Insightful human portraits made from data | R. Luke DuBois

譯者: Helen Chang 審譯者: 易帆 余

So I'm an artist,

我是個藝術家，

but a little bit of a peculiar one.

比較特別的那種，

I don't paint.

我不畫畫，

I can't draw.

我不會畫畫。

My shop teacher in high school wrote that I was a menace

工藝老師在我成績單上

寫說我是一個搗蛋鬼。

on my report card.

You probably don't really want to see my photographs.

我的攝影作品也不太能見人。

But there is one thing I know how to do:

但有一件事我很會：

I know how to program a computer.

我懂怎麼寫電腦程式，

I can code.

我會寫。

And people will tell me that 100 years ago,

大家說一百年前

沒有我這種職業，

folks like me didn't exist,

that it was impossible,

以前覺得不可能、

that art made with data is a new thing,

用數據創作藝術很新潮，

it's a product of our age,

是這個年代才有的產物，

it's something that's really important

因為它真的很「新」，

to think of as something that's very "now."

所以它也格外重要。

And that's true.

這是真的。

But there is an art form that's been around for a very long time

但其實很久以前 就已經有一種藝術形式

that's really about using information,

也是利用資訊，

abstract information,

利用抽象的資訊，

to make emotionally resonant pieces.

創造出蕩氣迴腸的作品，

And it's called music.

那就是音樂。

We've been making music for tens of thousands of years, right?

我們創作音樂已有上千年了，是吧？

And if you think about what music is --

想想音樂是什麼...

notes and chords and keys and harmonies and melodies --

音符、和弦、音調、 和聲、旋律...

these things are algorithms.

這些東西都是演算法、

These things are systems

都是系統，

that are designed to unfold over time,

隨著時間流轉展開，

to make us feel.

音樂讓我們有所感受。

I came to the arts through music.

音樂使我接觸到藝術，

I was trained as a composer,

我接受作曲的訓練，

and about 15 years ago, I started making pieces

約 15 年前我開始作曲，

that were designed to look at the intersection

精心雕琢聲音和影像的交集，

between sound and image,

to use an image to unveil a musical structure

用影像呈現音樂的結構、

or to use a sound to show you something interesting

或是用聲音來表現有趣的事物、

about something that's usually pictorial.

一些平常用圖像表示的事物。

So what you're seeing on the screen is literally being drawn

所以現在各位在螢幕上看到的

by the musical structure of the musicians onstage,

確實是由舞台上音樂家樂曲 的音樂結構所擘畫出來的，

and there's no accident that it looks like a plant,

它們不出意外的看起來像是植物，

because the underlying algorithmic biology of the plant

因為其背後的植物生物演算法 會啟發這樣的音樂結構。

is what informed the musical structure in the first place.

So once you know how to do this, once you know how to code with media,

因此一旦你知道這樣的手法， 一旦你會利用媒介寫程式碼，

you can do some pretty cool stuff.

你就可以做出一些很酷的東西。

This is a project I did for the Sundance Film Festival.

這是我為《日舞影展》做的案子，

Really simple idea: you take every Academy Award Best Picture,

概念很簡單：你把奧斯卡 年度最佳影片收集起來，

然後加速成一分鐘的版本，

you speed it up to one minute each

and string them all together.

再把它們全接起來。

And so in 75 minutes, I can show you the history of Hollywood cinema.

所以在這 75 分鐘裡，大家可以 看到好萊塢電影的歷史脈絡，

而它所要呈現的就是，

And what it really shows you is the history of editing

好萊塢電影的剪接史。

in Hollywood cinema.

So on the left, we've got Casablanca; on the right, we've got Chicago.

所以左邊我們有卡薩布蘭加， 右邊則是芝加哥，

And you can see that Casablanca is a little easier to read.

比起來這個速度下的 卡薩布蘭加還看得懂

That's because the average length of a cinematic shot in the 1940s

因為 1940 年代的電影拍攝， 一個場景的平均長度是 26 秒，

was 26 seconds,

and now it's around six seconds.

而如今約為 6 秒。

This is a project that was inspired

這個專案的啟發自

by some work that was funded by the US Federal Government

2000 年代早期由美國 聯邦政府資助的研究

in the early 2000s,

to look at video footage and find a specific actor in any video.

