Serious Play 2008
John Maeda: My journey in design
约翰·梅达的设计之路
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设计师约翰·梅达讲述他从一家西雅图豆腐厂到罗德岛设计学院的成长历程。2008年，他成为了那里的校长。梅达，一位不辞辛劳的实验家和机智诙谐的观察家，为我们探索设计与计算机结合时的美妙瞬间。
John Maeda - Artist
John Maeda, the former president of the Rhode Island School of Design, is dedicated to linking design and technology. Through the software tools, web pages and books he creates, he spreads his philosophy of elegant simplicity. Full bio
John Maeda, the former president of the Rhode Island School of Design, is dedicated to linking design and technology. Through the software tools, web pages and books he creates, he spreads his philosophy of elegant simplicity. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:16
I'm kind of tired of talking about simplicity, actually,
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我今天不太想谈论简约主义
00:19
so I thought I'd make my life more complex, as a serious play.
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那就把我的生活变得复杂些 让它严肃一点
00:22
So, I'm going to, like, go through some slides
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接下来 我会播放一些幻灯片
00:24
from way back when,
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先回到从前
00:26
and walk through them to give you a sense of how I end up here.
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然后向你们展示我是如何一步一步走到这里
00:29
So, basically it all began with
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其实一切都源于
00:31
this whole idea of a computer.
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这一个概念 - 计算机.
00:33
Who has a computer? Yeah.
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那谁有计算机呢? 嗯.
00:36
O.K., so, everyone has a computer.
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好吧, 每个人都有自己的计算机
00:38
Even a mobile phone, it's a computer.
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甚至一部手机也算是台计算机
00:40
And -- anyone remember this workbook,
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那.. 谁还记得这本操作手册
00:43
"Instant Activities for Your Apple" --
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"充分利用你的苹果电脑" --
00:45
free poster in each book?
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每本书都附一张免费海报?
00:47
This was how computing began.
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然后计算就开始了
00:49
Don't forget: a computer came out; it had no software.
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别忘了：计算机刚诞生时，里面并没有软件.
00:53
You'd buy that thing, you'd bring it home, you'd plug it in,
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你买来它, 带它回家, 给它插上电源,
00:56
and it would do absolutely nothing at all.
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结果它什么事情也做不了.
00:58
So, you had to program it,
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因此, 你还得为它写点程序,
01:00
and there were great programming, like, tutorials, like this.
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要编程的话是有一些很棒的 教程 比如这个
01:02
I mean, this was great.
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我想说它真的很棒
01:04
It's, like, you know, Herbie the Apple II.
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这好象是 你知道的 ‘’Herbie教你学苹果二代‘’
01:06
It's such a great way to --
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这种书真的很棒—
01:08
I mean, they should make Java books like this,
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我说 他们真应该把Java书也写成这样
01:11
and we've have no problem learning a program.
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那学编程简直就易如反掌了
01:13
But this was a great, grand time of the computer,
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当时对计算机来说可真是个好时候
01:15
when it was just a raw, raw, what is it? kind of an era.
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很原始 很初级 就像是 黄金时代
01:19
And, you see,
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然后 大家看
01:22
this era coincided with my own childhood.
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这一时代恰好和我的童年互相重合
01:24
I grew up in a tofu factory in Seattle.
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我在西雅图的一家豆腐厂里长大
01:27
Who of you grew up in a family business,
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在座的有谁是在家庭作坊中长大的?
01:30
suffered the torture? Yes, yes.
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吃了不少苦? 是的, 是的.
01:32
The torture was good. Wasn't it good torture?
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逆境出人才 受点磨难不好么?
01:35
It was just life-changing, you know. And so, in my life, you know, I was in the tofu;
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磨难能改变你一生 我这一生 你知道的 我在豆腐厂长大
01:38
it was a family business.
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那是一个家庭作坊
01:40
And my mother was a kind of a designer, also.
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我母亲从某种意义上来说也是设计师
01:43
She'd make this kind of, like, wall of tofu cooking,
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她做了这种 豆腐料理墙
01:46
and it would confuse the customers,
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然后顾客们都很疑惑,
01:48
because they all thought it was a restaurant.
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因为他们都觉得这是一家餐馆
01:50
A bad sort of branding thing, or whatever.
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品牌形象没弄对 是吧
01:52
But, anyway, that's where I grew up,
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但是, 不管怎样, 我就在这儿长大
01:54
in this little tofu factory in Seattle,
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这家西雅图的小豆腐作坊
01:56
and it was kind of like this:
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当时大概就这样:
01:59
a small room where I kind of grew up. I'm big there in that picture.
