［启点字幕组］
Light up the world
译者：卡米尔•马丁内斯评论员：克里斯蒂安•安帕塔
Translator: Camille Martínez Reviewer: Krystian Aparta
如果我让大家把空气画出来
If I asked you to picture the air,
你们会把它想像成什么样呢
what do you imagine?
大多数人想到的 要么是空空一片
Most people think about either empty space
要么是澄澈的蓝天
or clear blue sky
有时 又会是风中摇曳的树木
or sometimes trees dancing in the wind.
由此我记起 穿着长筒袜站在黑板前的高中化学老师
And then I remember my high school chemistry teacher with really long socks at the blackboard,
画着一连串的气泡简图
drawing diagrams of bubbles connected to other bubbles,
描述它们是如何在沸腾的汤水里翻滚的
and describing how they vibrate and collide in a kind of frantic soup.
但说实话 我们并不会时常想起空气
But really, we tend not to think about the air that much at all.
注意到它更多是
We notice it mostly
空气中混入了令人感觉不舒服的东西时
when there’s some kind of unpleasant sensory intrusion upon it,
比如 难闻的味道或烟 薄雾一样看得见的东西
like a terrible smell or something visible like smoke or mist.
但空气一直都在
But it’s always there.
此刻 它正触碰着我们所有人
It’s touching all of us right now.
甚至在我们的身体内部
It’s even inside us.
我们的空气是（与我们）最接近的 事关生死而又密不可分的
Our air is immediate, vital and intimate.
可是 却很容易被忽略
And yet, it’s so easily forgotten.
那么 空气究竟是什么呢
So what is the air?
它是包裹着地球 并被地球引力所吸引的
It’s the combination of the invisible gases that envelop the Earth,
众多不可见气体的集合体
attracted by the Earth’s gravitational pull.
即便作为一名视觉艺术家
And even though I’m a visual artist,
我也对空气这种不可见的东西感兴趣
I’m interested in the invisibility of the air.
我对大家怎样想象空气
I’m interested in how we imagine it,
怎样感受它
how we experience it
以及怎样通过呼吸对其重要性有天然的认知很感兴趣
and how we all have an innate understanding of its materiality through breathing.
地球上的生物通过呼吸来改变空气
All life on Earth changes the air through gas exchange,
而此刻我们正这么做呢
and we’re all doing it right now.
说实在的 此刻我们何不一起
Actually, why don’t we all right now together take
深吸一口气 一起来 大口吸气
one big, collective, deep breath in.
准备好了吗 吸～ 呼～
Ready? In. (Inhales) And out. (Exhales)
你刚呼出的那口气
That air that you just exhaled,
使二氧化碳的浓度增加了100倍
you enriched a hundred times in carbon dioxide.
粗略算一下 在一年的525600分钟内
So roughly five liters of air per breath, 17 breaths per minute
每次呼吸耗用5公升空气 1分钟呼吸17次
of the 525,600 minutes per year,
接近4500万公升的空气
comes to approximately 45 million liters of air,
二氧化碳浓度增加100倍
enriched 100 times in carbon dioxide,
就是为你
just for you.
那和18个奥运比赛用的泳池大小相当
Now, that’s equivalent to about 18 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
对我来说 空气是多样的
For me, air is plural.
它像我们的呼吸一样微不足道
It’s simultaneously as small as our breathing
同时又像这个星球一样巨大无比
and as big as the planet.
有点难以描绘
And it’s kind of hard to picture.
也许根本就不可能（描绘） 也许根本就没关系
Maybe it’s impossible, and maybe it doesn’t matter.
通过我的视觉艺术练习
Through my visual arts practice,
我试着制造出空气 与其把它画出来
I try to make air, not so much picture it,
而是真实的展现 使之能被触及并感知到
but to make it visceral and tactile and haptic.
我尽量扩大美学概念的外沿 看看情况会怎样
I try to expand this notion of the aesthetic, how things look,
以便能包含一些东西 比如 触及皮肤时感觉如何
so that it can include things like how it feels on your skin
在你的肺里感觉如何
and in your lungs,
空气拂过时 你的声音听上去会如何
and how your voice sounds as it passes through it.
我探索它的重量 密度和气味 但更重要地是
I explore the weight, density and smell, but most importantly,
关于接触不同种类的空气 我想了很多
I think a lot about the stories we attach to different kinds of air.
这是我2014年的一部作品
This is a work I made in 2014.
