水立方彙總微博,演繹"中國情緒"
Beijing's Water Cube is perhaps best known as the place where Michael Phelps won eight gold medals. This week, it became the site for something altogether different: a real-time 'painting' of China's mood, as revealed by Sina Weibo emoticons.
'Nature and Man in Rhapsody of Light at the Water Cube,' a collaboration between the artist Jennifer Wen Ma and lighting designer Zheng Jianwei, opened last Sunday. Using the former Olympics venue's distinctive exterior, it broadcasts the sentiments of the Chinese social-media service's millions of users through an interactive lighting display that runs from dusk to 10 p.m. daily.
6月23日，“天人合一水立方”燈光新媒體藝術項目在水立方啓動，該項目由藝術家馬文和燈光設計師鄭見偉共同打造。此項目以這個前奧運場館獨特的外部結構爲載體，每天日落時分至晚上10點，通過互動燈光系統將新浪微博數百萬用戶的情感傳達出來。'I have conceived this as a piece that can breathe,' says Ms. Ma, who turns 40 this week, 'as an organic being that changes as nature and society around it changes. I want people to feel like they have some authorship because their emotions are being registered.'
上月剛滿40歲的馬文說：“我把它看作一件可以呼吸的東西，一個會隨着周圍的自然環境和社會的變化而變化的有機體。我想讓人們覺得他們自己也參與了部分創作，因爲他們的情緒就被記錄在其中。”
A custom software application sifts through millions of smiley faces and other emoticons that appear in updates posted to Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter, then assigns them to one of roughly 70 'emotional categories.' Those affect the shade and movement of the light, while hexagram symbols from the ancient Chinese text 'I Ching' determine the color. For example, at the Sunday launch, the hexagram signifying 'water on water' and upbeat emoticons resulted in a light-blue lighting effect, replete with rising peaks and waves corresponding to a majority 'happy' population.
一款定製軟件會篩選新浪微博新消息中出現的數百萬個笑臉符號及其他表情符號，然後把它們歸到約70種“情緒類型”中的一種。它們影響的是燈光的明暗度和動態，而色彩則由中國古籍《易經》中的卦象決定。例如，在6月23日項目啓動當天，《易經》卦象顯示的是“水在水上”，表情符號傳達的是愉快情緒，因此當天的燈光效果爲淡藍色，此外它還以聳立的山峯和涌起的波浪圖案對應表示當天多數人覺得“高興”。'Rhapsody of Light' is not Ms. Ma's first project on the Olympic Green. In 2008, she served as one of the seven core creative team members behind the Beijing opening ceremony, an event she now criticizes as 'all about happiness and power.'
“天人合一水立方”並不是馬文在奧林匹克公園實施的第一個項目，她早在2008年就曾擔任北京奧運會開幕式七人核心創意小組的成員，如今她批評這一盛事“呈現的全都是歡樂和權力”。She and Mr. Zheng, who worked on lighting design for the Bird's Nest stadium and other Olympic projects, were commissioned by the government-backed organization that manages the Water Cube, but despite their prior work, they had to convince officials to let them create something that depicts both positive and negative feelings expressed by Chinese people.
她的合作伙伴鄭見偉也曾參與鳥巢及其他奧運工程的燈光設計，他們二人受到的是由政府支持的水立方管理方的委託。儘管他們二人此前擁有如此的工作經歷，他們還是得說服官員允許他們創作某種既體現中國人表達出的積極情緒，也呈現他們的負面情緒的東西。'I really had to fight for the right to feel what we feel,' Ms. Ma says.
馬文說：“我確實不得不去努力爭取感覺我們所感覺到的東西的權利。”Mr. Zheng believes that the work taps into an important argument about the use of landmark buildings in China, many of which are designed as bastions of state power. 'This is maybe the first landmark building [which] communicates with society,' he says. 'Every day it will change its face [according] to the people.'
鄭見偉認爲，該項目涉及了有關如何運用中國地標建築的重要爭論，其中許多建築都是作爲國家權力的堡壘而被設計出來的。他說：“水立方或許是第一個與社會交流的地標建築，它每天都會根據大家的情緒變臉。”Still, the results are bound to be skewed, since Weibo posts are routinely censored and deleted. Ms. Ma kept the work's overall look and tone abstract, anticipating such activity, and she emphasizes to government officials the 'I Ching' aspect over its social-media-influenced one.
然而，水立方反映出的情緒註定會有所偏頗，這是因爲微博會定期遭到審查和刪除。馬文預料到會發生此類事情，所以她將整體的燈光效果和色調做了抽象處理，而且她向政府官員強調的更多的是對《易經》的應用，而非受社交媒體影響的那一方面。She hopes to one day take 'Rhapsody of Light' to what she sees as its natural conclusion: a Water Cube display directly controlled by citizens, perhaps via online voting. 'If we cannot implement democracy through political means, then art can, in some way,' she says.
她希望有一天能推動“天人合一水立方”項目發展到她認爲自然的結局：水立方的燈光展示由市民來掌控，也許是通過網絡投票的方式。她說：“如果我們不能通過政治途徑實施民主，那麼藝術在某種方式上能做到。”'If one day you come here and you don't find it beautiful, then ask why it is,' she adds. 'I trust that not every day is going to be pleasant and beautiful, but that doesn't mean it's not meaningful. These are the things which propel us forward for a better future, a better tomorrow.'
她還說：“假如有一天你來到這裏，發現它並不美麗，那麼你要問問爲什麼會這樣。我相信不是每一天都令人愉快、都是美好的，但這並不表示它就是無意義的。正是這些事情推動我們前進，爭取更美好的未來、更美好的明天。”
