Investigate: Inquiry and the Artistic Process
AP 2-D Art and Design Topic 4 7:26 English narration · English + 中文 subtitles burned in
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Two hundred years ago, a Japanese artist asked himself one question: how does one mountain look, seen from everywhere?
两百年前，一位日本艺术家问了自己一个问题：同一座山，从各个地方看会是什么样子？
The wave is enormous, filling more than half of the picture.
画面里的浪很大，占了半张画。
The boats have almost disappeared under it.
船几乎被浪盖住了。
And there, small and quiet behind the spray, is the mountain.
而在那里，浪花后面，小而安静的，就是那座山。
Hokusai did not answer that question once.
北斋没有只回答一次这个问题。
He answered it thirty-six times, and every answer asked him something new.
他回答了三十六次，而每一个答案又向他提出新的问题。
That is a sustained investigation.
这就是一次持续探究。
This unit is called Investigate, and it comes in six parts.
本单元叫做"探究"，一共六个部分。
Inquiry, and how to ask a question worth a whole year of work.
第一，提问，以及怎样问出一个值得做一整年的问题。
Where ideas come from.
第二，想法从哪里来。
Materials, processes and ideas, and how they pull on each other.
第三，材料、过程与想法，以及它们如何互相影响。
Art and design in context.
第四，艺术与设计的语境。
How work is evaluated.
第五，作品如何被评价。
And documentation, the journal that proves you did the thinking.
第六，记录，也就是那本能证明你确实思考过的创作日志。
Making does not begin with a picture. It begins with a question.
创作不是从一幅画开始的，而是从一个问题开始的。
Then you investigate: look, read, test, talk to people.
然后你去探究：观察、阅读、试验、和别人交流。
Then you make and experiment.
接着你动手制作和实验。
Then you reflect on what came out, and revise.
然后你反思做出来的东西，再修改。
And here is the part students miss. The cycle does not stop.
下面这一点最多人忽略： 这个循环不会停。
It runs again and again, for months.
它会一遍又一遍地转，持续好几个月。
That long question-driven study is what the exam calls a sustained investigation, and everything else hangs off it.
这种由问题带动的长期研究，就是考试所说的持续探究， 本单元其余内容都建立在它之上。
So what makes a question good?
那么，什么样的问题才算好问题？
On the left is a topic: my investigation is about the ocean.
左边是一个主题："我的探究是关于海洋的。
Nothing to test, nothing to answer, and it cannot drive fifteen works.
" 没有可以检验的东西，也没有要回答的东西，它撑不起十五件作品。
On the right is a real question: how can I use colour and texture to show the ocean shifting from calm to dangerous?
右边是一个真正的问题："我怎样用色彩和肌理，表现海洋从平静转向危险？
It names an idea, and it points at the visual choices you will test.
" 它既点出了想法，又指向你将要尝试的视觉选择。
That is what raises a portfolio's score, so write the second kind.
这正是能提高作品集分数的地方，所以要写第二种。
A good question does not stay still — questions evolve.
好问题不会停在原地——问题会演变。
This student began by asking how colour alone could show calm water, and made six paintings that all looked the same.
这位同学一开始问的是：只用色彩能不能表现平静的水？ 她画了六张，结果六张看起来都差不多。
So she asked what torn paper would do to the surface.
于是她又问：如果在表面加上撕开的纸，会怎么样？
It came alive, and a sharper question appeared: how can texture turn calm water into dangerous water?
画面活了起来，一个更锐利的问题出现了：怎样用肌理，把平静的水变成危险的水？
That question carried her last eight works, and it is not the question she started with.
正是这个问题，带出了她最后的八件作品，而它并不是她最初的那个问题。
Where do those questions come from?
这些问题从哪里来？
Six places, and you should raid all of them.
有六个来源，而且你应该把它们都用上。
Your own personal experience, what you have actually lived — and experiences can be documented with drawings, photos, notes, or sound.
你自己的亲身经历，也就是你真正经历过的事——经历可以用素描、照片、笔记或声音记录下来。
Close observation, what you see when you slow down and look properly.
仔细观察，也就是当你慢下来、认真看时看见的东西。
Other artists, and the history behind them.
其他艺术家，以及他们背后的历史。
Culture and place.
文化与地域。
Social issues you care about.
你所关心的社会议题。
And the materials themselves, because a strange material asks its own questions.
还有材料本身，因为一种陌生的材料会提出它自己的问题。
Any of these can start an investigation.
这里任何一个，都能开启一次探究。
Every work you make is built from three things.
你做的每一件作品都由三样东西构成。
Materials: what it is made of, such as ink, paper, thread or pixels.
材料：作品是用什么做的， 比如墨、纸、线或像素。
Processes: how it is made, such as layering, printing or tearing.
过程：作品是怎么做出来的，比如叠加、印制或撕扯。
And ideas: what it is about, which is your question.
还有想法：作品讲的是什么，也就是你的问题。
These three pull on each other.
这三者互相牵动。
A material suggests a process, and a process shapes an idea.
材料会提示一种过程，而过程又会塑造想法。
When all three are chosen for one effect, examiners call it synthesis, and that is where the top marks live.
当这三者都是为同一个效果而选的，评卷人称之为综合， 而最高的分数就在这里。
No work is made in an empty room.
没有作品是在空房间里做出来的。
Context means traditions, cultures, and other disciplines — when, where, how, why and by whom a work was made.
语境指传统、文化和其他学科——一件作品在何时、何地、 如何、为何、由谁创作。
Here are two pictures from almost the same years, in two different worlds: a woodblock print from Japan, and a pencil portrait from France.
