Mind-blowing stage sculptures that fuse music and technology | Es Devlin

翻译人员: psjmz mz 校对人员: Yolanda Zhang

These are sequences from a play called "The Lehman Trilogy,"

这些片段取自“雷曼兄弟三部曲”，

which traces the origins of Western capitalism

它用三个小时追溯了西方资本主义

in three hours,

的起源，

with three actors and a piano.

只用了3位演员和1台钢琴。

And my role was to create a stage design

而我的任务是设计舞台，

to write a visual language for this work.

为这部作品创作视觉语言。

The play describes Atlantic crossings,

这部话剧展现了跨越大西洋，

Alabama cotton fields,

阿拉巴马州棉花田，

New York skylines,

纽约天际线的故事，

and we framed the whole thing within this single revolving cube,

我们把整个叙事装在 了这个旋转的立方体里，

a kind of kinetic cinema through the centuries.

几个世纪来的一种动态电影形式。

It's like a musical instrument

这就像一个由三个人

played by three performers.

演奏的乐器。

And as they step their way around and through

随着它们顺着雷曼兄弟的生活

the lives of the Lehman brothers,

一步步地走过去，

we, the audience,

观众们

begin to connect with the simple, human origins

开始与那些简单的， 人类起源的东西连接，

at the root of the complex global financial systems

它们是复杂的全球金融体系的根源，

that we're all still in thrall to today.

我们至今仍受其束缚。

I used to play musical instruments myself when I was younger.

我小时候曾经玩过乐器。

My favorite was the violin.

我最钟爱的是小提琴。

It was this intimate transfer of energy.

这是一种能量的亲密传递。

You held this organic sculpture up to your heart,

你把这个充满生命的 小提琴放到你的心上，

and you poured the energy of your whole body

就会你整个身体的能量

into this little piece of wood, and heard it translated into music.

注入到这块儿小木头里面， 听着它被翻译成音乐。

And I was never particularly good at the violin,

我并不是特别擅长拉小提琴，

but I used to sit at the back of the second violin section

但是我曾经是哈斯丁青年管弦乐团

in the Hastings Youth Orchestra,

第二小提琴席位靠后的成员，

scratching away.

就那么拉着。

We were all scratching

我们每个人都专心拉着琴，

and marveling at this symphonic sound that we were making

对我们共同弹奏出 的交响乐感到惊叹，

that was so much more beautiful and powerful

这比我们自己任何时候的独奏

than anything we would ever have managed on our own.

都更加美妙和充满活力。

And now, as I create large-scale performances,

当我创作大型演出时，

I am always working with teams

我总是和规模差不多

that are at least the size of a symphony orchestra.

像交响乐团那么大的团队合作。

And whether we are creating

不管我们是在为

these revolving giant chess piece time tunnels

理查德·瓦格纳的歌剧 创造这些旋转

for an opera by Richard Wagner

的巨大棋形时间隧道，

or shark tanks and mountains for Kanye West,

还是为坎耶·韦斯特的 《鲨鱼坦克》和《群山》创作时，

we're always seeking to create the most articulate sculpture,

我们总是寻求创造最清晰的雕塑，

the most poetic instrument of communication to an audience.

最诗意的工具与观众交流。

When I say poetic,

我说的诗意，

I just mean language at its most condensed,

意思是语言是浓缩的，

like a song lyric,

就像一首抒情歌，

a poetic puzzle to be unlocked and unpacked.

像一个有待被解开的诗意的谜题。

And when we were preparing to design Beyoncé's "Formation" tour,

当我们准备为碧昂斯 设计“ Formation”之旅时，

we looked at all the lyrics,

我们看了所有的歌词，

and we came across this poem that Beyoncé wrote.

我们还偶然看到了碧昂斯写的诗歌。

"I saw a TV preacher when I was scared, at four or five about bad dreams

“当我四五岁，害怕做噩梦时， 看到一个电视传教士许诺说，

who promised he'd say a prayer if I put my hand to the TV.

如果我把手放到电视上，他就会祈祷。

That's the first time I remember prayer, an electric current running through me."

