TED | 福尔摩斯超强的“观察力”是怎样炼成的？
视频介绍
看过福尔摩斯小说或者电影剧集的人，也许都会被他超强的观察力所折服，但是，你自己有仔细地观察过吗？视觉教育家Amy Herman今天就给大家讲解了如何借助艺术来增强自己的感知能力，找到可能并不明显的关联。
通过这次富有洞察力的分享，学习Herman用来训练海豹突击队员、医生和犯罪现场调查员，将可观察到的细节转化为可操作的知识。
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Take a look at this work of art. What is it that you see? At first glance, it looks to be a grandfather clock with a sheet thrown over it and a rope tied around the center. But a first look always warrants a second. Look again. What do you see now?
看看这件艺术品。你看到的是什么？乍一看像是一个落地大摆钟，上面盖着一块布，中间系着一根绳子。不过第一眼只能得到一瞬间看到的信息。再看一次。现在你看到的是什么？
If you look more closely, you'll realize that this entire work of art is made from one piece of sculpture. There is no clock, there is no rope, and there is no sheet. It is one piece of bleached Honduras mahogany. Now let me be clear: this exercise was not about looking at sculpture.
如果你凑得更近一些，会发现整件艺术品是一整块的雕塑。没有时钟，没有绳子，也没有盖在上面的布。这是一整块漂白的洪都拉斯桃花心木。现在我来明确一下：这并不是一个观察雕塑的练习，
It's about looking and understanding that looking closely can save a life, change your company and even help you understand why your children behave the way they do. It's a skill that I call visual intelligence, and I use works of art to teach everybody, from everyday people to those for whom looking is the job, like Navy SEALs and homicide detectives and trauma nurses.
而是关于观察，并且认识到仔细观察可以挽救生命、改变企业，甚至能帮助你理解孩子做事的行为方式。这是一种技能，我叫它视觉智能，我通过艺术作品来教授别人，从普通人到以观察为工作的人，比如海豹突击队员、凶杀案侦探以及创伤科护士。
The fact is that no matter how skilled you might be at looking, you still have so much to learn about seeing. Because we all think we get it in a first glance and a sudden flash, but the real skill is in understanding how to look slowly and how to look more carefully.
一个事实是，不管你多么娴熟地观察，关于观察仍然有很多东西要学。因为我们都认为自己在看第一眼的瞬间就能看清，但是真正的技巧是明白如何慢慢地以及更仔细地观察。
The talent is in remembering -- in the crush of the daily urgencies that demand our attention -- to step back and look through those lenses to help us see what we've been missing all along. So how can looking at painting and sculpture help? Because art is a powerful tool.
重点在于记忆——在每日迫切需要我们关注的情况下——退一步看看那些瞬间，能帮我们看清楚我们一直在错过什么。那么观察绘画和雕塑有什么帮助呢？因为艺术是一个强大的工具。
It's a powerful tool that engages both sight and insight and reframes our understanding of where we are and what we see. Here's an example of a work of art that reminded me that visual intelligence -- it's an ongoing learning process and one that really is never mastered.
它能同时吸引视线和洞察力，并重新定义我们对自身定位和所见所闻的理解。下面是一个艺术作品的例子，它提醒了我视觉智能——这是一个持续学习的过程，从来没有人能真正精通。
I came across this quiet, seemingly abstract painting, and I had to step up to it twice, even three times, to understand why it resonated so deeply. Now, I've seen the Washington Monument in person thousands of times, well aware of the change in the color of marble a third of the way up, but I had never really looked at it out of context or truly as a work of art.
我偶然发现了这幅安静的、看似抽象的画，不得不走上前两次，甚至三次，去理解它为何能产生如此深刻的共鸣。我已经亲眼看过华盛顿纪念碑数千次了，很清楚大理石的颜色在底部往上约三分之一的地方发生了变化，但我从来没有真正脱离环境来看它，或是把它当作一件真正的艺术品来看。
And here, Georgia O'Keeffe's painting of this architectural icon made me realize that if we put our mind to it, it's possible to see everyday things in a wholly new and eye-opening perspective. Now, there are some skeptics that believe that art just belongs in an art museum.
