TED2008
Chris Jordan: Turning powerful stats into art
克里斯乔丹勾勒出一些惊人的数据
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克里斯乔丹向我们展示了西方文化令人震惊的一面.他的巨幅作品勾画出一些几乎无法想像的数据:比如我们每天用掉的纸杯的惊人数量.
Chris Jordan - Artist
Chris Jordan runs the numbers on modern American life -- making large-format, long-zoom artwork from the most mindblowing data about our stuff. Full bio
Chris Jordan runs the numbers on modern American life -- making large-format, long-zoom artwork from the most mindblowing data about our stuff. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:12
My work is about the behaviors that we all engage in unconsciously,
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我的作品描绘了我们大家都会有的下意识的行为
00:17
on a collective level.
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大量积累后的结果
00:19
And what I mean by that, it's the behaviors
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我的意思是说 对于这些行为
00:21
that we're in denial about,
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我们会矢口否认
00:22
and the ones that operate below the surface of our daily awareness.
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这些行为是我们日常生活中完全没有意识到的
00:29
And as individuals, we all do these things, all the time, everyday.
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但是我们每一个人 每一天 每时每刻都在做着这类事
00:32
It's like when you're mean to your wife
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比如说你对你的老婆态度恶劣
00:35
because you're mad at somebody else.
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因为你被其他人给气着了
00:37
Or when you drink a little too much at a party, just out of anxiety.
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或者你在一个派对上多喝了几杯 只是出于焦虑
00:40
Or when you overeat because your feelings are hurt, or whatever.
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再或者你特别能吃 因为你遭受了情感伤害或者其他什么原因
00:46
And when we do these kind of things,
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那么当我们做这类事情的时候
00:48
when 300 million people do unconscious behaviors,
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当3亿人都下意识地做了同一件事
00:52
then it can add up to a catastrophic consequence
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其结果累计起来就会是毁灭性的
00:55
that nobody wants, and no one intended.
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而这结果是没有人愿意看到的 谁也不会故意去做这样的事
00:57
And that's what I look at with my photographic work.
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这类积少成多的无意识行为也正是我的摄影作品所关注的
01:00
This is an image I just recently completed, that is --
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这是我最近刚完成的一幅作品
01:04
when you stand back at a distance,
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当你站在远处看的时候
01:05
it looks like some kind of neo-Gothic, cartoon image
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它看起来好像一幅新歌特式的卡通画
01:08
of a factory spewing out pollution.
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画的是一个工厂正在排放污染
01:11
And as you get a little bit closer,
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当你走近一点
01:14
it starts looking like lots of pipes, like maybe a chemical plant,
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它看起来像是很多的管子 像是一个化工厂
01:18
or a refinery, or maybe a hellish freeway interchange.
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或是一个炼油厂 也许是高速公路的立体交叉道
01:22
And as you get all the way up close,
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但如果你走到跟前来看的话
01:23
you realize that it's actually made of lots and lots of plastic cups.
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你会发现原来这实际上是很多很多的塑料杯子
01:28
And in fact, this is one million plastic cups,
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事实上 这里是1百万个塑料杯
01:30
which is the number of plastic cups that are used on airline flights
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这正是美国的航空公司
01:35
in the United States every six hours.
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每6个小时消耗掉的塑料杯的数量
01:36
We use four million cups a day on airline flights,
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我们每天要在飞机上用掉4百万个塑料杯
01:41
and virtually none of them are reused or recycled.
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而且没有一个杯子被回收或再利用
01:43
They just don't do that in that industry.
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整个行业里没有人去做这件事
01:46
Now, that number is dwarfed
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但是跟另一个数目比起来 这个塑料杯的数目简直是小巫见大巫
01:48
by the number of paper cups we use every day,
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现在我要说的是我们每天用掉的纸杯的数量
01:51
and that is 40 million cups a day for hot beverages,
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我们每天要用掉4千万个纸杯用来装热饮
01:54
most of which is coffee.
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主要是咖啡
01:55
I couldn't fit 40 million cups on a canvas,
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我无法在一张画布上塞进4千万个纸杯
01:58
but I was able to put 410,000. That's what 410,000 cups looks like.
