I understand we have over 80 countries here,

我知道這裡有來自多於80個國家的朋友，

so that's a whole new paradigm for me to speak

這對我而言是個新體驗，

to all of these countries.

我是說跟這麼多國家對話。

In each country, I'm sure you have this thing called

在你們的國家，你們也一定聽過

the parent-teacher conference.

家長教師會議這東西。

Do you know about the parent-teacher conference?

你知道家長會嗎？

Not the ones for your kids, but the one you had as a child,

不是你為了你子女出席的家長會，而是你小時候那種，

where your parents come to school and your teacher

你爸媽到學校和你的老師見面的家長會。

talks to your parents, and it's a little bit awkward.

老師會和你的父母說話，氣氛通常有點奇怪的。

Well, I remember in third grade, I had this moment

我記得在我三年級的時候，

where my father, who never takes off from work,

我永遠無法放下工作的爸爸﹣﹣

he's a classical blue collar, a working-class immigrant person,

他是個典型的藍領工人、移民，

going to school to see his son, how he's doing,

特地到學校去看看他的兒子（我）在學校的表現怎麼樣。

and the teacher said to him, he said, "You know,

然後我的老師跟他說：「你知道的，

John is good at math and art."

John的數學和美術科成績很好。」

And he kind of nodded, you know?

他還點頭了呢。

The next day I saw him talking to a customer at our

但是第二天當我看到他在我們的豆腐店和一位客人說話時，

tofu store, and he said, "You know, John's good at math."

他說：「嗯，John的數學不錯。」

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

And that always stuck with me all my life.

我一直沒有忘記這件事。

Why didn't Dad say art? Why wasn't it okay?

為什麼爸不提美術呢？美術不好嗎？

Why? It became a question my entire life, and

這個「為什麼」一直留在我腦海裡。

that's all right, because being good at math meant

不過這也沒關係，因為「我數學很好」

he bought me a computer, and some of you remember

他買了一台電腦給我。你們其中部分人也許還記得

this computer, this was my first computer.

那種很久以前的電腦，那是我的第一台電腦。

Who had an Apple II? Apple II users, very cool. (Applause)

有人曾經擁有過一台蘋果2號電腦嗎？蘋果2號用家很酷喔。（掌聲）

As you remember, the Apple II did nothing at all. (Laughter)

你也許還記得，蘋果2號其實沒多少功能。

You'd plug it in, you'd type in it and green text would come out.

你可以插上電源，打字，然後一堆綠色的字會在屏幕上出現。

It would say you're wrong most of the time.

它通常會說「你錯了」。

That was the computer we knew.

那就是我們以前認識的電腦。

That computer is a computer that I learned about

那是我上學時研究的電腦

going to MIT, my father's dream. And at MIT, however,

我上的是麻省理工學院，那是我爸的夢想。但是在學校，

I learned about the computer at all levels,

我學到了各式各樣的電腦相關知識，

and after, I went to art school to get away from computers,

之後卻為了逃離電腦跑去讀美術學校。

and I began to think about the computer as more of

然後我開始想，其實電腦這玩意兒

a spiritual space of thinking.

為我們提供了一個思考的空間。

And I was influenced by performance art --

而且因為我受到表演藝術的影響﹣﹣

so this is 20 years ago. I made a computer out of people.

請記得這是二十年前的事了﹣﹣我用「人」造了一部「電腦」。

It was called the Human Powered Computer Experiment.

這個作品就叫做「人力電腦實驗」。

I have a power manager, mouse driver, memory, etc.,

這包括了一個電源管理、滑鼠驅動程式、記憶體等等。

and I built this in Kyoto, the old capital of Japan.

我是在日本的古都﹣﹣京都做這個實驗的。

It's a room broken in two halves.

我把一個房間切割為兩部分。

I've turned the computer on,

我會啟動這台「電腦」，

and these assistants are placing a giant floppy disk

而這些助手們正在把一個巨大的磁碟(floppy disk)

built out of cardboard, and it's put into the computer.

