TEDGlobal 2011
Aparna Rao: High-tech art (with a sense of humor)
Aparna Rao: (帶幽默感的) 高科技藝術
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身為藝術家和 TED Fellow 的 Aparna Rao 把熟悉的事物以令人驚訝而更常常具帶幽默感的方式重新想像。與合作伙伴 Soren Pors 一起，Rao 創造出不同的高科技裝置 - 可發電郵的打字機、會在室內追蹤你但使你在屏幕上消失的攝影機 - 把尋常的物件和互動作一下好玩的旋轉。
Aparna Rao - Artist
A part of the Bangalore-based artist duo Pors & Rao, TED Senior Fellow Aparna Rao works with electro-mechanical systems and interactive installations. Full bio
A part of the Bangalore-based artist duo Pors & Rao, TED Senior Fellow Aparna Rao works with electro-mechanical systems and interactive installations. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:15
Hi. Today, I'm going to take you through glimpses
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大家好!今天，我會讓你一睹
00:17
of about eight of my projects,
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我與丹麥藝術家 Soren Pros
00:19
done in collaboration with Danish artist Soren Pors.
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合作的8個作品。
00:22
We call ourselves Pors and Rao,
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我們叫自己 Pors 與 Rao，
00:24
and we live and work in India.
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我們在印度生活和工作。
00:26
I'd like to begin with my very first object,
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我想從我最初的作品開始，
00:29
which I call "The Uncle Phone."
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我稱它爲 "叔叔的電話"。
00:31
And it was inspired by my uncle's peculiar habit
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我的靈感來自叔叔的古怪行為，
00:34
of constantly asking me to do things for him,
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他恆常要我幫他做點事情，
00:36
almost like I were an extension of his body --
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令我好像是他身體的延續 -
00:38
to turn on the lights or to bring him a glass of water,
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幫他開燈或拿杯開水，
00:40
a pack of cigarettes.
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拿包香煙之類。
00:42
And as I grew up, it became worse and worse,
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我長大後，他更變本加厲，
00:44
And I started to think of it as a form of control.
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令我開始覺得這是某種形式的操控。
00:46
But of course, I could never say anything,
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但當然我不容罝喙，
00:48
because the uncle is a respected figure
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因為叔父在印度家庭中
00:50
in the Indian family.
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是受尊敬的人物。
00:52
And the situation that irked me and mystified me the most
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最令我忿怒和不解的是
00:55
was his use of a landline telephone.
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他使用固網電話的時候。
00:57
He would hold on to the receiver and expect me to dial a number for him.
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他會手持聽筒等我替他撥號。
01:00
And so as a response and as a gift to my uncle,
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所以作爲回應和送給叔叔的小禮物，
01:03
I made him "The Uncle Phone."
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我造了這台"叔叔的電話"。
01:05
It's so long that it requires two people to use it.
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它長到需要兩個人才能使用。
01:08
It's exactly the way my uncle uses a phone that's designed for one person.
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這正好符合我叔叔使用為一人設計的電話的方式。
01:12
But the problem is that, when I left home and went to college,
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但問題是當我離家上大學後，
01:15
I started missing his commands.
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我開始懷念他的指令。
01:17
And so I made him a golden typewriter
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所以我又為他造了一部金色的打字機
01:19
through which he could dispense his commands
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他可以用它向世界各地的侄兒侄女
01:21
to nephews and nieces around the world as an email.
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發出電郵的指令。
01:24
So what he had to do was take a piece of paper, roll it into the carriage,
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他要做的是拿張紙，捲入打字機滾軸，
01:27
type his email or command and pull the paper out.
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打出電郵或指令，再把紙張拉出來。
01:30
This device would automatically send the intended person
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這部儀器會自動把那封信以電郵方式
01:33
the letter as an email.
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發送到指定的人仕。
01:35
So here you can see, we embedded a lot of electronics
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所以你在這裡可以看到我們嵌入了大量
01:38
that understands all of the mechanical actions
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可以了解所有機械動作然後再把它們數碼化
01:40
and converts it to digital.
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的電子零件。
01:42
So my uncle is only dealing with a mechanical interface.
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所以我的叔叔只是接觸機械的介面。
01:45
And of course, the object had to be very grand and have a sense of ritualism,
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當然，這件物件還要合乎我叔叔喜歡的
01:48
the way my uncle likes it.
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要很有氣派和儀式的味道。
01:50
The next work is a sound-sensitive installation
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另一件作品是對聲音敏感的裝置
01:53
that we affectionately call "The Pygmies."