能夠在任何影片內 搜尋到特定演員。

And so I repurposed this code to train a system on one person

我改寫了它的程式碼， 訓練出一套系統，

去識別一個在我們文化裡 永遠不需要被這樣監視的人物

in our culture who would never need to be surveilled in that manner,

也就是小甜甜布蘭妮。

which is Britney Spears.

I downloaded 2,000 paparazzi photos of Britney Spears

我下載了 2000 張她被 狗仔隊拍到的照片，

and trained my computer to find her face

並訓練我的電腦 去找出她的臉，

and her face alone.

只呈現出她的臉。

透過程式我可以播放任何她的片段， 並且自動讓她的眼睛置於畫面中央，

I can run any footage of her through it and will center her eyes in the frame,

and this sort of is a little double commentary

表達我們對監視的雙重標準的省思，

about surveillance in our society.

We are very fraught with anxiety about being watched,

我們很擔心害怕被受到監視，

but then we obsess over celebrity.

但同時我們卻又很愛 監視名人的一言一行。

What you're seeing on the screen here is a collaboration I did

螢幕上看到的是我和藝術家 連．艾默利思合作的作品。

with an artist named Lián Amaris.

螢幕上看到的是我和藝術家 連．艾默利思合作的作品。

What she did is very simple to explain and describe,

她的作品說起來很簡單，

做起來卻很難。

but very hard to do.

She took 72 minutes of activity,

她所要呈現的，就是把 72 分鐘 「晚上出城赴約的準備活動」

getting ready for a night out on the town,

and stretched it over three days

拉長到三天的時間，

and performed it on a traffic island in slow motion in New York City.

她需要在紐約街頭的一個安全島 用慢動作來呈現這一幕

I was there, too, with a film crew.

我也在現場，帶著攝影團隊 錄下了整個過程，

We filmed the whole thing,

and then we reversed the process, speeding it up to 72 minutes again,

然後把它倒放 再加速到 72 分鐘

so it looks like she's moving normally

所以她看起來像是以正常的速度移動

and the whole world is flying by.

但整個世界卻是在飛速的運轉著。

At a certain point, I figured out

突然間我瞭解到

that what I was doing was making portraits.

我做的事情是肖像。

When you think about portraiture, you tend to think about stuff like this.

提到肖像，各位通常想到的 是螢幕上這種東西。

左邊的人名叫吉伯特．史都華。

The guy on the left is named Gilbert Stuart.

He's sort of the first real portraitist of the United States.

他可能是美國第一位肖像畫家。

And on the right is his portrait of George Washington from 1796.

右邊是他在 1796 年畫的 喬治華盛頓（美國國父）。

This is the so-called Lansdowne portrait.

這被稱為「蘭斯道絨」的畫像。

And if you look at this painting, there's a lot of symbolism, right?

仔細看看這幅畫中 有很多的象徵，是吧？

We've got a rainbow out the window. We've got a sword.

有一道窗外彩虹、 有一把劍、

We've got a quill on the desk.

有一支鵝毛筆在桌上，

All of these things are meant to evoke

一切的一切都意有所指。

George Washington as the father of the nation.

喬治華盛頓， 是這個國家的國父，

This is my portrait of George Washington.

這是我的版本。

And this is an eye chart,

它像是一個視力測量表，

only instead of letters, they're words.

只是我把字母換成了單字，

And what the words are is the 66 words

這 66 個單詞是

in George Washington's State of the Union addresses

喬治．華盛頓在國情咨文演說中

that he uses more than any other president.

比其他總統用得還多的單字。

So "gentlemen" has its own symbolism and its own rhetoric.

像是「諸君」這個詞 有其獨特的象徵和修辭意義。

And it's really kind of significant that that's the word he used the most.

這個字也很能代表他， 因為他很常使用。

This is the eye chart for George W. Bush,

這是小布希總統的視力測量表，

我做出這件作品的時候， 他是當時的總統，

who was president when I made this piece.

And how you get there,

你可以了解 從「諸君」到「恐攻」

from "gentlemen" to "terror" in 43 easy steps,

只歷經了 43 個簡單的步驟， （43屆選舉）

tells us a lot about American history,

這道盡了美國的歷史，

and gives you a different insight

以一種不同的觀點來呈現、 欣賞一系列的畫作。

than you would have looking at a series of paintings.

These pieces provide a history lesson of the United States

這一系列的作品， 透過美國領導人的政治語言，

through the political rhetoric of its leaders.

為我們上了一堂美國歷史課，

Ronald Reagan spent a lot of time talking about deficits.

