Photographing Nature Beyond the Limits of Human Perception | Doris Mitsch | TED

翻译人员: Sam Li 校对人员: suya f.

A few years ago,

几年前

I suddenly had a lot of extra time to spend staring out the window.

我突然有许多额外的时间 可以用来盯着窗外

Maybe you did a little bit of that, too,

也许在疫情刚开始 而无法外出时

in quarantine, at the start of the pandemic.

你也会这么做

And while we were locked down,

当我们被关在家的时候

I got kind of fascinated with what was still moving out there.

我会着迷于仍然还在外面移动的东西

Like the local crows,

比如本地的乌鸦

who went on with their normal commute

它们还是会找遵照自己的通勤时间表

down the side of the mountain every morning.

每天清晨它们飞山去上班

And up again every evening at crow quitting time.

然后每天晚上 乌鸦下班了再飞回去

(Laughter)

（笑声）

Birds of prey came out every day and made their rounds.

鸟儿们每天都会在天空中画圈圈

I'm using a process here called photo stacking,

我用了一种叫做照片堆叠的方法

where you take multiple pictures from a fixed point over time

即在一段时间内 用固定的机位拍摄多张照片

and layer them into one composite photograph.

随后将它们堆叠合成一张合成照片

Photo stacking is a way to show the trails of things like stars,

照片堆叠是一种显示诸如

星星、萤火虫、运动员、飞机等

fireflies, athletes, airplanes,

pretty much anything that moves.

几乎所有物体的移动轨迹的方式

It's a way to make the shape of those movements visible.

这是一种让运动的形状 变得清晰可见的方法

Most of these have between 500 and 2,000 layers.

图层的数量大多在500到2000张

They take a long time to build,

制作它们需要花很长的时间

and a lot of that time is spent just experimenting with which layers to keep in

其中大量的时间都花在了去尝试

哪些图像应该被 保留在最终图片中哪些不用

and which to leave out of the final image.

Here, a group of pelicans came in from one side

这里，一群鹈鹕从一侧飞来

and noticed something intriguing in the water.

发现水中有一些有趣的东西

Then another group came in from the other side

然后另一群同时从另一边飞来

and circled around to check it out.

进来盘旋看看

So this isn't one moment frozen in time like a traditional photograph,

因此，这不是如传统照片那样 将时间定格在某个瞬间

but something more like a story told in two dimensions

而更像是一个在二维空间中被讲述的故事

with layers of the fourth dimension.

并带有第四维的时间感

Kind of.

一点

Looking at flight trails this way,

用这种方式看飞行路线

you really notice some of the rhyming patterns that repeat everywhere in nature,

你会真正的注意到那些自然界中 随处可见的韵律模式

like waves of sound or water

比如声波或水波

or spiraling galaxies,

或螺旋状的星系

whirlpools and storms.

漩涡和暴雨

And sometimes they seem to sort of sketch out other things

有时，他们似乎还能勾勒出

通常来说对我们不可见的事物

that are usually invisible to us.

Like the thermal updrafts that hawks and vultures ride on,

比如说鹰和秃鹫搭乘的上升热气流

finding even the smallest patches of turbulence in the air to carry them.

即便是这其中最微小的波动 也能将它们带走

While I was working on these,

当我研究这些的时候

I learned that some vultures are so good at this

我发现有些秃鹰非常擅长这件事

that they can soar that way without flapping their wings at all

它们可以完全不挥动翅膀的滑翔

for hours.

几个小时

Which has to be the most meditative way there is to look for carrion.

这大概是最正念的寻找动物尸体方式

(Laughter)

（笑声）

And this is what it looks like to navigate by shouting.

它们还有一个特点是通过叫声来导航

Bats are characterized as either whisperers or shouters,

例如蝙蝠的特点是要么 窃窃私语要么大声叫喊

and we're lucky that the range of our hearing ends

幸运的是

我们的听觉范围在它们的叫声频率以外

right about where their voices begin

because the shouts can get up to 140 decibels,

因为喊叫声甚至可以高达 140 分贝

as loud as a jet engine.

和喷气式引擎一样响

What we call silence is just the limit of our hearing.

我们所谓的安静 只是由于人类听力的极限

I love to think about that,

我喜欢思考它们

也喜欢思考大多数的其他生物

and about how most other creatures,

from European moles to rainbow trout,

从欧洲的鼹鼠到虹鳟鱼

find their way by wavelengths of light or sound

通过光或声音的波长 又或是电场或磁场来定位

or fields of electricity or magnetism that our senses just aren't set up for.

我们的感官根本无法捕捉到这些

And that those are just the ways that we know about.

而我们只是知道这些事件的运行方式

In the 1930s,

20世纪30年代

the British ornithologist Edmund Selous studied flocks of starlings,

英国鸟类学家 埃德蒙·塞卢斯

做了大量关于欧椋鸟群的研究

moving together as if they had one mind

它们仿佛心有灵犀般在空中移动

and wrote a book on his conclusion that the birds must be psychic.

后来，他写了一本关于鸟类 具有心灵沟通能力作为结论的书

And, you know, there's still no evidence that they're not.

的确，没有证据表明它们不能这么做

But we now know that they follow each other

不过

据我们所知，它们在空中相互跟随

with a split-second lag time

只需要电光火石的刹那

that's just too short for our human sense of time.

而这对于人类的反应时间来说 实在是太短了

And maybe for some predators,

也许对于某些掠食者来说并非如此

like the peregrine falcon in the middle there.

比如照片中间的游隼

So these are pictures of group decisions

因此，这些照片展示的是

made at a speed that makes them invisible to us.

以我们无法察觉的 速度做出的群体决策

Pictures of the hidden intelligence in what might look at first random

在这些最初看起来随机 甚至混乱的图片中

or even chaotic.

隐藏着智慧

Reminders that the universe isn’t built to our measure

这提醒我们宇宙不是 随我们的尺度而构建的

but operates on systems beyond our perception.

而是在超越我们感官的 维度上运行着

That what we call empty air is anything but empty.

我们所说的空气 绝非空空如也

If you're a bat,

比如蝙蝠

it holds the sound of the shape of a hillside.

它会发出山坡形状的声音

It's also a map of magnetic signals and electrical fields.

同时也是磁信号和电场的地图

And a topography of the smells of krill patches and plankton blooms.

以及磷虾群和浮游生物群的气味地形图

We humans have invented whole digital worlds,

我们人类已经创建了整个数字世界

but sometimes we still need to be reminded

但有时我们仍需要被提醒

that there’s more in this heaven and Earth than is dreamt of in our philosophy.

这天地间依旧有许多 我们的认知之外的事物

And that there are endless ways to look at familiar sights,

而且，对于同一种视野

有无数种观测方式

like a bird in flight, with fresh eyes.

比如用全新的视角

观察飞行中的鸟

To expand our shared experience in a way that connects us

以这样一种拓展我们知觉边界的方式

with the rest of the living world.

将我们和其他生命形式连接起来

To feel both kinship with our fellow creatures

既感受到我们与同类的亲密连接

and respect and even reverence for their otherness.

又感受到对他者的尊重

甚至敬畏

In the words of the poet and naturalist Jarod K. Anderson,

用诗人和博物学家 杰罗德·安德森的话说

bats can hear shapes,

蝙蝠能听见形状

plants can eat light,

植物可以吃掉光

bees can dance maps.

蜜蜂能舞出地图

We can hold all these ideas at once

我们可以瞬间明白这些句子的含义

and feel both heavy and weightless with the absurd beauty of it all.

并且感受到其中

沉重和轻盈之间的

荒诞美感

Thank you.

谢谢

(Applause)

（掌声）