Gabriel Barcia-Colombo: My DNA vending machine

譯者: 杏儀 歐陽 審譯者: Marssi Draw

This is a vending machine in Los Angeles.

這是在洛杉磯的一部自動販賣機，

It's in a shopping mall, and it sells fish eggs.

在一個大型購物商城，販賣魚卵。

It's a caviar-vending machine.

這是一部魚子醬販賣機。

This is the Art-o-mat, an art-vending machine

這是一部Art-o-mat，

即另一類自動販賣機，

that sells small artistic creations by different artists,

販賣不同藝術家創作的小藝術品，

usually on small wood blocks or matchboxes, in limited edition.

賣的通常為小型木刻或者火柴盒，

這些藝術品都為限量版。

This is Oliver Medvedik.

這是奧利弗•馬凡迪。他不是一部自動販賣機，

He is not a vending machine, but he is one of the founders of Genspace,

但是，他是基因空間（Genspace）的創建人之一。

基因空間是紐約布魯克林的一所社區生物實驗室，

a community biolab in Brooklyn, New York,

人人都可以去那裡上課，

where anybody can go and take classes

學習各類東西，諸如培育 在暗處發光的大腸桿菌，

and learn how to do things like grow E. coli that glows in the dark

或者如何萃取草莓的DNA。

or learn how to take strawberry DNA.

In fact, I saw Oliver do one of these strawberry DNA extractions

老實說，一年前我看過奧利弗萃取草莓DNA，

about a year ago, and this is what led me into this bizarre path

而這就是我的奇思怪想之始，

也是今日我將為大家講解的主題。

that I'm going to talk to you right now.

因為草莓DNA實在是叫人著迷， 因為這實在是太漂亮了。

Strawberry DNA is really fascinating, because it's so beautiful.

以前我從來不知道DNA是如此美麗動人，

I'd never thought about DNA being a beautiful thing before,

因為我未見過DNA的這種形態。

before I saw it in this form.

很多人，特別是藝術圈內的人，

A lot of people, especially in the art community,

不見得會以此方式涉入科學領域。

don't necessarily engage in science in this way.

此後我很快就加入了基因空間，

I instantly joined Genspace after this,

我問奧利弗：「哎，既然我們能做草莓的，

and asked Oliver, "If we can do this with strawberries,

我們能不能做人的DNA呢？」

大概十分鐘後，

can we do this with people?"

About 10 minutes later, we were both spitting in vials,

我們兩人已經將DNA放入瓶子裡面做分離，

即得出人類DNA萃取物的雛形。

coming up with a protocol for human DNA extraction.

我獨自開始做這件事，

I started doing this on my own.

而這個，是我的DNA的容貌。

This is what my DNA actually looks like.

有一次我跟朋友聚餐，藝術圈內的朋友，

And I was at a dinner party with some artist friends,

我跟他們介紹我的計畫，

and I was telling them about this project,

他們不相信真的可以看見DNA。

and they couldn't believe that you could actually see DNA.

So I said, all right, let's get out some supplies right now.

於是我就說，好吧，我們現在就做一些出來。

之後，我家開始有這些稀奇古怪的週五晚聚餐，

And I started having these bizarre dinner parties on Friday nights,

人們都會過來，

where people would come over and we'd do DNA extractions,

然後一起萃取DNA，

and I would capture them on video,

我把這些人都一一拍下來，

這樣我就可以同時得到這類古靈精怪的表情。

because it created this kind of funny portrait as well.

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

這些人啊，通常情況下，

These are people who don't necessarily regularly engage with science.

都不會跟科學領域打交道。

You can kind of tell from their reactions.

你大概也可以從他們的反應看出來。

(Laughter)

But they became fascinated by it,

但是他們對這件事很著迷，

and it was really exciting for me to see them get excited about science.

而我自己也很興奮看到他們

開始對科學感興趣。

And so I started doing this regularly.

之後我開始定期進行舉辦這個活動。

(Laughter)

每週五晚做這事情，的確有點奇怪，

It's an odd thing to do with your Friday nights,

但這就是我開始做的事，

but this is what I started doing.

我也開始用小瓶子收集

I started collecting a whole group of my friends' DNA in small vials

我這幫朋友的DNA，

並且進行分類。

and categorizing them.

這就是他們的DNA。

This is what that looked like.

由此我也開始考慮一些事情。

And it started to make me think about a couple of things.

首先，這看上去很像我的臉書牆。

First, this looked a lot like my Facebook wall.

