The art of asking | Amanda Palmer

Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Morton Bast

翻译人员: Yi Shao 校对人员: Emma Zhao

(Breathes in)

（吸气，呼气）

(Breathes out)

我以前并不靠音乐谋生。

So, I didn't always make my living from music.

自从我五年前

For about the five years after graduating

从一所正派的文理学院毕业起

from an upstanding liberal arts university,

this was my day job.

这是我白天的工作。

(Laughter)

I was a self-employed living statue called the Eight-Foot Bride,

我是一座个体经营的、名为“8英尺新娘”的活雕像，

and I love telling people I did this for a job,

我喜欢告诉别人这是我的工作。

because everybody always wants to know,

因为大家都想知道，

who are these freaks in real life.

这些怪人在真实生活中到底是什么样的？

(Laughter)

Hello.

大家好。

I painted myself white one day, stood on a box,

我每天把自己涂白，站在一个盒子上，

put a hat or a can at my feet,

在脚边放一顶帽子或者一个罐子，

and when someone came by and dropped in money,

如果有路过的人向里面投钱

我递给他们一朵花，并且和他们进行强烈的眼神交流。

I handed them a flower --

and some intense eye contact.

如果他们没有收下花，

And if they didn't take the flower,

I threw in a gesture of sadness and longing --

我就表现出悲伤和充满渴望的样子

看着他们慢慢走远。

as they walked away.

（笑声）

(Laughter)

So I had the most profound encounters with people,

我与人有着最深层次的接触，

especially lonely people

尤其是那些看起来

who looked like they hadn't talked to anyone in weeks,

好几个星期都没有与人交流的孤独者

and we would get this beautiful moment of prolonged eye contact

我们共享一个美好的时刻

城市街道上可以发生的一次漫长眼神交流，

being allowed in a city street,

and we would sort of fall in love a little bit.

我们都感觉好像有点爱上对方。

And my eyes would say --

我的眼睛会说，“谢谢。我看到你了。”

"Thank you.

I see you."

And their eyes would say --

他们的眼睛则会说，

“从来没有人在意我的存在。谢谢你。”

"Nobody ever sees me.

Thank you."

有时候我会被骚扰。

I would get harassed sometimes.

People would yell at me from their cars.

开车路过的人从车里对我大喊。

"Get a job!"

“找份工作去！”

(Laughing) And I'd be, like,

我的反应是“这就是我的工作。”

"This is my job."

But it hurt, because it made me fear

但是这让我很伤心

that I was somehow doing something un-joblike

因为这让我感觉我的工作不正经

不公平和可耻。

and unfair, shameful.

I had no idea how perfect a real education I was getting

我没想到站在这个盒子上以音乐谋生的经历

for the music business on this box.

竟会是有如此深刻的教育意义。

And for the economists out there,

经济学家们你们可能会对这一点感兴趣，

you may be interested to know I actually made a pretty predictable income,

我的收入其实相当稳定，

which was shocking to me, given I had no regular customers,

因为我没有固定的顾客

这一点让我自己也非常吃惊

but pretty much 60 bucks on a Tuesday, 90 bucks on a Friday.

我一般周二挣60美元，周五挣90美元。

It was consistent.

我的收入是稳定的。

And meanwhile, I was touring locally and playing in nightclubs

同时，我还在本地巡演

与我的乐队the Dresden Dolls一同在夜店演出。

with my band, the Dresden Dolls.

这是我在弹钢琴，旁边是一位天才鼓手

This was me on piano, a genius drummer.

I wrote the songs, and eventually

我还搞歌曲创作，

we started making enough money that I could quit being a statue,

我们的收入逐渐增加，最终，我不需要再做活人雕塑赚钱了，

and as we started touring,

我们开始巡演之后

我依然不想失去这种

I really didn't want to lose this sense

与人直接交流的感觉，因为我喜欢这种感觉。

of direct connection with people, because I loved it.