這個用紙板造的磁碟會被放返「電腦」裡面。

And the floppy disk drive person wears it. (Laughter)

而扮演磁碟的人會把它掛在身上。（笑聲）

She finds the first sector on the disk, and

她會拿出磁碟的其中一部分，

takes data off the disk and passes it off to, of course, the bus.

然後交給，嗯，當然是交給傳送資訊的巴士(bus，電路板上的一條線)。

So the bus diligently carries the data into the computer

而巴士會把資料送到電腦

to the memory, to the CPU, the VRAM, etc.,

的記憶體，到中央處理器(CPU)，再到視頻記憶體(VRAM)等部分。

and it's an actual working computer. That's a bus, really. (Laughter)

這真的是一部可以運作的電腦。喔，那也是一部真正的巴士。（笑聲）

And it looks kind of fast. That's a mouse driver,

而且這看起來還挺快的。這是滑鼠驅動程式，

where it's XY. (Laughter)

就是有Ｘ和Ｙ。（笑聲）

It looks like it's happening kind of quickly, but it's actually

這看起來運行得很快，但其實

a very slow computer, and when I realized how slow

這是一部很慢的電腦，而當我發現以前的電腦

this computer was compared to how fast a computer is,

和現在的電腦比到底有多慢的時候，

it made me wonder about computers and technology in general.

我開始思考關於電腦和科技的問題。

And so I'm going to talk today about four things, really.

而我今天的演講是關於四件事的，只是四件事。

The first three things are about how I've been curious

頭三件事物是我一直很有興趣的，

about technology, design and art, and how they intersect,

包括科技、設計、藝術，和這三者之間的關係，

how they overlap, and also a topic that I've taken on

它們如何重叠，還有最後一個主題：

since four years ago I became the President

自從四年前我成為羅德島設計學院院長之後

of Rhode Island School of Design: leadership.

一直在想的﹣﹣領導力。

And I'll talk about how I've looked to combine

我也會談到我怎樣嘗試把這四個東西結合起來

these four areas into a kind of a synthesis, a kind of experiment.

變成一個組織、一個實驗。

So starting from technology,

先從科技開始說起，

technology is a wonderful thing.

科技真是個美妙的東西。

When that Apple II came out, it really could do nothing.

蘋果2號剛面世時，它的功能真的不多。

It could show text and

它只能顯示一些文字

after we waited a bit, we had these things called images.

改良以後才能顯示圖像。

Remember when images were first possible with a computer,

還記不記得當圖像第一次出面在電腦屏幕上﹣﹣

those gorgeous, full-color images?

那些彩色的、美麗的圖像？

And then after a few years, we got CD-quality sound.

幾年後，我們便有了具CD質素的音效。

It was incredible. You could listen to sound on the computer.

這真是奇妙，在電腦上播放聲音呢！

And then movies, via CD-ROM. It was amazing.

然後有了燒錄在CD上的電影。真的太神奇了。

Remember that excitement?

還記得那種興奮感嗎？

And then the browser appeared. The browser was great,

然後我們有了瀏覽器，它真的很棒，

but the browser was very primitive, very narrow bandwidth.

但是當時的瀏覽器還是很粗糙的，網速也很慢。

Text first, then images, we waited,

文字，再來是圖像，我們等了很久

CD-quality sound over the Net,

才等到CD質素的聲音在網上出現，

then movies over the Internet. Kind of incredible.

然後才有網上電影。不得不說這還挺厲害的。

And then the mobile phone occurred,

之後我們發明了手提電話，

text, images, audio, video. And now we have iPhone,

文字、圖像、聲音、影片。現在我們有了iPhone，

iPad, Android, with text, video, audio, etc.

iPad, Android，文字短訊、影片甚麼的都有了。

You see this little pattern here?

你看到這其中的模式了嗎？

We're kind of stuck in a loop, perhaps, and this sense

我們好像被困在一個特定模式裡面了，

of possibility from computing is something I've been

也許這就是我為什麼

questioning for the last 10 or so years,

在過去十年來一直在疑惑電腦帶來的可能性到底是甚麼，

and have looked to design, as we understand most things,

而我轉向從設計中尋找答案，

and to understand design with our technology has been a passion of mine.

而從科技的角度了解設計一向是我的興趣之一。

And I have a small experiment to give you a quick design lesson.

