Art made of the air we breathe | Emily Parsons-Lord

Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Camille Martínez

翻译人员: Haoliang Chen 校对人员: dahong zhang

If I asked you to picture the air,

如果让你描绘一下空气，

what do you imagine?

你会想到什么？

Most people think about either empty space

大多数人想到的或是虚无的空间，

or clear blue sky

或是湛蓝的天空，

or sometimes trees dancing in the wind.

或是随风摇曳的树木。

And then I remember my high school chemistry teacher with really long socks

而我回想起我的高中化学老师，

穿着长袜站在黑板前，

at the blackboard,

drawing diagrams of bubbles connected to other bubbles,

画着彼此相连的泡泡的示意图，

and describing how they vibrate and collide in a kind of frantic soup.

讲述着空气分子好似在沸腾的热汤中 如何颤动如何碰撞。

But really, we tend not to think about the air that much at all.

不过说真的，我们并不十分在意 我们身边的空气。

We notice it mostly

只有当空气中混杂着令人不快的 刺激我们感官的东西，

when there's some kind of unpleasant sensory intrusion upon it,

比如难闻的气味或是烟雾熏人

like a terrible smell or something visible like smoke or mist.

我们才会有所在意。

But it's always there.

但是空气一直存在着。

It's touching all of us right now.

它就在我们身边。

It's even inside us.

它甚至存在于我们体内。

Our air is immediate, vital and intimate.

我们的空气与我们息息相关。

And yet, it's so easily forgotten.

不过却总是被忽略。

So what is the air?

那么究竟空气是什么？

It's the combination of the invisible gases that envelop the Earth,

它是各种不可见气体的混合，

attracted by the Earth's gravitational pull.

受到地球引力覆盖在地球表面。

And even though I'm a visual artist,

尽管我是个视觉艺术家，

I'm interested in the invisibility of the air.

我对于空气的不可见性也很感兴趣。

I'm interested in how we imagine it,

我很好奇我们怎样去想象它，

how we experience it

我们怎样去体验它，

and how we all have an innate understanding of its materiality

以及我们怎样通过呼吸

对空气的重要性产生天生的理解。

through breathing.

All life on Earth changes the air through gas exchange,

所有生物都通过气体交换 改变着地球上的空气，

and we're all doing it right now.

此时此刻我们也正这么做。

Actually, why don't we all right now together take

说实在的，我们何不一起

one big, collective, deep breath in.

做一次大型的集体深呼吸呢？

Ready? In. (Inhales)

准备好了吗？吸气。

And out. (Exhales)

然后呼气。

That air that you just exhaled,

你们刚刚呼出的气体，

you enriched a hundred times in carbon dioxide.

与呼入之前比二氧化碳的含量提高了一百倍。

So roughly five liters of air per breath, 17 breaths per minute

粗略估计每次呼吸5升的空气，

每分钟17次呼吸，

of the 525,600 minutes per year,

每年525600分钟，

comes to approximately 45 million liters of air,

总计大约4500万升空气，

enriched 100 times in carbon dioxide,

因为你一人，

其中二氧化碳提高了一百倍。

just for you.

Now, that's equivalent to about 18 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

那就相当于18个奥林匹克泳池的体积。

For me, air is plural.

对我而言，空气是多层次的。

It's simultaneously as small as our breathing

小的方面它与我们呼吸相关，

and as big as the planet.

大的方面它可以和星球相关。

And it's kind of hard to picture.

所以很难描绘它。

Maybe it's impossible, and maybe it doesn't matter.

也许是不可能完成的， 但这或许并不重要。

Through my visual arts practice,

通过我的视觉艺术实践，

I try to make air, not so much picture it,

我试着不去浓墨重彩地描绘空气，

but to make it visceral and tactile and haptic.

而是试着使它变得真实可感。

I try to expand this notion of the aesthetic, how things look,

我试图拓展美学的概念，

so that it can include things like how it feels on your skin

这样它能包括你的知觉，

and in your lungs,

你的皮肤和肺对于空气的感觉，

and how your voice sounds as it passes through it.

以及你的声音在空气中传播后的情况。

I explore the weight, density and smell, but most importantly,

我探索着空气的重量、密度和气味，

最重要的一点，

I think a lot about the stories we attach to different kinds of air.

关于不同的空气衍生的各种故事 我思考了很多。

This is a work I made in 2014.