So after all of our shows, we would sign autographs

所以我们在表演结束之后一定会签名

拥抱我们的歌迷，和人交流互动，

and hug fans and hang out and talk to people,

and we made an art out of asking people to help us and join us,

我们将请求他人给予帮助或加入我们的过程

变成了一门艺术，我会找来当地的音乐家和艺术家

and I would track down local musicians and artists

在我们的演出门口表演，

and they would set up outside of our shows,

and they would pass the hat,

他们会传递一个帽子，

and then they would come in and join us onstage,

随后他们进入演出场馆和我们一起登上舞台

也就是说，我们有着不断更替的、各种各样的、随机的、古怪的表演嘉宾。

so we had this rotating smorgasbord of weird, random circus guests.

And then Twitter came along,

后来，微博（Twitter）的出现

and made things even more magic,

让事情变得更加神奇，因为

because I could ask instantly for anything anywhere.

我可以在任意时间和地点提出任何要求。

So I would need a piano to practice on,

我可能会需要一架钢琴练习，

and an hour later I would be at a fan's house.

一个小时之后，我就在歌迷的家里弹琴。这件事发生在伦敦。

This is in London.

在世界各地都有人

People would bring home-cooked food to us

all over the world backstage and feed us and eat with us.

把自己做的食物送到我们的后台并和我们一起吃。这是在西雅图。

This is in Seattle.

如果我临时决定搞一场即兴的演唱会，

Fans who worked in museums and stores

and any kind of public space would wave their hands

在博物馆、商店或者任何其它公共场所工作的歌迷

就会向我们发出邀请。

if I would decide to do a last-minute, spontaneous, free gig.

This is a library in Auckland.

这是奥克兰的一家图书馆。

On Saturday I tweeted for this crate and hat,

周六我发微博希望有人为我提供木板箱和帽子，

because I did not want to schlep them from the East Coast,

因为我不想把它们从东海岸带到这里，

最终来自纽波特比奇（Newport Beach）的Chris

and they showed up care of this dude, Chris, from Newport Beach,

为我提供了这两样道具，他也向大家问好。

who says hello.

I once tweeted, "Where in Melbourne can I buy a neti pot?"

我曾经发微博问墨尔本哪里有卖洗鼻壶（neti pot）？

And a nurse from a hospital drove one

一位在医院工作的护士开车

right at that moment to the cafe I was in,

直接把它送到了我在的咖啡馆里，

and I bought her a smoothie

我给她买了一杯沙冰

and we sat there talking about nursing and death.

我们坐在一起聊护理和死亡。

And I love this kind of random closeness,

我喜欢这样幸运的、随机的亲近感觉

which is lucky, because I do a lot of couchsurfing.

因为我常常做沙发客。

在大房子里，我们的每一位团队成员都有自己的房间，

In mansions where everyone in my crew gets their own room

but there's no wireless,

但是没有无线网，在朋克乐迷占据的废弃房屋里，

and in punk squats,

所有人都睡在一间房间的地板上，没有卫生间

everyone on the floor in one room with no toilets

but with wireless, clearly making it the better option.

但是有无线网，这一优势第二种方式成为了更好的选择。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

我的团队曾经把车

My crew once pulled our van up to a really poor Miami neighborhood

停在一个非常贫穷的迈阿密社区

and we found out that our couchsurfing host for the night

我们发现当晚招待我们的是一个

依然与父母同住的18岁女孩，

was an 18-year-old girl, still living at home,

and her family were all undocumented immigrants from Honduras.

他们一家人都是来自洪都拉斯的非法移民。

And that night, her whole family

那天晚上，他们一家人

都睡沙发，她和她妈妈挤在一起

took the couches and she slept together with her mom

so that we could take their beds.

让我们睡他们的床。

我就躺在那里想，

And I lay there thinking,

这些人拥有的东西这么少。

these people have so little.

Is this fair?

