I'm an artist. Being an artist is the greatest job there is.
我是一个艺术家。艺术家是最棒的工作。
And I really pity each and every one of you who has to spend your days discovering new galaxies or saving humanity from global warming.
而我真的很怜悯你们每一个人，你们必须花时间探索宇宙，或将人类从全球变暖中拯救出来。
But being an artist is also a daunting job. I spend every day, from nine to six, doing this.
但其实艺术家也是份令人气馁的工作。我每天从九点到六点都在做这个。
I even started a side career that consists entirely of complaining about the difficulty of the creative process.
我甚至开始一份副业，而这份副业都在抱怨创造过程的难处。
But today, I don't want to talk about what makes my life difficult.
但今天我不想讨论那些让我的人生变得困难的事。
I want to talk about what makes it easy.
我想谈那些让我的人生变得简单的事。
And that is you and the fact that you are fluent in a language that you're probably not even aware of.
而那就是你以及一个你可能从未发觉的事实：你的某种语言能力其实很流畅。
You're fluent in the language of reading images.
你其实很会解读图像语言。
Deciphering an image like that takes quite a bit of an intellectual effort.
要译码一个像这样的图像需要运用一些智力。
But nobody ever taught you how this works, you just know it.
但没有人曾教导过你怎么做，你就是知道怎么做。
College, shopping, music.
大学、逛街、音乐。
What makes a language powerful is that you can take a very complex idea and communicate it in a very simple, efficient form.
让语言强大的关键是你能将一个很复杂的想法以很简单又有效率的形式传达。
These images represent exactly the same ideas.
这些图像与文字代表完全相同的意思。
But when you look, for example, at the college hat,
举例来说，当你看着那顶学士帽时，
you know that this doesn't represent the accessory you wear on your head when you're being handed your diploma,
你知道它不只是代表那个你在接过你的文凭时头上戴的装饰品，
but rather the whole idea of college.
而是“大学”这整个概念。
Now, what drawings can do is they cannot only communicate images, they can even evoke emotions.
图画不仅仅能够传递图像，也能激发情感。
Let's say you get to an unfamiliar place and you see this. You feel happiness and relief.
假设你去到不熟悉的地方看到这个：你就觉得开心、松了口气。
Or a slight sense of unease or maybe downright panic.
或许感到有些焦虑，或者极度恐慌。
Or blissful peace and quiet.
或幸福安详。
But visuals, they're of course more than just graphic icons.
但视觉当然不只是图标。
You know, if I want to tell the story of modern-day struggle,
如果我今天要讲关于现代奋斗的故事，
I would start with the armrest between two airplane seats and two sets of elbows fighting.
我会从两个飞机座位之间的扶手与两组手肘之间的打斗开始。
What I love there is this universal law that, you know,
这个例子迷人的是这个共同定律：
you have 30 seconds to fight it out and once it's yours, you get to keep it for the rest of the flight.
你有三十秒的时间争夺，一旦抢到了，这个扶手的使用权在整个航程中都属于你。
Now, commercial flight is full of these images.
商业航班满是这类意象。
If I want to illustrate the idea of discomfort, nothing better than these neck pillows.
如果我要描述“不舒服”的概念，没有什么比得上这些颈枕。
They're designed to make you more comfortable -- except they don't.
它们是设计来让你感到更舒适的，可是它们没有。
So I never sleep on airplanes. What I do occasionally is I fall into a sort of painful coma.
所以我在飞机上从不睡觉。我偶尔陷入一种类似痛苦的昏迷状态。
And when I wake up from that, I have the most terrible taste in my mouth.
然后当我醒来，我的嘴巴有股最可怕的味道。
It's a taste that's so bad, it cannot be described with words, but it can be drawn.
那股味道糟到我无法以言语形容，但可以画出来。
The thing is, you know, I love sleeping.
事情是这样的，我爱睡觉。
And when I sleep, I really prefer to do it while spooning.