那是我记忆中第一次祈祷， 一股电流穿过我的身体。”

And this TV that transmitted prayer to Beyoncé as a child

于是这台在碧昂斯小时候 给她传递祷告的电视，

became this monolithic revolving sculpture

变成了这个旋转雕塑

that broadcast Beyoncé to the back of the stadium.

把碧昂斯的表演播送到体育馆后面。

And the stadium is a mass congregation.

体育馆是一个大型的集会场所。

It's a temporary population of a hundred thousand people

成千上万的人临时聚集于此

who have all come there to sing along with every word together,

跟着一个字一个字地 一起唱起来，

but they've also come there each seeking one-to-one intimacy

但他们也来此寻求 与表演者一对一的

with the performer.

亲密感。

And we, as we conceive the show, we have to provide intimacy

而我们，当我们在构思这个 演出时，我们必须提供

on a grand scale.

大规模的亲密感。

It usually starts with sketches.

它通常开始于草图。

I was drawing this 60-foot-high, revolving,

我画出这60英尺高，旋转着

broadcast-quality portrait of the artist,

的广播质量的艺术家肖像，

and then I tore the piece of paper in half.

然后我把一张纸撕成两半。

I split the mask

我撕开面具，

to try to access the human underneath it all.

试图接近隐藏在面具下的人。

And it's one thing to do sketches, but of course translating from a sketch

画草图是一回事，但把草图转化成

into a tourable revolving six-story building

可观赏的六层旋转建筑

took some exceptional engineers working around the clock for three months,

需要一些杰出的工程师 夜以继日地工作三个月，

until finally we arrived in Miami

直到我们最终于2016年4月

and opened the show in April 2016.

抵达迈阿密开始这个演出。

(Video: Cheers)

（视频：欢呼）

(Music: "Formation," Beyoncé)

(音乐: "Formation," 碧昂斯)

Beyoncé: Y'all haters corny with that Illuminati mess

碧昂斯：你特么的黑子们成天 唠叨光明会那些破事，

Paparazzi, catch my fly, and my cocky fresh

狗仔围追堵截老娘的航班， 偷拍老娘傲人光彩。

I'm so reckless when I rock my Givenchy dress

老娘一身潮牌，无所畏惧为所欲为， 这特么就是老娘的调调。

I'm so possessive so I rock his Roc necklaces

老娘我就是霸道， 将老娘男人的Roc收入囊中。

My daddy Alabama

老娘的爸来自阿拉巴马州，

Momma Louisiana

俺妈是地道的路易斯安人，

You mix that negro with that Creole

你们造就了我这个带着 克里奥尔血统的黑人 ，

make a Texas bama

让我好好生活在德克萨斯。

(Music ends)

（音乐结束）

I call my work --

我把我的工作叫做——

(Cheers, applause)

（欢呼，鼓掌）

Thank you.

谢谢。

(Cheers, applause)

（欢呼，鼓掌）

I call my work stage sculpture,

我把我的工作叫做舞台雕塑，

but of course what's really being sculpted is the experience of the audience,

但当然真正被雕塑 的是观众的体验，

and as directors and designers,

并且作为一个导演和设计者，

we have to take responsibility

我们要对观众跟我们

for every minute that the audience spend with us.

花的每一分钟负责。

We're a bit like pilots

我们有点像飞行员，

navigating a flight path for a hundred thousand passengers.

为10万名乘客导航。

And in the case of the Canadian artist The Weeknd,

在加拿大艺术家威肯的例子中，

we translated this flight path literally

我们把这条飞行路线

into an origami paper folding airplane

翻译成一架折纸飞机，

that took off over the heads of the audience,

在观众头上起飞，

broke apart in mid-flight, complications,

在飞行中途解体，幻化出不同的造型，

and then rose out of the ashes restored

然后在演出结束后

at the end of the show.

在灰烬中重生。

And like any flight,

跟任何飞行一样，

the most delicate part is the liftoff, the beginning,

最微妙的部分是起飞，开始，

because when you design a pop concert,

因为当你设计一场流行音乐会时，

the prime material that you're working with

你使用的主要材料不需要

is something that doesn't take trucks or crew to transport it.

卡车或工作人员来运输。

It doesn't cost anything,

它几乎不需要任何成本，

and yet it fills every atom of air in the arena, before the show starts.