雷根總統最常提到的是「赤字」。

Bill Clinton spent a lot of time

柯林頓總統花很多時間強調

talking about the century in which he would no longer be president,

這個世紀已經不再是 他當總統的世紀，

but maybe his wife would be.

但他的夫人可能會是。

Lyndon Johnson was the first President

強森總統是第一位

to give his State of the Union addresses on prime-time television;

在電視黃金時段上 發表國情咨文的總統，

he began every paragraph with the word "tonight."

他的每段話都是以「今晚」開頭。

And Richard Nixon, or more accurately, his speechwriter,

尼克森總統，說得更精準一點， 他的演講稿撰稿人

a guy named William Safire,

名叫威廉．沙法爾，

spent a lot of time thinking about language

花很多時間字斟句酌，

and making sure that his boss portrayed a rhetoric of honesty.

以確保他老闆的演講「字句真誠」。

This project is shown as a series of monolithic sculptures.

這個專案則是呈現 一系列的巨型雕塑——

It's an outdoor series of light boxes.

戶外大型燈箱，

And it's important to note that they're to scale,

必須特別強調的是 他們是等比例縮小的

so if you stand 20 feet back and you can read between those two black lines,

所以如果你離 20 呎遠 還看得到兩條黑線間的字

you have 20/20 vision.

你視力 2.0 啊！

(Laughter)

（觀眾笑）

This is a portrait. And there's a lot of these.

這就是人像描繪， 還有很多像這樣的作品，

There's a lot of ways to do this with data.

有很多呈現這些資料的方式，

I started looking for a way

我開始尋找一種方法，

to think about how I can do a more democratic form of portraiture,

用一種更能讓大眾 接受的形式來呈現

something that's more about my country and how it works.

更多有關於我的國家 和它的運轉方式。

Every 10 years, we make a census in the United States.

美國每十年會做一次全國普查，

We literally count people,

真的一個個去調查，

find out who lives where, what kind of jobs we've got,

調查誰住哪裡、你做什麼工作、

the language we speak at home.

我們在家說什麼語言？

And this is important stuff -- really important stuff.

這些東西很重要，真的非常重要，

But it doesn't really tell us who we are.

但這卻無法說明我們是怎樣的人，

It doesn't tell us about our dreams and our aspirations.

它無法說明我們的夢想、 啟發我們的思想是什麼。

And so in 2010, I decided to make my own census.

因此 2010 年， 我決定來做我自己的人口普查。

And I started looking for a corpus of data

我開始尋找那些

由一般美國大眾寫的 有大量描述的語料庫。

that had a lot of descriptions written by ordinary Americans.

And it turns out

結果我發現，

that there is such a corpus of data

的確有這樣的語料庫存在，

that's just sitting there for the taking.

就在那燈火闌珊處，

It's called online dating.

那就是線上約會網站。

So in 2010, I joined 21 different online dating services,

所以 2010 年，我加入了 21 個不同的約會服務，

as a gay man, a straight man, a gay woman and a straight woman,

同性戀的、異性戀的、 男的、女的、

in every zip code in America

包括美國各地區碼都有，

and downloaded about 19 million people's dating profiles --

我下載了 1900 萬人次的 約會檔案，

about 20 percent of the adult population of the United States.

也就是大約 20% 美國成人人口。

I have obsessive-compulsive disorder.

我有強迫症，

你們很快就會發現我不是開玩笑的， 再忍耐一下...

This is going to become really freaking obvious. Just go with me.

(Laughter)

（觀眾笑）

So what I did was I sorted all this stuff by zip code.

我把這些資料依區碼排序，

And I looked at word analysis.

然後做字詞分析，

These are some dating profiles from 2010

2010 年的約會檔案

with the word "lonely" highlighted.

我們把「寂寞」這個詞畫重點，

If you look at these things topographically,

然後與地圖整合，

if you imagine dark colors to light colors are more use of the word,

顏色由深到淺代表 這個字的使用量，

you can see that Appalachia is a pretty lonely place.

大家會發現阿帕拉契山區 是十分「寂寞」的地區。

You can also see that Nebraska ain't that funny.

還可以看到... 內布拉斯加州沒什麼幽默感，

This is the kinky map, so what this is showing you

這是一張”怪癖“地圖， 我想告訴大家的是

is that the women in Alaska need to get together

阿拉斯加的女生需要和 南新墨西哥州的男生

with the men in southern New Mexico,

and have a good time.

