Golan Levin makes art that looks back at you

譯者: Boyang Zhu 審譯者: Shelley Krishna Tsang

Hello! My name is Golan Levin.

大家好！我的名字是戈蘭 萊文。

I'm an artist and an engineer,

我是一個藝術家和工程師。

which is, increasingly, a more common kind of hybrid.

越來越普遍的一種誇領域的結合。

But I still fall into this weird crack

不過我仍然常陷入這奇怪的夾縫中，

where people don't seem to understand me.

人們似乎不理解我在做甚麼。

And I was looking around and I found this wonderful picture.

我就到處搜索，發現了這幅美妙的圖片。

It's a letter from "Artforum" in 1967

這是在1967年來自“藝術論壇”雜誌的一封信

saying "We can't imagine ever doing a special issue

上面說“我們永遠不能想像做一份關於電子或電腦藝術的特別刊物。”

on electronics or computers in art." And they still haven't.

這對他們來說至今仍然是無法想像。

And lest you think that you all, as the digerati, are more enlightened,

如果而在座的各位都自認為是數字精英，比他們懂的多，

I went to the Apple iPhone app store the other day.

我有一天登陸了蘋果的iPhone軟體商店。

Where's art? I got productivity. I got sports.

哪裡有藝術方面的軟體？我找到生產力相關的軟體，也找到了運動類軟體。

And somehow the idea that one would want to make art for the iPhone,

不知何故，為iPhone製作藝術類軟體的想法，

which my friends and I are doing now,

我和我的朋友們現在正在進行的，

is still not reflected in our understanding

並沒有在我們對電腦

of what computers are for.

用途的理解中反映出來。

So, from both directions, there is kind of, I think, a lack of understanding

從兩方面來講，我都覺得缺少了一些理解

about what it could mean to be an artist who uses the materials

如果藝術家能夠使用他或她所處的時代的材料

of his own day, or her own day,

進行創作意味著甚麼。

which I think artists are obliged to do,

我覺得藝術家有責任要充分地

is to really explore the expressive potential of the new tools that we have.

探索我們所擁有的新工具地表達潛力。

In my own case, I'm an artist,

以我自己為例，我是一名藝術家，

and I'm really interested in

我非常熱衷於

expanding the vocabulary of human action,

擴展人類行為的語匯並

and basically empowering people through interactivity.

通過交互來鼓動人們這樣做。

I want people to discover themselves as actors,

我希望人們可以將自己看待成表演者，

as creative actors, by having interactive experiences.

通過交互性的體驗，成為富有創意的表演者。

A lot of my work is about trying to get away from this.

我的很多工作也是希望避免這種情況。

This a photograph of the desktop of a student of mine.

這是一幅拍攝了我一個學生的桌面的照片。

And when I say desktop, I don't just mean

當我講到桌面，我並不僅僅

the actual desk where his mouse has worn away the surface of the desk.

是指實際上被他的滑鼠磨損的桌面。

If you look carefully, you can even see

如果你仔細地觀察，你甚至會隱約發現

a hint of the Apple menu, up here in the upper left,

在左上角蘋果系統菜單的跡象。

where the virtual world has literally

在那裡虛擬世界真正的

punched through to the physical.

穿越到了現實世界中。

So this is, as Joy Mountford once said,

所以就像喬伊芒福德曾經說的，

"The mouse is probably the narrowest straw

”滑鼠可能是最細小的吸管

you could try to suck all of human expression through."

你能使用它來吸取所有人類的表達。“

(Laughter)

笑聲

And the thing I'm really trying to do is enabling people to have more rich

我真正像嘗試要做的就是能夠讓人們擁有

kinds of interactive experiences.

更豐富多樣的交互體驗。

How can we get away from the mouse and use our full bodies

如何使用我們全身而不是鼠標作為

as a way of exploring aesthetic experiences,

一種探索審美體驗的方式。

not necessarily utilitarian ones.

並不一定是實用主義的。

So I write software. And that's how I do it.

我編寫軟體，這是我創作的方式。

And a lot of my experiences

我許多的試驗

resemble mirrors in some way.

都從某方面再現了鏡子的概念。

Because this is, in some sense, the first way,

因為在某種意義上，鏡子是人們最初

that people discover their own potential as actors,

能觀察到他們自己的動作，發現自己

and discover their own agency.