在这里，乔治亚·奥基夫描绘的这个建筑图标让我认识到，如果我们专心致志，就能以一种全新的、开阔的视角看待日常事物。有一些怀疑论者认为艺术只属于艺术博物馆里。
They believe that it has no practical use beyond its aesthetic value. I know who they are in every audience I teach. Their arms are crossed, their legs are crossed, their body language is saying, "What am I going to learn from this lady who talks fast about painting and sculpture?"
他们认为艺术品除了展览外没有其他实际用途。我知道我的听众都是谁。他们的双臂抱在胸前、翘着二郎腿，他们的身体语言明显在说：“我将从这个匆匆谈论绘画和雕塑的女士身上学到什么呢？”
So how do I make it relevant for them? I ask them to look at this work of art, like this portrait by Kumi Yamashita. And I ask them to step in close, and even closer still, and while they're looking at the work of art, they need to be asking questions about what they see.
那么我要怎么样让他们感兴趣呢？我请他们观察这件艺术品，比如山下工美的这个肖像作品。我还让他们走近去看，要靠得非常非常近，在看艺术品时，还要针对所看到的内容提出问题。
And if they ask the right questions, like, "What is this work of art? Is it a painting? Is it a sculpture? What is it made of?" ... they will find out that this entire work of art is made of a wooden board, 10,000 nails and one unbroken piece of sewing thread.
如果他们问出了正确的问题，比如，“这件艺术品是什么？是一个绘画吗？是一个雕塑吗？用什么做的？”……他们将会发现，整件艺术品是用木板、10,000个钉子和一条完整的线制作的。
Now that might be interesting to some of you, but what does it have to do with the work that these people do? And the answer is everything. Because we all interact with people multiple times on a daily basis, and we need to get better at asking questions about what it is that we see.
现在你们中的一些人可能很感兴趣，但是这与这些人的工作有什么关系呢？答案是，方方面面都相关。因为我们大家每天都会跟别人打很多次交道，我们需要针对所看到的事物提出更好的问题。
Learning to frame the question in such a way as to elicit the information that we need to do our jobs, is a critical life skill. Like the radiologist who told me that looking at the negative spaces in a painting helped her discern more discreet abnormalities in an MRI.
学习以这样一种方式构建问题框架，以获得我们完成工作所需的信息，这是一项关键的生活技能。正如一位放射科医生告诉我的那样，观察一幅绘画中的负空间，有助于他在核磁共振中发现更多的异常。
Or the police officer who said that understanding the emotional dynamic between people in a painting helped him to read body language at a domestic violence crime scene, and it enabled him to think twice before drawing and firing his weapon.
有警员表示，理解绘画中人物之间的表情动态能帮助他在家暴犯罪现场阅读身体语言，也让他能在拔枪并射击前三思而后行。
And even parents can look to see absences of color in paintings to understand that what their children say to them is as important as what they don't say. So how do I -- how do I train to be more visually intelligent? It comes down to four As. Every new situation, every new problem -- we practice four As.
甚至父母也能看到绘画中缺乏色彩，从而理解他们的孩子对他们讲述的和未对他们讲述的一样重要。那么我该如何——我该如何训练人们变得更加视觉智能？总结成4个A。每个新情况，每个新问题——我们都践行4A。
First, we assess our situation. We ask, "What do we have in front of us?" Then, we analyze it. We say, "What's important? What do I need? What don't I need?" Then, we articulate it in a conversation, in a memo, in a text, in an email. And then, we act: we make a decision. We all do this multiple times a day,
首先，我们评估（Assess）当前的形势。我们会问：“我们面临着什么问题？”然后，我们进行分析（Analyze）。我们问，“最重要的是什么？我需要什么？不需要什么？”然后，我们通过一段对话、一张便条、一条短信、一封邮件阐明（Articulate）它。再后来，我们做出行动（Act）：做一个决定。我们大家每天都重复很多次类似的行为，
but we don't realize what a role seeing and looking plays in all of those actions, and how visual intelligence can really improve everything. So recently, I had a group of counterterrorism officials at a museum in front of this painting.