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我們親切地稱它們為"俾格米人"。
01:56
And we wanted to work with a notion of being
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我們想營造一個
01:58
surrounded by a tribe of very shy, sensitive and sweet creatures.
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被一群非常害羞、敏感和甜美的生物圍繞的感覺。
02:02
So how it works is we have these panels, which we have on the wall,
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我們在牆上裝上這些面板，
02:05
and behind them, we have these little creatures which hide.
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在面板背後匿藏了這些小生物。
02:08
And as soon as it's silent, they sort of creep out.
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當環境靜下來，他們便會立刻爬出來的樣子。
02:11
And if it's even more silent, they stretch their necks out.
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更靜一點的話，他們更伸長脖子。
02:13
And at the slightest sound, they hide back again.
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當有輕微聲響時，它們又會躲起來。
02:16
So we had these panels on three walls of a room.
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我們在一個房間的三面牆上裝上這些面板。
02:19
And we had over 500 of these little pygmies hiding behind them.
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後面躲著超過 500個這些小俾格米人。
02:22
So this is how it works.
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它就是這樣操作的。
02:24
This is a video prototype.
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這是一個原型的錄像。
02:26
So when it's quiet, it's sort of coming out from behind the panels.
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因此，當環境靜下來，他們就會從面板背後爬出來。
02:29
And they hear like humans do, or real creatures do.
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他們像人類或真正生物一樣有聽覺。
02:31
So they get immune to sounds that scare them after awhile.
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因此，當他們聽過能嚇倒他們的聲音一段時間後，便會產生免疫作用。
02:34
And they don't react to background sounds.
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而不再對背景聲音作出反應。
02:37
You'll hear a train in moment that they don't react to.
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一息間你會聽到火車的聲音，而他們不會作出反應的。
02:40
(Noise)
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（火車聲）
02:42
But they react to foreground sounds. You'll hear that in a second.
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但他們會對前景的聲音有反應。跟著你就會聽到。
02:45
(Whistling)
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(口哨聲)
02:50
So we worked very hard
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所以我們很努力
02:52
to make them as lifelike as possible.
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盡量把他們造得像真人一樣。
02:56
So each pygmy has its own behavior, psyche,
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使每一個俾格米人都有自己的行為，心理狀態、
02:58
mood swings, personalities and so on.
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情緒波動和性格等。
03:01
So this is a very early prototype.
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這是一個很早期的原型。
03:03
Of course, it got much better after that.
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當然，之後就越來越好了。
03:05
And we made them react to people,
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我們讓他們對人有所反應，
03:07
but we found that people were being quite playful and childlike with them.
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我們發現，人們對他們表現得相當頑皮和稚氣。
03:11
This is a video installation called "The Missing Person."
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這是一個稱為“失踪者” 的錄像裝置。
03:14
And we were quite intrigued
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我們對把玩隱形的概念
03:16
with playing with the notion of invisibility.
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很有興趣。
03:18
How would it be possible to experience a sense of invisibility?
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如何才能體驗到隱形的感覺呢？
03:21
So we worked with a company
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所以，我們與一家
03:23
that specializes in camera surveillance,
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專門從事攝像監視的公司合作，
03:25
and we asked them to develop a piece of software with us,
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我們要求他們與我們一起開發一種軟件，
03:28
using a camera
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利用攝影機
03:30
that could look at people in the room, track them
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觀察在房間裡的人，然後追踪他們
03:32
and replace one person with the background, rendering them invisible.
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再用背景取代一個人，使他們隱形。
03:35
So I'm just going to show you a very early prototype.
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我現在給你看看一個非常早期的原型。
03:38
On the right side you can see my colleague Soren,
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在右邊你可以看到我的同事 Soren，
03:40
who's actually in the space.
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他實際處於那個空間內。
03:42
And on the left side, you'll see the processed video
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在左邊，你會看到處理過的視頻
03:44
where the camera has made him invisible.
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那裡攝影機使他隱形。
03:47
Soren enters the room. Pop! He goes invisible.
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Soren 進入房間。噗一聲!他就變成隱形。
03:50
And you can see that the camera is tracking him and erasing.
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你可以看到相機一直跟踪他然後把他的影像擦除。
03:53
It's a very early video,
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這是一個非常早期的視頻，
03:55
so we haven't yet dealt with the overlap and all of that,
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那時我們尚未處理影像重疊和其他的問題，
03:57
but that got refined pretty soon, later.