这样公平吗？

And in the morning,

早晨，她妈妈教我们做

her mom taught us how to try to make tortillas

玉米薄饼（tortilla），还想给我一本《圣经》，

and wanted to give me a Bible,

and she took me aside and she said to me in her broken English,

她把我叫到一边，用支离破碎的英语对我说，

"Your music has helped my daughter so much.

“你的音乐对我女儿的帮助很大。

Thank you for staying here. We're all so grateful."

谢谢你能住在这里。我们都很感激。“

And I thought, this is fair.

然后我想，这就公平了。

是这种过程。

This is this.

A couple of months later, I was in Manhattan,

几个月之后，我在曼哈顿

and I tweeted for a crash pad, and at midnight,

发微博希望找一个过夜的地方，午夜时分

I'm on the Lower East Side,

我在下东区（Lower East Side）按一户人家的门铃，

and it occurs to me I've never actually done this alone.

然后我突然意识到我从来没有一个人借宿过。

I've always been with my band or my crew.

我以前一直和我的乐队或者团队在一起。

这是不是愚蠢的人做的事情？（笑声）

Is this what stupid people do?

(Laughter)

Is this how stupid people die?

愚蠢的人是不是就是这样死的？

And before I can change my mind, the door busts open.

我还没来得及改变主意，门就打开了。

她是一位艺术家。他是路透社的一位金融博客写手，

She's an artist.

He's a financial blogger for Reuters,

and they're pouring me a glass of red wine

他们给我倒了一杯红酒

and offering me a bath,

让我洗澡

and I have had thousands of nights like that and like that.

我经历过成千上万个这样的夜晚。

所以我常常做沙发客，也经常人群冲浪（从舞台上跳下，被观众接住）。

So I couchsurf a lot. I also crowdsurf a lot.

我认为做沙发客和人群冲浪

I maintain couchsurfing and crowdsurfing

are basically the same thing.

其实是一个概念。

You're falling into the audience

落入人群中

and you're trusting each other.

和信任他人。

I once asked an opening band of mine

我曾经问一支为我们开场的乐队

if they wanted to go out into the crowd and pass the hat

他们愿不愿意到人群中去，传递帽子

to get some extra money, something that I did a lot.

筹一点额外的钱，我经常这样做。

和往常一样，乐队非常兴奋，

And as usual, the band was psyched,

但是其中有一位成员告诉我

but there was this one guy in the band

他没有办法说服自己这样做。

who told me he just couldn't bring himself to go out there.

It felt too much like begging to stand there with the hat.

拿着帽子站在那里感觉实在是太像乞讨了。

我意识到这种恐惧就是我想到“这公平吗？”和听到“找份工作去！”的时候的感受。

And I recognized his fear

of "Is this fair?"

and "Get a job."

同时，我的乐队发展得越来越好。

And meanwhile, my band is becoming bigger and bigger.

We sign with a major label.

我们和一家主流厂牌签约。

And our music is a cross between punk and cabaret.

我们的音乐是朋克和卡巴莱(cabaret)的集合体。

It's not for everybody.

不是所有人都能接受。

Well, maybe it's for you.

也许你会喜欢的。

(Laughter)

签约之后，公司举办了大量的宣传活动为我们的新唱片造势。

We sign, and there's all this hype leading up to our next record.

And it comes out and it sells about 25,000 copies

唱片推出之后仅仅几周就卖出两万五千张，

in the first few weeks,

and the label considers this a failure.

但是我们的厂牌认为这是一张失败的专辑。

I was like, "25,000, isn't that a lot?"

我当时就说，“两万五千张，不是很多吗？”

They said, "No, the sales are going down.

他们说，“不，销量在下降。这是一张失败的唱片。”

It's a failure."

And they walk off.

随后他们就抛弃了我们。

Right at this same time, I'm signing and hugging after a gig,

与此同时，一次演唱会结束之后，我为歌迷签名与他们拥抱的时候

一个人走上前来

and a guy comes up to me

and hands me a $10 bill,

给了我一张10美元的纸币，

and he says,

他说：

"I'm sorry, I burned your CD from a friend."

