Photographing Nature Beyond the Limits of Human Perception | Doris Mitsch | TED

譯者: LI YISI 審譯者: 麗玲 辛

A few years ago,

幾年前，

I suddenly had a lot of extra time to spend staring out the window.

我突然多出許多空閒來看看窗外。

Maybe you did a little bit of that, too,

也許您在新冠疫情一開始的 隔離期間也是如此。

in quarantine, at the start of the pandemic.

And while we were locked down,

在封鎖期間，

I got kind of fascinated with what was still moving out there.

對窗外仍在移動的東西，我特別著迷。

Like the local crows,

例如，當地的烏鴉。

每天早上，牠們準時飛下山；

who went on with their normal commute

down the side of the mountain every morning.

And up again every evening at crow quitting time.

然後每天傍晚的解散時間，準時上山。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

Birds of prey came out every day and made their rounds.

猛禽每天出來，在天空盤旋。

I'm using a process here called photo stacking,

這些作品我使用了疊焦的技術，

where you take multiple pictures from a fixed point over time

在一段時間內，從固定點 連續拍攝多張照片，

and layer them into one composite photograph.

然後將它們層疊成一張複合照片。

Photo stacking is a way to show the trails of things like stars,

疊焦可以用於展示物體軌跡，

譬如星星、螢火蟲、運動員、飛機等

fireflies, athletes, airplanes,

pretty much anything that moves.

任何運動的物體。

It's a way to make the shape of those movements visible.

這種技術讓運動形態變得清晰可見。

Most of these have between 500 and 2,000 layers.

大多數成品都有 500 到 2,000 層的照片。

They take a long time to build,

製作這種照片很花時間，

and a lot of that time is spent just experimenting with which layers to keep in

尤其費時的是試驗哪些圖層應保留，

and which to leave out of the final image.

而哪些圖層應刪除。

Here, a group of pelicans came in from one side

這張照片中， 一群鵜鶘從這邊飛來，

and noticed something intriguing in the water.

留意到水中的異樣；

Then another group came in from the other side

然後，另一群從另一邊飛來，

and circled around to check it out.

四周盤旋著查看。

So this isn't one moment frozen in time like a traditional photograph,

我的作品並非如傳統攝影裏 凍結時間的某一刻，

but something more like a story told in two dimensions

它是以二維平面呈現的故事，

with layers of the fourth dimension.

疊加了第四維度的圖層。

Kind of.

大概如此。

Looking at flight trails this way,

用這種方式觀察鳥類的飛行路徑，

you really notice some of the rhyming patterns that repeat everywhere in nature,

你會注意到在大自然中 隨處可見的重複韻律圖案，

like waves of sound or water

例如聲波、水波、

or spiraling galaxies,

螺旋星系、渦流和風暴。

whirlpools and storms.

And sometimes they seem to sort of sketch out other things

有時，這些軌跡似乎描繪著 我們通常看不見的東西。

that are usually invisible to us.

Like the thermal updrafts that hawks and vultures ride on,

例如，鷹和禿鷲飛翔著， 尋找空氣中微弱的亂流，

finding even the smallest patches of turbulence in the air to carry them.

乘著暖上升氣流飛行。

While I was working on these,

在研究的時候，

I learned that some vultures are so good at this

我發現有些禿鷲非常擅長這樣飛行，

that they can soar that way without flapping their wings at all

牠們可以用這種方式滑翔數小時， 而無需搧動翅膀。

for hours.

Which has to be the most meditative way there is to look for carrion.

這一定是最像冥想的 尋找腐屍的方式了。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

And this is what it looks like to navigate by shouting.

這是聲音導航的軌跡。

Bats are characterized as either whisperers or shouters,

蝙蝠要麼低聲细语，要麼大喊大叫。

and we're lucky that the range of our hearing ends

很幸運的是，蝙蝠的音頻 我們恰好聽不見，

right about where their voices begin

because the shouts can get up to 140 decibels,

因為牠們的鳴叫聲 高達 140 分貝，

as loud as a jet engine.