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小房间 我在这儿长大 照片里显得我很大
02:02
That's my dad. My dad was kind of like MacGyver, really:
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这是我爸爸. 我爸有点像MacGyver, 说真的
02:05
he would invent, like, ways to make things heavy.
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他会发明些把东西变重的方法
02:08
Like back here, there's like, concrete block technology here,
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比如这后面 有一个水泥块
02:11
and he would need the concrete blocks to press the tofu,
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他需要用这些水泥块来挤压豆腐
02:14
because tofu is actually kind of a liquidy type of thing,
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因为豆腐其实是有点像液体的东西,
02:17
and so you have to have heavy stuff
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所以你得用沉的东西
02:19
to push out the liquid and make it hard.
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把水分挤出来 把它弄结实
02:21
Tofu comes out in these big batches,
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豆腐出来时很大一块
02:24
and my father would sort of cut them by hand.
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然后我爸就会用手把它们切开.
02:27
I can't tell you -- family business story: you'd understand this --
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这个不能说 家族机密了 大家都理解的
02:30
my father was the most sincere man possible.
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我的父亲是世上最实在的人了
02:33
He walked into a Safeway once on a rainy day,
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一次下雨天他走进一家喜互惠超市
02:36
slipped, broke his arm, rushed out:
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滑倒 手骨折了 马上跑出来
02:38
he didn't want to inconvenience Safeway.
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他不想给喜互惠添麻烦
02:41
So, instead, you know, my father's, like, arm's broken
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结果 我把的手就断了
02:43
for two weeks in the store, and that week --
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两个星期 整整两星期
02:46
now, those two weeks were when my older brother and I
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我和我哥哥就不得不在店里
02:48
had to do everything.
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帮忙做所有事
02:50
And that was torture, real torture.
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这可真是苦 真苦啊
02:53
Because, you see, we'd seen my father
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再来说 我爸
02:55
taking the big block of tofu and cutting it,
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把那么一大块豆腐切开
02:57
like, knife in, zap, zap, zap. We thought, wow.
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像刀切一样 嚓 嚓 嚓 “哇哦~”
03:00
So, the first time I did that, I went, like, whoa! Like this.
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而我第一次切的时候就像这样 “唔哦..”
03:03
Bad blocks. But anyways,
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报废了 不过不管咋说
03:06
the tofu to me was kind of my origin, basically.
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豆腐就像我的根 基本上
03:10
And because working in a store was so hard,
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在店里工作实在太苦
03:13
I liked going to school; it was like heaven.
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我就很喜欢上学 学校简直就是天堂
03:16
And I was really good at school.
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在学校我表现也很好
03:18
So, when I got to MIT, you know,
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然后 我考上了麻省理工 大家知道的
03:20
as most of you who are creatives,
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和在座大部分创意人士一样
03:22
your parents all told you not to be creative, right?
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你们的父母都阻断过您的创意之路 是吧?
03:25
So, same way, you know,
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所以 都一样的
03:27
I was good at art and good at math, and my father says, he's --
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我美术很好 数学也好 我爸就说
03:29
John's good at math.
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约翰的数学最好了
03:31
I went to MIT, did my math,
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那我去了麻省理工 学数学
03:33
but I had this wonderful opportunity,
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直到我遇到这个绝佳机会
03:35
because computers had just become visual.
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计算机开始变得视觉化
03:38
The Apple -- Macintosh just came out;
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苹果电脑正好问世了
03:40
I had a Mac in hand when I went to MIT.
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我去MIT时就拥有一台苹果电脑
03:42
And it was a time when a guy who, kind of,
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那当时对于一个可以
03:44
could cross the two sides --
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横跨两个领域的人来说
03:46
it was a good time.
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是很好的机遇
03:48
And so, I remember that my first major piece of software
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结果 我记得我第一个重要的软件
03:51
was on a direct copy of then-Aldus PageMaker.
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是直接模仿当时的 Aldus PageMaker
03:54
I made a desktop publishing system way back when,
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我做了一个在桌面出版系统
03:57
and that was, kind of, my first step into figuring out how to --
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由此我在第一次了解到
04:00
oh, these two sides are kind of fun to mix.
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嗯 融合这两方面挺有趣的
04:02
And the problem when you're younger --
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而对于年轻人来说有个问题
04:04
for all you students out there --
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在做的各位学生记好了 --
04:06
is, your head gets kind of big really easy.
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就是 你非常容易自我膨胀
04:09
And when I was making icons, I was, like,
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当我设计图标的时候 我就像是
04:11
the icon master,
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图标之王
04:13
and I was, like, yeah, I'm really good at this, you know.