一起好好地出去玩一玩。

And I have this at a pretty granular level,

而且我的資料相當仔細，

so I can tell you that the men in the eastern half of Long Island

我可以告訴你長島東半邊的男人 比西半邊的人更熱衷於被「打屁股」。

are way more interested in being spanked

than men in the western half of Long Island.

This will be your one takeaway from this whole conference.

這是你們今天在會場上最大的收穫，

You're going to remember that fact for, like, 30 years.

你會記得這個事實，記 30 年！

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

When you bring this down to a cartographic level,

如果我們依地區展開，

you can make maps and do the same trick I was doing with the eye charts.

還可以玩一點類似視力測量表的把戲。

You can replace the name of every city in the United States

我們把美國地圖上的城市名字 置換成他們用得最多的字彙，

with the word people use more in that city than anywhere else.

你和西雅圖那邊的人約會過， 就會同意這多有道理。

If you've ever dated anyone from Seattle, this makes perfect sense.

You've got "pretty." You've got "heartbreak."

他們有「正妹」、「心碎」、

You've got "gig." You've got "cigarette."

「表演」、「香煙」，

They play in a band and they smoke.

他們玩樂團、抽煙，

And right above that you can see "email."

上面還可以看到「電子郵件」。

That's Redmond, Washington,

那是華盛頓州的雷德蒙，

which is the headquarters of the Microsoft Corporation.

也就是微軟總部的所在地。

Some of these you can guess -- so, Los Angeles is "acting"

有些大家都猜得到—— 洛杉磯是「演戲」，

and San Francisco is "gay."

舊金山是「同志」。

Some are a little bit more heartbreaking.

有些就比較令人心碎，

In Baton Rouge, they talk about being curvy;

在巴頓魯日，他們大談「胖妞」、

downstream in New Orleans, they still talk about the flood.

但在下游的紐奧良說得是「水災」，

Folks in the American capital will say they're interesting.

美國大城市的人們 說他們喜歡什麼，

People in Baltimore, Maryland, will say they're afraid.

但馬里蘭州巴爾地摩的人， 則是說他們害怕什麼。

This is New Jersey.

這是紐澤西州。

I grew up somewhere between "annoying" and "cynical."

我是在「討人厭」和 「憤世嫉俗」之間長大的，

(Laughter) (Applause)

（觀眾鼓掌笑）

And New York City's number one word is "now,"

紐約市的第一名則是「現在」，

as in, "Now I'm working as a waiter, but actually I'm an actor."

譬如說「我現在在當服務生， 但其實我是一名演員。」

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

Or, "Now I'm a professor of engineering at NYU, but actually I'm an artist."

或「我現在在紐約大學當工程學教授， 但我其實是一個藝術家。」

If you go upstate, you see "dinosaur."

往北邊看，可以看到「恐龍」，

That's Syracuse.

那是西拉鳩思。

The best place to eat in Syracuse, New York,

紐約州的西拉鳩思最好吃的餐廳，

is a Hell's Angels barbecue joint called Dinosaur Barbecue.

最棒的地獄天使燒烤， 店名就是「恐龍燒烤」，

That's where you would take somebody on a date.

必然的約會聖地。

I live somewhere between "unconditional" and "midsummer," in Midtown Manhattan.

我現在住在曼哈頓中城， 介於「無條件」和「仲夏」之間，

And this is gentrified North Brooklyn,

這是都更後的北布魯克林，

so you've got "DJ" and "glamorous" and "hipsters" and "urbane."

會有「DJ」、「五光十色」、 「嬉皮」和「都會」等字。

So that's maybe a more democratic portrait.

我想這應該是更普世自發的肖像畫，

And the idea was, what if we made red-state and blue-state maps

方法就是，把周五晚上我們想做什麼的基礎 套用在紅藍兩黨的城市地圖上。

based on what we want to do on a Friday night?

This is a self-portrait.

這是我的自畫像，

This is based on my email,

根據我的電子郵件，

about 500,000 emails sent over 20 years.

20 年來約有 50 萬封，

You can think of this as a quantified selfie.

你可以把它想像成一張 「量化」的自拍照。

So what I'm doing is running a physics equation

我把我的個人資料代入物理公式，

based on my personal data.

You have to imagine everybody I've ever corresponded with.