当我要睡的时候，我真的比较喜欢在背后抱时睡觉。
I've been spooning on almost a pro level for close to 20 years,
二十年来以这个汤匙姿势入睡，我可是专家级的，
but in all this time, I've never figured out what to do with that bottom arm.
但过了这么多年，我还是不知道压在下面那只手要怎么办。
And the only thing -- the only thing that makes sleeping even more complicated than trying to do it on an airplane is when you have small children.
而唯一一件，唯一一件让睡觉变得比在飞机上睡觉更复杂的事，就是当你有很小的小孩的时候。
They show up at your bed at around 4am with some bogus excuse of, "I had a bad dream."
他们会在凌晨四点左右出现在你床边，告诉你一些假的借口，像是“我做恶梦了”。
And then, of course you feel sorry for them, they're your kids, so you let them into your bed.
然后你当然会可怜他们，他们是你的小孩，所以你让他们过来跟你一起睡。
And I have to admit, at the beginning, they're really cute and warm and snugly.
我得承认，一开始他们真的很可爱、很温暖也很舒服。
The minute you fall back asleep, they inexplicably -- start rotating.
就在你要再度入睡的那一刻，他们不知为何开始，开始转动。
We like to call this the helicopter mode.
我们称此为“直升机模式”。
Now, the deeper something is etched into your consciousness, the fewer details we need to have an emotional reaction.
那更深层的东西已经嵌入你的意识中，很少的信息就足够引起情绪反应。
So why does an image like this work? It works, because we as readers are incredibly good at filling in the blanks.
为什么像这样的图像可以达到效果？它能被看懂，因为身为读者的我们非常擅长填空。
Now, when you draw, there's this concept of negative space.
当你画画时，有一个概念叫做“实体周围的空间”。
And the idea is, that instead of drawing the actual object, you draw the space around it.
这概念是我们不画物品的实体，而是画它周围的空间。
So the bowls in this drawing are empty. But the black ink prompts your brain to project food into a void.
所以这幅画里的碗是空的，但那黑色墨水促使你的大脑将食物投射至空白的区块中。
What we see here is not a owl flying.
我们在这幅图中看到的不是一只在飞的猫头鹰。
What we actually see is a pair of AA batteries standing on a nonsensical drawing,
它其实是两个AA电池，站在一幅荒谬的画上，
and I animate the scene by moving my desk lamp up and down.
然后我借着上下移动我的桌灯让画面动起来。
The image really only exists in your mind.
这图像真的只存在于你的脑中。
So, how much information do we need to trigger such an image?
那究竟需要多少信息才能激发这种图像？
My goal as an artist is to use the smallest amount possible.
身为艺术家，我的目标是使用越少信息越好。
I try to achieve a level of simplicity where, if you were to take away one more element, the whole concept would just collapse.
我试着达到简洁的境界，简洁到若你再抽掉一个元素，整个概念就会崩解。
And that's why my personal favorite tool as an artist is abstraction.
这也是为什么身为艺术家，我最喜欢的工具是抽象。
I've come up with this system which I call the abstract-o-meter, and this is how it works.
我发明了一个系统，我叫它“抽象量计”，它是这样使用的。
So you take a symbol, any symbol, for example the heart and the arrow, which most of us would read as the symbol for love,
取任何一个符号，例如爱心与箭，大多数的人会将它们解读为爱的象征，
and I'm an artist, so I can draw this in any given degree of realism or abstraction.
而我是个艺术家，所以我可以决定用多少写实或多少抽象元素来画它。

Now, if I go too realistic on it, it just grosses everybody out.
如果我太写实，大家就会觉得恶心。
If I go too far on the other side and do very abstract, nobody has any idea what they're looking at.
如果我又画得太抽象，就没有人知道这是什么。
So I have to find the perfect place on that scale, in this case it's somewhere in the middle.
所以我必须在那量尺中找到最完美的位置，以这个范例来说，大概是在中间的位置。
Now, once we have reduced an image to a more simple form, all sorts of new connections become possible.
当我们将一幅图像简化到更简洁的形式，各种新连结开始变得可行。
And that allows for totally new angles in storytelling.
