It's 2008, and I'm just finishing my first year of design school.
那是2008年，我刚刚完成设计学院第一年的课程。
And I'm at my first year-end review, which is a form of ritual torture for design students,
第一学年末的评审正在进行，这几乎算是每个学设计的学生的噩梦，
where they make you take everything you made over the course of the year
因为需要你把这一年课程中所有的作品
and lay it out on a table and stand next to it while a bunch of professors,
摆在桌上，你站在桌边，一群教授，
most of whom you've never seen before, give you their unfiltered opinions of it.
他们中的大部分你可能都没见过，会直接给出他们的意见。
So it's my turn and I'm standing next to my table, everything neatly lined up,
轮到我了，我站在自己的桌子旁，所有东西整齐排成一行，
and I'm just hoping that my professors can see how much effort I've put into making my designs practical and ergonomic and sustainable.
我只希望我的教授能看到我为我的设计付出了多少努力，让它们实用，符合人体工学且可持续。
And I'm starting to get really nervous, because for a long time, no one says anything. It's just completely silent.
但我开始越来越紧张，因为很长一段时间都没人说话。一片寂静。
And then one of the professors starts to speak, and he says, "Your work gives me a feeling of joy."
终于一位教授开口了，他说，“你的作品让我感到快乐。”
Joy? I wanted to be a designer because I wanted to solve real problems.
快乐？我做设计师是为了解决真正的问题。
Joy is nice, I guess, but it's kind of light -- not substantial.
快乐算是不错的评价吧，但是没什么分量...不是那么实在。
But I was also kind of intrigued, because joy is this intangible feeling,
但我也觉得好奇，因为快乐是一种无形的感受，
and how does that come from the stuff on the table next to me? I asked the professors,
为什么我桌子上的东西会带来这种感觉呢？
"How do things make us feel joy? How do tangible things make us feel intangible joy?"
我问教授，“事物如何让我们感到快乐呢？有形的事物怎么会让我们感受到无形的快乐呢？”
They hemmed and hawed and gestured a lot with their hands. "They just do," they said.
他们嘀嘀咕咕，挥舞双手比划了半天，说，“它们就是会这样！”
I packed up my things for the summer, but I couldn't stop thinking about this question ...
我收拾完行李准备过暑假，但还是忍不住在想这个问题，
and this launched a journey -- one that I didn't know at the time would take me 10 years
它也让我开始了一段旅程--当时我并不知道这段旅程会持续10年之久，
to understand the relationship between the physical world and the mysterious, quixotic emotion we call "joy."
我想去理解物理世界和这神秘而虚幻的，我们称之为“快乐”的情感到底有什么关系。
And what I discovered is that not only are they linked,
我发现，它们之间不仅有联系，
but that the physical world can be a powerful resource to us in creating happier, healthier lives.
而且物理世界对我们来说，可以成为打造更快乐，更健康生活的有利资源。
After my review, I thought, "I know what joy feels like, but what is it, exactly?"
在那次评审过后，我在想，“我知道快乐是什么感觉，但快乐到底是什么呢？”
And I found that even scientists don't always agree,
我发现就连科学家也得不出一致的结论，
and they sometimes use the words "joy" and "happiness" and "positivity" more or less interchangeably.
他们有时候会将“快乐”、“幸福”和“乐观”这几个词互换着来用。
But broadly speaking, when psychologists use the word joy,
但大体上来说，当心理学家使用快乐这个词的时候，
what they mean is an intense, momentary experience of positive emotion
他们所指的是一种强烈却短暂的、乐观的情绪过程，
one that makes us smile and laugh and feel like we want to jump up and down.
会让我们微笑、大笑，兴奋得想要跳起来。
And this is actually a technical thing.
其实这是一种技术性的过程。
That feeling of wanting to jump up and down is one of the ways that scientists measure joy.
那种想跳起来的感觉是衡量快乐的一种方式。
It's different than happiness, which measures how good we feel over time.
这跟幸福有所不同，幸福是一种更加长久的感觉。
Joy is about feeling good in the moment, right now.
而快乐指的是在那一刻感觉很好，是当下的感觉。
And this was interesting to me because as a culture,
这一点让我很感兴趣，因为作为一种文化，
we are obsessed with the pursuit of happiness, and yet in the process, we kind of overlook joy.
我们总是痴迷于追求幸福，然而在这个过程中，我们往往忽略了快乐。
So this got me thinking: Where does joy come from?