想像一下，所有我聯絡過的人，

It started out in the middle and it exploded with a big bang.

從中間開始，向外爆炸延伸，

And everybody has gravity to one another,

而每個人之間互相都有引力，

gravity based on how much they've been emailing,

引力大小取決於他們之間 發送電子郵件的頻率

who they've been emailing with.

And it also does sentimental analysis,

這也有做語意分析，

so if I say "I love you," you're heavier to me.

所以如果我說「我愛你」 那麼你對我的引力就越大。

And you attract to my email addresses in the middle,

你就會被我中央的 電子郵件所吸引

which act like mainline stars.

就像是一線明星一樣。

And all the names are handwritten.

而且所有的姓名都是用手寫的。

Sometimes you do this data and this work with real-time data

有時候你會用即時性的數據，

to illuminate a specific problem in a specific city.

來突顯某個城市的問題。

This is a Walther PPK 9mm semiautomatic handgun

這是瓦爾特 PPK 9 釐米半自動手槍，

that was used in a shooting in the French Quarter of New Orleans

那是一把兩年前因情人節的停車糾紛 在紐奧良法國區發生的槍擊案手槍。

about two years ago on Valentine's Day in an argument over parking.

Those are my cigarettes.

這是我的香菸。

This is the house where the shooting took place.

這是槍擊案地點的房子。

This project involved a little bit of engineering.

這個專案用到一點工程學，

我用一個電腦驅動裝置 帶動腳踏車鏈條來驅動攝影軸，

I've got a bike chain rigged up as a cam shaft,

with a computer driving it.

That computer and the mechanism are buried in a box.

整個電腦和機械被包在一個盒子裡，

The gun's on top welded to a steel plate.

手槍被焊在一片鋼板上，

There's a wire going through to the trigger,

再用繩索穿過扳機，

and the computer in the box is online.

盒子裡的電腦連線到

It's listening to the 911 feed of the New Orleans Police Department,

紐奧良警察局的 911 報案電話，

so that anytime there's a shooting reported in New Orleans,

所以紐奧良只要有槍擊案上報，

(Gunshot sound)

（槍響）

the gun fires.

就開槍一次。

Now, there's a blank, so there's no bullet.

那是空包彈，不是真的子彈，

There's big light, big noise

有強光、很大聲，

and most importantly, there's a casing.

更重要的是，又有槍擊案發生了。

There's about five shootings a day in New Orleans,

紐奧良每天約有 5 件槍擊案，

so over the four months this piece was installed,

所以這件作品展示的四個月間，

the case filled up with bullets.

這盒子被子彈填滿了。

You guys know what this is -- you call this "data visualization."

你們都知道這是什麼： 你們稱之為「數據視覺化」。

When you do it right, it's illuminating.

你做得好，它發光發熱，

When you do it wrong, it's anesthetizing.

做得不好，只會使人麻木，

It reduces people to numbers.

它把人命簡化成數字。

So watch out.

所以要當心這點。

One last piece for you.

最後一件作品，

I spent the last summer as the artist in residence

去年夏天 我以一名藝術家的身份

for Times Square.

駐紮在時代廣場

And Times Square in New York is literally the crossroads of the world.

紐約的時代廣場 確實是世界的十字路口，

One of the things people don't notice about it

但大家沒有注意到的是，

is it's the most Instagrammed place on Earth.

它是全球上傳 Instagram 最多的地方。

About every five seconds, someone commits a selfie

幾乎是每 5 秒鐘就有人 在時代廣場自拍上傳，

in Times Square.

That's 17,000 a day, and I have them all.

也就是每天有 17000 次， 我把它們全抓下來了。

(Laughter)

（觀眾笑）

These are some of them with their eyes centered.

這些是把他們雙眼置中的照片。

Every civilization,

每個文明，

will use the maximum level of technology available to make art.

都會用最高階的科技來創造藝術，

And it's the responsibility of the artist to ask questions

所以藝術家有責任要提出質問，

about what that technology means

思考科技的意義，

and how it reflects our culture.

科技如何反應我們的文化。

So I leave you with this: we're more than numbers.

最後我想告訴各位的是： 我們不只是一些數字，

We're people, and we have dreams and ideas.

我們是「人」， 人有夢想、有理念，

And reducing us to statistics is something that's done

把「人」簡化成統計數字

at our peril.

是將我們自己至於險境。

Thank you very much.

(Applause)

非常謝謝大家。

（掌聲）