用自拍尋找博物館里的另一個你
去年夏天，羅斯·W·達(dá)芬(Ross W. Duffin)在加州帕薩迪納市的一家博物館里閑逛，他在一幅17世紀(jì)的油畫前面停了下來，畫面上是一位穿盔甲、留胡子的武士。
“I thought, ‘Wow, that is really funny, he looks just like me,’” Dr. Duffin recalled. Then he moved on.
“當(dāng)時我心想，‘哇，太有意思了，他長得跟我一模一樣，’”達(dá)芬博士回憶道。然后，他就接著往前走了。
But his wife, Beverly Simmons, was stunned by the resemblance. “She came running after me and said, ‘You have to come back and look at this painting!” Dr. Duffin said.
但他的妻子貝弗莉·西蒙斯(Beverly Simmons)卻被這種相似性驚呆了。“她追上我說：‘你一定得回來看看這幅畫!’”達(dá)芬說。
Dr. Duffin had found his art twin. So the couple did what millions of people have discovered as a new way to interact with art — something that has exploded with new popularity in recent weeks thanks to a new feature in a Google museums app.
達(dá)芬找到了他的藝術(shù)孿生兄弟，于是他們夫婦就做了一件如今成百上千萬人都在做的事情，人們把這當(dāng)做與藝術(shù)互動的新方式——最近幾周，由于谷歌博物館應(yīng)用程序的一個新功能，這種做法開始爆紅。
But Dr. Duffin and his wife were pioneers last summer, using old-fashioned serendipity. He stood next to the oil painting, a work by the Dutch artist Jan van Bijlert displayed at the Norton Simon Museum. He turned sideways, raised his chin and narrowed his eyes. His wife captured the moment with her iPhone.
不過，這股風(fēng)潮畢竟是去年夏天由達(dá)芬夫婦因為這次老式的機緣巧合而引領(lǐng)的。他站在諾頓西蒙藝術(shù)博物館(Norton Simon Museum)展出的荷蘭藝術(shù)家讓·范·拜勒特(Jan van Bijlert)的那幅油畫作品旁，側(cè)著身，抬起下巴，瞇起眼睛，讓妻子用iPhone拍下了那一刻。
Long before the Google Arts and Culture app, which became the most downloaded mobile app over the weekend, art aficionados, dabblers, narcissists and soul searchers pondering a cosmic connection to distant humans have been searching for their art twins, a long-gone, sometimes fictional or unknown doppelgänger encased in oil, sculpture or ceramics.
“谷歌藝術(shù)與文化”是上周末下載次數(shù)最多的手機應(yīng)用程序。早在它出現(xiàn)之前，思考與遠(yuǎn)古人類宇宙聯(lián)系的藝術(shù)狂熱愛好者、普通愛好者、自戀者和靈魂探索者一直在尋找他們的藝術(shù)孿生兄弟姊妹，尋找那些被禁錮在油畫、雕塑或瓷器中的幽靈，它們久已逝去，有時是虛構(gòu)的，或者不為人所知。
Some set out specifically to find their twin, in an engaging pastime that gives museum visits a new focus. Others, like the Duffins, have stumbled on theirs as they wander.
有些人特地去尋找自己的“孿生”兄弟姊妹，這種令人著迷的娛樂活動成了博物館參觀的新焦點。還有些人和達(dá)芬夫婦一樣，是在閑逛時偶然發(fā)現(xiàn)了它們。
As anyone who regularly looks at a social media feed knows by now, millions more need never leave home or cross a border to find that uniquely familiar face on some obscure etching. They just upload a selfie and let technology do the sleuthing.
任何經(jīng)常關(guān)注社交媒體推送的人都已知道，如今，數(shù)百萬人不需要離開家，也不需要跨越國界，就能在某件模糊的蝕刻作品上找到那張熟悉的面孔。他們只需要上傳一張自拍照，剩下的搜索工作交給科技來做。
The app was available in 2015, but its arts matching feature was introduced in mid-December. Its popularity has quickly surged, and Instagram, Twitter and YouTube users have widely shared photos of both their art twins and those of celebrities, from William Shatner to Taylor Swift. Google estimates more than 20 million selfies have been uploaded using the new feature.
該應(yīng)用程序是于2015年推出，不過藝術(shù)匹配功能是去年12月中旬才添加的。它的人氣迅速躥升，從威廉·夏特納(William Shatner)到泰勒·斯威夫特(Taylor Swift)，Instagram、Twitter和YouTube用戶大量分享了自己和名人，乃至藝術(shù)品的“孿生”照片。據(jù)谷歌估計，這一新功能吸引用戶上傳了2000多萬自拍照。
Dr. Duffin said he was amused by his moment with the unknown soldier, described by the museum as probably a more mythological than human figure. But the resemblance had an impact on his life after he posted the photograph on Twitter, where it was widely shared without identifying him by name.