这样也可以用新的观点说故事。
And so, what I like to do is, I like to take images from really remote cultural areas and bring them together.
所以，我想做的是，我希望能结合遥远文化地区的图像。
Now, with more daring references -- I can have more fun.
运用更多大胆的引用，我就能创造更多乐趣。
But of course, I know that eventually things become so obscure that I start losing some of you.
但当然了，我知道事情到最后变得很难懂，你们有些人会失去兴趣。
So as a designer, it's absolutely key to have a good understanding of the visual and cultural vocabulary of your audience.
所以身为一个设计师，充分了解观众的视觉与文化词汇是很关键的。
With this image here, a comment on the Olympics in Athens,
这幅图像：一篇关于雅典奥运的评论，
I assumed that the reader of the "New Yorker" would have some rudimentary idea of Greek art.
我假设《纽约客》的读者多少对于希腊艺术会有一些初步的了解。
If you don't, the image doesn't work.
如果你不了解希腊艺术，这幅图像就不会达到它的效果。
But if you do, you might even appreciate the small detail, like the beer-can pattern here on the bottom of the vase.
但如果你了解，你甚至会欣赏它的小细节，例如这个花瓶底部的啤酒罐般的图腾。
A recurring discussion I have with magazine editors, who are usually word people, is that their audience,
我跟杂志编辑反复讨论着一件事，而杂志编辑们通常是很在意词汇的人，我们讨论的是观众们，
you, are much better at making radical leaps with images than they're being given credit for.
你们比起图像原意，更会跳跃式解读图像意义。
And the only thing I find frustrating is that
而唯一让我觉得挫败的是，
they often seem to push me towards a small set of really tired visual clichés that are considered safe.
它们似乎总把我推向一系列老套被认为保险的视觉效果。
You know, it's the businessman climbing up a ladder, and then the ladder moves,
就像，有个商人正在爬梯，然后梯子动了，
morphs into a stock market graph, and anything with dollar signs; that's always good.
变成股市趋势图，任何有钱币符号的东西，总是很好。
If there are editorial decision makers here in the audience, I want to give you a piece of advice.
如果今天的观众里有编辑决策者，我想给你一个建议。
Every time a drawing like this is published, a baby panda will die. Literally.
每当这种图被出版一次，就会死一只熊猫宝宝。从字面上讲。
When is a visual cliché good or bad? It's a fine line. And it really depends on the story.
那老套的视觉效果什么时候好，什么时候不好？两者差别很微妙，全看你的故事内容。
In 2011, during the earthquake and the tsunami in Japan, I was thinking of a cover.
2011年，日本发生地震与海啸时，我正在筹划一个封面。
And I went through the classic symbols: the Japanese flag, "The Great Wave" by Hokusai, one of the greatest drawings ever.
我把典型符号都想过了一遍：日本国旗，葛饰北斋的《神奈川冲浪里》，史上最厉害的画作之一，
And then the story changed when the situation at the power plant in Fukushima got out of hand.
然后在福岛的电厂失控之后，故事就变了。
And I remember these TV images of the workers in hazmat suits,
我记得电视里充满穿着防护衣工人们的图像，
just walking through the site, and what struck me was how quiet and serene it was.
在现场穿梭，而让我感到震撼的是那画面是如此平静。
And so I wanted to create an image of a silent catastrophe. And that's the image I came up with. Thank you.
因此我就想创造一幅表达平静灾难的图像。这就是我当时的作品。谢谢。
What I want to do is create an aha moment, for you, for the reader.
我想为读者创造一个“啊哈！”的时刻。
And unfortunately, that does not mean that I have an aha moment when I create these images.
而不幸的是，这并不代表我在创造这些图像的时候也有“啊哈”的时刻。
I never sit at my desk with the proverbial light bulb going off in my head.
我坐在书桌前时，脑中的那颗“灯泡”从不熄灭。
What it takes is actually a very slow, unsexy process of minimal design decisions that then, when I'm lucky, lead to a good idea.