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然后我就说 是啊 我真的很在行
04:15
And then luckily, you know,
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然后很幸运地
04:17
I had the fortune of going to something called a library,
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我有幸去了某个地方——图书馆
04:20
and in the library I came upon this very book.
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在图书馆里我遇到了这本书
04:23
I found this book. It's called,
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我找到了这本书 它叫做
04:25
"Thoughts on Design," by a man named Paul Rand.
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"设计的思考" 是一个叫做保罗·兰德的人写的
04:28
It's a little slim volume; I'm not sure if you've seen this.
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它的出版量有点小; 不知你们见过没有
04:30
It's a very nice little book. It's about this guy, Paul Rand,
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很好的一本小书 关于这个人的 保罗·兰德
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who was one of the greatest graphic designers,
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当时最杰出的平面设计师之一
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and also a great writer as well.
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书也写得及很不错
04:37
And when I saw this man's work,
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当我看到此人作品时
04:39
I realized how bad I was at design,
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我才意识到我自己在设计上多么糟糕
04:42
or whatever I called it back then,
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不管当时我怎么说的吧
04:44
and I suddenly had a kind of career goal,
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突然我就有了某种职业目标
04:46
kind of in hot pursuit.
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追求的欲望还很强烈
04:50
So I kind of switched. I went to MIT, finished.
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这是个比较重要的转变 我去了MIT 念完了
04:54
I got my masters,
and then went to art school after that.
and then went to art school after that.
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拿到硕士学位 又去了艺术学校
04:58
And just began to design stuff,
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开始设计些东西
05:00
like chopstick wrappers, napkins, menus -- whatever I could get a handle on:
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比如筷子包装 餐巾 菜单 -- 任何我可以得到的机会
05:02
sort of wheel-and-deal, move up in the design world, whatever.
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有点横冲直撞 呆头呆脑地在设计路上前进 随便了
05:05
And isn't it that strange moment when you publish your design?
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发表设计作品的时候你们有没有觉得奇怪过?
05:08
Remember that moment -- publishing your designs?
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还记得那个时刻吗 -- 发表自己的设计?
05:10
Remember that moment? It felt so good, didn't it?
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记得那一刻吗? 感觉特好, 是不是?
05:13
So, I was published, you know,
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是的 我的设计出版了
05:14
so, wow, my design's in a book, you know?
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哇哦 我的设计被发表在一本书中了耶
05:16
After that, things kind of got strange,
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之后 事情就有点怪怪的了
05:18
and I got thinking about the computer,
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我开始思考计算机这个东西
05:20
because the computer to me always, kind of, bothered me.
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因为计算机总是会让我犯糊涂
05:23
I didn't quite get it. And Paul Rand
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我并不十分理解它 而Paul Rand
05:25
was a kind of crusty designer,
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是个有些暴躁的设计师
05:28
you know, a crusty designer, like a good -- kind of like a good French bread?
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懂么 暴躁的设计师 就像是一块.. 好的法国面包?
05:31
You know, he wrote in one of his books:
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他的一本书中写道:
05:33
"A Yale student once said,
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"一名耶鲁的学生曾说
05:35
'I came here to learn how to design, not how to use a computer.'
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'我来到这儿是学设计的 不是学怎么使用计算机的'
05:38
Design schools take heed."
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设计学校当心了。"
05:40
This is in the '80s,
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当时是80年代
05:42
in the great clash of computer/non-computer people.
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支持和反对计算机的人讨论得正激烈
05:45
A very difficult time, actually.
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那段时间其实很难熬
05:47
And this to me was an important message from Rand.
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对我来说这是Rand给我的重要信息
05:51
And so I began to sort of mess with the computer at the time.
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于是我开始捣鼓计算机
05:54
This is the first sort of play thing I did, my own serious play.
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这是我的第一次玩儿的东西, 我自己的严肃玩意儿
05:57
I built a working version of an Adobe Illustrator-ish thing.
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我做了一个类似Adobe Illustrator的实用程序
06:01
It looks like Illustrator; it can, like, draw.
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它看起来很像Illustrator 它可以 比如 画图
06:03
It was very hard to make this, actually.
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做这个其实挺难的
06:05
It took a month to make this part.
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做这部分花了一个月时间
06:07
And then I thought, what if I added this feature,
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然后我想, 要是加这样一个功能会怎样呢
06:09
where I can say, this point,
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比如我可以说 这个点
06:11
you can fly like a bird. You're free, kind of thing.
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你可以像鸟一样飞 你自由了 那意思
06:14
So I could, sort of, change the kind of stability
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所以我可以 好像 改变稳定性
06:18
with a little control there on the dial,
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利用一个控制盘上的小控件
06:20
and I can sort of watch it flip around.