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但是我可以装下41万个 这就是41万个纸杯的样子
02:03
That's 15 minutes of our cup consumption.
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而这仅仅是我们在15分钟内用掉的纸杯的数量
02:04
And if you could actually stack up that many cups in real life,
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如果在生活中你真的能把41万个纸杯码起来
02:08
that's the size it would be.
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那将会是这么大
02:09
And there's an hour's worth of our cups.
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一小时内用掉的纸杯量就会是这么大
02:12
And there's a day's worth of our cups.
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这是每天用掉的纸杯量
02:13
You can still see the little people way down there.
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你仍然能看到下边有几个人 他们是这么小
02:15
That's as high as a 42-story building,
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这相当于42层楼高
02:17
and I put the Statue of Liberty in there as a scale reference.
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我把自由女神像放进来 作为体积参考
02:23
Speaking of justice, there's another phenomenon going on in our culture
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说到正义 在我们的文化中有另外一个现象
02:26
that I find deeply troubling, and that is that America, right now,
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令我感到十分不安 那就是现今的美国
02:29
has the largest percentage of its population in prison
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有着最大数量的监狱在押人员比例
02:32
of any country on Earth.
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比世界上任何一个国家都要高
02:35
One out of four people, one out of four humans in prison
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全世界每4个在押犯人中就有1个
02:38
are Americans, imprisoned in our country.
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是关押在我们国家的美国人
02:43
And I wanted to show the number.
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我想把这个数目告诉大家
02:44
The number is 2.3 million Americans were incarcerated in 2005.
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2005年有230万美国人在押
02:48
And that's gone up since then, but we don't have the numbers yet.
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这个数目还在持续上升 但我们还没有更新的数据
02:50
So, I wanted to show 2.3 million prison uniforms,
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那么我想展示230万套犯人服
02:54
and in the actual print of this piece,
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把这幅作品印出来以后 我们会看到
02:57
each uniform is the size of a nickel on its edge.
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每一套犯人服就像一枚5美分硬币的边缘那么小
03:00
They're tiny. They're barely visible as a piece of material,
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简直是太小了 几乎看不出这是一件有质感的东西
03:03
and to show 2.3 million of them required a canvas
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但我却无法把230万套犯人服都放在同一张画布上
03:07
that was larger than any printer in the world would print.
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因为世界上没有任何一台打印机能打印出如此巨大的一幅画
03:09
And so I had to divide it up into multiple panels
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所以我不得不把它们分成很多块
03:11
that are 10 feet tall by 25 feet wide.
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高度是10英尺(约3米）宽度是25英尺（约7米6）
03:13
This is that piece installed in a gallery in New York --
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这幅作品陈列在纽约的一家画廊里
03:18
those are my parents looking at the piece.
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这两个人是我的父母 他们正在看这幅作品
03:20
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
03:23
Every time I look at this piece,
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每次我看到这件作品的时候
03:24
I always wonder if my mom's whispering to my dad,
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我总觉得我妈妈应该是在跟我爸爸说
03:26
"He finally folded his laundry."
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他终于知道洗完衣服要叠好放起来了
03:28
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
03:31
I want to show you some pieces now that are about addiction.
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现在我想给你们看一些令人上瘾的东西
03:33
And this particular one is about cigarette addiction.
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这一幅是关于烟瘾的
03:37
I wanted to make a piece that shows the actual number of Americans
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我想创作一幅作品能够展示
03:40
who die from cigarette smoking.
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死于吸烟的美国人的实际数量
03:42
More than 400,000 people die in the United States every year
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每年有超过40万美国人
03:45
from smoking cigarettes.
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死于吸烟
03:47
And so, this piece is made up of lots and lots of boxes of cigarettes.
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因此这幅作品是由很多很多的烟盒组成的
03:51
And, as you slowly step back,
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如果你慢慢退后从远处看的话
03:52
you see that it's a painting by Van Gogh, called "Skull with Cigarette."