设计过程其实非常缓慢，并且是一点都不性感地在做一些微小的设计决策，如果幸运，这些决策将会引出好的概念。
So one day, I'm on a train, and I'm trying to decode the graphic rules for drops on a window.
于是有一天，我在火车上试着解读窗户上雨滴的图像规则。
And eventually I realize, "Oh, it's the background blurry upside-down, contained in a sharp image."
然后我终于了解到，“噢，原来它是包含在清晰图像里的模糊颠倒背景。”
And I thought, wow, that's really cool, and I have absolutely no idea what to do with that.
然后我想，哇，那真的是很酷，而对于如何处理它我完全没有想法。
A while later, I'm back in New York, and I draw this image of being stuck on the Brooklyn bridge in a traffic jam.
不久之后，我回到纽约，我画了这个在布鲁克林大桥上塞车的图。
It's really annoying, but also kind of poetic.
塞车很烦人，但也有点诗意。
And only later I realized, I can take both of these ideas and put them together in this idea.
直到后来我才意识到，我可以同时采用这两种概念，然后将它们结合呈现。
And what I want to do is not show a realistic scene.
而我想做的不是呈现实景。
But, maybe like poetry, make you aware that you already had this image with you,
而是有点诗意的，让你意识到其实这个图像已经存在你脑中，
but only now I've unearthed it and made you realize that you were carrying it with you all along.
而我现在将它挖掘出来，让你了解到它其实一直都跟着你。
But like poetry, this is a very delicate process that is neither efficient nor scalable, I think.
但像诗一样，它是个很细致的过程，我觉得这个过程无法有效率也无法量化。
And maybe the most important skill for an artist is really empathy.
或许对一个艺术家来说，最重要的技巧其实是同理心。
You need craft and you need -- you need creativity -- thank you -- to come up with an image like that.
你需要技术，你也需要，你需要创造力--谢谢--来创造出像这样的图像。
But then you need to step back and look at what you've done from the perspective of the reader.
然而在那之后，你必须往后退一步，以读者的视角看你创造出来的东西。
I've tried to become a better artist by becoming a better observer of images.
通过变成一个更好的图像观察者，我试着成为一个更好的艺术家。
And for that, I started an exercise for myself which I call Sunday sketching,
为了这个目的，我开始了自己的练习，我将这个练习称作“星期天速写”，
which meant, on a Sunday, I would take a random object I found around the house
意思是，在星期天，我会取房子周边的一个随机物品，
and try to see if that object could trigger an idea that had nothing to do with the original purpose of that item.
然后试着想想看该物品是否能激发点子，激发跟这个物品的原始用途不同的点子。
And it usually just means I'm blank for a long while.
这通常意味着我会有很长的一段时间脑中空白。
And the only trick that eventually works is
唯一能让这件事成功的秘诀，
if I open my mind and run through every image I have stored up there, and see if something clicks.
是当我不持任何偏见地扫描过每一个我存放在脑中的图像，看看是否有东西让我突然开窍。
And if it does, just add a few lines of ink to connect -- to preserve this very short moment of inspiration.
如果有，就只要加上几条线连结--来保存这短暂的予人灵感的时刻。
And the great lesson there was that the real magic doesn't happen on paper.
而这经验中最宝贵的一课是魔法不是发生在纸上。
It happens in the mind of the viewer. When your expectations and your knowledge clash with my artistic intentions.
而是在观看者的脑中。当你的期待与知识和我的艺术撞击时。
Your interaction with an image, your ability to read, question,
你和图像的互动，你能阅读、质疑
be bothered or bored or inspired by an image is as important as my artistic contribution.
或觉得图像很恼人、无聊或发人深省，这些都和我的艺术贡献一样重要。
Because that's what turns an artistic statement really, into a creative dialogue.
因为那就是将艺术表现真正转化成创意对话的关键。
And so, your skill at reading images is not only amazing, it is what makes my art possible.
所以，你阅读图像的技巧，不仅是非常好，更是让我的艺术变得有可能性的关键。
And for that, I thank you very much. Thank you.
针对这点，我非常感谢你们。谢谢。