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我就可以看它翻来翻去.
06:22
And this is in 1993.
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当是是1993年
06:25
And when my professors saw this, they were very upset at me.
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我的教授们看到这个时 都生气极了
06:29
They were saying, Why's it moving?
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他们说 为什么它要动?
06:32
They were saying, Make it stop now.
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他们说 马上让它停下来
06:35
Now, I was saying, Well, that's the whole point: it's moving.
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我就说 嗯 这才是一切的重点：让它动。
06:37
And he says, Well, when's it going to stop?
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然后他说 那么 它什么时候停下来?
06:39
And I said, Never.
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我说 永远不
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And he said, Even worse. Stop it now.
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然后他说 这更糟 现在就停下来
06:43
I started studying this whole idea,
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我开始研究这整个概念
06:45
of like, what is this computer? It's a strange medium.
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这个叫计算机的东西是什么? 它是一个很奇怪的媒介
06:48
It's not like print. It's not like video.
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它不像印刷 也不像视频
06:51
It lasts forever. It's a very strange medium.
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它持续永久 一种很奇怪的媒介
06:54
So, I went off with this,
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所以 我从这个开始
06:56
and began to look for things even more.
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并且开始开始寻找更多的东西
06:58
And so in Japan, I began to experiment with people.
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所以 在日本 我开始做与人相关的试验
07:01
This is actually bad: human experiments.
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其实这不太好: 人类试验
07:04
I would do these things where I'd have students become pens:
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我会做这样的事情, 让学生当笔:
07:07
there's blue pen, red pen, green pen, black pen.
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这是蓝笔, 红笔, 绿笔, 黑笔.
07:10
And someone sits down and draws a picture.
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然后一个人坐下来 画一副画
07:18
They're laughing because he said,
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他们在笑 因为他说
07:20
draw from the middle-right to the middle, and he kind of messed up.
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从中间靠右画到中间 然后他搞错了
07:23
See, humans don't know how to take orders;
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看 人类不知道如何接收命令
07:25
the computer's so good at it.
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计算机却很在行
07:27
This guy figured out how to get the computer to draw with two pens at once:
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这个人解决出了怎么让这个计算机用两支笔同时画:
07:30
you know, you, pen, do this, and you, pen, do this.
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你知道 你, 笔, 做这个; 然后 你, 笔, 做这个.
07:33
And so began to have multiple pens on the page --
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所以开始在纸上有了多支笔 --
07:36
again, hard to do with our hands.
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仍然, 用我们的手很难做.
07:39
And then someone discovered this "a-ha moment"
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然后一个人发现这个"啊哈时刻"
07:41
where you could use coordinate systems.
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就是你可以利用坐标系统.
07:44
We thought, ah, this is when it's going to happen.
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我们想, 哈, 这样问题就迎刃而解了.
07:46
In the end, he drew a house. It was the most boring thing.
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到最后, 他画了一座房子. 这事最无聊了
07:49
It became computerish; we began to think computerish --
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太计算机化了 我们开始像计算机一样思考 --
07:52
the X, Y system -- and so that was kind of a revelation.
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X, Y系统 -- 有点革命性
07:55
And after this I wanted to build a computer out of people,
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在这之后我又想用人建造一台计算机,
07:58
called a human-powered computer.
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叫做人力计算机.
08:00
So, this happened in 1993.
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这是在1993年.
08:04
Sound down, please.
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请调低声音.
08:05
It's a computer where the people are the parts.
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这是一台计算机, 人就是计算机部件.
08:09
I have behind this wall a disk drive, a CPU,
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在这面墙后面是一个存储器 一个CPU
08:13
a graphics card, a memory system.
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一个图形卡 一个存储系统
08:15
They're picking up a giant floppy disk made of cardboard.
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他们正在搬起一张巨大的用纸板做的软盘
08:18
It's put inside the computer.
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它被放到计算机中
08:21
And that little program's on that cardboard disk.
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那个小程序被输入到那张纸板盘中
08:24
So, she wears the disk,
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然后 她穿着盘
08:27
and reads the data off the sectors of the disk,
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从盘上的分段中读出数据
08:31
and the computer starts up; it sort of boots up, really.
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然后计算机开始运行 启动起来
08:34
And it's a sort of a working computer. And when I built this computer,
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这有点像一台工作着的计算机 我建造这个计算机时
08:37
I had a moment of -- what is it called? --
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在某一个刻突然 -- 怎么说? --
08:39
the epiphany where I realized that the computer's just so fast.
