These are sequences from a play called "The Lehman Trilogy," which traces the origins of Western capitalism in three hours, with three actors and a piano. And my role was to create a stage design to write a visual language for this work. The play describes Atlantic crossings, Alabama cotton fields, New York skylines, and we framed the whole thing within this single revolving cube, a kind of kinetic cinema through the centuries. It's like a musical instrument played by three performers. And as they step their way around and through the lives of the Lehman brothers, we, the audience, begin to connect with the simple, human origins at the root of the complex global financial systems that we're all still in thrall to today.
這是舞台劇 The Lehman Trilogy 的場景, 此劇用 3 小時追溯了 西方資本主義的起源, 透過三位演員與一架鋼琴。 我的任務是設計舞台, 為這個作品建構出一種視覺語言。 這齣戲描繪了:橫越大西洋、 阿拉巴馬州的棉花田、 跟紐約的天際線, 而我們所有的場景都在這 單一個旋轉的立方體中呈現, 就像是穿越世紀的動感鏡頭。 就像是由三位表演者 演奏的一種樂器。 當他們踏上了 雷曼兄弟的生命旅程, 我們作為觀眾, 開始對這場至今仍影響我們的 —— 國際複雜金融體系風暴 根源之下的簡單人性, 產生共鳴。
I used to play musical instruments myself when I was younger. My favorite was the violin. It was this intimate transfer of energy. You held this organic sculpture up to your heart, and you poured the energy of your whole body into this little piece of wood, and heard it translated into music. And I was never particularly good at the violin, but I used to sit at the back of the second violin section in the Hastings Youth Orchestra, scratching away. We were all scratching and marveling at this symphonic sound that we were making that was so much more beautiful and powerful than anything we would ever have managed on our own.
年輕時我會玩樂器。 我最喜歡的樂器是小提琴。 這是種親密的能量傳遞形式。 你握持著這個有機雕塑靠近你的心, 你傾注全身的精力到這個小木箱內, 聽見它被轉化為音樂。 我的琴藝並不是特別的精湛, 但我曾經是第二小提琴的成員, 在 Hastings 青年交響樂團。 拉來拉去。 我們都在拉奏, 並驚嘆我們一同創造的和聲 是多麼地美妙、具渲染力, 遠超過一人獨奏所能達到的境界。
And now, as I create large-scale performances, I am always working with teams that are at least the size of a symphony orchestra. And whether we are creating these revolving giant chess piece time tunnels for an opera by Richard Wagner or shark tanks and mountains for Kanye West, we're always seeking to create the most articulate sculpture, the most poetic instrument of communication to an audience.
現在當我設計大型表演, 我合作的團隊人數規模 也總是不小於一個交響樂團。 不論我們在創造的是: 理察 · 華格納歌劇中的 巨型旋轉的棋子時間通道。 或是肯伊 · 威斯特演唱會中的 投影鯊魚缸、山景。 我們總是試圖創造: 能夠清楚傳達意象的雕塑, 最詩意的工具和觀眾溝通。
When I say poetic, I just mean language at its most condensed, like a song lyric, a poetic puzzle to be unlocked and unpacked. And when we were preparing to design Beyoncé's "Formation" tour, we looked at all the lyrics, and we came across this poem that Beyoncé wrote. "I saw a TV preacher when I was scared, at four or five about bad dreams who promised he'd say a prayer if I put my hand to the TV. That's the first time I remember prayer, an electric current running through me."
我所指的詩意, 我指的是最精煉的語言, 就像歌詞, 一個待解鎖跟拆封的詩意謎題。 當我們著手設計碧昂絲的 《Formation》巡迴演唱會, 我們看遍了所有的歌詞, 然後發現了她寫的這首詩。 當我約 4、5 歲因惡夢感到害怕時, 看見電視上的一位傳教士, 他保證如果我把手放到電視上, 他便會為我禱告。 那是我第一次有印象 禱告宛如一股電流穿過我。
And this TV that transmitted prayer to Beyoncé as a child became this monolithic revolving sculpture that broadcast Beyoncé to the back of the stadium.