但我们并没有意识到在所有的活动中，领悟和观察扮演着什么样的角色，视觉智能如何能真正改善一切。近期有一个反恐小组的官员们来到博物馆的这幅画前。
El Greco's painting, "The Purification of the Temple," in which Christ, in the center, in a sweeping and violent gesture, is expelling the sinners from the temple of prayer. The group of counterterrorism officials had five minutes with that painting, and in that short amount of time, they had to assess the situation, analyze the details, articulate what, if anything, they would do if they were in that painting.
埃尔·格雷科的画，《圣殿的净化》，画中间的基督，以横扫一切的狂暴姿态，将罪人逐出祷告神殿。反恐小组的官员们只有5分钟时间观察绘画，还需要在这么短的时间里评估形势、分析细节、并阐述：如果他们在绘画中，他们将会采取什么行动？
As you can imagine, observations and insights differed. Who would they talk to? Who would be the best witness? Who was a good potential witness? Who was lurking? Who had the most information? But my favorite comment came from a seasoned cop who looked at the central figure and said, "You see that guy in the pink?" -- referring to Christ -- he said, "I'd collar him, he's causing all the trouble."
正如你想的那样，观察与领悟并不一样。他们会与谁讨论？谁是最佳证人？谁是优秀的潜在证人？谁在潜伏？谁掌握最多的信息？不过我最喜欢的评论来自一个经验丰富的警察，他看着画中间的人物说，“看到那个穿着粉色长袍的人了吗？”——指的是基督——他说，“我会抓住他，是他惹了麻烦。”
So looking at art gives us a perfect vehicle to rethink how we solve problems without the aid of technology. Looking at the work of Felix Gonzalez-Torres, you see two clocks in perfect synchronicity. The hour, minute and second hand perfectly aligned.
所以观察艺术作品，给了我们一个完美的视角来重新思考，如何在没有技术辅助的情况下解决问题。看看菲利克斯·冈萨雷斯-托雷斯的作品，你会看到完美同步的两个时钟。时针、分针和秒针都完美对齐。
They are installed side by side and they're touching, and they are entitled "'Untitled' (Perfect Lovers)." But closer analysis makes you realize that these are two battery-operated clocks, which in turn makes you understand -- "Hey, wait a minute ... One of those batteries is going to stop before the other.
它们并排安装，相互接触，被命名为“无题（完美情人）”。但是进一步分析会发现，这是两个电池驱动的时钟，这样你就能明白——“嗨，等一下……其中一个电池将会在另一个之前没电。
One of those clocks is going to slow down and die before the other and it's going to alter the symmetry of the artwork." Just articulating that thought process includes the necessity of a contingency plan.
那个时钟将会变慢并早于另一个停止，艺术作品的一致性将被改变。”只需要阐述思想过程，包括应急计划的必要性。
You need to have contingencies for the unforeseen, the unexpected and the unknown, whenever and however they may happen. Now, using art to increase our visual intelligence involves planning for contingencies, understanding the big picture and the small details and noticing what's not there.
你需要为不可预见的、意外的未知事物做好准备，无论它们何时以及如何发生。使用艺术来提升我们的视觉智能包括了制定应急计划、理解全局和细节并注意缺少了什么。
So in this painting by Magritte, noticing that there are no tracks under the train, there is no fire in the fireplace and there are no candles in the candlesticks actually more accurately describes the painting than if you were to say, "Well, there's a train coming out of a fireplace, and there are candlesticks on the mantle."
在这幅马格里特的画里，注意火车下面没有轨道，壁炉里没有火，烛台上也没有蜡烛，实际上这更加细致地描述了这幅画，而不只是说，“有一个火车开出了壁炉，壁炉顶端有很多烛台。”
It may sound counterintuitive to say what isn't there, but it's really a very valuable tool. When a detective who had learned about visual intelligence in North Carolina was called to the crime scene, it was a boating fatality, and the eyewitness told this detective that the boat had flipped over and the occupant had drowned underneath.
描述不存在的东西听起来可能有悖常理，但它确实是一个非常有价值的工具。当一名在北卡罗来纳州学习过视觉智能的侦探被叫到犯罪现场，那是一次划船死亡事故，目击者告诉侦探船翻了，船员被淹没在水下。
Now, instinctively, crime scene investigators look for what is apparent, but this detective did something different. He looked for what wasn't there, which is harder to do. And he raised the question: if the boat had really tipped flipped over -- as the eyewitness said that it did -- how come the papers that were kept at one end of the boat were completely dry?
