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樹木體現的是一種靜態;樹木紮根於一個地點的一塊土地上,歷經許多人類世代。但如果我們改變觀點,由樹幹到樹枝,樹木會變成非常動態的實體,可以移動和生長。我決定藉由將樹木轉變成藝術家,探索這個動態。我只是將一枝畫筆綁到一根樹枝上,等待風起,立起一張畫布,由此產生了藝術。你在左圖看到的藝術作品是一棵美國紅杉所繪,右側則是一棵花旗松所繪。我學習到的是,不同物種,繪製筆調也不同,就像將畢卡索與莫內相比。
但我也對樹木的動態,以及我可能如何捕捉和量化這種藝術很感興趣。因此,要測量一棵楓樹繪製出這種圖畫的距離,即它在一年內移動的距離,我只要測量和加總每個線條,將線條乘以每根樹枝的細枝數,以及每棵樹的樹枝數,然後除以每年的分鐘數,就可以計算出單一一棵樹在一年中移動了多遠。你們可以猜猜看,答案事實上是186,540英里,或是地球周長的7倍。只要把我們的觀點從單一樹幹,轉移到許多動態的樹枝,就可以看到,樹木不只是靜態的實體,而是非常動態的。
我開始朝這方向思考,我們可以將從樹木身上學習到的知識,用來考慮其他的,也是靜態的、固定的、但渴望改變和成為動態的實體。其中一個實體是我們的監獄。當然,監獄是破壞我們法律的人被監禁之處,受限在囹圄中。我們監獄制度本身也是僵化的。美國有超過 230萬被監禁的男女囚犯,這個數字還在上升。被監禁後釋放的100人當中,60個將回籠。用以教育、培訓和更生的基金正在減少。因此,這個被監禁的絕望循環不斷繼續。我決定問問自己,我從樹木藝術家身上學習到的知識,是否可應用於靜態機構?例如我們的監獄。我認為,答案是肯定的。
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以下為系統擷取之英文原文
Trees epitomize stasis. Trees are rooted in the ground in one place for many human generations. But if we shift our perspective from the trunk to the twigs, trees become very dynamic entities, moving and growing. And I decided to explore this movement by turning trees into artists. I simply tied the end of a paintbrush onto a twig. I waited for the wind to come up and held up a canvas. And that produced art. The piece of art you see on your left is painted by a western red cedar, and that on your right by a Douglas fir. And what I learned was that different species have different signatures, like a Picasso versus a Monet.
But I was also interested in the movement of trees and how this art might let me capture that and quantify it. So to measure the distance that a single vine maple tree -- which produced this painting -- moved in a single year, I simply measured and summed each of those lines. I multiplied them by the number of twigs per branch and the number of branches per tree and then divided that by the number of minutes per year. And so I was able to calculate how far a single tree moved in a single year. You might have a guess. The answer is actually 186,540 miles, or seven times around the globe. And so simply by shifting our perspective from a single trunk to the many dynamic twigs, we are able to see that trees are not simply static entities, but rather extremely dynamic.
And I began to think about ways that we might consider this lesson of trees, to consider other entities that are also static and stuck, but which cry for change and dynamicism. And one of those entities is our prisons. Prisons, of course, are where people who break our laws are stuck, confined behind bars. And our prison system itself is stuck. The United States has over 2.3 million incarcerated men and women. That number is rising. Of the hundred of incarcerated people that are released, 60 will return to prison. Funds for education, for training and for rehabilitation are declining. So this despairing cycle of incarceration continues. I decided to ask whether the lesson I had learned from trees as artists could be applied to a static institution such as our prisons. And I think the answer is yes.
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在2007年,我開始了與華盛頓州立監獄部門的合作夥伴關係。我們與四所監獄合作,開始將科學與科學家,永續發展和保育計畫,帶往四所州立監獄。我們舉辦科學講座,獄中的人選擇參與我們的科學講座,而不是看電視或舉重;我認為這是一項運動。我們與大自然保護協會合作,讓Stafford Creek矯正中心的囚犯種植瀕臨絕種的草原植物,以恢復華盛頓州草原地區的遺跡;我認為這是一項運動。我們與華盛頓州立魚類和野生動物部門合作,養育瀕臨絕種的俄勒岡斑點蛙,以備育後釋放以保護濕地;我認為這是一項運動。
就在最近,我們已經開始與一些囚犯們共同進行,他們被隔離於我們稱之為高度防護的設施中。他們曾有暴力違規行為,即對獄卒與其他囚犯做出暴力行為。他們被監禁在像這樣空蕩蕩的監舍中,一天隔離23個小時。當他們與審視委員或心理輔導專業人員會面時,被安置在像這樣難以活動的小室中。每天一小時,他們被帶入這些空蕩蕭索的活動場地中。但我們可以把樹木和草原植物及青蛙帶到這些環境中。我們正在把大自然的影像帶入這些活動場所,把它們貼在牆上,所以至少他們可以接觸大自然的視覺圖像。這是Lopez先生,他已被單獨監禁了18個月。他提供對這類圖像的看法,他認為這將使他和他的獄友更平靜、更冷靜,較不容易有暴力行為。
因此,以我們所看到的,我認為,這種小而集體的變化運動,也許可以移動如我們監獄制度這樣的實體,往我們希望的方向前進。我們知道,當我們觀察它們的樹幹時,樹木是靜態實體。但如果樹木能創造藝術,如果它們一年可以環繞地球周長7倍的距離,如果犯人可以種植植物,養育青蛙,或許還有其他緊縛在我們心中的靜態實體,如悲傷、癮頭,如種族主義,也是可以改變的。
非常感謝。
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In the year 2007, I started a partnership with the Washington State Department of Corrections, working with four prisons, we began bringing science and scientists, sustainability and conservation projects to four state prisons. We give science lectures. And the men here are choosing to come to our science lectures instead of watching television or weightlifting. That, I think, is movement. We partnered with the Nature Conservancy for inmates at Stafford Creek Corrections Center to grow endangered prairie plants for restoration of relic prairie areas in Washington state. That, I think, is movement. We worked with the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife to grow endangered frogs, the Oregon spotted frog, for later release into protected wetlands. That, I think, is movement.
And just recently, we've begun to work with those men who are segregated in what we call Supermax facilities. They've incurred violent infractions by becoming violent with guards and with other prisoners. They're kept in bare cells like this for 23 hours a day. When they have meetings with their review boards or mental health professionals, they're placed in immobile booths like this. For one hour a day they're brought to these bleak and bland exercise yards. And although we can't bring trees and prairie plants and frogs into these environments, we are bringing images of nature into these exercise yards, putting them on the walls, so at least they get contact with visual images of nature. This is Mr. Lopez, who has been in solitary confinement for 18 months. And he's providing input on the types of images that he believes would make him and his fellow inmates more serene, more calm, less apt to violence.
And so what we see, I think, is that small, collective movements of change can perhaps move an entity such as our own prison system in a direction of hope. We know that trees are static entities when we look at their trunks. But if trees can create art, if they can encircle the globe seven times in one year, if prisoners can grow plants and raise frogs, then perhaps there are other static entities that we hold inside ourselves, like grief, like addictions, like racism, that can also change.
Thank you very much.