作為一個表演者的潛能的方式。

By saying "Who is that person in the mirror? Oh it's actually me."

通過提問“誰是鏡子里的那個人？喔，這原來就是我。”

And so, to give an example,

所以就拿去年的一個項目

this is a project from last year,

來做一個例子。

which is called the Interstitial Fragment Processor.

它被稱作縫隙碎片處理器。

And it allows people to explore the negative shapes that they create

它能讓人們探索自己在做他們的日常動作

when they're just going about their everyday business.

的時候所創造的負形狀。

So as people make shapes with their hands or their heads

當人們用他們的雙手或者頭部，

and so forth, or with each other,

或者互相一起創造形狀的時候。

these shapes literally produce sounds and drop out of thin air --

這些形狀會產生聲音並憑空出現然後墜落。

basically taking what's often this, kind of, unseen space,

這基本上是將未被看見的空間，

or this undetected space, and making it something real,

或是未被察覺的空間，轉變成一種真實的物體,

that people then can appreciate and become creative with.

人們可以欣賞並對其發揮創造力。

So again, people discover their creative agency in this way.

所以再一次，人們這樣發現他們的創造性動作。

And their own personalities come out

並且他們自身的人格也因此

in totally unique ways.

以非常特別的方式顯現。

So in addition to using full-body input,

除了使用全身來輸入之外，

something that I've explored now, for a while,

我利用了一段時間探索了一些別的東西，

has been the use of the voice,

就是對聲音的利用。

which is an immensely expressive system for us, vocalizing.

有聲化是對我們來說非常具有表達力的系統。

Song is one of our oldest ways

歌唱是我們所使用來互相聽見

of making ourselves heard and understood.

並理解的最古老的方法之一。

And I came across this fantastic research by Wolfgang Köhler,

我發現這個由格式塔心理學之父沃爾夫岡 科勒

the so-called father of gestalt psychology, from 1927,

在1927年所進行的奇妙的研究。

who submitted to an audience like yourselves

他發送如下2個圖形給

the following two shapes.

像你們一樣的觀眾。

And he said one of them is called Maluma.

他說其中一個叫做Maluma。

And one of them is called Taketa. Which is which?

还有一个叫做Teketa,哪個是哪個呢？

Anyone want to hazard a guess?

有誰想嘗試着猜一下嗎？

Maluma is on top. Yeah. So.

Maluma是上邊的這個，對是這樣。

As he says here, most people answer without any hesitation.

就像他說的，大部份人都能毫不猶豫地給出答案。

So what we're really seeing here is a phenomenon

從中我們真正觀察到的是一個現象

called phonaesthesia,

稱作音義聯覺，

which is a kind of synesthesia that all of you have.

就好像你們大家都擁有的聯覺一樣。

And so, whereas Dr. Oliver Sacks has talked about

奧利佛薩科斯博士曾提到

how perhaps one person in a million

可能每一百萬人中只有一個人

actually has true synesthesia,

真正地擁有聯覺，

where they hear colors or taste shapes, and things like this,

他們可以聽見顏色或者品嘗到形狀之類。

phonaesthesia is something we can all experience to some extent.

音義聯覺是我們所有人都能在某種程度上體驗的東西。

It's about mappings between different perceptual domains,

這在不同的感知領域之間的映射，

like hardness, sharpness, brightness and darkness,

比如硬度，鋒利感，明度以及黑暗，

and the phonemes that we're able to speak with.

以及我們能發出的音素。

So 70 years on, there's been some research where

70年來，通過一些研究

cognitive psychologists have actually sussed out

認知心理學加已經弄清楚了

the extent to which, you know,

這個現象。

L, M and B are more associated with shapes that look like this,

L，M，B更多地於這種形狀聯繫在一起，

and P, T and K are perhaps more associated with shapes like this.

P，T和K可能更多地和這種形狀相關連。

And here we suddenly begin to have a mapping between curvature

突然間我們就開始有了一在不同地曲率之間映射

that we can exploit numerically,

可以量化地來研究開發，

a relative mapping between curvature and shape.

一個在語音和曲率之間的相對的映射。

So it occurred to me, what happens if we could run these backwards?