这是我在2014年完成的一个作品。

It's called "Different Kinds of Air: A Plant's Diary,"

它叫做“不同的空气：地球日记”，

where I was recreating the air from different eras in Earth's evolution,

这个作品里我把地球演变中 不同时期的空气进行了重新制备，

and inviting the audience to come in and breathe them with me.

并邀请观众参与其中与我一同呼吸。

And it's really surprising, so drastically different.

这真的不可思议，非常不同。

Now, I'm not a scientist,

虽然我不是个科学家，

but atmospheric scientists will look for traces

不过大气科学家会找寻

in the air chemistry in geology,

空气在地质中留下的痕迹，

a bit like how rocks can oxidize,

比方说岩石如何被氧化，

and they'll extrapolate that information and aggregate it,

他们会推断并综合整理信息，

such that they can pretty much form a recipe

所以他们能够分析出

for the air at different times.

不同时期空气的成分配方。

Then I come in as the artist and take that recipe

身为艺术家的我获得了这个成分配方，

and recreate it using the component gases.

按配方用组分气体进行了再次制备。

I was particularly interested in moments of time

我对于那些生物改变空气的时期十分感兴趣，

that are examples of life changing the air,

but also the air that can influence how life will evolve,

同时空气也会影响生物的进化，

like Carboniferous air.

比方说石炭纪的空气。

It's from about 300 to 350 million years ago.

大约3亿5千年前至3亿年前，

It's an era known as the time of the giants.

那是个以巨型生物闻名的时代。

So for the first time in the history of life,

历史上首次，演化出了木质素。

lignin evolves.

That's the hard stuff that trees are made of.

那是维持树木硬度的成分。

So trees effectively invent their own trunks at this time,

因此树木有了稳固的树干，

and they get really big, bigger and bigger,

它们逐渐生长，变得越来越大，

and pepper the Earth,

散布整个地球，

releasing oxygen, releasing oxygen, releasing oxygen,

不断释放着氧气，

such that the oxygen levels are about twice as high

那时的氧气含量

大约是今天的两倍多。

as what they are today.

And this rich air supports massive insects --

这充足的氧气含量孕育了巨型昆虫，

huge spiders and dragonflies with a wingspan of about 65 centimeters.

巨型蜘蛛和翼展约65厘米的蜻蜓。

To breathe, this air is really clean and really fresh.

那时的空气呼吸起来是那么纯净清新。

It doesn't so much have a flavor,

它并没有什么特别的味道，

but it does give your body a really subtle kind of boost of energy.

但是它的确可以使你的身体充满能量。

It's really good for hangovers.

对醒酒很有效（氧气含量高）。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

Or there's the air of the Great Dying --

还有大灭绝时期的空气——

that's about 252.5 million years ago,

那是大约2亿5250万年前，

just before the dinosaurs evolve.

恐龙出现之前的时期。

It's a really short time period, geologically speaking,

从地质学上来讲真的是一段短暂的时光，

from about 20- to 200,000 years.

大约20到20万年时间，

Really quick.

非常短暂。

This is the greatest extinction event in Earth's history,

这是地球历史上最大规模的灭绝，

even bigger than when the dinosaurs died out.

甚至比恐龙灭绝还要严重。

Eighty-five to 95 percent of species at this time die out,

这一时期近九成的物种灭绝了，

and simultaneous to that is a huge, dramatic spike in carbon dioxide,

许多科学家一致认为，

那时空气中的二氧化碳含量剧增

that a lot of scientists agree

comes from a simultaneous eruption of volcanoes

是由于那时的火山爆发，

and a runaway greenhouse effect.

还有温室效应失控。

Oxygen levels at this time go to below half of what they are today,

那时氧气的含量不到今天的一半，

so about 10 percent.

大约只有10%。

So this air would definitely not support human life,

显然这样的空气并不适合人类生活，

but it's OK to just have a breath.

但是勉强能够呼吸。

And to breathe, it's oddly comforting.

奇怪的是，它呼吸起来也很舒服。

It's really calming, it's quite warm

它使人平静，它给人温暖

and it has a flavor a little bit like soda water.

它甚至有一点点苏打水的味道（二氧化碳含量高）。

It has that kind of spritz, quite pleasant.

它令人愉悦。

So with all this thinking about air of the past,

我们在回顾过去的空气的同时，

it's quite natural to start thinking about the air of the future.