所以呢，我大概也創造了一個基因網，

So in a way, I created sort of a genetic social network.

一個真正的基因社交網。

And the second thing was,

而第二件事呢，有次一個朋友過來，

one time a friend came over and looked at this on my table

看了我桌子上的這些東西，就問：

and was like, "Uh ... why are they numbered?

「噢，為什麼編號了？是不是因為 這個人的基因比另外一個罕見？」

Is this person more rare than the other one?"

我從來沒想過這問題。

And I hadn't even thought about that.

DNA編號是因為我就是按這個順序萃取DNA的。

They were just numbered

because that was the order that I extracted the DNA in.

但是這讓我想到收集玩具，

But that made me think about collecting toys,

而現在這事情，就好像

and what's going on right now in the toy world with blind box toys,

在玩具世界，玩具盒裡藏著未知的玩具，

大家能夠收集到一些稀有的玩具。

and being able to collect these rare toys.

你買了這些玩具盒，但是你不知道盒子裡有什麼玩具。

You buy these boxes, but aren't sure what's going to be inside.

但是，當你打開盒子時，

But when you open them, you have different rarities of the toys.

你就擁有各種稀有的玩具。

然後我就想，這很好玩。

I thought that was interesting; I thought about this

我開始把這個跟魚子醬販賣機和Art-o-mat聯想起來，

and the caviar vending machine and the Art-o-mat all together.

很偶然，一天晚上我在畫一部自動販賣機，

And for some reason, I was one night drawing a vending machine,

考慮要畫販賣機的畫，

thinking of doing paintings of a vending machine.

又想到我的那些DNA，

我看到了某種美妙的融合，

The vial of my DNA was sitting there,

DNA的這些曲線和自動販賣機的卷線之間的融合。

and I saw a beautiful collaboration between the strands of DNA

and the coils of a vending machine.

之後呢，當然，我決定創造一部藝術裝置，

So I decided to create an art installation called the DNA Vending Machine.

名叫DNA自動販賣機。

請看。

Here it is.

（音樂）

(Music)

[DNA Vending Machine is an art installation

[「DNA自動販賣機是一部關於 增加接觸生物技術的藝術裝置。」]

about our increasing access to biotechnology.]

(Music)

[For a reasonable cost, you can purchase a sample of human DNA

[「以合理的價格，你就可以從傳統的自動販賣機

from a traditional vending machine.]

購買人類DNA樣本。」]

(Music)

[「每一個樣本都同時附有該NDA主人的

[Each sample comes packaged

with a collectible limited edition portrait of the human specimen.]

一張有收藏價值的限量版人物像。」]

(Music)

[「DNA自動販賣機將DNA

[DNA Vending Machine treats DNA as a collectible material

視為有收藏價值的材料，

and brings to light legal issues over the ownership of DNA.]

引發有關NDA擁有權合法問題的討論。」]

(Music ends)

卡伯耀•卡希亞-戈倫柏（Gabriel Garcia-Colombo）： 目前，DNA自動販賣機

Gabriel Barcia-Colombo:

The DNA Vending Machine is currently in a couple of galleries in New York,

已經出現在紐約的幾個美術館，

而且還賣得不錯。

and it's selling out pretty well.

我們現在做了第一版，有100個，

We're in the first edition of 100 pieces,

希望很快就能做第二版。

hoping to do another edition pretty soon.

我希望能把它帶進繁忙的地鐵站，

I'd like to get it into more of a metro hub,

諸如中央車站或賓州車站，

like Grand Central or Penn Station,

然後就擺在其他真正的自動販賣機旁邊。

next to some of the other vending machines in that location.

但是進行這個計畫和其他藝術計畫的同時，

But really, with this and a lot of my art projects,

我想問在場觀眾一個問題：

I want to ask the audience a question:

要是生物技術和DNA測序

When biotechnology and DNA sequencing becomes as cheap as, say, laser cutting

變得像雷射切割一樣便宜，

or 3D printing or buying caviar from a vending machine,

或者像3D列印或從販賣機買魚子醬一樣便宜，

will you submit your sample of DNA to be part of the vending machine?

你們仍然會交出你的DNA樣本 給自動販賣機使用嗎？

這些樣本又值多少錢？

How much will these samples be worth?

你會願意買其他人的樣本嗎？

Will you buy someone else's sample?

And what will you be able to do with that sample?

之後你們拿著樣本又能做什麼？

謝謝。

Thank you.

(Applause)

（掌聲）