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你能看到这是梵高的一幅作品 名叫“叼香烟的骷髅头”
03:56
It's a strange thing to think about, that on 9/11,
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想来也怪 9/11惨剧发生的时候
04:00
when that tragedy happened, 3,000 Americans died.
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有3000名美国人丧生
04:02
And do you remember the response?
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你们还记得我们当时的反应吗？
04:05
It reverberated around the world,
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其影响波及全球
04:07
and will continue to reverberate through time.
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而且会在很长时间内延续下去
04:10
It will be something that we talk about in 100 years.
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这件事我们在今后的100年里都会提及
04:13
And yet on that same day, 1,100 Americans died from smoking.
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但是就在同一天 1100名美国人死于吸烟
04:18
And the day after that, another 1,100 Americans died from smoking.
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之后的一天内 又有1100名美国人死于吸烟
04:21
And every single day since then, 1,100 Americans have died.
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从那天起的每一天里 都有1100人死去
04:25
And today, 1,100 Americans are dying from cigarette smoking.
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就在今天 仍有1100个美国人因为吸烟而丧命
04:27
And we aren't talking about it -- we dismiss it.
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但我们从来不讨论这件事 我们把它草草打发了
04:32
The tobacco lobby, it's too strong.
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烟草公司的游说太强了
04:34
We just dismiss it out of our consciousness.
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我们把吸烟的危害完全排除出意识之外
04:38
And knowing what we know about the destructive power of cigarettes,
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即使我们知道香烟的巨大危害
04:44
we continue to allow our children, our sons and daughters,
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我们仍然允许我们的孩子 儿子和女儿们
04:48
to be in the presence of the influences that start them smoking.
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继续遭受吸烟的危害
04:51
And this is what the next piece is about.
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接下来这一幅作品是
04:54
This is just lots and lots of cigarettes: 65,000 cigarettes,
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很多很多香烟 总共6万5千支香烟
04:57
which is equal to the number of teenagers
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这个数字等同于这个月
05:00
who will start smoking this month, and every month in the U.S.
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以及每一个月在美国开始吸烟的青少年的数量
05:03
More than 700,000 children in the United States aged 18 and under
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在美国 每年有超过70万18岁或更小的孩子
05:07
begin smoking every year.
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开始吸烟
05:09
One more strange epidemic in the United States
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在美国有另外一种更奇怪的"传染病“
05:15
that I want to acquaint you with
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我想让你们了解一下
05:17
is this phenomenon of abuse and misuse of prescription drugs.
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那就是滥用处方药的现象
05:23
This is an image I've made out of lots and lots of Vicodin.
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这幅作品里是很多很多的维柯丁
05:27
Well, actually, I only had one Vicodin
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事实上 我只有一片维柯丁
05:29
that I scanned lots and lots of times.
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我把它扫描了很多很多遍
05:31
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
05:32
And so, as you stand back, you see 213,000 Vicodin pills,
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站远一点你可以看到这是21万3千片维柯丁
05:35
which is the number of hospital emergency room visits
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这个数量是美国每年
05:39
yearly in the United States,
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由于滥用和误用止痛药剂
05:40
attributable to abuse and misuse of prescription painkillers
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和镇定药剂而导致的
05:45
and anti-anxiety medications.
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医院的急诊人次
05:46
One-third of all drug overdoses in the U.S. --
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在美国三分之一的药物过量
05:50
and that includes cocaine, heroin, alcohol, everything --
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包括可卡因 海洛因 酒精 所有（你能想到的）
05:53
one-third of drug overdoses are prescription medications.
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三分之一的药物过量都是处方药
05:58
A strange phenomenon.
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这是个奇怪的现象
05:59
This is a piece that I just recently completed
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这幅作品我近期才完成
06:03
about another tragic phenomenon. And that is the phenomenon,
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是关于另一种可悲的现象
06:06
this growing obsession we have with breast augmentation surgery.
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就是我们对隆胸手术越来越迷恋
06:12
384,000 women, American women, last year
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去年有38万4千名美国妇女
06:16
went in for elective breast augmentation surgery.