達(dá)芬表示，他覺得自己與那個無名戰(zhàn)士在一起的時刻很有趣，博物館認(rèn)為那名士兵很可能是神話人物，而非真實人物。他在Twitter上發(fā)布那張照片之后，它被廣泛轉(zhuǎn)發(fā)(轉(zhuǎn)發(fā)時沒有提到他的名字)，這對他的生活產(chǎn)生了很大影響。
“A month later, all of a sudden, it started to get a lot of play in the press,” Dr. Duffin, a professor of music at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, said in an interview. “I would get email messages from people I had not heard from in years who knew immediately it was me.”
“一個月后，媒體上突然出現(xiàn)了大量報道，”達(dá)芬在接受采訪時說。他是克利夫蘭的凱斯-西部保留地大學(xué)(Case Western Reserve University)的音樂教授。“一些多年未聯(lián)系的人給我發(fā)來郵件，他們一眼就認(rèn)出了我。”
With people seeking selfies that make a connection going back in time, museums are using the opportunity to engage with visitors.
人們想通過自拍找到與久遠(yuǎn)時光的聯(lián)系，而博物館也在利用這個機會加深與游客的聯(lián)系。
Leslie C. Denk, a spokeswoman for the Norton Simon Museum, said the museum had noticed some visitors posting photographs of themselves posing like works of art, particularly alongside sculptures by Auguste Rodin and Aristide Maillol.
諾頓西蒙藝術(shù)博物館的發(fā)言人萊斯莉·C·登克(Leslie C. Denk)表示，該博物館注意到有些參觀者在上傳自己模仿藝術(shù)品姿勢的照片，尤其是在奧古斯特·羅丹(Auguste Rodin)和阿里斯蒂德·馬約爾(Aristide Maillol)的雕塑旁。
“Art has the power to transport us through time, and so I think it’s a joy to recognize ourselves, a friend or even a pet, in an artwork from centuries ago,” she said.
“藝術(shù)具有讓我們穿越時空的能力，所以我認(rèn)為，從幾個世紀(jì)前的藝術(shù)作品中認(rèn)出自己、朋友甚至寵物都是一種樂趣，”她說。
Art-twinning happens so often in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston that it hosts a fan favorite every week on Instagram. The most popular piece to pose with is “Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer,” a sculpture by Edgar Degas.
在波士頓的美術(shù)博物館(Museum of Fine Arts)里，尋找藝術(shù)雙胞胎的情況經(jīng)常出現(xiàn)，所以，它在Instagram上舉辦了“每周粉絲最愛”的活動。參觀者最喜歡合影的作品是埃德加·德加(Edgar Degas)的雕塑《十四歲的舞者》(Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer)。
“In our galleries, visitors frequently seek out their museum doppelgänger or attempt to mimic works of art — usually as they search for the perfect Instagram shot,” said Katie Getchell, the deputy director and chief brand officer at the Boston museum.
“游客們經(jīng)常會在我們的畫廊里尋找自己的藝術(shù)孿生兄弟姐妹，或者模仿藝術(shù)作品的姿勢——通常是為了拍到最理想的Instagram照片，”波士頓美術(shù)博物館的副館長兼首席品牌官凱蒂·格徹爾(Katie Getchell)說。
At the Brooklyn Museum, selfies with artworks are also popular. “The success of Google’s project comes as no surprise to me, or probably to anyone else who works in a museum,” said Brooke Baldeschwiler, the museum’s senior manager of digital communications. “It’s really simple. People love to see themselves in art.”
在布魯克林博物館(Brooklyn Museum)，與藝術(shù)品合影自拍也很常見。“谷歌那個應(yīng)用程序的成功對我來說并不意外，其他任何博物館工作人員很可能也不會感到意外，”該博物館的數(shù)字通訊高級經(jīng)理布魯克·巴爾德斯奇維勒(Brooke Baldeschwiler)說。“原因很簡單。人們喜歡在藝術(shù)品中看見自己。”
If human beings are obsessed with selfies, then the Google Arts and Culture app is the addiction’s enabler for the art world. It does have its critics. Some people just find facial recognition software creepy, and the app is not available in Texas and Illinois, which have some of the country’s strictest laws about the collection of biometric data, including selfies. The app also has mixed results, particularly when it comes to race, gender and age.