跟噴射引擎一樣大聲。

What we call silence is just the limit of our hearing.

我們所謂的寂靜， 只是因為人類的聽力有限。

I love to think about that,

我喜歡思考這件事。

and about how most other creatures,

例如，大多數生物，

from European moles to rainbow trout,

像歐洲鼴鼠、虹鱒魚，

find their way by wavelengths of light or sound

牠們利用光波長或聲音

or fields of electricity or magnetism that our senses just aren't set up for.

或我們感知不到的電場、磁場等找到方向。

And that those are just the ways that we know about.

而這些只是我們已知的方式。

In the 1930s,

1930 年代，

the British ornithologist Edmund Selous studied flocks of starlings,

英國鳥類學家埃德蒙·塞盧斯 （Edmund Selous）研究椋鳥群，

moving together as if they had one mind

牠們好像心有靈犀地一同移動。

and wrote a book on his conclusion that the birds must be psychic.

埃德蒙為此寫了一本書， 認為這些鳥類一定是通靈性的。

And, you know, there's still no evidence that they're not.

直到現在，仍沒有證據 證實牠們沒有通靈。

But we now know that they follow each other

但是我們現在知道，

牠們以一定的延遲跟隨彼此。

with a split-second lag time

that's just too short for our human sense of time.

這個延遲我們人類幾乎無法察覺。

And maybe for some predators,

也許對掠食者來說也是， 例如照片中間的遊隼。

like the peregrine falcon in the middle there.

So these are pictures of group decisions

在照片中，牠們做出集體決策， 速度快得我們無法察覺。

made at a speed that makes them invisible to us.

Pictures of the hidden intelligence in what might look at first random

在照片上，這些隱藏的智慧 乍看似乎十分隨機，

or even chaotic.

甚至顯得混亂。

Reminders that the universe isn’t built to our measure

但是，人不是萬物的尺度，

but operates on systems beyond our perception.

宇宙的運作超越人類的感官。

That what we call empty air is anything but empty.

我們認為的虛空不是虛空。

If you're a bat,

如果你是蝙蝠，

it holds the sound of the shape of a hillside.

虛空中有回聲，反射出山坡形狀，

It's also a map of magnetic signals and electrical fields.

虛空中畫有磁波信號和電場的地圖，

And a topography of the smells of krill patches and plankton blooms.

還有磷蝦群和浮游生物潮 氣味的地形圖。

We humans have invented whole digital worlds,

人類發明了數位世界，

but sometimes we still need to be reminded

但有時我們該提醒自己：

that there’s more in this heaven and Earth than is dreamt of in our philosophy.

天地之間的奧妙比各種學說 所能想像的還多得多。

And that there are endless ways to look at familiar sights,

有無盡的方法，可以用不同的視角，

like a bird in flight, with fresh eyes.

重新觀看熟悉的事物， 比如飛翔的鳥兒。

To expand our shared experience in a way that connects us

拓展人類的共同經驗， 以便讓我們與自然萬物連結。

with the rest of the living world.

To feel both kinship with our fellow creatures

感受和萬物同胞的親密關係，

and respect and even reverence for their otherness.

同時也尊重、甚至是尊敬牠們的不同。

In the words of the poet and naturalist Jarod K. Anderson,

詩人和自然學家賈洛·安德森 (Jarod K. Anderson) 說，

bats can hear shapes,

蝙蝠能聽見形狀，

plants can eat light,

植物能食用陽光，

bees can dance maps.

蜜蜂能舞出地圖。

We can hold all these ideas at once

我們可以心懷這些想法，

and feel both heavy and weightless with the absurd beauty of it all.

在荒誕的美感中同時體會沉重與飄浮。

Thank you.

謝謝。

(Applause)

（掌聲）