我有個小實驗可以讓你體驗一下設計是怎樣的。

Designers talk about the relationship between form

設計師說的「形式和內容」、「內容和形式」

and content, content and form. Now what does that mean?

之間的關係。這到底代表什麼？

Well, content is the word up there: fear.

是這樣的，內容是這個字：恐懼。

It's a four-letter word. It's a kind of a bad feeling word, fear.

這個字只有4個字母，它是個不怎麼好的詞，恐懼嘛。

Fear is set in Light Helvetica, so it's not too stressful,

當這個詞用上Light Helvetica字型，看起來不會那麼有壓迫感。

and if you set it in Ultra Light Helvetica,

如果你用Ultra Light Helvetica，

it's like, "Oh, fear, who cares?" Right? (Laughter)

看了之後可能會覺得，「喔，只是惡懼而已啦！」對不對？（笑聲）

You take the same Ultra Light Helvetica and make it big,

用同樣的字型但把它放大，

and like, whoa, that hurts. Fear.

然後它就變成「哇，恐懼喔，會痛吧」

So you can see how you change the scale, you change

這樣你可以看到只要改變字的大小，

the form. Content is the same, but you feel differently.

你就可以改變它的形態。內容是一樣的，但感覺完全不一樣了。

You change the typeface to, like, this typeface,

你改變字型，譬如把它變成這種字型，

and it's kind of funny. It's like pirate typeface,

它看起來就會變得有點好笑。看起來像海盜的字型，

like Captain Jack Sparrow typeface. Arr! Fear!

像傑克船長寫的字。「喔喔！恐懼！」

Like, aww, that's not fearful. That's actually funny.

好吧，這聽起來一點也不恐怖，反而還有點搞笑。

Or fear like this, kind of a nightclub typeface. (Laughter)

也可以用這種像夜店招牌的字型。（笑聲）

Like, we gotta go to Fear. (Laughter)

好像在說「來，我們一定要去『恐懼』！」（笑聲）

It's, like, amazing, right? (Laughter) (Applause)

也好像說這很酷，對不對？（笑聲）（掌聲）

It just changes the same content.

改變字型就改變了相同內容帶出的感覺。

Or you make it -- The letters are separated apart,

你也可以改變字之間的距離，

they're huddled together like on the deck of the Titanic,

把它們弄成像在泰坦尼克號甲板上抱成一團，

and you feel sorry for the letters, like, I feel the fear.

你真的會感覺到那種恐懼。

You feel for them.

你真的會被觸動。

Or you change the typeface to something like this.

你也可以把字型變成這種。

It's very classy. It's like that expensive restaurant, Fear.

這字型很經典。就好像一間高級餐廳「恐懼」。

I can never get in there. (Laughter)

我永遠也不會踏足那裡。（笑聲）

It's just amazing, Fear. But that's form, content.

這真的很奇妙。恐懼。但這就是形式，內容。

If you just change one letter in that content,

如果你只改變其中一個字母，

you get a much better word, much better content: free.

你會得到一個很好的詞，比恐懼好很多的內容：自由。

"Free" is a great word. You can serve it almost any way.

自由是個很好的詞。你幾乎可以把它用任何方式呈現。

Free bold feels like Mandela free.

粗體的「自由」看起來像曼德拉的自由。

It's like, yes, I can be free.

好像在說，是的，我可以得到自由。

Free even light feels kind of like, ah, I can breathe in free.

而幼體的「自由」就好像在說，喔，我可以自由地呼吸呢。

It feels great. Or even free spread out,

這樣感覺很好。如果把字距拉開，

it's like, ah, I can breathe in free, so easily.

就變成，啊，我可以這麼輕易地自由呼吸呢。

And I can add in a blue gradient and a dove,

如果加上漸變藍和白鴿，

and I have, like, Don Draper free. (Laughter)

就會變成Don Draper（廣告狂人）的「自由」。（笑聲）

So you see that -- form, content, design, it works that way.

所以你看到了﹣﹣形式、設計，它是這麼運作的。

It's a powerful thing. It's like magic, almost,

它是很有力的。幾乎就像魔術一樣，

like the magicians we've seen at TED. It's magic.