“不好意思，我从朋友那里翻录了你的CD。”

(Laughter)

（笑声）

“不过我读了你的博客，我知道你不喜欢你的厂牌。

"But I read your blog, I know you hate your label.

I just want you to have this money."

我希望你收下这笔钱。“

And this starts happening all the time.

这样的事情现在常常发生。

I become the hat after my own gigs,

我们的演唱会结束之后，我变成了那个收集钱币的帽子，

but I have to physically stand there and take the help from people,

我就站在那里，接受人们的帮助，

and unlike the guy in the opening band,

和之前开场乐队的那个成员不同

I've actually had a lot of practice standing there.

我在这方面拥有丰富的经验。

谢谢。

Thank you.

And this is the moment I decide

那一刻我决定

I'm just going to give away my music for free

我要抓住可能的机会

online whenever possible,

在网上免费共享我的音乐。

so it's like Metallica over here, Napster, bad;

当时Metallica正在声讨（音乐分享网站）Napster

Amanda Palmer over here,

而我Amanda Palmer却在唱反调，鼓励

and I'm going to encourage torrenting, downloading, sharing,

BT、下载、分享，但是我会请求人们的帮助

but I'm going to ask for help,

because I saw it work on the street.

因为这种方式在街头是行得通的。

So I fought my way off my label, and for my next project

所以我和厂牌斗争，结束了合作，

with my new band, the Grand Theft Orchestra,

并与我的乐队the Grand Theft Orchestra，

I turned to crowdfunding.

我开始在人群中融资。

And I fell into those thousands of connections that I'd made,

我纵身一跃，跳入我建立的成千上万的联系之中

and I asked my crowd to catch me.

我请求人群接住我。

我的目标是十万美元

And the goal was 100,000 dollars.

My fans backed me at nearly 1.2 million,

我的歌迷们为我提供了一百二十万，

which was the biggest music crowdfunding project to date.

这是历史上规模最大的音乐人群募资。

(Applause)

（掌声）

And you can see how many people it is.

可以看出有多少人参与了募款。

大约两万五千人。

It's about 25,000 people.

And the media asked,

媒体会问，“Amanda，

"Amanda, the music business is tanking and you encourage piracy.

音乐产业在衰亡，而你鼓励盗版。

How did you make all these people pay for music?"

你是如何让这么多人为音乐付钱的？“

And the real answer is, I didn't make them.

我真正的答案是，我并没有逼迫他们，我所作的是请求他们。

I asked them.

And through the very act of asking people,

通过请求他人帮助

我与他们建立了联系

I'd connected with them,

and when you connect with them, people want to help you.

情感相通之后，人们就愿意帮助你。

It's kind of counterintuitive for a lot of artists.

对于很多艺术家来说，这似乎不合逻辑。

他们不愿意请求帮助。

They don't want to ask for things.

But it's not easy.

不过这并不容易。开口提出请求是一件不容易的事情。

It's not easy to ask.

And a lot of artists have a problem with this.

很多艺术家都不愿这样做。

Asking makes you vulnerable.

请求帮助可能会让你很脆弱。

And I got a lot of criticism online,

Kickstarter（为创意项目募资的平台）上的项目发展壮大之后

after my Kickstarter went big,

我继续在人群中募资的行为

for continuing my crazy crowdsourcing practices,

在网络上招来了很多批评。

尤其是邀请喜欢我们音乐的音乐人

specifically for asking musicians

who are fans if they wanted to join us on stage

上台与我们一同演唱几首歌曲

for a few songs in exchange for love and tickets and beer,

换取门票、啤酒，加深感情

这是某网站刊登的一张

and this was a doctored image that went up of me on a website.

处理过的我的照片。

And this hurt in a really familiar way.

这种受伤的感觉很熟悉。

And people saying,

人们说，”你现在已经没有资格

"You're not allowed anymore to ask for that kind of help,"

再这样请求帮助了，”

really reminded me of the people in their cars yelling, "Get a job."