叫作“不同的空气：星球日志”
It’s called “Different Kinds of Air: A Plant’s Diary,”
我根据地球不同的演变历程 重新生成了空气
where I was recreating the air from different eras in Earth’s evolution,
邀请观众进来和我一起呼吸（这些空气）
and inviting the audience to come in and breathe them with me.
确实很令人震惊 完全不一样
And it’s really surprising, so drastically different.
我不是一名科学家
Now, I’m not a scientist,
但大气学家将从地质学中的大气化学
but atmospheric scientists will look for traces
追寻线索
in the air chemistry in geology,
有点像石头氧化的过程
a bit like how rocks can oxidize,
他们会分析信息并进行汇总
and they’ll extrapolate that information and aggregate it,
如此一来 他们就取得了
such that they can pretty much form a recipe
（制造）不同时期空气的配方
for the air at different times.
然后 我作为一个艺术家 过来并拿走配方
Then I come in as the artist and take that recipe
用混合气体重新生成了空气
and recreate it using the component gases.
实际上 我对生活中改变空气瞬间的例证
I was particularly interested in moments of time
很感兴趣
that are examples of life changing the air,
但是空气也能影响生活的进程
but also the air that can influence how life will evolve,
比如石炭系气体
like Carboniferous air.
它形成于3到3.5亿年前
It’s from about 300 to 350 million years ago.
那个时代因其伟大而广为人知
It’s an era known as the time of the giants.
木质素的进化 人类历史上的第一次
So for the first time in the history of life, lignin evolves.
它是使树木变得坚硬的一种物质
That’s the hard stuff that trees are made of.
所以 这时候 树木快速生长
So trees effectively invent their own trunks at this time,
它们长的确实很大 越来越大 就像给地球撒胡椒似的
and they get really big, bigger and bigger, and pepper the Earth,
释放氧气 释放氧气 释放氧气
releasing oxygen, releasing oxygen, releasing oxygen,
那时的氧气含量大约是今天（氧气含量）的两倍
such that the oxygen levels are about twice as high as what they are today.
充足的氧气使大量的昆虫得以繁衍——
And this rich air supports massive insects —
巨大的蜘蛛和长有大约65厘米翼展的蜻蜓
huge spiders and dragonflies with a wingspan of about 65 centimeters.
呼吸吧 空气确实干净而又新鲜
To breathe, this air is really clean and really fresh.
味道不是太浓
It doesn’t so much have a flavor,
但确实给你的身体一种微妙的 精力充沛的感觉
but it does give your body a really subtle kind of boost of energy.
对宿醉也有帮助
It’s really good for hangovers.
有一种（引起）大灭绝的空气——
Or there’s the air of the Great Dying —
大约在2.525亿年前
that’s about 252.5 million years ago,
刚好早于恐龙的出现
just before the dinosaurs evolve.
从地质学的角度来讲 它是一段很短的时期
It’s a really short time period, geologically speaking,
大约从20到20万年
from about 20- to 200,000 years.
确实很快
Really quick.
这是地球历史上最大的生物灭绝事件
This is the greatest extinction event in Earth’s history,
甚至有过于恐龙灭绝
even bigger than when the dinosaurs died out.
85%到95%的物种都在这一时期灭绝了
Eighty-five to 95 percent of species at this time die out,
而且 与此同时 二氧化碳粉墨登场
and simultaneous to that is a huge, dramatic spike in carbon dioxide,
很多科学家承认
that a lot of scientists agree
二氧化碳同时来自火山喷发
comes from a simultaneous eruption of volcanoes
以及“逃走的”温室效应
and a runaway greenhouse effect.
氧气的含量 比今天的一半还低 大概只有10%
Oxygen levels at this time go to below half of what they are today, so about 10 percent.
这点氧气根本无法满足人类生存
So this air would definitely not support human life,
但仅用于呼吸还是可以的
but it’s OK to just have a breath.
说到呼吸 （这种空气）说不上来的舒服
And to breathe, it’s oddly comforting.
很平静 非常温暖
It’s really calming, it’s quite warm
有点像苏打水的味道
and it has a flavor a little bit like soda water.
它就这样细细喷洒 令人愉悦
It has that kind of spritz, quite pleasant.
对过去空气的想法
So with all this thinking about air of the past,
很自然的会开始想到未来的空气
it’s quite natural to start thinking about the air of the future.