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顿悟了 我意识到计算机真是太快了
08:43
This computer appears to be fast - she's working pretty hard,
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这台计算机看起来挺快 - 她干得很卖力
08:47
and people are running around, and we think, wow, this is happening at a fast rate.
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大家都跑来跑去 我们想 哇 它正在很快地运行
08:51
And this computer's programmed to do only one thing, which is,
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这台计算机只被编程做一件事 就是
08:54
if you move your mouse, the mouse changes on the screen.
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当你移动鼠标的时候 屏幕上的鼠标就发生改变
08:57
On the computer, when you move your mouse, that arrow moves around.
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在计算机上 你挪动鼠标时 那小箭头跟着动
09:01
On this computer, if you move the mouse, it takes half an hour
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在这台计算机上 如果你挪动鼠标 它会花半小时的时间
09:03
for the mouse cursor to change.
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来让鼠标箭头改变位置
09:05
To give you a sense of the speed, the scale:
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让你体会一下速度的量级
09:07
the computer is just so amazingly fast, O.K.?
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计算机真是惊人的快 对吧?
09:10
And so, after this I began to do experiments for different companies.
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在这之后我开始为不同公司做试验
09:13
This is something I did for Sony in 1996.
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这是我在1996年为索尼做的
09:16
It was three Sony "H" devices
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这是三个索尼的H系列的设备
09:18
that responded to sound.
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响应声音
09:20
So, if you talk into the mike,
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如果你对着话筒讲话
09:22
you'll hear some music in your headphones;
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你会从耳机中听到一些音乐
09:24
if you talk in the phone, then video would happen.
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如果你对着电话讲话 会显示视频
09:26
So, I began to experiment with industry in different ways
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我开始以不同的方式与工业界进行试验
09:28
with this kind of mixture of skills.
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用这种混合的技能
09:31
I did this ad. I don't believe in this kind of alcohol, but I do drink sometimes.
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我做了这广告 我不相信这种酒 但有时会喝
09:35
And Chanel. So, getting to do different projects.
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还有香奈尔 是的 我开始做不同的项目
09:37
And also, one thing I realized is that
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而且 我意识到一件事
09:39
I like to make things.
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我喜欢创造
09:41
We like to make things. It's fun to make things.
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我们都喜欢创造东西 做东西的过程很有趣.
09:44
And so I never developed the ability to have a staff.
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因此我从不尝试去招募员工
09:46
I have no staff; it's all kind of made by hand --
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我没有员工 所有东西都是我亲手所做 --
09:48
these sort of broken hands.
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这些有点受伤的手
09:50
And these hands were influenced
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而影响这双手的
09:53
by this man, Mr. Inami Naomi.
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是这个叫Inami Neomi的先生.
09:56
This guy was my kind of like mentor.
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这个人算是我的指导老师
09:58
He was the first digital media producer in Tokyo.
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他是东京第一位数字媒体制作人
10:01
He's the guy that kind of discovered me,
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可以说是他发现了我
10:03
and kind of got me going in digital media.
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把我带入数字媒体领域
10:05
He was such an inspirational guy.
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他是个特别鼓舞人心的人
10:08
I remember, like, we'd be in his studio, like, at 2 a.m.,
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我记得 我们在他的工作室里 大概早上2点
10:11
and then he'd show up from some client meeting.
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然后他出现了 刚忙完某个客户会议
10:14
He'd come in and say, you know,
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他会进来说
10:16
If I am here, everything is okay.
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有我在这 一切都没问题.
10:19
And you'd feel so much better, you know.
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然后你就会感觉好很多
10:21
And I'll never forget how, like, but -- I'll never forget how, like,
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我永远不会忘记.. 不会忘记...
10:25
he had a sudden situation with his -- he had an aneurysm.
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他惨遭横祸 -- 会上了动脉瘤.
10:28
He went into a coma.
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后来就不省人事
10:30
And so, for three years he was out, and he could only blink,
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在他去世前的三年里 他就只能眨眼睛
10:33
and so I realized at this moment, I thought, wow --
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这一刻我突然意识到 哇啊
10:35
how fragile is this thing we're wearing,
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我们的躯壳多么的脆弱
10:37
this body and mind we're wearing,
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我们外在的躯壳与思想多脆弱
10:39
and so I thought, How do you go for it more?
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我就在想 我要怎么更多地利用它?
10:41
How do you take that time you have left and go after it?
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你应该如何好好利用剩余的时间?
10:44
So, Naomi was pivotal in that.
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Naomi让我想到了这一点
10:46
And so, I began to think more carefully about the computer.