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但很快之後我們就把它改善了。
04:00
So how we used it was in a room where we had a camera looking into the space,
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我們在房間內放罝攝影機，
04:03
and we had one monitor, one on each wall.
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在每面牆上裝上視屏監視器。
04:06
And as people walked into the room,
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當人們走進房間，
04:08
they would see themselves in the monitor, except with one difference:
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他們會照常在監視器中看到自己，但是有一處不同：
04:11
one person was constantly invisible
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那就是其中一人
04:13
wherever they moved in the room.
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無論他走到那裡都不斷隱形。
04:15
So this is a work called "The Sun Shadow."
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這件作品稱為“太陽的影子”。
04:17
And it was almost like a sheet of paper,
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它幾乎就像一張紙，
04:20
like a cutout of a childlike drawing
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好像是充滿童真的兒童剪貼畫中
04:22
of an oil spill or a sun.
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的油污或太陽。
04:24
And from the front, this object appeared to be very strong and robust,
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從正面看，這個物件似乎是非常強壯和有力的，
04:27
and from the side, it almost seemed very weak.
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從側面看，它又顯得很虛弱。
04:30
So people would walking into the room and they'd almost ignore it,
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所以人們會走進房間，幾乎都會忽略它，
04:33
thinking it was some crap laying around.
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以為是隨意放置的垃圾。
04:35
But as soon as they passed by,
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但當他們從旁邊走過時，
04:37
it would start to climb up the wall in jerky fashion.
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它會開始抽搐地爬上牆壁。
04:39
And it would get exhausted, and it would collapse every time.
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但每次都會耗盡氣力而倒下來。
04:42
(Laughter)
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(笑聲)
04:44
So this work
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這件作品
04:46
is a caricature of an upside-down man.
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是一個上下顛倒的漫畫圖形人物。
04:48
His head is so heavy, full of heavy thoughts,
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他的頭部很重，充滿沈重的想法，
04:50
that it's sort of fallen into his hat,
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就像倒進他的帽子內，
04:52
and his body's grown out of him almost like a plant.
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身體像植物一樣從中長出來。
04:54
Well what he does is he moves around
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他表現出來就是繞著頭部
04:56
in a very drunken fashion on his head
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像喝醉酒似的轉動
04:58
in a very unpredictable and extremely slow movement.
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動作極之緩慢而難以預測。
05:01
And it's kind of constrained by that circle.
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像被那個圓圈制約著。
05:04
Because if that circle weren't there, and the floor was very even,
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因為如果沒有了那個圓圈，而地板是非常平滑的話，
05:07
it would start to wander about in the space.
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它會開始在那個空間游走。
05:09
And there's no wires.
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那裡沒有牽線。
05:11
So I'll just show you an instance --
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讓我給你看一個實例 -
05:13
so when people enter the room, it activates this object.
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人們進入房間會啟動這件物件。
05:15
And it very slowly, over a few minutes,
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它非常緩慢地，過幾分鐘後，
05:17
sort of painfully goes up,
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很痛苦的樣子地站起來，
05:19
and then it gains momentum
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然後它得到動力
05:21
and it looks like it's almost about to fall.
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之後看來又要倒下去。
05:23
And this is an important moment,
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這是一個重要的時刻，
05:25
because we wanted to instill in the viewer
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因為我們想觸動觀眾
05:27
an instinct to almost go and help, or save the subject.
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去幫助或拯救那人物的本能。
05:29
But it doesn't really need it,
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不過，實際上這是不必的，
05:31
because it, again, sort of manages to pull itself up.
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因為它再次能夠把自己拉起來。
05:34
So this work was a real technical challenge for us,
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這件作品在技術上對我們來說是一項真正的挑戰，
05:37
and we worked very hard, like most of our works, over years
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像我們大多數的作品一樣，幾年來我們十分努力
05:40
to get the mechanics right and the equilibrium and the dynamics.
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去弄妥機械力學，找出平衡和動力。
05:43
And it was very important for us
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對我們來說，十分重要的是
05:45
to establish the exact moment that it would fall,
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要確立它將下跌的準確時刻，
05:48
because if we made it in a way that it would topple over,
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因為如果我們把它弄到翻倒，
05:51
then it would damage itself,
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它會損壞，
05:53
and if it didn't fall enough, it wouldn't instill that fatalism,
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但是如果跌得不夠，又不能向人們傳達它即將倒地，
05:56
or that sense of wanting to go and help it.
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引起人們想要去扶助的感覺。
05:58
So I'm going to show you a very quick video
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讓我給你看看一段很快的視頻
06:00
where we are doing a test scenario -- it's much faster.