然而在演出开始前， 它就充满了赛场中的空气。

It's the audience's anticipation.

这就是观众的期待。

Everyone brings with them the story of how they came to get there,

每个人都带着他们 如何来到这里的故事，

the distances they traveled,

他们旅行的距离，

the months they had to work to pay for the tickets.

为了支付票价所需 花费的工作时长。

Sometimes they sleep overnight outside the arena,

有时候他们会在户外过夜，

and our first task is to deliver for an audience on their anticipation,

我们的第一个任务是向 观众传递他们的期望，

to deliver their first sight of the performer.

让观众第一眼就看到他们。

When I work with men,

当我跟男星合作时，

they're quite happy to have their music transformed into metaphor --

他们很高兴把他们 的音乐变成隐喻——

spaceflights, mountains.

太空飞行器，高山。

But with women, we work a lot with masks and with three-dimensional portraiture,

但跟女星合作时，我们经常 使用面具和三维肖像，

because the fans of the female artist

因为女艺术家的粉丝

crave her face.

渴望看到她的脸。

And when the audience arrived to see Adele's first live concert in five years,

当观众来到现场观看阿黛尔 五年来首场现场演唱会时，

they were met with this image of her eyes asleep.

他们看到的是这张沉睡的照片。

If they listened carefully,

如果他们仔细倾听，

they would hear her sleeping breath echoing around the arena,

还会听到她睡眠的 呼吸在空气中回响，

waiting to wake up.

等待被叫醒。

Here's how the show began.

这是演出开始的样子。

(Video: Cheers, applause)

（视频：欢呼，鼓掌）

(Music)

（音乐）

Adele: Hello.

阿黛尔：哈罗。

(Cheers, applause)

（欢呼，鼓掌）

Es Devlin: With U2, we're navigating the audience

艾斯·代弗林： 而针对U2，我们引导观众

over a terrain that spans three decades of politics, poetry and music.

在空旷的场地上跨越30年的 政治、诗歌和音乐。

And over many months, meeting with the band and their creative teams,

在接下来的几个月里， 我与乐队和他们的创意团队见了面，

this is the sketch that kept recurring,

这是一张反复出现的草图，

this line, this street,

这些线条，这条街道，

the street that connects the band's past with their present,

街道把乐队的过去和现在连在一起，

the tightrope that they walk as activists and artists,

做为活动分子和艺术家， 他们走在钢丝上，

a walk through cinema

走在电影中，

that allows the band to become protagonists

让乐队自己成为诗歌中

in their own poetry.

的主角。

(Music: U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name")

（U2的音乐：那里的街道没有名字）

Bono: I wanna run

保罗：我想要跑

I want to hide

我想要藏

I wanna tear down the walls

我想要撕倒这面

That hold me inside

围住我的墙

Es Devlin: The end of the show is like the end of a flight.

艾斯·代弗林： 演出的结束就像航班的落地。

It's an arrival.

这是一次抵达。

It's a transfer from the stage out to the audience.

这是一场从舞台向观众的传送。

For the British band Take That,

对英国乐队“Take That”，

we ended the show by sending an 80-foot high mechanical human figure

演出结束时，我们把 一个80英尺高的机械人

out to the center of the crowd.

送到了人群的中心。

(Music)

（音乐）

Like many translations from music to mechanics,

像很多从音乐到机械的转变，

this one was initially deemed entirely technically impossible.

这个设想起初被认为 在技术上是不可行的。

The first three engineers we took it to said no,

前三名工程师说不行，

and eventually, the way that it was achieved

最终实现这个的方式是

was by keeping the entire control system together

在全国巡演途中保持

while it toured around the country,

整个控制系统的完整，

所以我们不得不把它 折叠放在平板货车上，

so we had to fold it up onto a flatbed truck

so it could tour around without coming apart.

这样它就不需要拆开了再运走。

And of course, what this meant was that the dimension of its head

于是当然，这意味着它头部尺寸

was entirely determined

完全取决于

by the lowest motorway bridge that it had to travel under on its tour.