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后来 我开始更认真地思考计算机
10:49
This was a moment where I was thinking about,
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这时候我就在想
10:51
so, you have a computer program,
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好, 你有一个计算机程序,
10:53
it responds to motion -- X and Y --
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它响应动作 -- X 和 Y --
10:57
and I realized that each computer program
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我意识到每一个计算机程序
10:59
has all these images inside the program.
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在程序内部都有这些图像
11:02
So, if you can see here, you know,
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如果你能看见这里
11:04
that program you're seeing in the corner,
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在这角落你正在看的程序
11:06
if you spread it out, it's all these things all at once.
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如果你把它展开 所有东西同一时间呈现
11:09
It's real simultaneity. It's nothing we're used to working with.
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真正同时发生的 和我们以前接触的东西都不一样
11:13
We're so used to working in one vector.
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我们习惯于在一个维度上工作
11:15
This is all at the same time.
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而这全部同一时间发生
11:17
The computer lives in so many dimensions.
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计算机处于多元维度中
11:19
And also, at the same time I was frustrated,
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而且 在那时我还很失望
11:21
because I would go to all these art and design schools everywhere,
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因为我要到各地的这些艺术和设计学校中去
11:23
and there were these, like, "the computer lab," you know,
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那儿有那些 "计算机实验室"
11:26
and this is, like, in the late 1990s,
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这大概是90年代后期的事
11:29
and this is in Basel,
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这是在巴塞尔
11:31
a great graphic design school.
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一家很好的平面设计学校
11:33
And here's this, like, dirty, kind of, shoddy,
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这个 脏脏的 有点破旧的
11:35
kind of, dark computer room.
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阴暗的计算机房里
11:38
And I began to wonder, Is this the goal?
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我开始琢磨 这就是目标吗?
11:40
Is this what we want, you know?
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这就是我们要的吗?
11:43
And also, I began to be fascinated by machines --
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同时 我开始对机器着迷 --
11:46
you know, like copy machines -- and so this is actually in Basel.
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比如说，复印机 -- 这是在巴塞尔
11:49
I noticed how we spent so much time on making it interactive --
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我注意到我们花了很多时间才令其交互可用 --
11:52
this is, like, a touch screen --
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这个 触摸屏 --
11:54
and I noticed how you can only touch five places,
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我发现怎么只能触摸五个地方
11:56
and so, "why are we wasting so much interactivity everywhere?"
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"为什么我们浪费了那么多交互的可能呢?"
11:59
became a question. And also, the sound:
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这是一个问题 还有 声音
12:02
I discovered I can make my ThinkPad pretend it's a telephone.
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我发现我可以把我的ThinkPad当电话来用
12:07
You get it? No? O.K.
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明白吗? 没有? 好吧
12:09
And also, I discovered in Logan airport,
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另外, 我在Logan机场发现,
12:12
this was, like, calling out to me.
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这个好像冲我叫喊
12:20
Do you hear that? It's like cows. This is at 4 a.m. at Logan.
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你听到了么? 像奶牛似的. 这是早上4点在Logan
12:23
So, I was wondering, like,
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我当时想
12:25
what is this thing in front of me, this computer thing?
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在我面前的到底是什么东西 这个叫计算机的东西?
12:28
It didn't make any sense.
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它让人难以理解
12:30
So, I began to make things again. This is another series of objects
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所以我又开始做东西了 这是另一个系列的物体
12:32
made of old computers from my basement.
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用我地下室的旧电脑做的
12:34
I made -- I took my old Macintoshes
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我做了 -- 用我的几台旧苹果电脑
12:36
and made different objects out of them from Tokyo.
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做了不同的物体
12:39
I began to be very disinterested in computers themselves,
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我开始对计算机本身非常不感兴趣
12:42
so I began to make paintings out of PalmPilots.
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于是我开始用PalmPilots做成画
12:44
I made this series of works.
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我做了这一系列东西
12:46
They're paintings I made and put a PalmPilot in the middle
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这是我画的画 中间放了个PalmPilot
12:49
as a kind of display that's sort of thinking,
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算是某种展示 某种思考
12:51
I'm abstract art. What am I? I'm abstract.
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我是抽象的艺术. 我是什么? 我是抽象的.
12:54
And so it keeps thinking out loud of its own abstraction.
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它一直努力思考自身的抽象性
12:58
I began to be fascinated by plastic,
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我开始对塑料着迷
13:01
so I spent four months making eight plastic blocks
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花四个月做了八个塑料立方体
13:04
perfectly optically transparent,
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完全透明的
13:06
as a kind of release of stress.
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作为一种压力的释放
13:09
Because of that, I became interested in blue tape,
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因为它 我对蓝色胶带产生了兴趣
13:12
so in San Francisco, at C.C., I had a whole exhibition on blue tape.