我突然想到，如果我们把这个过程回放会是怎么样的？

And thus was born the project called Remark,

由此这个称作Remark的項目就誕生了。

which is a collaboration with Zachary Lieberman

我們與扎迦利還有

and the Ars Electronica Futurelab.

電子藝術未來實驗室一起合作。

And this is an interactive installation which presents

這個交互裝置呈現了一個

the fiction that speech casts visible shadows.

語音會產生可見的陰影的幻象。

So the idea is you step into a kind of a magic light.

這個理念是你走進一種魔幻的光線中，

And as you do, you see the shadows of your own speech.

當你這樣做的時候，你會看見自己說出的言語的影子。

And they sort of fly away, out of your head.

它們從你頭部飛出。

If a computer speech recognition system

如果電腦的語音識別系統可以聽懂

is able to recognize what you're saying, then it spells it out.

你在說甚麼，它就會講你所說的拼寫出來。

And if it isn't then it produces a shape which is very phonaesthetically

如果電腦聽不懂，它就會按照音義聯覺的原理產生一個

tightly coupled to the sounds you made.

與你發出的聲音相匹配的形狀。

So let's bring up a video of that.

請播放一段關於這個項目的影片。

(Applause)

（掌聲）

Thanks. So. And this project here,

謝謝。在這一個作品中，

I was working with the great abstract vocalist, Jaap Blonk.

我和非常厲害的抽象聲樂家，雅普 布朗克。

And he is a world expert in performing "The Ursonate,"

他是一個世界級的表演“Ursonate”的專家，

which is a half-an-hour nonsense poem

一首由柯特 舒維特在1920年所創作的

by Kurt Schwitters, written in the 1920s,

長達半小時的無意義詩歌。

which is half an hour of very highly patterned nonsense.

它是一段長達半小時的高度模式化的無意義的語音。

And it's almost impossible to perform.

一般人幾乎是不可能表演出來的。

But Jaap is one of the world experts in performing it.

不過雅普是少數能表演它的世界級專家之一。

And in this project we've developed

在這個項目中我們開發了一種

a form of intelligent real-time subtitles.

智能實時字幕。

So these are our live subtitles,

這裡是我們的現場字幕，

that are being produced by a computer that knows the text of "The Ursonate" --

它們是由一台瞭解“Ursonate”的文字的電腦所生成的。

fortunately Jaap does too, very well --

幸好雅普也很瞭解這些文字。

and it is delivering that text at the same time as Jaap is.

電腦在雅普發出聲音的同時呈現字幕。

So all the text you're going to see

所有你將看到的字幕

is real-time generated by the computer,

都是由電腦實時生成的，

visualizing what he's doing with his voice.

將他的語音可視化。

Here you can see the set-up where there is a screen with the subtitles behind him.

這裡你能看見在他身後佈置着一個有字幕的螢幕。

Okay. So ...

好了。

(Applause)

（掌聲）

The full videos are online if you are interested.

如果你有興趣的話可以在網路上找到整部的影片。

I got a split reaction to that during the live performance,

在現場表演的時候我碰到兩種截然不同的反映。

because there is some people who understand

因為有些人理解實時字幕

live subtitles are a kind of an oxymoron,

這個概念是有些自相矛盾的。

because usually there is someone making them afterwards.

因為通常字幕都是有人在影片完成後來製作字幕。

And then a bunch of people who were like, "What's the big deal?

還有一群人感覺：“這有甚麼大不了的？”

I see subtitles all the time on television."

我每天都在電視上看到字幕。“

You know? They don't imagine the person in the booth, typing it all.

他們想像不到有人在幕後編寫所有的字幕的情景。

So in addition to the full body, and in addition to the voice,

除了全身和語音之外，

another thing that I've been really interested in,

還有一件最近我非常有興趣的事情

most recently, is the use of the eyes,

就是對眼睛的使用，

or the gaze, in terms of how people relate to each other.

或者說注視，從人們互相之間如何聯繫來看。

It's a really profound amount of nonverbal information

許多深刻的信息是用眼睛

that's communicated with the eyes.