而那台傳送禱告給小碧昂絲的電視, 轉化為這個巨型旋轉裝置, 將碧昂絲轉播到體育場的每一個角落。
And the stadium is a mass congregation. It's a temporary population of a hundred thousand people who have all come there to sing along with every word together, but they've also come there each seeking one-to-one intimacy with the performer. And we, as we conceive the show, we have to provide intimacy on a grand scale.
而體育館就像是大群信眾的集會。 這是成千上萬人的暫時居所, 他們來此一字不漏地跟著唱和, 但他們也來此, 追求與表演者一對一的親密感。 當我們在構思表演, 我們必須提供一種大規模的親密感。
It usually starts with sketches. I was drawing this 60-foot-high, revolving, broadcast-quality portrait of the artist, and then I tore the piece of paper in half. I split the mask to try to access the human underneath it all. And it's one thing to do sketches, but of course translating from a sketch into a tourable revolving six-story building took some exceptional engineers working around the clock for three months, until finally we arrived in Miami and opened the show in April 2016.
這通常由草圖開始, 我畫了幅 60 英尺高、旋轉的、 廣播級的藝人肖像, 然後我把這張紙從中撕開。 我撕開了面具, 試著去接觸下方的所有人。 畫草圖是一回事, 要把草圖轉換成一個—— 可巡迴的、旋轉的、六層樓高的建物, 則需要傑出的工程師 不間斷地工作三個月。 直到我們終於抵達邁阿密, 並在 2016 年 4 月開始演出巡迴。
(Video: Cheers)
(影像聲響:歡呼聲)
(Music: "Formation," Beyoncé)
(背景音樂:碧昂絲的歌 〈 Formation 〉)
Beyoncé: Y'all haters corny with that Illuminati mess
碧昂絲:你們這些酸民 滿口光明會的胡說八道
Paparazzi, catch my fly, and my cocky fresh
狗仔隊等著捕捉我 超閃亮的女王姿態
I'm so reckless when I rock my Givenchy dress
穿著我的紀凡希洋裝 我傲視一切
I'm so possessive so I rock his Roc necklaces
我佔有慾超強 所以我戴著他的項鍊
My daddy Alabama
我的爹地來自阿拉巴馬
Momma Louisiana
媽媽來自路易斯安那
You mix that negro with that Creole
多元種族背景生出我這個
make a Texas bama
德州混血黑妞
(Music ends)
(音樂結束)
I call my work --
我稱我的工作——
(Cheers, applause)
(歡呼聲與掌聲)
Thank you.
謝謝。
(Cheers, applause)
(歡呼聲與掌聲)
I call my work stage sculpture, but of course what's really being sculpted is the experience of the audience, and as directors and designers, we have to take responsibility for every minute that the audience spend with us. We're a bit like pilots navigating a flight path for a hundred thousand passengers.
我稱我的工作是舞台雕塑, 但真正被雕塑的當然是觀眾的體驗。 作為導演與設計師, 我們必須對觀眾花在 我們身上的每一分鐘負責。 我們有點像飛行員, 為成千上萬名旅客導航。
And in the case of the Canadian artist The Weeknd, we translated this flight path literally into an origami paper folding airplane that took off over the heads of the audience, broke apart in mid-flight, complications, and then rose out of the ashes restored at the end of the show. And like any flight, the most delicate part is the liftoff, the beginning, because when you design a pop concert, the prime material that you're working with is something that doesn't take trucks or crew to transport it. It doesn't cost anything, and yet it fills every atom of air in the arena, before the show starts. It's the audience's anticipation. Everyone brings with them the story of how they came to get there, the distances they traveled, the months they had to work to pay for the tickets. Sometimes they sleep overnight outside the arena, and our first task is to deliver for an audience on their anticipation, to deliver their first sight of the performer.