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所以在旧金山, 在CC, 我举办了一个关于蓝色胶带的展览
13:15
I made a whole installation out of blue tape -- blue painters' tape.
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我用蓝色胶带做了一整个装置 -- 蓝色刷子的胶带
13:17
And at this point my wife kind of got worried about me,
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到这个时候我妻子有点担心我了
13:20
so I stopped doing blue tape and began to think,
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于是我停下蓝色胶带 开始思考
13:22
Well, what else is there in life?
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那么 生活中还有什么其他东西?
13:24
And so computers, as you know,
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也思考计算机 大家知道的
13:27
these big computers, there are now tiny computers.
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这些巨大的计算机 现在有了微型的计算机
13:29
They're littler computers, so the one-chip computers,
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它们是更小的计算机 单芯片计算机
13:31
I began to program one-chip computers
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我开始给单芯片的计算机编写程序
13:33
and make objects out of P.C. boards, LEDs.
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而且用PC板和LED做些东西
13:37
I began to make LED sculptures
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我开始做LED雕塑
13:39
that would live inside little boxes out of MDF.
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放在中纤板做的小盒子中
13:42
This is a series of light boxes I made for a show in Italy.
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这是我为意大利一个展览做的一系列的发光盒子
13:46
Very simple boxes: you just press one button and some LED interaction occurs.
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很简单的盒子: 你只按一个按钮然后一些发生一些LED交互
13:49
This is a series of lamps I made. This is a Bento box lamp:
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这是我做的一系列台灯 这是一个便当台灯
13:52
it's sort of a plastic rice lamp;
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这是一个塑料的大米台灯
13:55
it's very friendly.
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它很友好
13:57
I did a show in London last year made out of iPods --
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去年我用iPod做了一个展览在伦敦展出 --
14:00
I used iPods as a material.
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我用iPods当作一个材料.
14:02
So I took 16 iPod Nanos
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我拿了16个iPod Nano
14:04
and made a kind of a Nano fish, basically.
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然后做了一种叫Nano鱼的东西
14:06
Recently, this is for Reebok.
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最近 这是为锐步做的
14:08
I've done shoes for Reebok as well,
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我也给锐步设计过鞋,
14:10
as a kind of a hobby for apparel.
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出于对时装的爱好
14:12
So anyways, there are all these things you can do,
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不管怎样, 这些都是你能做的东西,
14:15
but the thing I love the most is to
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但是我做喜欢的是
14:17
experience, taste the world.
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体验 品味世界
14:19
The world is just so tasty.
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世界太美味了
14:21
We think we'll go to a museum; that's where all the tastes are.
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我们会想说去博物馆吧 那是所有味道所在的地方
14:23
No, they're all out there.
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不 美味无处不在
14:25
So, this is, like, in front of the Eiffel Tower, really,
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这好像是在艾菲尔铁塔跟前
14:27
actually, around the Louvre area.
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实际是 在罗浮宫附近
14:29
This I found, where nature had made a picture for me.
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我发现这自然创造的美好画面
14:31
This is a perfect 90-degree angle by nature.
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这是自然形成的完美直角
14:33
In this strange moment where, like, these things kind of appeared.
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在某个奇怪的时刻 这些东西就那么出现了
14:36
We all are creative people.
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我们都是有创意的人
14:38
We have this gene defect in our mind.
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在我们的头脑中我们有这个基因瑕疵
14:41
We can't help but stop, right? This feeling's a wonderful thing.
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你我都只能停下来 对吧? 这种感觉十分美好
14:44
It's the forever-always-on museum.
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它就是永不打烊的博物馆
14:47
This is from the Cape last year.
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这是去年在好望角找到的
14:49
I discovered that I had to find the equation of art and design,
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我发觉我必须找出艺术和设计之间的等式
14:52
which we know as circle-triangle-square.
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看得出是圆形三角形正方形
14:55
It's everywhere on the beach, I discovered.
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沙滩上到处都是
14:57
I began to collect every instance of circle-triangle-square.
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我开始找寻每一个圆形三角形正方式的实例
15:00
I put these all back, by the way.
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顺便说一下 我可把它们都放回去了的
15:02
And I also discovered how .
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而且我也发现
15:04
some rocks are twins separated at birth.
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某些石头还是一出生即被分隔的双胞胎
15:07
This is also out there, you know.
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这也自然发生了
15:10
I'm, like, how did this happen, kind of thing?
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我就想 这是怎么发生的 这类东西?
15:12
I brought you guys together again.
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我让你们又团聚了
15:14
So, three years ago I discovered, the letters M-I-T
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三年前我发现 字母M-I-T
15:17
occurring in simplicity and complexity.