而不是語言來傳達的。

And it's one of the most interesting technical challenges

這也是技術上最有意思的挑戰之一，

that's very currently active in the computer sciences:

它是當下計算機科學領域非常熱門的問題。

being able to have a camera that can understand,

能夠有一台攝像機，

from a fairly big distance away,

可以在比較遠的距離就理解這些

how these little tiny balls are actually pointing in one way or another

小小的眼睛在往哪裡看，

to reveal what you're interested in,

來揭露你對甚麼感興趣，

and where your attention is directed.

你的注意力集中在哪裡？

So there is a lot of emotional communication that happens there.

在眼睛這個部位進行着許多情感上的交流。

And so I've been beginning, with a variety of different projects,

所以我啓動了一些不同的項目，

to understand how people can relate to machines with their eyes.

來瞭解人們如何通過眼睛與機器產生聯繫。

And basically to ask the questions:

大概地問這樣一些問題，

What if art was aware that we were looking at it?

如果一件藝術作品知道我們在看着它？

How could it respond, in a way,

它會作何反映，在某種程度上，

to acknowledge or subvert the fact that we're looking at it?

來知曉或者是顛覆我們在觀賞它的事實?

And what could it do if it could look back at us?

如果它也看着我們會是怎樣？

And so those are the questions that are happening in the next projects.

這些是下面這個項目里所發生的事情，

In the first one which I'm going to show you, called Eyecode,

第一個我要展示給你們看的作品，被稱作眼睛編碼，

it's a piece of interactive software

它是一個交互軟體

in which, if we read this little circle,

如果我們讀一下這個圈小字，

"the trace left by the looking of the previous observer

先前一個觀眾觀察時留下的痕跡看着

looks at the trace left by the looking of previous observer."

先前一個觀眾觀察時留下的痕跡

The idea is that it's an image wholly constructed

這個概念就是一個

from its own history of being viewed

完全由被不同的觀眾觀察的過程

by different people in an installation.

所組成的圖像。

So let me just switch over so we can do the live demo.

讓我切換過來，做一個現場演示。

So let's run this and see if it works.

來試試看行不行。

Okay. Ah, there is lots of nice bright video.

哦，嗯，這里有很多影像。

There is just a little test screen that shows that it's working.

這只是一個用來顯示它正常工作的測試屏幕。

And what I'm just going to do is -- I'm going to hide that.

我會把這個窗口隱藏掉，

And you can see here that what it's doing

這樣你們就可以看見每當我眨眼的時候

is it's recording my eyes every time I blink.

它就紀錄我的眼睛的圖像。

Hello? And I can ... hello ... okay.

哈嘍？ 我可以...哈嘍...好了。

And no matter where I am, what's really going on here

不管我在甚麼位置，實際發生的是

is that it's an eye-tracking system that tries to locate my eyes.

這個眼睛追蹤系統都在嘗試定位我的眼睛。

And if I get really far away I'm blurry.

如果距離的比較遠我的眼睛就會變得模糊。

You know, you're going to have these kind of blurry spots like this

屏幕上就會出現這些模糊的小點。

that maybe only resemble eyes in a very very abstract way.

它們只是以非常抽象的方式再現了我的眼睛。

But if I come up really close and stare directly at the camera

如果我靠的非常近並且盯這筆記型電腦上的

on this laptop then you'll see these nice crisp eyes.

攝像機看，你們就會看到清晰的眼睛。

You can think of it as a way of, sort of, typing, with your eyes.

你們可以把這看成是在用眼睛打字一樣。

And what you're typing are recordings of your eyes

你所輸入的是當你在看別人的眼睛的時候

as you're looking at other peoples' eyes.

對你眼睛的紀錄。

So each person is looking at the looking

所以每個人都在看着

of everyone else before them.

之前的人。

And this exists in larger installations

這系統被應用在

where there are thousands and thousands of eyes

更大的裝置里，有數千雙眼睛

that people could be staring at,

供人觀看，

as you see who's looking at the people looking

你看着那個看著之前

at the people looking before them.

看著之前的人的人。

So I'll just add a couple more. Blink. Blink.

我再加上幾雙眼睛，眨眼，眨眼。

And you can see, just once again, how it's sort of finding my eyes

還有你能觀察到它又一次尋找到我的眼睛

and doing its best to estimate when it's blinking.

並且盡可能估計我甚麼時候眨眼。

Alright. Let's leave that.

好了，就這樣吧。

So that's this kind of recursive observation system.

這就是一種循環觀察系統。

(Applause)

（掌聲）

Thank you.