在加拿大藝人威肯的案子, 我們實現了這個比喻, 將其轉化為一架紙飛機 從觀眾的頭頂上飛過, 在飛行途中散開, 然後在表演尾聲時, 從餘燼之中重生。 就像任何的飛行, 最需要小心處理的 就是開頭——起飛的瞬間, 因為當你設計流行音樂的演唱會時, 你最主要處理的素材 不是那些可以被卡車 或人員運送的東西。 它不花任何成本, 但它瀰漫在整個體育館中, 就在表演開始前。 這個素材就是觀眾的期待。 每個人都帶著自己 如何來到這兒的故事, 他們跋山涉水了多遠、 累積了幾個月薪水才買到的門票。 有時候他們甚至在體育館外過夜, 我們的首要任務就是 為熱切的觀眾精心設計 那見到表演者的第一眼。
When I work with men, they're quite happy to have their music transformed into metaphor -- spaceflights, mountains. But with women, we work a lot with masks and with three-dimensional portraiture, because the fans of the female artist crave her face.
當我與男藝人合作時, 他們很高興能將他們的 音樂轉化為隱喻, 像是:太空梭、山。 但和女藝人我們則做了 許多像是面具或是立體的肖像。 因為女藝人的粉絲 渴慕著她的面容。
And when the audience arrived to see Adele's first live concert in five years, they were met with this image of her eyes asleep. If they listened carefully, they would hear her sleeping breath echoing around the arena, waiting to wake up. Here's how the show began.
當聽眾進場觀賞愛黛兒 睽違五年的演唱會, 他們看見的畫面是她沉睡著的雙眼。 如果他們仔細聽, 他們會聽見她沉睡的呼吸聲 在體育館裡迴盪著, 等待甦醒。 表演是這樣開始的。
(Video: Cheers, applause)
(歡呼聲和掌聲)
(Music)
(音樂)
Adele: Hello.
愛黛兒:哈囉。
(Cheers, applause)
(歡呼聲和掌聲)
Es Devlin: With U2, we're navigating the audience over a terrain that spans three decades of politics, poetry and music. And over many months, meeting with the band and their creative teams, this is the sketch that kept recurring, this line, this street, the street that connects the band's past with their present, the tightrope that they walk as activists and artists, a walk through cinema that allows the band to become protagonists in their own poetry.
埃斯 · 德夫林:和 U2 樂團, 我們帶領著觀眾跨越 超過三十年政治、詩跟音樂的幅員。 經過數個月不停地與樂團 和他們的創意團隊開會討論, 這個草圖反覆地出現, 這個線條、這個街道, 整個街道連結了樂團的過去跟現在, 一路以來作為藝人及社會運動 參與者,如走鋼索般拿捏平衡, 一個帶領觀眾穿越時間的劇場, 讓樂團化身為 他們的詩中的主角。
(Music: U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name")
(音樂:U2〈Where the Streets Have No Name〉)
Bono: I wanna run
波諾:我想逃出去
I want to hide
或是躲起來
I wanna tear down the walls
我想拆除這座高牆
That hold me inside
這高牆鎖住了我
Es Devlin: The end of the show is like the end of a flight. It's an arrival. It's a transfer from the stage out to the audience.
埃斯 · 德夫林:表演的尾聲 宛如飛行的尾聲。 就像抵達一般。 焦點從舞台轉到觀眾身上。
For the British band Take That, we ended the show by sending an 80-foot high mechanical human figure out to the center of the crowd.
在英國偶像團體 Take That 的案子, 我們在表演尾聲時, 從觀眾中央升起高達 80 英呎高的機械人。
(Music)
(音樂)
Like many translations from music to mechanics, this one was initially deemed entirely technically impossible. The first three engineers we took it to said no, and eventually, the way that it was achieved was by keeping the entire control system together while it toured around the country, so we had to fold it up onto a flatbed truck so it could tour around without coming apart. And of course, what this meant was that the dimension of its head was entirely determined by the lowest motorway bridge that it had to travel under on its tour. And I have to tell you that it turns out there is an unavoidable and annoyingly low bridge low bridge just outside Hamburg.