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去做隆胸手术
06:21
It's rapidly becoming the most popular high school graduation gift,
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这迅速成为最受欢迎的高中毕业礼物
06:25
given to young girls who are about to go off to college.
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送给那些即将步入大学的女孩子的礼物
06:31
So, I made this image out of Barbie dolls,
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于是我用芭比娃娃创作了这幅作品
06:34
and so, as you stand back you see this kind of floral pattern,
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如果你站远点 会看到这种像花瓣一样的图案
06:39
and as you get all the way back, you see 32,000 Barbie dolls,
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如果你站到很远 你会看到3万2千个芭比娃娃
06:43
which represents the number of breast augmentation surgeries
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这等同于美国每个月做的
06:46
that are performed in the U.S. each month.
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隆胸手术的数量
06:48
The vast majority of those are on women under the age of 21.
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绝大部分是21岁以下的女性
06:54
And strangely enough, the only plastic surgery
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更有趣的是 在所有整容手术中只有另外一种 比隆胸更受欢迎
06:56
that is more popular than breast augmentation is liposuction,
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那就是吸脂手术
07:00
and most of that is being done by men.
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而大部分接受吸脂手术的是男性
07:02
Now, I want to emphasize that these are just examples.
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现在我只想强调一点 之前这些仅仅是一些例子
07:06
I'm not holding these out as being the biggest issues.
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我并不是要把它们作为最严重的问题特别提出来
07:09
They're just examples.
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这些只是普普通通的例子
07:12
And the reason that I do this, it's because I have this fear
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我之所以要这样做 是因为我恐怕
07:16
that we aren't feeling enough as a culture right now.
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我们并没有感觉到这就是我们现有的文化
07:20
There's this kind of anesthesia in America at the moment.
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当今的美国社会对这些现象已经麻木不仁了
07:23
We've lost our sense of outrage, our anger and our grief
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我们已经丧失了愤慨 气愤和悲痛感
07:31
about what's going on in our culture right now,
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这些情感原本应该源于我们现有的种种文化现象
07:33
what's going on in our country,
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源于我们的国家里所发生的一切
07:34
the atrocities that are being committed in our names around the world.
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源于以我们的名义在世界各地实施的暴行
07:36
They've gone missing; these feelings have gone missing.
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但是这些情感完全丧失了 完全丧失了
07:40
Our cultural joy, our national joy is nowhere to be seen.
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我们的文化满足感我们的国家满足感完全看不到了
07:43
And one of the causes of this, I think,
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我觉得原因之一就是
07:47
is that as each of us attempts to build this new kind of worldview,
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我们每个人都在试图建立所谓新型世界观
07:51
this holoptical worldview, this holographic image
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一种完全视觉的世界观 一种全息的形象
07:55
that we're all trying to create in our mind
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我们所有人都在努力建立这种观念
07:57
of the interconnection of things: the environmental footprints
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这种事物内部的相互联系 比如我们购买的商品
08:00
1,000 miles away of the things that we buy;
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在1000英里(约1600公里）以外产生的生态足印
08:03
the social consequences 10,000 miles away
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或者是我们作为消费者做出的日常决定
08:06
of the daily decisions that we make as consumers.
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对1万英里远（约1万6千公里）的地方产生的社会效应
08:09
As we try to build this view,
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当我们试图建立这种观念
08:11
and try to educate ourselves about the enormity of our culture,
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试图让我们认识到我们文化的博大
08:14
the information that we have to work with is these gigantic numbers:
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我们需要处理这些天文数字的信息
08:20
numbers in the millions, in the hundreds of millions,
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这些数字是以百万 以亿为单位的
08:23
in the billions and now in the trillions.
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甚至是以十亿 以万亿为单位的
08:26
Bush's new budget is in the trillions, and these are numbers
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布什的新预算是万亿级的 这些数字
08:28
that our brain just doesn't have the ability to comprehend.
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我们的大脑根本没有能力理解领会
08:32
We can't make meaning out of these enormous statistics.