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我們正在進行測試 - 它的速度更快。
06:02
That's my colleague. He's let it go.
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那是我的同事。他放開手讓它跌下。
06:04
Now he's getting nervous, so he's going to go catch it.
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現在他開始變得緊張，所以他會去抓住它。
06:06
But he doesn't need to,
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但他不需要這樣做，
06:08
because it manages to lift itself up on its own.
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因為它會自己爬起來。
06:10
So this is a work that we were very intrigued with,
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這是一件我們很喜歡的作品，
06:13
working with the aesthetic of fur
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使用真皮，非常美。
06:15
embedded with thousands of tiny different sizes
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其中嵌入數以千計的微小的不同大小的光纖
06:18
of fiber optics, which twinkle like the night sky.
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使它在夜空中閃爍。
06:21
And it's at the scale of the night sky.
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它是以夜空的規模製作。
06:23
So we wrapped this around a blob-like form,
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我們把它包在泡狀物體上，
06:25
which is in the shape of a teddy bear,
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像個玩具熊的形狀，
06:27
which was hanging from the ceiling.
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掛在天花板上。
06:29
And the idea was to sort of contrast
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意念是想把
06:31
something very cold and distant and abstract like the universe
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像宇宙那樣寒冷、遙遠和抽象的東西
06:34
into the familiar form of a teddy bear,
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跟我們熟悉的形狀，
06:36
which is very comforting and intimate.
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使我們感到舒適和親密的玩具熊作對比。
06:38
And the idea was that at some point
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而這個藝術品的概念是在某個時刻
06:40
you would stop looking at the form of a teddy bear
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你會不再把它看作為是玩具熊
06:42
and you would almost perceive it to be a hole in the space,
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而幾乎是將其視作太空中的一個洞，
06:45
and as if you were looking out into the twinkling night sky.
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就像你望向閃爍的夜空一樣。
06:49
So this is the last work, and a work in progress,
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這是最後的一件作品，還未完成的作品，
06:51
and it's called "Space Filler."
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它叫做“空間填充物”。
06:53
Well imagine a small cube that's about this big
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想像一個這樣大的小立方體
06:55
standing in front of you in the middle of the room,
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在你面前的房中間，
06:57
and as you approached it, it tried to intimidate you
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當你接近它時，它會試圖嚇唬你
07:00
by growing into a cube
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把自己增長成
07:02
that's twice its height and [eight] times its volume.
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兩倍高、四倍大的立方體。
07:05
And so this object is constantly expanding and contracting
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這件物件不斷擴大縮小
07:08
to create a dynamic with people moving around it --
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與走近它的人產生一種動力 －
07:10
almost like it were trying
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就像它意圖
07:12
to conceal a secret within its seams or something.
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隱藏它的接縫或其他的秘密。
07:14
So we work with a lot of technology,
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所以我們用到大量科技，
07:17
but we don't really love technology,
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但我們並非真的鍾愛科技，
07:19
because it gives us a lot of pain in our work over years and years.
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它給我們的工作帶來年復一年的苦惱。
07:22
But we use it because we're interested
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我們利用科技只因我們
07:24
in the way that it can help us
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對它可幫助我們通過創造的作品
07:26
to express the emotions and behavioral patterns
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表達情感和行為模式
07:29
in these creatures that we create.
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而感到興趣。
07:31
And once a creature pops into our minds,
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當我們腦海中閃現一件創作物
07:33
it's almost like the process of creation
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就像是一個創造的過程
07:35
is to discover the way this creature really wants to exist
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去發掘這件作品真正想存在的方法
07:38
and what form it wants to take and what way it wants to move.
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和它存在的形式以及移動的方式。
07:40
Thank you.
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謝謝!
07:42
(Applause)
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(掌聲)
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Aparna Rao - ArtistA part of the Bangalore-based artist duo Pors & Rao, TED Senior Fellow Aparna Rao works with electro-mechanical systems and interactive installations.
Why you should listen
With the clever use of technology, TED Fellow Aparna Rao creates art installations that let people experience familiar objects and interactions in refreshingly humorous ways. From her sound-sensative "Pygmies" to her 2-person "Uncle Phone," Rao's work encourages participation rather than spectatorship. By combining high-tech and high-art, she imbues her creations with playful expression and quirky behaviors.
Rao studied at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, India, and at Interaction Design Institute in Italy. In 2005 she partnered with Soren Pors and they've worked in collaboration ever since as Pors & Rao.
Aparna Rao | Speaker | TED.com