这不禁让我思考：快乐到底是从何而来的？
I started asking everyone I knew, and even people I just met on the street, about the things that brought them joy.
我开始询问每一个认识的人，甚至是在街头偶遇的人，是什么让他们感到快乐。
On the subway, in a café, on an airplane, it was, "Hi, nice to meet you. What brings you joy?"
在地铁上、咖啡馆中、飞机上，我开门见山，“嗨，很高兴认识你。什么会让你感到快乐呢？”
I felt like a detective. I was like, "When did you last see it? Who were you with?
我感觉自己像个侦探，不停问“你最近一次看到让你快乐的东西是什么时候？当时你跟谁在一起？
What color was it? Did anyone else see it?" I was the Nancy Drew of joy.
它是什么颜色的？还有其他人也看到它了吗？”我就是快乐界的神探南希。
And after a few months of this, I noticed that there were certain things that started to come up again and again and again.
几个月后，我发现有一些特定的事物会一而再，再而三的出现。
They were things like cherry blossoms and bubbles
比如樱花，肥皂泡，
swimming pools and tree houses ... hot air balloons and googly eyes...
游泳池，树屋，热气球，还有大眼睛...
and ice cream cones, especially the ones with the sprinkles.
还有冰淇淋甜筒，尤其是上面撒了糖豆的那种。
These things seemed to cut across lines of age and gender and ethnicity.
这些东西跨越了年龄、性别和种族的界限。
I mean, if you think about it, we all stop and turn our heads to the sky when the multicolored arc of a rainbow streaks across it.
仔细想想，我们都会停下脚步，抬头看向天空，只因为有一道绚丽的彩虹横跨半空。
And fireworks -- we don't even need to know what they're for, and we feel like we're celebrating, too.
还有烟火，我们都不需要知道是在庆祝什么，心里也会有喜庆的感觉。
These things aren't joyful for just a few people; they're joyful for nearly everyone.
这些东西不仅仅会让一部分人感到快乐，它们几乎对所有人都有效，会让所有人开心。
They're universally joyful. And seeing them all together, it gave me this indescribably hopeful feeling.
看到这些东西在一起出现，让我有一种难以描述的、充满希望的感觉。
The sharply divided, politically polarized world we live in
我们生活在一个分化严重、政治对立的世界，
sometimes has the effect of making our differences feel so vast as to be insurmountable.
有时候人与人之间的差异如此巨大，巨大到仿佛无法跨越。
And yet underneath it all, there's a part of each of us that finds joy in the same things.
然而在表象之下，我们还是能在相同的事物中找到快乐。
And though we're often told that these are just passing pleasures, in fact, they're really important,
尽管别人经常会告诉我们，这些乐趣转瞬即逝，但实际上，它们还是挺重要的，
because they remind us of the shared humanity we find in our common experience of the physical world.
因为它们能提醒我们，我们有着共同的人性，这来源于我们在探索物理世界时共同的经历。
But I still needed to know: What is it about these things that makes them so joyful?
但我还是需要搞清楚：这些让他们快乐的事物到底是怎么回事？
I had pictures of them up on my studio wall, and every day, I would come in and try to make sense of it.
我把这些照片挂在工作室的墙上，每天我都会去那里，想弄清楚原因。
And then one day, something just clicked. I saw all these patterns:
突然有一天，我恍然大悟。我发现了某些规律：
round things ... pops of bright color ... symmetrical shapes
圆形的东西，绚丽的色彩，对称的形状，
a sense of abundance and multiplicity... a feeling of lightness or elevation.
丰富和多样性，明亮或者在高空的感觉。
When I saw it this way, I realized that though the feeling of joy is mysterious and elusive,
用这种方式来观察的时候，我发现尽管快乐的感觉有点神秘，又难以捕捉，
we can access it through tangible, physical attributes, or what designers call aesthetics,
但我们可以通过一些可触摸的、物理的特性来得到它，
a word that comes from the same root as the Greek word "aísthomai," which means, "I feel," "I sense," "I perceive."
或者用设计师的话说，通过审美，这个词来源于希腊语的同根词“aisthomai”，意思是我感觉，我感受，我察觉。
And since these patterns were telling me that joy begins with the senses,
这些规律告诉我们，快乐来源于感觉，
I began calling them "Aesthetics of Joy"; the sensations of joy.