这里是两幅年代几乎相同、却来自两个不同世界的画： 一幅是日本的木版画，一幅是法国的铅笔肖像。
Different materials, different processes, different ideas about what a picture is even for.
材料不同，过程不同，连一幅画到底是干什么用的这个想法也不同。
Comparing them teaches you more than either one alone.
把它们放在一起比较，比单看其中任何一幅学到的都多。
And if a work influences you, say so.
而如果某件作品影响了你，就要说出来。
That is integrity.
这就是诚信。
Evaluating art and design is the next part.
接下来这部分是评价艺术与设计。
So how is any of it judged?
那么，这一切是怎么被评判的？
Evaluation is not opinion.
评价不是凭个人喜好。
First, observe closely and name what you see: the materials, the processes and the ideas.
第一，仔细观察，说出你看到的：材料、过程和想法。
Second, compare the work against criteria; for you, the criteria are the scoring guidelines.
第二，把作品对照标准来看；对你来说，标准就是评分指南。
Third, ask whether the parts show synthesis.
第三，问问各部分是否体现了综合。
Fourth, critique, informally as you work and formally with your teacher.
第四，评图：创作过程中自己非正式地评，以及和老师正式地评。
Then reflect, and let it change the next piece.
然后反思，并让它改变你的下一件作品。
Let us do that on a real drawing.
我们就在一幅真正的素描上试一次。
Line: the coat is almost pure contour, drawn fast, with hardly any shading.
线条：外套几乎全是轮廓线，画得很快， 几乎没有排线。
Tone: the head is the one place the artist built soft value, so your eye goes there first and stays.
明暗：头部是艺术家唯一细致做出层次的地方， 所以你的视线先落在那里，并停留在那里。
Composition: look at the empty paper.
构图：看看空白的纸。
That space is not laziness; it pushes all the weight onto the figure.
那片空白不是偷懒，它把全部分量都压到了人物身上。
Point at what you can see, and a critique becomes evidence.
指出你能看见的东西，评图就成了证据。
This is a page from a working artist's journal, and it is not beautiful.
这是一位职业艺术家创作日志中的一页，它并不好看。
Notes: names, places, a date, the raw information he wanted to keep.
文字：人名、地名、日期，都是他想留住的原始信息。
A sketch: light, fast, unfinished, made to test an idea and not to be shown.
速写：很轻、很快、没画完，是用来试想法的，不是用来展示的。
More notes underneath.
下面还有更多笔记。
Documentation is exactly this. Images, notes, diagrams, samples and written reflection, collected as you go.
记录就是这个样子： 图像、笔记、图解、材料小样和文字反思，边做边收集。
So what belongs in yours?
那么，你的日志里该放什么？
Record the questions, the one you began with and every new one it produced.
记录问题：最初的那一个，以及它带出的每一个新问题。
Record the experiments: samples, tests, small studies.
记录实验：小样、试验、小幅习作。
Record the failures, and this is the one students throw away.
记录失败——这一项正是学生最爱扔掉的。
A failed test is proof that you investigated.
失败的尝试，恰恰证明你探究过。
And record the revisions, what you changed and why.
还要记录修改：你改了什么，为什么改。
Together these are your lines of inquiry, and they show how the whole investigation developed.
这些合起来，就是你的探究路径，它们展示出整个探究是如何发展的。
Now you try.
现在轮到你了。
A student writes: I will make art about pollution.
有位同学写道：我要做关于污染的艺术。
Turn that into a workable inquiry question.
请把它变成一个可用的探究问题。
Pause here and write one.
先暂停，自己写一个。 准备好了吗？
Ready? First, why it fails. It is a topic, not a question, so it asks nothing and cannot develop.
第一，它为什么不行：它是主题，不是问题，什么都没问，所以无法发展。
Second, make it open and personal: begin with how can I, not with what is.
第二，让它开放而且属于你自己：用我怎样能开头，而不是什么是。
Third, name the visual choices. How can layered transparency show what a river hides?
第三，点出视觉选择：怎样用层层叠加的半透明，表现一条河所隐藏的东西？
Fourth, test it: could it make ten different works?
第四，检验它：它能做出十件不同的作品吗？
The marks come from how the works develop the question, never from the topic.
分数来自作品如何发展这个问题，而绝不是来自主题本身。
Four things to carry out of this unit.
本单元要带走四件事。
Inquiry: an open guiding question, not a topic, and it is allowed to change.
探究：一个开放的引导性问题，而不是一个主题， 而且它可以改变。
Sources: observation, experience, research, and cite the influences you used.
来源：观察、经历、研究——并且要注明你用过的影响来源。
Synthesis: materials and processes chosen because they carry the idea.
综合：材料和过程之所以被选中，是因为它们承载了想法。
And the journal: record the experiments and the failures, because both are evidence of inquiry.
还有日志：把实验和失败都记下来，因为两者都是探究的证据。
Three marks students throw away.
三个学生白白丢掉的分。
First, they hand in a topic instead of a question, so write something open, personal and answerable in images.
第一，他们交上来的是主题而不是问题—— 要写一个开放的、属于你自己的、能用图像回答的问题。
Second, they forget to cite.
第二，他们忘了注明来源。
Name the artist or the source you learned from, every time.
每一次都要写出你学习的艺术家或资料出处。
Third, they hide the failures.
第三，他们把失败藏起来。
Keep them; a failed experiment is the clearest evidence that you investigated.
留着它们：一次失败的实验， 正是你确实探究过的最有力证据。