The forgotten art of the zoetrope | Eric Dyer

翻译人员: Danyang Luo 校对人员: Kevin Fang

A long time ago,

很久以前，

I was a professional animator.

我是一名专业的动画制作人。

(Music)

（音乐）

[Eric Dyer]

【Eric Dyer】

[Animator]

【动画制作人】

[Compositor]

【排版员】

And at night,

在夜里，我会制作自己的实验电影

I would make my own experimental films.

（指拍摄风格和制作方式与主流商业 和记录片相异或对立的影片）

(Music)

（音乐）

And I was spending a lot of time, way too much time, in front of a screen

我会花特别长的时间坐在屏幕前，

for work that would be presented on a screen,

制作即将搬上荧幕的节目，

and I had this great need to get my hands back on the work again.

我也亟需重新开始工作。

Now, before "The Simpsons,"

在“辛普森一家”，

before "Gumby,"

“Gumby”（美国知名黏土动画）

before "Betty Boop,"

和“贝蒂小姐”之前，

before there was such a thing as cinema and television,

那时还没有影院和电视，

animation was hugely popular in this form.

这一类型的动画备受欢迎。

This is a zoetrope.

这是一个西洋镜。

And you spin this drum,

当你转动它时，

and you look through the slits into the inside of the drum,

透过狭缝朝里看，

and you see the animation pop to life.

你会发现事物都动了起来。

This is animation in physical form,

这是一种实体动画，

and it's animation I could get my hands on again.

是我要继续制作的动画。

I took these ideas to Denmark.

在“富布莱特计划”（注：由美国政府 资助的国际教育交流计划）

I went there with my family on a Fulbright Fellowship.

的资助下，我带着这一想法， 和我的家人一起来到了丹麦。

That's my daughter, Mia.

那是我的女儿，Mia。

I rode around the city on my bicycle

我骑自行车转遍了整个城市，

and shot all the interesting moving elements of Copenhagen:

并在哥本哈根 拍摄了很多有趣的素材：

the boaters in the canals,

运河上的游船者，

the colors that explode in spring,

春日绽放的缤纷色彩，

the free-use city bikes,

免费的城市脚踏车，

love,

爱，

textures,

地砖纹理，

the healthy cuisine --

健康的菜肴——

(Laughter)

（笑声）

And I brought all that video back into the physical world

并把它们印在长条的喷墨影印纸上，

by printing it out on these long strips of ink-jet paper

再依形状剪下来，

and cutting out the forms.

我把这些录像都做成了实物。

Now, I invented my own form of the zoetrope,

我也创造了自己的西洋镜，

which removes the drum

移除了转筒，

and replaces the slits with a video camera.

并在狭缝处放上摄像机。

And this was very exciting for me,

这让我非常激动，

because it meant that I could make these physical objects,

因为这意味着我可以把它实物化，

and I could make films from those objects.

并利用它们来制作电影。

That's me riding on my bicycle.

这是我在骑自行车。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

I made about 25 paper sculptures,

我做了约25个纸雕，

each the size of a bicycle wheel.

每一个大约有自行车轮那么大。

I brought them into the studio,

我将它们带到工作室，

spun them

转动它们，

and shot them to make the film "Copenhagen Cycles."

拍摄了名为“哥本哈根环游记”的电影。

(Music)

（音乐）

This project not only allowed me to get my hands back on the work again

这个设计不仅让我重新开始工作，

but it helped me get my life back.

也让我的人生重回正轨。

Instead of spending 12, 15 hours a day with my face plastered to a screen,

我不再每天花费12到15个小时 呆滞地坐在电脑前，

I was having these little adventures with our new family

我和我的家人开始了小冒险，

and shooting video along the way,

并沿路拍摄了这些影片，

and it was kind of a symbiosis of art and life.

艺术和生活开始相互交融。

And I think that it's no mistake

难怪西洋镜又被译为

that zoetrope translates into "wheel of life."

“生命之轮”。

(Music)

（音乐）

But film and video does flatten sculpture,

但电影和录像会使得雕像平面化，

so I tried to imagine

所以我试着寻找一种方法，

a way that animated sculpture could be experienced as such,

使得动画雕塑可被确切地感知，

and also a completely immersive kind of animated sculpture.

同时使其成为一个非常 引人入胜的有生命的雕塑。

And that's where I came up with the idea for the zoetrope tunnel.

于是我想出了这样的点子， 西洋镜隧道。

You walk through with a handheld strobe,

当你手持闪光灯走进隧道，

and wherever you point the flashlight,

无论你将光打向何处，

the animation pops to life.

动画都将变得栩栩如生。

I plan to finish this project in the next 30 to 40 years.

我计划在接下来的三、四十年 完成这一项目。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

But I did build a half-scale prototype.

实际上我做了一个 只有一半大小的模型，

It's covered in Velcro,

它由尼龙搭扣包覆，

and I could lay inside on this bridge

我可以躺在里面

and stick animated sequences to the walls

将动画一帧一帧依次黏在墙上，

and test stuff out.

以进行测试。

People would comment that it reminded them of an MRI.

人们说这让他们想到了 MRI（核磁共振成像）。

And that medical connection spoke to me,

这种和医学的联系让我想到，

because at the age of 14,

在我14岁那年，

I was diagnosed with a degenerative retinal condition

我被诊断出视网膜退化，

that's slowly taking my vision away,

这种病会让我渐渐失明，

and I'd never responded to that in my work.