自然也会畅想未来的空气。

And instead of being speculative with air

在探索空气的路上，

and just making up what I think might be the future air,

我为了构成可能的未来空气，

I discovered this human-synthesized air.

我发现了这种人工合成的气体。

That means that it doesn't occur anywhere in nature,

这意味着它并不是天然产生的，

but it's made by humans in a laboratory

而是在实验室中人工合成，

for application in different industrial settings.

在不同行业中有实际应用。

Why is it future air?

它为什么代表了未来的空气？

Well, this air is a really stable molecule

这种气体有非常稳定的分子结构，

that will literally be part of the air once it's released,

当它释放后便会与空气融为一体，

for the next 300 to 400 years, before it's broken down.

在它分解前有300至400年的稳定寿命。

So that's about 12 to 16 generations.

相当于12到16代人。

And this future air has some very sensual qualities.

而这未来的气体有一些感官上的特点。

It's very heavy.

它密度大。

It's about eight times heavier than the air we're used to breathing.

是我们习惯了呼吸的空气密度的8倍。

It's so heavy, in fact, that when you breathe it in,

实际上当你吸进这厚重的空气，

whatever words you speak are kind of literally heavy as well,

就连你说的话也会变得低沉厚重，

so they dribble down your chin and drop to the floor

它从你的下巴滴到地板上，

and soak into the cracks.

渗到裂缝里。

It's an air that operates quite a lot like a liquid.

这是一种很像液体的空气。

Now, this air comes with an ethical dimension as well.

如今这种气体也遇到了伦理问题。

Humans made this air,

人类制造了这种气体，

but it's also the most potent greenhouse gas

同时它也是截至目前

温室效应最明显的气体。

that has ever been tested.

Its warming potential is 24,000 times that of carbon dioxide,

它的保温性能是二氧化碳的24000倍，

and it has that longevity of 12 to 16 generations.

并且它的持续时间有300至400年时间。

So this ethical confrontation is really central to my work.

所以这一伦理上的矛盾是我工作的重点。

(In a lowered voice) It has another quite surprising quality.

（以低沉的声音）它有另一令人惊讶的特性。

It changes the sound of your voice quite dramatically.

它可以神奇地改变你的声音。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

So when we start to think -- ooh! It's still there a bit.

所以当我们开始思考—— 哦，它还在对我的音调产生影响，

(Laughter)

（笑声）

When we think about climate change,

当我们思考气候问题，

we probably don't think about giant insects and erupting volcanoes

我们也许并不会考虑 巨型昆虫和火山爆发

or funny voices.

或是滑稽的音调变化。

The images that more readily come to mind

我们心头浮现的画面更多的是

are things like retreating glaciers and polar bears adrift on icebergs.

冰川消融，漂浮在冰山上的北极熊。

We think about pie charts and column graphs

我们想起饼状图和柱状图

and endless politicians talking to scientists wearing cardigans.

还有无止境的政治家和科学家之间的对话。

But perhaps it's time we start thinking about climate change

也许是时候开始换个角度，

on the same visceral level that we experience the air.

从我们感受空气的本能角度来思考气候变化。

Like air, climate change is simultaneously at the scale of the molecule,

与空气类似，气候变化也是发生在分子层面、

the breath and the planet.

呼吸的层面和星球的层面。

It's immediate, vital and intimate,

它与我们息息相关，

as well as being amorphous and cumbersome.

却又令人难以捉摸。

And yet, it's so easily forgotten.

同时，它也容易被忽视。

Climate change is the collective self-portrait of humanity.

气候变化是人类共同的自画像。

It reflects our decisions as individuals,

它反映着我们作为个体、

as governments and as industries.

作为政府和作为企业作出的决策。

And if there's anything I've learned from looking at air,

如果说我从凝视空气中学到了什么，

it's that even though it's changing, it persists.

那就是即使它变化莫测， 它依然存在。

It may not support the kind of life that we'd recognize,

它也许不适合我们所熟知的生物生存，

but it will support something.

但它定会适合一些东西生存的。

And if we humans are such a vital part of that change,

如果说我们人类在这一变化中 起着重要的作用，

I think it's important that we can feel the discussion.

我想能够感受这种讨论是重要的。

Because even though it's invisible,

因为即使无影无形，

humans are leaving a very vibrant trace in the air.

人类在空气中留下着 鲜明的不可磨灭的印记。

Thank you.

谢谢。

(Applause)

（掌声）