像我們在TED看到的魔術師一樣神奇。這是魔術。

Design does that.

設計可以做到這些事。

And I've been curious about how design and technology intersect,

而我很好奇設計和科技是怎樣互相影響的，

and I'm going to show you some old work I never really

我會把一些我幾乎不再公開展示的舊作品

show anymore, to give you a sense of what I used to do.

給你們看看，讓你了解一下我以前是做甚麼的。

So -- yeah.

所以

So I made a lot of work in the '90s.

嗯，我在九零年代做了很多作品。

This was a square that responds to sound.

這是一個會對聲音作反應的正方形。

People ask me why I made that. It's not clear. (Laughter)

其他人會問我為什麼要做這個。我也不是很確定。（笑聲）

But I thought it'd be neat for the square

但我覺得正方形這樣給我反應

to respond to me, and my kids were small then,

是一件很酷的事，而當時我的孩子還小，

and my kids would play with these things, like, "Aaah,"

他們會玩這些東西，「啊呀」

you know, they would say, "Daddy, aaah, aaah." You know, like that.

你知道的，他們會說「啊呀，爸爸，啊啊」就像這樣。

We'd go to a computer store, and they'd do the same thing.

我們會去電腦用品店，他們會做同樣的事。

And they'd say, "Daddy, why doesn't the computer respond to sound?"

他們會問「爸爸，為什麼這個電腦對聲音沒有反應？」

And it was really at the time I was wondering why doesn't the computer respond to sound?

那是我第一次認真去想為甚麼電腦不會對聲音作出反應？

So I made this as a kind of an experiment at the time.

所以我做了這樣一個實驗。

And then I spent a lot of time in the space of

然後我花了很多時間

interactive graphics and things like this, and I stopped doing it because

研究圖像和類似的東西，然後我停止了這麼做

my students at MIT got so much better than myself,

因為我在麻省理工學院的學生比我做得好太多了，

so I had to hang up my mouse.

所以我要放下我的滑鼠了。

But in '96, I made my last piece. It was in black and white,

但在1996年我做了最後一個作品。它是黑白的，

monochrome, fully monochrome, all in integer mathematics.

單色的，完全是單色的，只有整數數字。

It's called "Tap, Type, Write."

它叫做「按鈕、打字、書寫」(Tap, Type, Write)。

It's paying a tribute to the wonderful typewriter

這是向我母親的打字機致敬的作品，

that my mother used to type on all the time as a legal secretary.

我母親是位法律文員，她以前總是用它來打法律文件。

It has 10 variations. (Typing noise)

它有10種不同形態。（打字聲）

(Typing noise)

（打字聲）

There's a shift.

這是空白鍵。

Ten variations. This is, like, spin the letter around.

10種變化。看，這是把字母翻轉。

(Typing noises)

（打字聲）

This is, like, a ring of letters. (Typing noises)

這是個字母圈。（打字聲）

This is 20 years old, so it's kind of a --

這已經20歲大了，它有點像﹣﹣

Let's see, this is —

嗯，看看這個﹣﹣

I love the French film "The Red Balloon."

我很喜歡一部法國電影，《紅氣球》

Great movie, right? I love that movie. So,

很棒的電影，對嗎？我很愛那部電影。所以

this is sort of like a play on that. (Typing noises) (Typewriter bell)

這就像是那裡面的一幕。（打字聲）

It's peaceful, like that. (Laughter)

聽起來很平和。像這樣。（笑聲）

I'll show this last one. This is about balance, you know.

這會是最後一個。這是關於平衡的。

It's kind of stressful typing out, so if you

這樣打出來很有壓力，所以如果你

type on this keyboard, you can, like, balance it out.

在這個鍵盤上打字，你可以平衡一下。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

If you hit G, life's okay, so I always say,

如果你打G，這還過得去，我常常這麼說的，

"Hit G, and it's going to be all right.

「打G吧，一切都會沒問題的。」

Thank you. (Applause)

謝謝。（掌聲）

Thank you.

謝謝。

So that was 20 years ago, and

所以這是20年前的事了，

I was always on the periphery of art.

