Trees epitomize stasis. Trees are rooted in the ground in one place for many human generations, but if we shift our perspective from the trunk to the twigs, trees become very dynamic entities, moving and growing. And I decided to explore this movement by turning trees into artists. I simply tied the end of a paintbrush onto a twig. I waited for the wind to come up and held up a canvas, and that produced art. The piece of art you see on your left is painted by a western red cedar and that on your right by a Douglas fir, and what I learned was that different species have different signatures, like a Picasso versus a Monet.
树象征静止 于好几个世代中 树都植根于同一地区的同一块土地 但是如果我们将注意力 由树干转移到树枝 树木的活力就显现出来了 它一直在活动及成长 因此我决定开始探索树枝 我认为树木是位艺术家 为什么呢 我在细枝的末端绑上一枝画笔 然后静待风起 撑起画布 一幅艺术品就此完成 你现在看到在左边那幅图 就是由北美香柏所画的 右边那幅则是花旗松的作品 我发现不同的树种 所留下的图型特征不同 就像毕加索和莫奈的画风不同一样
But I was also interested in the movement of trees and how this art might let me capture that and quantify it, so to measure the distance that a single vine maple tree -- which produced this painting -- moved in a single year, I simply measured and summed each of those lines. I multiplied them by the number of twigs per branch and the number of branches per tree and then divided that by the number of minutes per year. And so I was able to calculate how far a single tree moved in a single year. You might have a guess. The answer is actually 186,540 miles, or seven times around the globe. And so simply by shifting our perspective from a single trunk to the many dynamic twigs, we are able to see that trees are not simply static entities, but rather extremely dynamic.
我不仅对树木的活力感兴趣 还对将图上的活动轨迹量化也很有兴趣 为测量创作这幅画的藤枫 一年内所移动的距离 我测量这图上每条线的长度 而后加总 然后乘上每个树枝上细枝数目 及每棵树有多少树枝数目 再乘以每年的分钟数 这样我就可以算出 每一株树每年的移动距离 你可以猜猜看 答案是186,540英里(约30万公里) 也就是绕着地球转七圈的长度。 所以只要将观注的重点由一株树干 转移至许多动态的细枝 我们就可以看出树木不只是静止的 它的动作可还大着呢
And I began to think about ways that we might consider this lesson of trees, to consider other entities that are also static and stuck, but which cry for change and dynamicism, and one of those entities is our prisons. Prisons, of course, are where people who break our laws are stuck, confined behind bars. And our prison system itself is stuck. The United States has over 2.3 million incarcerated men and women. That number is rising. Of the 100 incarcerated people that are released, 60 will return to prison. Funds for education, for training and for rehabilitation are declining, so this despairing cycle of incarceration continues. I decided to ask whether the lesson I had learned from trees as artists could be applied to a static institution such as our prisons, and I think the answer is yes.
接着我想到由 树木移动所学到的启示 是不是可以应用在其它呼喊着要改变 要自由的 静态或被限制行动的事物上呢 监狱就是一例 监狱当然是为要将作奸犯科者 困于牢栏之后 但是我们的监狱体系却自困一角 美国有二百三十万位 被监禁的男女囚犯 而且数目还在持续上升 在一百个出狱的囚犯里 有六十个会再回笼 但是用在教育训练 辅导罪犯改过迁善的经费却一直在减少 所以整个监禁体系是在令人绝望的循环中不断重复 我决定去探究是否可以将 把树当作艺术家的经验 运用在像监狱这样静态 停滞不前的机构上 我发现答案是可行的
In the year 2007, I started a partnership with the Washington State Department of Corrections. Working with four prisons, we began bringing science and scientists, sustainability and conservation projects to four state prisons. We give science lectures, and the men here are choosing to come to our science lectures instead of watching television or weightlifting. That, I think, is movement. We partnered with the Nature Conservancy for inmates at Stafford Creek Correctional Center to grow endangered prairie plants for restoration of relic prairie areas in Washington state. That, I think, is movement. We worked with the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife to grow endangered frogs -- the Oregon spotted frog -- for later release into protected wetlands. That, I think, is movement.
在2007年 我开始和 华盛顿州的囚犯矫正部门合作 选定四个监狱 引进科学实验及科学家 在这四个州立监狱里 进行永续发展 我们给这四个监狱的囚犯 上科学课程 这些人选择来上我们提供的科学课程 而不是去看电视或举重 我认为这才是行动 我们和自然保育局合作 请史塔佛溪矫正中心的囚犯 种植濒临绝种的草原植物 用来重建华盛顿州的荒废草原 这就是我认为的改变 我们也和华盛顿州的鱼类及野生动物部门 合作养殖滨临绝种的奥勒岗州斑蛙 然后放回湿地保护区 这就是我认为的改变
And just recently, we've begun to work with those men who are segregated in what we call Supermax facilities. They've incurred violent infractions by becoming violent with guards and with other prisoners. They're kept in bare cells like this for 23 hours a day. When they have meetings with their review boards or mental health professionals, they're placed in immobile booths like this. For one hour a day they're brought to these bleak and bland exercise yards. Although we can't bring trees and prairie plants and frogs into these environments, we are bringing images of nature into these exercise yards, putting them on the walls, so at least they get contact with visual images of nature. This is Mr. Lopez, who has been in solitary confinement for 18 months, and he's providing input on the types of images that he believes would make him and his fellow inmates more serene, more calm, less apt to violence.
最近我们开始和 被隔离在戒备最森严的 牢房里的重刑犯合作 他们都曾经与警卫 或是其他囚犯 有过暴力冲突 他们每天都被关在像这样的 囚室里 23个小时 当他们与审查委员或心理专家会面时 他们是被安置在这样一个固定的隔离房间里 他们每天仅有一小时的时间 可以在这个单调乏味的运动场放风 虽然我们不被允许将树草原植物 或是蛙类带入这样的环境 但是我们选择将自然的影像 带入运动场 挂在墙壁上,这样至少他们在视觉上 在视觉上还可以与自然接触 这位是已经被单独监禁了18个月的Lopez先生 他对这样的图片提供意见表示 他相信这会使他以及其他囚犯 有较安详镇定的感觉 不易诉之暴力
And so what we see, I think, is that small, collective movements of change can perhaps move an entity such as our own prison system in a direction of hope. We know that trees are static entities when we look at their trunks. But if trees can create art, if they can encircle the globe seven times in one year, if prisoners can grow plants and raise frogs, then perhaps there are other static entities that we hold inside ourselves, like grief, like addictions, like racism, that can also change.
由前述 我们看到 一个微小但是集体性的行动改变 或许可以推动 像监狱体系这样的个体 往看得见希望的方向前进 我们知道光只看树干的话 树是静止的 如果让树自由创作 如果树一年能够绕地球七次 如果囚犯都可以种植植物 养殖蛙类 那么也许深藏在我们心中 那些顽固的想法 如哀伤 沉溺 种族偏见等等 皆可改变
Thank you very much.
谢谢大家
(Applause)
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