我于是称之为“快乐审美”，也就是对于快乐的感知。

And in the wake of this discovery, I noticed something that as I walked around,
伴随着这个发现，我开始注意身边的一些事情，
I began spotting little moments of joy everywhere I went -- a vintage yellow car or a clever piece of street art.
留意那些让我快乐的瞬间，无论我身处何处--一辆复古的黄色小汽车，一件巧妙的街头艺术。
It was like I had a pair of rose-colored glasses, and now that I knew what to look for, I was seeing it everywhere.
我觉得自己就像戴着一副粉红眼镜，知道自己在找什么之后，我在哪儿都能找到快乐。
It was like these little moments of joy were hidden in plain sight.
这些快乐的小瞬间就藏在我们眼皮底下。
And at the same time, I had another realization, that if these are the things that bring us joy,
与此同时，我还发现，如果刚刚提到的这些东西能带给我们快乐，
then why does so much of the world look like this?
那为什么很多地方看起来是这样的？
Why do we go to work here? Why do we send our kids to schools that look like this? Why do our cities look like this?
为什么我们要去这样的地方上班？为什么我们要把孩子送到这样的地方上学？为什么我们的城市是这样的？
And this is most acute for the places that house the people that are most vulnerable among us:
而下面这些地方是最糟糕的，因为我们中间最脆弱的那些人住在这里：
nursing homes, hospitals, homeless shelters, housing projects.
疗养院，医院，收容所，住宅项目。
How did we end up in a world that looks like this?
为什么我们的世界会变成这个样子？
We all start out joyful, but as we get older, being colorful or exuberant opens us up to judgment.
我们小时候都非常快乐，但随着年龄的增长，太过色彩绚丽或者热情洋溢会让我们遭受非议。
Adults who exhibit genuine joy are often dismissed as childish or too feminine or unserious or self-indulgent,
成年人如果展现出纯粹的快乐，经常就会被误解为孩子气，或者太女性化，或者不够严肃，或者有些自我放纵，
and so we hold ourselves back from joy, and we end up in a world that looks like this.
于是我们开始远离快乐，于是我们的世界就变成了这个样子。
But if the aesthetics of joy can be used to help us find more joy in the world around us,
但如果快乐审美能帮助我们在身边发现更多快乐，
then couldn't they also be used to create more joy?
那它能不能帮助我们制造快乐呢？
I spent that last two years scouring the planet, looking for different ways that people have answered this question.
我花了至少两年的时间四处寻觅，寻找不同的人来回答这个问题。
And this led me to the work of the artist Arakawa and the poet Madeline Gins,
我找到了画家阿拉卡瓦，还有诗人玛德琳·基恩斯，
who believed that these kinds of environments are literally killing us.
他们认为这样的环境正在毁灭我们。
And so they set out the create an apartment building that they believed would reverse aging. And this is it.
于是他们打算建一栋公寓楼，可以帮助我们逆生长。它长这样。
It's a real place, just outside Tokyo. I spent a night there, and it's a lot.
这栋房子真的存在，就在东京郊外。我在那儿住过一晚，但那一晚有点漫长。
The floors undulate, so you don't end up walking around so much as kind of bouncing around the apartment,
地板是起伏不平的，因此你无法在屋子里正常行走，只能跌跌撞撞地前进，
and there are bright colors in every direction.
到处是明亮的色彩。
I'm not sure I left any younger, but it's as if, by trying to create an apartment that would make us feel youthful,
我不知道离开的时候有没有变年轻一点，但他们的确是想建一所公寓，可以让我们感觉年轻，
they ended up creating one that was joyful. And yes, this is a bit much for everyday life, but it made me wonder
这所公寓给我们带来了快乐。当然，如果每天都这样，会有点吃不消，但是这让我思考：
What about the rest of us? How do we bring these ideas back into the real world?
我们其他人该怎么办呢？我们如何把这些想法带回给大众？
So I started finding people who were doing just that.
于是我开始寻找那些在做同样事情的人。
For example, this hospital, designed by the Danish artist Poul Gernes.
比如这家医院，是丹麦画家波尔·杰恩斯设计的。
Or these schools, transformed by the non-profit Publicolor.
还有这些学校，由非盈利机构“公众色彩”改造。
What's interesting is that Publicolor has heard from school administrators who say that attendance improves,
有意思的是，“公众色彩”从学校管理者那里得到反馈，说出勤率上升了，
graffiti disappears and kids actually say they feel safer in these painted schools.
