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.
樹象徵靜止, 樹歷經好幾個世代,都植根於 同一地區的同一塊土地, 但是如果我們將注意力 由樹幹轉移到細枝, 樹木的活動力就顯現出來了, 它一直在活動及成長。 我決定探索細枝的活動情形, 我把樹木當作藝術家, 在細枝的末端綁上一枝畫筆, 然後靜待風起,撐起畫布, 這樣一幅藝術品就完成了。 你現在看到在左邊的那幅圖, 就是由香杉所畫的, 右邊那幅則是花旗松的作品。 我發現不同的樹種 所留下的圖型特徵不同, 就像畢卡索和莫內的畫風不同一樣。
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.
我對於樹木的活動力 以及將圖上的活動軌跡量化,也很有興趣。 為測量創作這幅畫的藤楓 一年內所移動的距離, 我測量這圖上每條線的長度, 而後加總, 然後乘上每個樹枝上細枝數目 及每棵樹的樹枝數目, 再乘以每年的分鐘數, 這樣我就可以算出 每一株樹每年的移動距離。 你可以猜猜看, 答案是186,540英里(約30萬公里), 也就是繞著地球轉七圈的長度。 所以只要將觀注的重點由一株樹幹 轉移至許多動態的細枝, 我們就可以看出樹木不只具有活動力, 它的動作可還大著呢!
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.
接著我想到, 這個由樹木移動所學到的啟示, 是不是可以應用在其它呼喊著要改變、要自由的 靜態或被限制行動的事物上呢? 監獄就是這其中之一。 監獄當然將要將違紀犯法的人 困限在牢欄之後, 但是我們的監獄體系卻自困一角。 美國有超過二百三十萬位 被監禁的男女囚犯, 而且數目還在上升中。 在一百個出獄的囚犯裡, 有六十個會再回籠, 但是用在教育訓練、 輔導罪犯改過遷善的經費卻一直在減少, 所以整個監禁體系是在令人絕望的循環中不斷重複。 我決定去探究是否可以將 把樹當作藝術家的經驗, 運用在像監獄這樣靜態、 停滯不前的機構上。 我發現答案是:可行!
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, 我開始和華盛頓州的 囚犯矯正部門合作, 選定四個監獄,引進科學實驗及科學家, 在這四個州立監獄裡,進行永續發展 及保育等專案計畫。 我們給這些囚犯上科學課程。 這些人選擇來上我們提供的科學課程, 而不是去看電視或舉重, 這,就是我認為的改變。 我們和自然資源保護局合作 請在史塔佛溪矯正中心的囚犯 種植瀕臨絕種的草原植物, 用來重建華盛頓州的荒廢草原, 這,就是我認為的改變。 我們也和華盛頓州的魚類及野生動物部門 合作養殖瀕臨絕種的奧勒崗州斑蛙, 然後放回溼地保護區, 這,就是我認為的改變。
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.
最近我們開始和 被隔離在戒備最森嚴的 牢房裡的重刑犯合作, 他們都曾經與警衛或是 其他囚犯 有過暴力衝突, 他們每天都被關在像這樣的 囚室裡23小時。 當他們與審查委員或心理專家會面時, 他們是被安置在這樣一個固定的隔離房間裡, 他們每天僅有一小時的時間, 可以在這單調乏味的運動場放風。 雖然我們無法將樹、草原植物、 或是蛙類引進這裡, 但是我們選擇將自然的影像 帶入運動場、 掛在牆壁上,這樣至少他們在視覺上 還可以與自然接觸。 這位是已經被單獨監禁了18個月的Lopez先生, 他對這樣的圖片提供意見表示, 他相信這會使與他以及其他囚犯, 更有安詳鎮定的感覺, 因而不易訴之暴力。
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.
由前述我們看到, 這些微小但卻可積少成多的行動改變, 或許可以推動 像監獄體系這樣的個體, 往看得見希望的方向前進。 我們知道光只看樹幹的話, 樹是靜止的; 但是如果樹能作藝術創作、 如果樹一年能夠繞地球七次、 如果囚犯可以種植植物、養殖蛙類, 那也許深藏在我們心中 那些頑固的想法, 像是哀傷、沉溺、 種族偏見等等, 也是可以被改變的。
Thank you very much.
謝謝大家。
(Applause)
(掌聲)