一如許多從音樂轉譯為機械的作品, 這個概念起初被認為 在技術上完全不可行。 我們諮詢的前三位工程師都否決了, 最終我們克服的方式是 在它各處巡迴的同時, 保持整座控制系統的完整性, 我們得把它收上平板卡車。 所以它可以到處巡迴, 而不至於散落。 當然,這也意味著雕塑頭部的尺寸 完全取決於 巡迴時會經過的公路上 限高最低的橋。 而我必須要告訴你們,結果 ...... 有一條無法繞過、惱人的矮橋, 就在漢堡的近郊。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
(Music)
(音樂)
Another of the most technically complex pieces that we've worked on is the opera "Carmen" at Bregenz Festival in Austria. We envisaged Carmen's hands rising out of Lake Constance, and throwing this deck of cards in the air and leaving them suspended between sky and sea. But this transient gesture, this flick of the wrists had to become a structure that would be strong enough to withstand two Austrian winters. So there's an awful lot that you don't see in this photograph that's working really hard. It's a lot of ballast and structure and support around the back, and I'm going to show you the photos that aren't on my website. They're photos of the back of a set, the part that's not designed for the audience to see, however much work it's doing.
另一件技術含量極高的作品 是歌劇「卡門」, 在奧地利的布雷根茲藝術節。 我們想像卡門的手 從康士坦茲湖中升起, 把牌撒向空中 讓牌懸浮於天空與湖面之間。 但這瞬間的姿態、 這手腕一甩的結構, 得堅固到能撐過兩個奧地利的冬天。 還有很多照片裡看不到 但也非常令人費神的事。 有許多的壓艙物、結構、支架在背後, 我要跟你們分享 未曾在我網站上公開的照片。 這些是舞台背面的照片。 這部分是觀眾看不見之處, 但也非常花人心思。
And you know, this is actually the dilemma for an artist who is working as a stage designer, because so much of what I make is fake, it's an illusion. And yet every artist works in pursuit of communicating something that's true. But we are always asking ourselves: "Can we communicate truth using things that are false?" And now when I attend the shows that I've worked on, I often find I'm the only one who is not looking at the stage. I'm looking at something that I find equally fascinating, and it's the audience.
你知道這對作為舞台設計師、 藝術家來說,其實是種掙扎, 因為許多我的作品都是不真實的, 是種幻象。 但每位藝術家都在追求 傳遞一些真實的東西。 但我們常自問: 「我們可以透過不真實的 事物來傳遞真理嗎?」 如今當我去看我們設計的表演時, 常常發現我是唯一 不在注意舞台的人。 我在看的是同樣迷人的, 那就是——觀眾。
(Cheers)
(影片中的歡呼聲)
I mean, where else do you witness this:
你還能在哪看到這樣的場景呢?
(Cheers)
(歡呼聲)
this many humans, connected, focused, undistracted and unfragmented? And lately, I've begun to make work that originates here, in the collective voice of the audience.
這麼多人,如此同感齊心、專注一致、 心無旁鶩和完整地投入? 最近我以此, 以觀眾的和聲為靈感 設計了一個作品,
"Poem Portraits" is a collective poem. It began at the Serpentine Gallery in London, and everybody is invited to donate one word to a collective poem. And instead of that large single LED portrait that was broadcasting to the back of the stadium, in this case, every member of the audience gets to take their own portrait home with them, and it's woven in with the words that they've contributed to the collective poem. So they keep a fragment of an ever-evolving collective work. And next year, the collective poem will take architectural form.
「肖像詩」是集體創作的詩。 它從倫敦的蛇形藝廊開始, 邀請大家為集體創作的詩貢獻一個字。 取代那種在展館後方的 單片巨型 LED 肖像, 這次,每位觀眾 都能帶他們各自的肖像回家, 這肖像是由他們集體創作的詩 當中的字句所編織而成的。 他們收藏了持續演化的 共同創作中的一部分。 明年,集體創作的詩 將以建築的形式呈現。
This is the design for the UK Pavilion at the World Expo 2020. The UK ... In my lifetime, it's never felt this divided. It's never felt this noisy with divergent voices. And it's never felt this much in need of places where voices might connect and converge. And it's my hope that this wooden sculpture, this wooden instrument, a bit like that violin I used to play, might be a place where people can play and enter their word at one end of the cone, emerge at the other end of the building, and find that their word has joined a collective poem, a collective voice.