也没有涂鸦了，孩子们说，彩色的学校让他们感到更安全。
And this aligns with research conducted in four countries,
有一项在4个国家开展的研究也证实了这一点，
which shows that people working in more colorful offices are actually more alert, more confident and friendlier than those working in drab spaces.
在彩色办公室里工作的人，比那些在单色调办公室的人会更加机敏，更加自信，更加友好。
Why would this be the case? Well, as I started to trace back our love of color,
为什么会这样呢？我开始回顾我们对色彩的喜爱，
I found that some researchers see a connection to our evolution.
我发现，有些研究者认为这跟我们的进化有关。
Color, in a very primal way, is a sign of life, a sign of energy. And the same is true of abundance.
颜色，从最原始的角度来看，象征着生命和活力。同时也象征着真正的富足。
We evolved in a world where scarcity is dangerous, and abundance meant survival.
在我们生存的世界，匮乏是危险的，而富足意味着生存。
So, one confetto -- which happens to be the singular of confetti, in case you were wondering...
所以，一片小纸屑--就是漫天飞舞的纸屑中的一片，是的，我就是这么精确...
isn't very joyful, but multiply it, and you have a handful of one of the most joyful substances on the planet.
并不那么有趣，但如果是很多纸屑，你就拥有了这个星球上最有趣的东西。
The architect Emmanuelle Moureaux uses this idea in her work a lot.
建筑师爱玛努埃勒·穆罗在很多作品中运用了这一点。
This is a nursing home she designed, where she uses these multicolored spheres to create a feeling of abundance.
这是她设计的一座疗养院，她用许多五颜六色的球体来营造一种富足的感觉。
And what about all those round things I noticed? Well, it turns out neuroscientists have studied this, too.
关于圆形的东西，我有什么发现呢？神经学家已经做过研究。
They put people into fMRI machines, and they showed them pictures of angular objects and round ones.
他们把人放进功能性磁共振成像机，分别给他们看带尖角的和圆形的物体。
And what they found is that the amygdala, a part of the brain associated in part with fear and anxiety,
他们发现杏仁核，就是大脑中与恐惧和焦虑有关的部分，
lit up when people looked at angular objects, but not when they looked at the round ones.
会在看向尖锐物体的时候被点亮，而看向圆形物体的时候则没有。
They speculate that because angles in nature are often associated with objects that might be dangerous to us,
他们推测因为自然界中的尖角，往往跟危险的东西有关，
that we evolved an unconscious sense of caution around these shapes, whereas curves set us at ease.
于是看到尖锐的物体，我们会下意识地变得警觉，而曲线会让我们放松。
You can see this in action in the new Sandy Hook Elementary School.
这一发现已经在桑迪·胡克小学得以应用。
After the mass shooting there in 2012,
2012年大规模枪击案发生后，
the architects Svigals + Partners knew that they needed to create a building that was secure,
建筑师斯维格斯和他的同事们知道他们需要建一栋安全的建筑，
but they wanted to create one that was joyful, and so they filled it with curves.
但他们想建一栋有趣的建筑，于是他们运用了很多曲线的设计。
There are waves running along the side of the building, and these squiggly canopies over the entryway,
建筑物的边是波浪形的，入口通道的顶棚也是弯曲的，
and the whole building bends toward the entrance in a welcoming gesture.
整栋建筑向着入口弯曲摆出欢迎的姿势。
Each moment of joy is small, but over time, they add up to more than the sum of their parts.
快乐的时光总是短暂的，但随着时间推移，这些快乐会叠加出更明显的效果。
And so maybe instead of chasing after happiness,
所以与其去追求幸福，
what we should be doing is embracing joy and finding ways to put ourselves in the path of it more often.
其实我们更应该拥抱快乐，想办法让自己在快乐的路上停留更久。
Deep within us, we all have this impulse to seek out joy in our surroundings.
因为在内心深处，我们都想在自己周围寻找快乐。
And we have it for a reason. Joy isn't some superfluous extra.
这是有原因的。快乐并不是锦上添花的事情。
It's directly connected to our fundamental instinct for survival.
它直接与我们的生存本能相关联。
On the most basic level, the drive toward joy is the drive toward life. Thank you.
从最基本的层面来说，追求快乐，就是追求生命。谢谢大家。