它旅行运输途中最低的高速公路桥。

And I have to tell you that it turns out

我要告诉你们的是，

there is an unavoidable and annoyingly low bridge

就在汉堡城外有一座无法绕过的矮桥，

low bridge just outside Hamburg.

低到让人无法忍受。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

(Music)

（音乐）

Another of the most technically complex pieces that we've worked on

我们另一个最具技术复杂性的作品

is the opera "Carmen"

是在奥地利的布列根兹

at Bregenz Festival in Austria.

音乐节上的歌剧《卡门》。

We envisaged Carmen's hands rising out of Lake Constance,

我们设想卡门的手 从康斯坦斯湖伸出来，

and throwing this deck of cards in the air

把这副纸牌抛向空中，

and leaving them suspended between sky and sea.

让它们悬在天空和大海之间。

But this transient gesture, this flick of the wrists

但是这个短暂的动作， 这个手腕的轻弹

had to become a structure that would be strong enough

必须具备足够坚固的结构

to withstand two Austrian winters.

来熬过奥地利的两个冬天。

So there's an awful lot that you don't see in this photograph

这张照片背后隐藏了

that's working really hard.

很多表面看不出的艰辛。

It's a lot of ballast and structure and support around the back,

后面有很多压舱物，结构和支撑，

and I'm going to show you the photos that aren't on my website.

我要给你们看网站上没有的照片。

They're photos of the back of a set,

也就是背面的照片，

the part that's not designed for the audience to see,

这个不设计给观众看的部分，

however much work it's doing.

然而却是花了很多工作的地方。

And you know, this is actually the dilemma

这其实

for an artist who is working as a stage designer,

对于舞台设计艺术家来说是个窘境，

because so much of what I make is fake,

因为我做的很多东西都是虚假的，

it's an illusion.

它是假象。

And yet every artist works in pursuit of communicating something that's true.

然而每个艺术家都追求 传达一些真实的东西。

But we are always asking ourselves:

但我们总是问自己：

"Can we communicate truth using things that are false?"

“我们能够使用虚假的 东西来传达真相吗？”

And now when I attend the shows that I've worked on,

如今当我参加自己参与设计的演出时，

I often find I'm the only one who is not looking at the stage.

我通常发现我是唯一 一个不盯着舞台的人。

I'm looking at something that I find equally fascinating,

我在看一样同样吸引我的东西，

and it's the audience.

那就是观众。

(Cheers)

（欢呼）

I mean, where else do you witness this:

我指的是，你在哪里还能 见到这样的景象呢：

(Cheers)

（欢呼）

this many humans, connected, focused,

如此多的人，彼此连接，聚精会神，

undistracted and unfragmented?

且团结一致？

And lately, I've begun to make work that originates here,

最近，我开始创作源自这里的作品，

in the collective voice of the audience.

源自观众的集体声音中的作品。

"Poem Portraits" is a collective poem.

“诗肖像”是一首集体主义诗歌。

It began at the Serpentine Gallery in London,

它始于伦敦的蛇形画廊，

and everybody is invited to donate one word to a collective poem.

每个人都被邀请为一首 集体诗歌贡献一个词。

And instead of that large single LED portrait

与体育馆后面播放的

that was broadcasting to the back of the stadium,

一张大型肖像相比，

in this case, every member of the audience

在这种情况下，每个观众

gets to take their own portrait home with them,

可以把自己的肖像带回家，

and it's woven in with the words

它与他们为集体诗歌

that they've contributed to the collective poem.

所做的贡献交织在一起。

So they keep a fragment of an ever-evolving collective work.

因此，他们可以保留一个不断 演变的集体工作的片段。

And next year, the collective poem will take architectural form.

明年这首集体诗歌将采用建筑形式。

This is the design for the UK Pavilion at the World Expo 2020.

这是2020年世博会英国馆的设计。

The UK ...

英国…

In my lifetime, it's never felt this divided.

在我一生中，从未有过 如此分裂的状态。

It's never felt this noisy with divergent voices.

它从来没有感到如此的嘈杂， 发出过如此多不同的声音。

And it's never felt this much in need of places

它从来没有感到如此需要一个地方，

where voices might connect and converge.