謝謝

The last couple pieces I'm going to show

最後幾個我相展示的是

are basically in the new realm of robotics -- for me, new for me.

是在新的機器人領域，對我來說比較新。

It's called Opto-Isolator.

叫做光電隔離體。

And I'm going to show a video of the older version of it,

我先放一個影片來展示早先的版本。

which is just a minute long. Okay.

大約一分鐘左右，好。

In this case, the Opto-Isolator is blinking

在這個項目中，這個光電隔離器

in response to one's own blinks.

在對眨眼的觀看者眨眼。

So it blinks one second after you do.

在你眨眼後的一秒種它也眨眼。

This is a device which is intended to reduce

這是設備的用意是

the phenomenon of gaze down to the simplest possible materials.

用最簡單的材料來表現注視的現象。

Just one eye,

僅僅是一隻眼睛

looking at you, and eliminating everything else about a face,

看着你，去掉了其他任何臉部的東西。

but just to consider gaze in an isolated way

只是單獨來思考注視

as a kind of, as an element.

就好像是，一種元素。

And at the same time, it attempts to engage in what you might call

於此同時，它嘗試參與到我們所熟悉的

familiar psycho-social gaze behaviors.

社會心理注視行為中。

Like looking away if you look at it too long

如果你盯着它看太久它就看別的地方

because it gets shy,

因為它會害羞

or things like that.

或諸如此類。

Okay. So the last project I'm going to show

好了，最後一個要給你們看的項目

is this new one called Snout.

是這個叫做長鼻子。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

It's an eight-foot snout,

它是一個八尺高的長鼻子，

with a googly eye.

加上一個曲棍球做眼睛。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

And inside it's got an 800-pound robot arm

在它裡面有一台我借來的800磅重的

that I borrowed,

機械臂，

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

from a friend.

從一個朋友那裡。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

It helps to have good friends.

有好的朋友確是會幫到很多。

I'm at Carnegie Mellon; we've got a great Robotics Institute there.

我在卡耐基梅隆大學。我們有非常棒的機器人研究所。

I'd like to show you thing called Snout, which is --

我想展示給你們這個叫長鼻子的東西

The idea behind this project is to

這個項目背後的概念是做一個

make a robot that appears as if it's continually surprised to see you.

好像是一直很驚訝地看着你地機器人。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

The idea is that basically --

這個概念基本上來說

if it's constantly like "Huh? ... Huh?"

如果他一直表現出“啊？...嗯？“

That's why its other name is Doubletaker, Taker of Doubles.

這就是為甚麼它的綽號是反覆打量，打量兩次。

It's always kind of doing a double take: "What?"

它好像總是在反覆地打量着：”甚麼啊？“

And the idea is basically, can it look at you

這概念大概就是它會看着你

and make you feel as if like,

然後讓你覺得好像，

"What? Is it my shoes?"

”怎麼了？是我的鞋子有問題嗎？“

"Got something on my hair?" Here we go. Alright.

“還是頭髮上黏了甚麼東西？”開始了，好。

Checking him out ...

看看他...

For you nerds, here's a little behind-the-scenes.

電腦迷們，這就是幕後的樣子。

It's got a computer vision system,

它有一套電腦視覺系統，

and it tries to look at the people who are moving around the most.

它盡可能地盯着活動幅度最大的人。

Those are its targets.

這些是它的目標。

Up there is the skeleton,

上邊是一個骨架系統，

which is actually what it's trying to do.

就是它實際所要做的。

It's really about trying to create a novel body language for a new creature.

這件作品嘗試為一種新的生物創造一種新穎的肢體語言。

Hollywood does this all the time, of course.

當然好萊塢經常做這種事情。

But also have the body language communicate something

但同時也能使用這肢體語言與看着它的人

to the person who is looking at it.

來交流一些事情。

This language is communicating that it is surprised to see you,

這語言所表達的是它看到你很驚訝，

and it's interested in looking at you.

同時也很有興趣來觀察你。

(Laughter)

笑聲

(Applause)

掌聲

Thank you very much. That's all I've got for today.

非常感謝，以上就是我今天所有要講的內容。

And I'm really happy to be here. Thank you so much.

我很高興能在這裡演講，謝謝大家！

(Applause)

掌聲