这让我想起那些在车里对我大喊“找份工作去。”的人们

他们没有和我们一起站在人行道上

Because they weren't with us on the sidewalk,

他们没有见过

and they couldn't see the exchange

that was happening between me and my crowd,

我和人们的交流，

an exchange that was very fair to us but alien to them.

一种我们认为公平，他们却从未体验过的交流。

So this is slightly not safe for work.

这是一项不宜在工作场所进行的工作。

这是在柏林举办的Kickstarter赞助者派对。

This is my Kickstarter backer party in Berlin.

At the end of the night, I stripped and let everyone draw on me.

派对结束之前，我脱光了衣服让人们在我身上画画。

Now let me tell you, if you want to experience

我用亲身经历告诉你们，如果你想体会

the visceral feeling of trusting strangers --

信任陌生人那种发自内心深处的感觉

(Laughter)

我推荐这种方式，

I recommend this,

especially if those strangers are drunk German people.

尤其是这些陌生人都是醉酒的德国人的时候。

(Laughter)

这是与歌迷交流的最高级别，

This was a ninja master-level fan connection,

因为我真正传达的信息是，

because what I was really saying here was,

I trust you this much.

我就是这样信任你们。

Should I?

我应该这样做吗？用行动告诉我。

Show me.

For most of human history,

在人类历史上的大部分时期，

musicians, artists, they've been part of the community.

音乐人、艺术家是社群的一部分

Connectors and openers, not untouchable stars.

他们促进沟通，开拓新领域，不是无法触及的明星。

Celebrity is about a lot of people loving you from a distance,

成为名人意味着有很多人从远方爱你，

but the Internet

然而因特网

and the content that we're freely able to share on it

和我们在网络上自由共享的内容

are taking us back.

拉近了名人和支持者的距离。

It's about a few people loving you up close

现在则是一小部分人近距离的

and about those people being enough.

为你提供足够的支持。

So a lot of people are confused by the idea

很多人不理解没有标准定价

of no hard sticker price.

这个概念。

They see it as an unpredictable risk, but the things I've done,

他们认为这些事情不可预料的冒险，但是我所做的事情

the Kickstarter, the street, the doorbell,

Kickstarter，在街头募款，按陌生人的门铃

I don't see these things as risk.

我不认为这些事情是风险。

I see them as trust.

我认为它们是信任。

Now, the online tools

现在，网络工具让这种交流

to make the exchange as easy and as instinctive as the street,

像在街头请求帮助一样简单和自然，

它们即将实现这种转变。

they're getting there.

But the perfect tools aren't going to help us

然而如果我们无法直面彼此

if we can't face each other

无所畏惧的给予和接受

and give and receive fearlessly,

完美的工具也无法帮助我们，

but, more important --

然而，更重要的是

to ask without shame.

不因请求帮助而感到羞愧。

My music career has been spent

做音乐的过程中，我一直希望

trying to encounter people on the Internet the way I could on the box.

能像我站在盒子上的时候一样

与不同的人相遇

So blogging and tweeting not just about my tour dates

所以我的博客和微博上不仅有我们的巡演日期

and my new video but about our work and our art

我们的新音乐录音带，还有我们的作品、我们的艺术

and our fears and our hangovers,

我们的恐惧、宿醉和错误

our mistakes,

and we see each other.

这样我们就能真正感受到彼此的存在。

当我们真正建立这种联系时，

And I think when we really see each other,

we want to help each other.

我们就希望互相帮助。

我认为人们花了大量的精力试图解决错误的问题，

I think people have been obsessed with the wrong question,

which is, "How do we make people pay for music?"

也就是“我们如何强迫人们付钱购买音乐？”

我们应该问一个新的问题，

What if we started asking,

"How do we let people pay for music?"

“我们如何让人们主动为音乐慷慨解囊？”

谢谢。

Thank you.

(Applause)

（掌声）