如果說人類癡迷于自拍，那么“谷歌藝術(shù)與文化”應(yīng)用程序就是幫人們在藝術(shù)世界里實現(xiàn)這種癡迷。它也的確遭到了批評。有些人覺得面部識別軟件令人毛骨悚然，這款應(yīng)用程序在德克薩斯州和伊利諾斯州遭到禁用，因為這兩個州關(guān)于生物計量數(shù)據(jù)收集的某些法律是全美國最嚴(yán)格的，包括自拍照。該應(yīng)用程序也產(chǎn)生了復(fù)雜的結(jié)果，尤其是在種族、性別和年齡方面。
“My grandmother got Ronald Reagan’s presidential portrait,” said Patrick Lenihan, a spokesman for Google.
“系統(tǒng)給我祖母匹配的是羅納德·里根(Ronald Reagan)的總統(tǒng)畫像，”谷歌的發(fā)言人帕特里克·勒尼漢(Patrick Lenihan)說。
Far from the virtual realm, Greco-Roman antiquities, Egyptian funerary portraits and the contemporary people who resemble them are being brought together in an exhibit in Canada called “My 2,000-Year-Old Double.”
在現(xiàn)實世界里，加拿大舉辦了一個名為“我2000歲的孿生兄弟姐妹”展(My 2,000-Year-Old Double)，希臘-羅馬古董、埃及葬禮肖像以及與它們相似的當(dāng)代人士被聚集到一起。
The Musée de la Civilisation in Quebec City has narrowed down thousands of selfies to a few dozen people who resemble the artworks, arranging for them to be photographed in Montreal by François Brunelle, whose previous projects include documenting people who look alike but are not twins.
魁北克市的文明博物館(Musée de la Civilisation)從數(shù)千張自拍照中挑選了幾十個與藝術(shù)品中的人物相似的人，安排他們在蒙特利爾接受弗朗索瓦·布魯內(nèi)爾(François Brunelle)攝影。布魯內(nèi)爾之前的項目包括拍攝那些看起來很像但并非雙胞胎的人。
Wesley Rowell, 57, who works in New York City, was one of them.
在紐約市工作的57歲的韋斯利·羅韋爾(Wesley Rowell)是活動參與者之一。
He will appear alongside his art twin, a sculpture of an unidentified man from the third century B.C.
他將和他的藝術(shù)孿生兄弟一起亮相，后者是公元前三世紀(jì)一個身份不明者的雕像。
“To think about the lives, the generations, between him and me in New York City, is kind of bizarre,” Mr. Rowell said. “I keep going back to that human need, to feel like I am connected to everything that was before me.”
“想想看，在他和住在紐約的我之間，相隔漫長的歲月和無數(shù)代人，這有點怪異，”羅韋爾說。“我總是會不斷產(chǎn)生人類的那種需求，覺得自己與之前的一切都有聯(lián)系。”
Amanda Bullis, 29, an actor who lives in Jersey City, was chosen for her similarity to a face carved onto a vessel, dating between 300 and 201 B.C.
29歲的阿曼達(dá)·布利斯(Amanda Bullis)是一名演員，住在澤西城。她被選中是因為她與刻在公元前300年至201年間的一艘船上的一張臉非常相似。
Ms. Bullis sat for hours for hair and makeup. “In that moment I was able to embody her,” she said, adding that it made her think about her ancestry. “I just found it interesting that I am part of a larger humanity that has been evolving and changing, but largely the same, over thousands of years.”
布利斯坐了幾個小時，做頭發(fā)，化妝。“在那個時刻，我能成為她的化身，”她說。她還說這讓她想起了自己的祖先。“我覺得很有趣的是，我是更大的人類群體的一部分，在過去的幾千年里，這個群體在不斷進(jìn)化和改變，但總體上是一樣的。”
Dr. Duffin, the Ohio professor, said he did not think much more about his art twin after he posed with the painting in California. He is accustomed, he added, to being mistaken for another bearded fellow.
俄亥俄州的達(dá)芬教授表示，在加州和那幅畫合影后，他沒怎么再想過自己的藝術(shù)孿生兄弟。他還說，如今他習(xí)慣了被人誤認(rèn)為另一個留胡子的人。
Strangers often ask him, “Has anyone ever told you that you look like Santa Claus?” he said. “And my answer is, ‘Not since yesterday.’”
他說，陌生人經(jīng)常問他，“有沒有人跟你說過，你長得像圣誕老人?我的回答是：‘從昨天起還沒人說過呢。’”