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我们搞不清楚这些天文数字意味着什么
08:36
And so that's what I'm trying to do with my work,
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这也是为什么我要创作这些作品
08:40
is to take these numbers, these statistics
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我要把这些数字和数据
08:41
from the raw language of data, and to translate them
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从原始的数字资料翻译成
08:46
into a more universal visual language, that can be felt.
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一种全人类都能理解的视觉语言 才能被我们感受到
08:49
Because my belief is, if we can feel these issues,
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因为我相信如果我们能感受到这些问题
08:53
if we can feel these things more deeply,
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如果我们能更深刻地体会到这些问题
08:55
then they'll matter to us more than they do now.
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它们才会与我们更加密切相关
09:00
And if we can find that,
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如果我们能认识到这些问题
09:01
then we'll be able to find, within each one of us,
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我们就能从每一个人自身找到答案
09:06
what it is that we need to find to face the big question,
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来面对这个最关键的问题
09:09
which is: how do we change?
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那就是：我们该如何改变？
09:12
That, to me, is the big question that we face as a people right now:
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对我来说 这就是我们这个民族现在面临的最大的问题
09:17
how do we change? How do we change as a culture,
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我们该如何改变？我们的文化该如何改变？
09:21
and how do we each individually take responsibility
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我们每一个人该如何负起责任？
09:25
for the one piece of the solution that we are in charge of,
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对我们力所能及的每一点改变负责？
09:29
and that is our own behavior?
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对我们自己的行为负责？
09:30
My belief is that you don't have to make yourself bad
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我认为你在看待这些问题的时候
09:40
to look at these issues.
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不必感到内疚或自责
09:42
I'm not pointing the finger at America in a blaming way.
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我并不是在指责或责怪美国（文化）
09:46
I'm simply saying, this is who we are right now.
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我只是在说 我们现在就是这个样子的
09:48
And if there are things that we see
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如果我们发现我们的文化中
09:50
that we don't like about our culture,
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有些东西是我们不喜欢的
09:51
then we have a choice.
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那么我们还可以做出选择
10:02
The degree of integrity that each of us can bring to the surface,
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当面对这个问题时 我们每一个人能坚持多少正直的良知？
10:07
to bring to this question, the depth of character that we can summon,
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当我们面对“该如何改变”这个问题时
10:14
as we show up for the question of how do we change --
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我们究竟能在多大程度上保留本真？
10:17
it's already defining us as individuals and as a nation,
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这正在定义着我们每一个人 定义着我们整个民族
10:25
and it will continue to do that, on into the future.
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这定义还将持续下去 直至未来
10:28
And it will profoundly affect the well-being, the quality of life
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它会极大地影响数十亿人的福祉
10:35
of the billions of people
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和他们的生活质量
10:36
who are going to inherit the results of our decisions.
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而他们要承受的正是我们今天做出的种种决定的后果
10:45
I'm not speaking abstractly about this,
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我并不是在抽象地谈这些问题
10:46
I'm speaking -- this is who we are in this room,
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我是在说 在这个会堂里就座的我们 就是这个样子的
10:56
right now, in this moment.
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就在此时 就在此刻
10:58
Thank you and good afternoon.
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谢谢 祝大家今天下午愉快
11:03
(Applause)
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掌声
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Chris Jordan - ArtistChris Jordan runs the numbers on modern American life -- making large-format, long-zoom artwork from the most mindblowing data about our stuff.
Why you should listen
Photographer Chris Jordan trains his eye on American consumption. His 2003-05 series "Intolerable Beauty" examines the hypnotic allure of the sheer amount of stuff we make and consume every day: cliffs of baled scrap, small cities of shipping containers, endless grids of mass-produced goods.
His 2005 book In Katrina's Wake: Portraits of Loss from an Unnatural Disaster is a chilling, unflinching look at the toll of the storm. And his latest series of photographs, "Running the Numbers," gives dramatic life to statistics of US consumption. Often-heard factoids like "We use 2 million plastic bottles every 5 minutes" become a chilling sea of plastic that stretches beyond our horizon.
In April 2008, Jordan traveled around the world with National Geographic as an international eco-ambassador for Earth Day 2008.
Chris Jordan | Speaker | TED.com