Art that reveals how technology frames reality | Jiabao Li

翻译人员: Jiasi Hao 校对人员: Yanyan Hong

I'm an artist and an engineer.

我是一位艺术家兼工程师。

And lately, I've been thinking a lot about how technology mediates

最近，我一直在思考

科技在以怎样的方式影响 我们感知现实的能力。

the way we perceive reality.

And it's being done in a superinvisible and nuanced way.

这种影响是潜移默化的。

Technology is designed to shape our sense of reality

科技通过伪装对现实的真实体验，

by masking itself as the actual experience of the world.

来塑造我们对现实的感知。

As a result, we are becoming unconscious and unaware

于是，我们对正在发生的一切

变得毫无意识，也毫无察觉。

that it is happening at all.

Take the glasses I usually wear, for example.

就拿我平时戴的眼镜举例。

These have become part of the way I ordinarily experience my surroundings.

眼镜变成我平日里 体验周围环境方式的一部分。

I barely notice them,

尽管它们一直框住了 我的现实世界，

even though they are constantly framing reality for me.

我也很少注意到它们的存在。

The technology I am talking about is designed to do the same thing:

我现在所说的科技 也被设计成做同样的事：

change what we see and think

不知不觉地

改变着我们的所见所思。

but go unnoticed.

Now, the only time I do notice my glasses

如今，我很少意识到我带着眼镜，

除非发生了一些事情，引起我的注意，

is when something happens to draw my attention to it,

like when it gets dirty or my prescription changes.

比如，眼镜脏了，或者度数不够了。

So I asked myself, "As an artist, what can I create

所以我自问： “作为一名艺术家，

我能创造出什么作品， 来吸引注意力，

to draw the same kind of attention

to the ways digital media -- like news organizations, social media platforms,

就如同数字媒体那样——

像新闻机构、社交媒体平台、 广告，和搜索引擎——

advertising and search engines --

来塑造我们的现实？”

are shaping our reality?"

So I created a series of perceptual machines

所以我创造了一系列的感知机器

to help us defamiliarize and question

来帮助我们陌生化并质疑

the ways we see the world.

我们看世界的方式。

For example, nowadays, many of us have this kind of allergic reaction

例如，现在我们很多人

对持有不同观点的人 有着这样一种过敏反应。

to ideas that are different from ours.

We may not even realize that we've developed this kind of mental allergy.

我们可能甚至都没意识到

我们已经产生了这样一种“精神过敏”。

So I created a helmet that creates this artificial allergy to the color red.

所以我做了一个头盔， 对红色产生人工过敏。

It simulates this hypersensitivity by making red things look bigger

当你佩戴头盔时， 它会通过放大红色物体，

when you are wearing it.

来模拟这一超敏反应。

It has two modes: nocebo and placebo.

它有两种模式： 非安慰剂效应和安慰剂效应。

In nocebo mode, it creates this sensorial experience of hyperallergy.

在非安慰剂模式下，

头盔可以创造超敏的感官体验。

Whenever I see red, the red expands.

只要我看到红色， 红色就会膨胀开来。

It's similar to social media's amplification effect,

这和社交媒体的放大效应类似，

like when you look at something that bothers you,

就像你在看到某些不喜欢的言论，

you tend to stick with like-minded people

你会倾向于去找和自己想法一样的人

and exchange messages and memes, and you become even more angry.

交换信息和表情包， 然后你变得更加生气。

Sometimes, a trivial discussion gets amplified

有时，无关紧要的小讨论

会被放大、夸张到不合时宜的程度。

and blown way out of proportion.

可能这就是“愤怒政治”出现的原因。

Maybe that's even why we are living in the politics of anger.

In placebo mode, it's an artificial cure for this allergy.

在安慰剂模式下， 有种针对该过敏的人造疗法。

Whenever you see red, the red shrinks.

只要你看到红色，红色会缩小。

It's a palliative, like in digital media.

这是一种缓和剂。 好比在数字媒体中，

When you encounter people with different opinions,

当你遇到有着与你 有不同想法的人时，

we will unfollow them,

你会取消关注他们，

remove them completely out of our feeds.

不接收他们的推送。

It cures this allergy by avoiding it.

通过避免接触来治疗过敏。

But this way of intentionally ignoring opposing ideas

但是，这种有意无视对立观点的方法，

makes human community hyperfragmented and separated.

使人类社区变得极其破碎且分离。

The device inside the helmet reshapes reality

头盔内部的设备重塑现实，

and projects into our eyes through a set of lenses

并通过一组镜头 投射入我们的眼睛，

to create an augmented reality.

从而实现增强现实。

I picked the color red, because it's intense and emotional,

我选择红色，因为红色 紧张激烈且饱含情绪。

it has high visibility

它具有高度可见性，

and it's political.

也同时具有政治性。

So what if we take a look

所以，要是我们利用这头盔

at the last American presidential election map

看看上次美国总统大选的地图，

through the helmet?

会是如何？

(Laughter)

（笑声）

You can see that it doesn't matter if you're a Democrat or a Republican,

可以看到，不论你是 民主党还是共和党，都不重要了，

because the mediation alters our perceptions.

因为这一调解改变了我们的感知。

The allergy exists on both sides.

两边都存在过敏反应。

在数字媒体中，

In digital media,

what we see every day is often mediated,

我们每天看到的内容 通常都是经过调整的，

but it's also very nuanced.