這是 2020 年世界博覽會 英國館的設計。 英國…... 我這輩子從未感到它是如此地分裂, 從未感到它因分裂的意見 而如此地吵雜, 從未如此感到需要一個 能讓意見交流並整合的園地。 我希望這個木製建築, 這個木製的樂器. 就像我以往演奏的小提琴, 人們可以在這錐型建築的一端 播放、輸入他們的話語, 接著發現建築的另一端浮現出: 以他們的話語 共同交織而成的詩和語言。
(Music)
(音樂)
These are simple experiments in machine learning. The algorithm that generates the collective poem is pretty simple. It's like predictive text, only it's trained on millions of words written by poets in the 19th century. So it's a sort of convergence of intelligence, past and present, organic and inorganic.
這些是機器學習的簡單測試。 創造出集體創作詩的演算法 其實蠻單純, 就像是輸入預測一樣, 只是演算法的訓練資料 是大量 19 世紀的詩。 它有點像是:過去和現在、 有機和無機的智慧集合。
And we were inspired by the words of Stephen Hawking. Towards the end of his life, he asked quite a simple question: If we as a species were ever to come across another advanced life-form, an advanced civilization, how would we speak to them? What collective language would we speak as a planet?
史蒂芬 · 霍金的話啟發了我們。 晚年時,他問了一個簡單的問題: 身為人類這個物種,如果有天 遇見另一種高等智慧生物、 另一個先進的文明, 我們將如何跟他們溝通? 我們會說什麼共同語言 代表我們的星球呢?
The language of light reaches every audience. All of us are touched by it. None of us can hold it. And in the theater, we begin each work in a dark place, devoid of light. We stay up all night focusing the lights, programming the lights, trying to find new ways to sculpt and carve light.
光的語言可以觸及到每一位觀眾。 光能碰觸到我們,我們卻抓不住光。 在劇院,每個表演 都從黑暗中開始,避開光線。 我們熬夜討論、設定燈光, 試圖找到新的方式去雕塑、刻劃光。
(Music)
(音樂)
This is a portrait of our practice, always seeking new ways to shape and reshape light, always finding words for things that we no longer need to say. And I want to say that this, and everything that I've just shown you, no longer exists in physical form.
這描繪了我們工作的本質, 總是試圖找到新的方式 來形塑、重塑燈光, 試圖找到言語之外的表達方式。 我想說,這個, 跟我剛展示給你們看的所有東西, 都不以實體型態存在了。
(Music)
(音樂)
In fact, most of what I've made over the last 25 years doesn't exist anymore. But our work endures in memories, in synaptic sculptures, in the minds of those who were once present in the audience.
事實上,過去 25 年來 我所創造的作品 大多都不存在了。 但我們的作品存在於 回憶、記憶神經元, 和曾經在場的觀眾心中。
(Music)
(音樂)
I once read that a poem learnt by heart is what you have left, what can't be lost, even if your house burns down and you've lost all your possessions. I want to end with some lines that I learnt by heart a long time ago.
我曾經讀過—— 若你有首能牢記於心的詩, 那它將會是你僅有 和永遠不會失去的資產, 即便哪天你家被燒毀了 或失去了所有財產。 我想要以很久以前 就牢記於心的詞句做結尾。
(Music)
(音樂)
They're written by the English novelist E.M. Forster, in 1910, just a few years before Europe, my continent,
這是由英國小說家 E · M · 福斯特於 1910 所寫, 就在我成長的土地——歐洲——
(Music)
(音樂)
began tearing itself apart.
開始自我分裂的幾年前。
(Music)
(音樂)
And his call to convergence still resonates through most of what we're trying to make now.
當時他疾聲呼籲的團結, 仍與我們現今的處境有所共鳴。
(Music)
(音樂)
"Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, And human love will be seen at its height. Only connect! And live in fragments no longer."
「唯有聯結!是她長篇說教的核心。 唯有聯結起平淡和激情, 兩者才能共好, 才能看見人類愛的潛能。 唯有聯結!人們才能 不再活在分裂之中。」
Thank you.
謝謝!
(Applause)
(掌聲)