as industries. And if there's anything I've learned from looking at air, it's that even though it's changing, it persists. It may not support the kind of life that we'd recognize, but it will support something. And if we humans are such a vital part of that change, I think it's important that we can feel the discussion. Because even though it's invisible, humans are leaving a very vibrant trace in the air.
气候变化是人类共同的自画像。 它反映着我们作为个体、 作为政府和作为企业作出的决策。 如果说我从凝视空气中学到了什么, 那就是即使它变化莫测, 它依然存在。 它也许不适合我们所熟知的生物生存, 但它定会适合一些东西生存的。 如果说我们人类在这一变化中 起着重要的作用, 我想能够感受这种讨论是重要的。 因为即使无影无形, 人类在空气中留下着 鲜明的不可磨灭的印记。
Thank you.
谢谢。
(Applause)
(掌声)