在那里各种声音可以 相互联系，相互融合。

And it's my hope that this wooden sculpture,

我的希望是这个木制雕塑，

this wooden instrument, a bit like that violin I used to play,

这个木质乐器，有点像我 过去演奏过的小提琴，

might be a place where people can play and enter their word

人们可以在圆锥的一端玩耍

at one end of the cone,

并输入他们的文字，

emerge at the other end of the building,

并在另一端出现，

and find that their word has joined a collective poem, a collective voice.

从而发现他们的文字加入了 一首集体诗歌，发出了集体的声音。

(Music)

（音乐）

These are simple experiments in machine learning.

这些是机器学习的简单实验。

The algorithm that generates the collective poem is pretty simple.

产生集体诗歌的算法非常简单。

It's like predictive text,

它就像预测文本一样，

only it's trained on millions of words written by poets in the 19th century.

只不过它是以19世纪诗人 写的几百万字为训练基础的。

So it's a sort of convergence of intelligence, past and present,

所以它有点过去和现在，

organic and inorganic.

有机和无机的智慧融合。

And we were inspired by the words of Stephen Hawking.

我们被史蒂芬·霍金的话所鼓舞。

Towards the end of his life, he asked quite a simple question:

在他生命的终点，他问 了个非常简单的问题：

If we as a species were ever to come across another advanced life-form,

如果我们作为一个物种遇到 另一种高级形式的生命，

an advanced civilization,

一个更先进的文明，

how would we speak to them?

我们将如何跟他们沟通？

What collective language would we speak as a planet?

我们作为地球该说什么集体语言？

The language of light reaches every audience.

灯光的语言能够传递给每一个观众。

All of us are touched by it. None of us can hold it.

我们每个人都能被触碰到， 但每个人都无法抓住它。

And in the theater, we begin each work in a dark place, devoid of light.

在剧院中，我们在黑暗场景中 开始工作，远离光源。

We stay up all night focusing the lights, programming the lights,

我们彻夜不眠地聚焦灯光， 对灯光进行编程，

trying to find new ways to sculpt and carve light.

试图找到塑造灯光的新方法。

(Music)

（音乐）

This is a portrait of our practice,

这是我们实践的写照，

always seeking new ways to shape and reshape light,

总是寻找塑造和重塑灯光的方式，

always finding words for things that we no longer need to say.

总是要为我们不再需要说出来 的东西寻找语言。

And I want to say that this,

我想说的是，这个，

and everything that I've just shown you,

还有我刚给你们展示的所有东西，

no longer exists in physical form.

都不再具有物理形态。

(Music)

（音乐）

In fact, most of what I've made over the last 25 years

事实上，我过去25年 所做的大部分东西

doesn't exist anymore.

都不复存在了。

But our work endures in memories, in synaptic sculptures,

但是我们的作品存在于记忆中， 存在于突触雕塑中，

in the minds of those who were once present

存在于那些曾经在观众中

in the audience.

出现过的人的脑海中。

(Music)

（音乐）

I once read that a poem learnt by heart

我曾经读过用心记住的诗，

is what you have left,

是你所留下的，

what can't be lost,

无法丢失的，

even if your house burns down and you've lost all your possessions.

即便你的房子被烧毁 并失去所有的一切。

I want to end with some lines that I learnt by heart a long time ago.

我想要用很久之前用心 记住的几行诗来结束。

(Music)

（音乐）

They're written by the English novelist E.M. Forster,

它们是英国小说家 E.M.福斯特所创作的，

in 1910, just a few years before Europe, my continent,

写于1910年，就在欧洲， 我所在的大陆，

(Music)

（音乐）

began tearing itself apart.

开始撕裂自己的时候。

(Music)

（音乐）

And his call to convergence still resonates

他对融合的呼吁仍然在我们现在

through most of what we're trying to make now.

尝试做的大部分事情中产生共鸣。

(Music)

（音乐）

"Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon.

“只有连接，是她所有的布道。

Only connect the prose and the passion,

只有连接散文和激情，

and both will be exalted,

两者才能升华，

And human love will be seen at its height.

人类的爱才能达到顶峰。

Only connect! And live in fragments no longer."

只有连接！并且不再活成散沙。”

Thank you.

谢谢。

(Applause)

（鼓掌）