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在单词“简单”和“复杂”中都有出现
15:19
My alma mater, MIT, and I had this moment --
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我的母校 MIT 在这一刻
15:21
a kind of M. Night Shayamalan moment --
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我突然感觉峰回路转
15:22
where I thought, Whoa! I have to do this.
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我就想 哇! 我必须行动了
15:25
And I went after it with passion.
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当时可是十分激动
15:28
However, recently this RISD opportunity kind of arose --
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话说回来 最近罗德岛设计学院(RISD)的机会来了
15:32
going to RISD -- and I couldn't reconcile this real easy,
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去RISD -- 我可无法轻易接受
15:35
because the letters had told me, MIT forever.
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因为那几个字母已经告诉我 永远的MIT
15:39
But I discovered in the French word raison d'être.
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直到我发现在法语词语raison d'être(存在的理由)里.
15:42
I was, like, aha, wait a second.
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当时我 啊哈 等等
15:44
And there RISD appeared.
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RISD出现了...
15:47
And so I realized it was O.K. to go.
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然后我就这样觉得可以去
15:49
So, I'm going to RISD, actually.
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那么 我要去RISD了
15:53
Who's a RISD alum out there?
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这里谁是RISD的校友?
15:55
RISD alums? Yeah, RISD. There we go, RISD. Woo, RISD.
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RISD校友? 没错, RISD. 我说了吧, RISD. 喔, RISD.
15:58
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Art Center -- Art Center is good, too.
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对不起, 对不起 -- Art Center也很好.
16:00
RISD is kind of my new kind of passion,
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RISD是我新的激情.
16:04
and I'll tell you a little bit about that.
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我要告诉你关于它的一点故事.
16:07
So, RISD is --
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所以, RISD是 --
16:09
I was outside RISD,
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我当时在RISD外面,
16:11
and some student wrote this on some block, and I thought,
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某个学生在一块砖上写下这个 我就想
16:13
Wow, RISD wants to know what itself is.
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哇 RISD想知道它自己是什么
16:16
And I have no idea what RISD should be, actually,
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实际上我不知道RISD应该是什么
16:18
or what it wants to be, but one thing I have to tell you is that
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或者它想成为什么 但是我必须告诉大家
16:21
although I'm a technologist, I don't like technology very much.
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尽管我是名技术专家 但是我不太喜欢科技
16:24
It's a, kind of, the qi thing, or whatever.
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这好像有点玄乎 不管了
16:26
People say,
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人们问我
16:28
Are you going to bring RISD into the future?
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你会把RISD带到未来吗?
16:30
And I say, well, I'm going to bring the future back to RISD.
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我回到道 这个么, 我会把未来带回到RISD
16:33
There's my perspective. Because in reality,
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这是我的愿望 因为在现实中
16:36
the problem isn't how to make the world more technological.
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问题不是如何把世界变得更高科技
16:40
It's about how to make it more humane again.
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而是如何把它重新变得更人性化
16:42
And if anything, I think RISD has a strange DNA.
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更可能的是 我觉得RISD有一个特别的DNA
16:46
It's a strange exuberance
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它异常繁茂
16:48
about materials, about the world:
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关于材料 关于这个世界
16:50
a fascination that I think the world needs
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这正是这个世界所需要的一种魔力
16:52
quite very much right now.
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现在尤为需要
16:54
So, thank you everyone.
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谢谢大家.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
John Maeda - ArtistJohn Maeda, the former president of the Rhode Island School of Design, is dedicated to linking design and technology. Through the software tools, web pages and books he creates, he spreads his philosophy of elegant simplicity.
Why you should listen
When John Maeda became president of the legendary Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 2008, he told the Wall Street Journal, "Everyone asks me, 'Are you bringing technology to RISD?' I tell them, no, I'm bringing RISD to technology."
In his fascinating career as a programmer and an artist, he's always been committed to blurring the lines between the two disciplines. As a student at MIT, studying computer programming, the legendary Muriel Cooper persuaded him to follow his parallel passion for fine art and design. And when computer-aided design began to explode in the mid-1990s, Maeda was in a perfect position at the MIT Media Lab to influence and shape the form, helping typographers and page designers explore the freedom of the web.
Maeda is leading the "STEAM" movement--adding an "A" for Art to the education acronym STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math)--and experiencing firsthand the transformation brought by social media. After leaving his post as RISD's president, Maeda is turning his attention to Silicon Valley, where is is working as a Design Partner for Kleiner, Perkins, Caulfield and Byers. He is also consulting for eBay, where he is the chair of the Design Advisory Board.
John Maeda | Speaker | TED.com