我从未在作品中体现出来。

So I responded to it in this piece called, "Implant."

我将这件作品命名为“移植”。

It is an imaginary, super-magnified medical device

可以将其假想为绕有视神经的

that fits around the optic nerve.

放大的医疗设备。

And the public is, in a sense, miniaturized to experience it.

在某种意义上， 人们就像是被缩小后来体验它。

With a handheld strobe,

手持闪光灯，

they can explore the sculpture,

他们得以观察这一雕塑，

and discover thousands of cell-sized robots

你会看见数以千计的 细胞大小的机器人，

hard at work, leaping in and out of the optic nerve,

它们忙着工作， 在视神经上跳进跳出，

being deployed to the retina

它们被部署在视网膜上

to repair it.

辅助视网膜的修复。

It's my science fiction fantasy cure of my own incurable disorder.

这能够治疗我那病入膏肓的 科幻小说般的幻想。

(Machine buzzes)

（机器嗡嗡声）

Now, in the real-world gene therapy and gene therapy research,

现今，在真实的基因疗法及其研究中，

healthy genes are being administered to unhealthy cells using viruses.

利用病毒，健康的基因 被引入不健康的细胞中。

There's a lot of colorful, fluffy hope in this,

这是丰富多彩，不切实际的希望，

and there's also some creepy, threatening idea

也是一种令人毛骨悚然的想法，

of viruses maybe becoming an invasive species in your body.

譬如在你体内， 病毒成为了入侵物种。

Vision loss has helped to take me away from the things

视力衰退让我不再关注这些

that disconnect me from the world.

切断我与世界联结的事物。

Instead of being sealed off in an automobile,

我不再坐在封闭的汽车中，

I ride my bike,

而是开始骑行，

take buses and trains

搭乘公交和火车，

and walk a lot.

也常常徒步。

And instead of a visually intensive process in the studio, primarily,

我不再把自己关在工作室里 重复视觉密集型工作，

I'm also getting outdoors a lot more

而是常常外出

and using more of my senses.

用我的感官感受世界。

This landscape is a couple hours east of San Diego, California.

这是离加州圣地亚哥东岸 几小时车程的一处景点。

My brother lives out that way.

我的哥哥住在那儿。

He and I went camping there for four days.

我们在那儿露营了四天。

And I grabbed my camera,

我带着我的相机

and I walked through the canyons.

走在峡谷之中，

And I tried to imagine and figure out

我试着去想象和思考

what kind of motion would be present

什么样的动态影像能打破这片寂静，

in this place that was so still and so devoid of motion.

这远离尘嚣的寂静。

I think it's the stillest place I've ever been.

我想这是我所去过 的最为寂静的地方。

And I realized that it was the movement of my own body through the landscape

我意识到正是穿梭 在景色之中的我

that was creating the animation.

生成了动态影像，

It was the motion of changing perspective.

这是视角变化的动态。

So I created this piece called "Mud Caves" from those photographs.

所以我用这些照片制作了 名为“泥洞”的作品。

It's a multilayered print piece,

它是一件多层印刷品，

and you can think of it as a zoetrope laid flat.

你可将其想象为一个摊平的西洋镜。

It's kind of my western landscape panorama.

算是我的西部景观全景。

And next to the print piece there's a video monitor

印刷品旁是一个显示器，

that shows the animation hidden within the artwork.

呈现了隐藏在这件艺术品中的动画。

I think one of the best parts about this project for me

于我而言， 这件作品最棒的地方在于，

was that I got to hang out with my brother a lot,

我可以多次和我哥哥一同出去闲逛，

who lives 2,500 miles away from me.

虽然我们相隔2500英里。

And we would just sit in this seemingly eternal landscape

我们坐在这看似永恒的景色中，

sculpted by water over millions of years

这被水蚀刻数百万年的景色中，

and talk.

促膝长谈。

We'd talk about our kids growing up

聊我们孩子的成长，

and the slowing pace of our parents,

父母的蹒跚步履，

and our dad who's suffering from leukemia, memory loss and infection.

我们的父亲饱受白血病、 记忆力减退和感染之苦。

And it struck me that, as individuals,

我突然想到， 对每一个人而言，

we're finite,

生命是有限的，

but as a family,

但对一个家庭而言，

we are an ongoing cycle --

我们是一个持续的循环——

a kind of wheel of life.

是一种生命之轮。

Now, I want to leave you with a tribute to one of my mentors.

现在，我想向我的一位导师致敬，

She reminds me that physical presence is important

她让我知道实体呈现的重要性，

and that play is not a luxury,

也教会了我玩乐并不是奢侈品，

but a necessity.

而是必需品。

She's Pixie,

她叫Pixie，

and she's our family dog.

是我家的宠物狗。

And she loves to jump.

她最喜欢跳来跳去。

(Dog barking)

（犬吠）

(Dog barking and spring boinging)

（犬吠及弹簧震动声）

And this is a new kind of zoetrope

这是我在马里兰大学 巴尔的摩分校的

that I developed at the Imaging Research Center

成像研究中心发明的

at UMBC in Baltimore.

一种新的西洋镜。

And I call it a "real-time zoetrope."

我称之为“实时西洋镜”。

(Dog barking)

（犬吠）

(Dog barking and spring boinging)

（犬吠及弹簧震动声）

Thank you.

谢谢你们。

(Applause)

（掌声）