而我一直在藝術的邊緣徘徊。

By being President of RISD I've gone deep into art,

但在羅德島設計學院當院長讓我對藝術有更深入的認識，

and art is a wonderful thing, fine art, pure art.

藝術真是一件美好的東西。純藝術。

You know, when people say, "I don't get art.

你知道，當人們說「我不明白藝術，

I don't get it at all." That means art is working, you know?

我完全不明白。」你知道嗎？這表示藝術成功了。

It's like, art is supposed to be enigmatic, so when you say,

這就好像在說藝術應該是深奧難懂的，所以當你說

like, "I don't get it," like, oh, that's great. (Laughter)

「我不明白」的時候，喔，那很好。（笑聲）

Art does that, because art is about asking questions,

藝術就是有這樣的功能，因為藝術是應該提出一些問題的，

questions that may not be answerable.

有些問題甚至無人能夠回答。

At RISD, we have this amazing facility called

在羅德島設計學院，我們有個很棒的地方

the Edna Lawrence Nature Lab. It has 80,000 samples

叫做Edna Lawrenece自然實驗室。裡面有80,000個

of animal, bone, mineral, plants.

動物、骨頭、礦物、植物的樣本。

You know, in Rhode Island, if an animal gets hit on the road,

你知道的，在羅德島上，如果有動物不小心被車撞到，

they call us up and we pick it up and stuff it.

開車的人會打電話給我們，我們就會去把牠拿回來製成標本。

And why do we have this facility?

我們為甚麼要這樣做呢？

Because at RISD, you have to look at the actual animal,

因為在我們學院，你要看到實物（真正的動物），

the object, to understand its volume, to perceive it.

去了解牠的大小，去觀察牠。

At RISD, you're not allowed to draw from an image.

在我們學院你不能只看著照片畫畫。

And many people ask me, John, couldn't you just

很多人問我，John，

digitize all this? Make it all digital? Wouldn't it be better?

為什麼你不把這些都數碼化呢？那樣不會比較好嗎？

And I often say, well, there's something good to how things

而我常常說，嗯，傳統的方法總是有它的好處。

used to be done. There's something very different about it,

這是很不一樣的，

something we should figure out what is good about

是我們應該去思考該怎麼做的事，

how we did it, even in this new era.

即使在這個新世紀也是一樣。

And I have a good friend, he's a new media artist named

我有個好朋友，他是一位新媒體藝術家，

Tota Hasegawa. He's based in London, no, actually it's in Tokyo,

他叫做長谷川踏太。他一般在倫敦，喔不，在東京工作。

but when he was based in London, he had a game

但當他在倫敦的時候，他會和他的妻子玩一個遊戲。

with his wife. He would go to antique shops,

他會去古董店，

and the game was as such:

這個遊戲是這樣玩的：

When we look at an antique we want,

當我們看到一件想要的古董，

we'll ask the shopkeeper for the story behind the antique,

我們會問店主它背後的故事，

and if it's a good story, we'll buy it.

如果故事是好的，我們會買。

So they'd go to an antique shop, and they'd look at this cup,

所以有一次他們去古董店時看到一只杯，

and they'd say, "Tell us about this cup."

問店主「可以跟我們說說這只杯嗎？」

And the shopkeeper would say, "It's old." (Laughter)

然後店主只回答，「喔，它很老了。」（笑聲）

"Tell us more.""Oh, it's really old." (Laughter)

「說多一點吧。」「喔，它真的很老。」（笑聲）

And he saw, over and over, the antique's value

然後一次又一次，他看到古董的價值

was all about it being old.

似乎就是在於它在多老。

And as a new media artist, he reflected, and said,

但是作為一個新媒體藝術家，他反思後說，

you know, I've spent my whole career making new media art.

我花了一輩子做新媒體藝術。

People say, "Wow, your art, what is it?"It's new media.

人們都說「哇，你的藝術喔，在哪兒？」新媒體就是這樣。

And he realized, it isn't about old or new.

然後他了解其實重點不是東西有多老或多新。

It's about something in between.

重要是的中間的東西。

It isn't about "old," the dirt, "new," the cloud. It's about what is good.