不要再对未来的空气作预测了
And instead of being speculative with air
使用这种 我认为可能是未来空气的气体
and just making up what I think might be the future air,
我发明的这种人工合成的空气
I discovered this human-synthesized air.
那意味着它不会在自然界的任何地方发生
That means that it doesn’t occur anywhere in nature,
但却由人类在实验室制成了
but it’s made by humans in a laboratory
用于不同的工业领域
for application in different industrial settings.
为什么称它是未来的空气呢
Why is it future air?
这种空气确实拥有稳定的分子
Well, this air is a really stable molecule
一旦被释放出去 它会逐渐成为空气的一部分
that will literally be part of the air once it’s released,
在它分解之前 （可以）服务于未来300到400年
for the next 300 to 400 years, before it’s broken down.
也就是12到16代人
So that’s about 12 to 16 generations.
这种未来的空气有一些非常有感觉的特性
And this future air has some very sensual qualities.
它很重
It’s very heavy.
大概比我们已经呼吸惯了的空气重八倍
It’s about eight times heavier than the air we’re used to breathing.
相当重 事实上 当你把它吸进去时
It’s so heavy, in fact, that when you breathe it in,
无论你说什么话 都会有几分重量
whatever words you speak are kind of literally heavy as well,
所以它们会从下巴滴落 坠到地上 浸入板间的裂缝
so they dribble down your chin and drop to the floor and soak into the cracks.
它是一种具有很多用途的类似液体的空气
It’s an air that operates quite a lot like a liquid.
现在 伦理维度也伴随着这种空气出现了
Now, this air comes with an ethical dimension as well.
人类制造这种气体
Humans made this air,
但它也是一种潜在的温室气体
but it’s also the most potent greenhouse gas
这已经被验证过了
that has ever been tested.
它产生的温室效应程度是二氧化碳的24000倍
Its warming potential is 24,000 times that of carbon dioxide,
而且它会延续12到16代
and it has that longevity of 12 to 16 generations.
所以 直面伦理（问题）确实是我工作的重心
So this ethical confrontation is really central to my work.
［一个低沉的声音］它还有另一个相当惊人的特性
［In a lowered voice］It has another quite surprising quality.
可以非常显著地改变你的声音
It changes the sound of your voice quite dramatically.
所以 当你开始想——噢 我的声音还在
So when we start to think — ooh! It’s still there a bit.
当我们考虑气候变化时
When we think about climate change,
可能不会考虑到巨大的昆虫和火山喷发 或有趣的声音
we probably don’t think about giant insects and erupting volcanoes or funny voices.
更容易进入脑海中的
The images that more readily come to mind
是冰川融化 北极熊漂浮在冰山上之类的图像
are things like retreating glaciers and polar bears adrift on icebergs.
我们要考虑饼图和柱状图
We think about pie charts and column graphs
要考虑穿着羊毛衫的政客对科学家没完没了的讲话
and endless politicians talking to scientists wearing cardigans.
但也许到了 像出于本能感受空气那样
But perhaps it’s time we start thinking about climate change
考虑气候变化的时候了
on the same visceral level that we experience the air.
像空气一样 气候变化也处在粒子层面上
Like air, climate change is simultaneously at the scale of the molecule,
（微不足道的）呼吸和（巨大无比的）星球
the breath and the planet.
最接近的 生命攸关且密不可分的
It’s immediate, vital and intimate,
不但无固定形状也难于处理的
as well as being amorphous and cumbersome.
然而 却很容易被忘掉
And yet, it’s so easily forgotten.
气候变化是人类集体的自画像
Climate change is the collective self-portrait of humanity.
它反映了我们作出的决定： 个人的
It reflects our decisions as individuals,
政府的 以及工业的
as governments and as industries.
如果说我从观察空气学到什么的话
And if there’s anything I’ve learned from looking at air,
那就是 即使不断变化 它也（还是）会一直存在
it’s that even though it’s changing, it persists.
它可能不再适用于我们所熟悉的那种生活
It may not support the kind of life that we’d recognize,
但总会适用于一些事儿
but it will support something.
如果我们人类 在这种改变中 处于举足轻重的位置
And if we humans are such a vital part of that change,
我认为 能对这次讨论心有戚戚焉 这点很重要
I think it’s important that we can feel the discussion.
因为 即便空气是看不见的
Because even though it’s invisible,
人类也在空气中留下了魅力四射的痕迹
humans are leaving a very vibrant trace in the air.
谢谢大家
Thank you.