但这些调整也非常细微。

If we are not aware of this,

如果我们无法意识到这一点，

we will keep being vulnerable to many kinds of mental allergies.

我们会变得脆弱， 容易遭受到许多不同的“精神过敏”。

Our perception is not only part of our identities,

我们的感知不仅是 我们身份认同的一部分，

but in digital media, it's also a part of the value chain.

在数字媒体中也是价值链的一部分。

Our visual field is packed with so much information

我们的视野中 充斥着如此多的信息，

that our perception has become a commodity with real estate value.

以至于我们的感知已经变成了商品， 跟房地产一样明码标价。

Designs are used to exploit our unconscious biases,

设计被用来挖掘我们的无意识的偏爱，

algorithms favor content that reaffirms our opinions,

算法则偏爱那些能再次 确认我们想法的内容，

我们视线所及的每个角落都被掌控，

so that every little corner of our field of view is being colonized

to sell ads.

来销售广告。

Like, when this little red dot comes out in your notifications,

例如，当这一个小红点 出现在你的推送中，

it grows and expands, and to your mind, it's huge.

它会不断放大， 在你脑海中，它变得巨大。

So I started to think of ways to put a little dirt,

我开始想办法弄脏我的眼镜，

or change the lenses of my glasses,

或是改变镜片的度数。

and came up with another project.

于是想出了另一个项目。

Now, keep in mind this is conceptual. It's not a real product.

请记住，目前还只是 概念性的，并未投产。

It's a web browser plug-in

这是一个浏览器插件，

that could help us to notice the things that we would usually ignore.

能帮我们注意到 那些经常被忽略的内容。

Like the helmet, the plug-in reshapes reality,

像刚刚的头盔一样， 这一插件能重塑现实，

but this time, directly into the digital media itself.

但这次，是直接从数字媒体本身入手。

被埋没、被过滤的声音得以传播。

It shouts out the hidden filtered voices.

What you should be noticing now

值得你关注的东西

will be bigger and vibrant,

会变得更大、更明显，

like here, this story about gender bias emerging from the sea of cats.

比如这里， 一篇关于性别偏见的文章， 从一堆关于猫咪的文章中被筛选出来。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

The plug-in could dilute the things that are being amplified by an algorithm.

这个插件能够稀释 被算法放大的东西。

Like, here in this comment section,

例如，在这个评论区，

there are lots of people shouting about the same opinions.

很多人都在发表着同样的观点。

The plug-in makes their comments super small.

这个插件就能把他们的 评论变得超级小。

（笑声）

(Laughter)

So now the amount of pixel presence they have on the screen

所以现在，这些相同观点的占屏面积

is proportional to the actual value they are contributing to the conversation.

和他们为这场对话 贡献的实际价值成正比了。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

(Applause)

（掌声）

The plug-in also shows the real estate value of our visual field

这个插件也能展现 我们视野的房地产价值，

以及我们的感知 有多少正在被商品化。

and how much of our perception is being commoditized.

Different from ad blockers,

与广告拦截器不同，

for every ad you see on the web page,

它能告诉你，你每看一个广告，

你本应该挣到多少钱。

it shows the amount of money you should be earning.

(Laughter)

（笑声）

We are living in a battlefield between reality

我们身处战场之中，

双方是现实和商业分销化的现实，

and commercial distributed reality,

so the next version of the plug-in could strike away that commercial reality

所以下一个插件版本 将可能打破商业化的现实

and show you things as they really are.

还原一个真正的现实。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

(Applause)

（掌声）

Well, you can imagine how many directions this could really go.

你们可以想象一下， 这个插件能做多少事情。

Believe me, I know the risks are high if this were to become a real product.

相信我，我知道把它做出来会有很大风险。

我提出这个概念的出发点是好的，

And I created this with good intentions

to train our perception and eliminate biases.

是为了训练感知和消除偏见。

But the same approach could be used with bad intentions,

但它也可能被用来做不好的事情，

例如，强迫公民安装这样的插件

like forcing citizens to install a plug-in like that

to control the public narrative.

来控制公众叙事。

It's challenging to make it fair and personal

挑战之处在于 把它变得公平且个人化，

without it just becoming another layer of mediation.

而非只是变成另一层调和工具。

So what does all this mean for us?

所以，这一切 对我们来说意味着什么？

Even though technology is creating this isolation,

尽管科技正在让我们分裂隔离，

we could use it to make the world connected again

但通过打破并超越现有模型，

by breaking the existing model and going beyond it.

我们依旧可以利用科技 把世界再次连结起来。

By exploring how we interface with these technologies,

通过探索我们 如何与这些科技建立联系，

we could step out of our habitual, almost machine-like behavior

我们能够摆脱习惯性的、 甚至类似机器的行为，

最终找到我们彼此间的共同点。

and finally find common ground between each other.

Technology is never neutral.

科技永远不会是中立的。

It provides a context and frames reality.

它能提供情境，也能构建现实。

It's part of the problem and part of the solution.

它既是问题的一部分， 也是解决方法的一部分。

We could use it to uncover our blind spots and retrain our perception

我们能够利用它来发现我们的盲点，

并重新训练我们的感知能力，

and consequently, choose how we see each other.

这么一来，我们就能 选择如何看待彼此。

Thank you.

谢谢大家。

（掌声）

(Applause)