犯罪现场调查员通常会直接寻找显而易见的证据，但是这个侦探做了一些与众不同的事情。他试图查看现场缺了什么，这就更难做到。他提出了问题：如果船真的翻了——就像目击者所说的那样——为什么放在船一端的文件全都是干的？
Based on that one small but critical observation, the investigation shifted from accidental death to homicide. Now, equally important to saying what isn't there is the ability to find visual connections where they may not be apparent. Like Marie Watt's totem pole of blankets.
基于这个细小但关键的观察，调查从意外死亡转向了谋杀。同样重要的是，说出那些异常的地方就能够找到视觉上的联系，尽管它们可能不明显。就像玛丽·瓦特的毛毯图腾柱。
It illustrates that finding hidden connections in everyday objects can resonate so deeply. The artist collected blankets from all different people in her community, and she had the owners of the blankets write, on a tag, the significance of the blanket to the family.
这说明在日常事物中发现隐藏的关联可以产生如此深刻的共鸣。艺术家从她所在社区里的不同人那里收集毯子，她让毯子的主人在标签上写上这些毯子对家庭的重要性。
Some of the blankets had been used for baby blankets, some of them had been used as picnic blankets, some of them had been used for the dog. We all have blankets in our homes and understand the significance that they play.
其中一些曾被用作儿童毯，一些曾被用作野餐毯，另一些曾被宠物狗使用。大家的家里都有毯子，能理解它们扮演着重要的角色。
But similarly, I instruct new doctors: when they walk into a patient's room, before they pick up that medical chart, just look around the room. Are there balloons or cards, or that special blanket on the bed? That tells the doctor there's a connection to the outside world.
同样地，我会这样指导新医生：当他们进入一个病房，拿起病人的病例之前，先环顾一下房间。看看有没有气球或卡片，或者床上有特别的毯子吗？那会告诉医生，这里与外界是有联系的。
If that patient has someone in the outside world to assist them and help them, the doctor can implement the best care with that connection in mind. In medicine, people are connected as humans before they're identified as doctor and patient.
如果这位病人在病房外的亲友能够帮助他们，医生就能把这种联系牢记在心，实施最好的治疗。在医学上，他们被确认为医生和病人之前，是作为人类联系在一起的。
But this method of enhancing perception -- it need not be disruptive, and it doesn't necessitate an overhaul in looking. Like Jorge Méndez Blake's sculpture of building a brick wall above Kafka's book "El Castillo" shows that more astute observation can be subtle and yet invaluable.
但是这种提高感知力的方法——不需要具有颠覆性，也不需要捕捉到所有细枝末节。就像豪尔赫·门德斯·布雷克基于卡夫卡的作品《城堡》建造的砖墙雕塑一样，这表明更敏锐的观察力是微妙而宝贵的。
You can discern the book, and you can see how it disrupted the symmetry of the bricks directly above it, but by the time you get to the end of the sculpture, you can no longer see the book. But looking at the work of art in its entirety, you see that the impact of the work's disruption on the bricks is nuanced and unmistakable.
你可以辨别出这本书，而且可以看到它如何破坏了位于其上方的砖的对称性，但是当你走到雕塑的尽头时，就再也看不出那本书了。但是从整体上看艺术品，你会发现这个作品通过砖块所产生的影响是微妙的，且毋庸置疑。
One thought, one idea, one innovation can alter an approach, change a process and even save lives. I've been teaching visual intelligence for over 15 years, and to my great amazement and astonishment -- to my never-ending astonishment and amazement,
一个思想、一个想法、一个创新都可以改变方法、改变过程、甚至挽救生命。我教授视觉智能超过15年了，令我大为诧异和惊讶的——让我始终感到惊奇和诧异的是，
I have seen that looking at art with a critical eye can help to anchor us in our world of uncharted waters, whether you are a paramilitary trooper, a caregiver, a doctor or a mother. Because let's face it, things go wrong. Things go wrong. And don't misunderstand me, I'd eat that doughnut in a minute.
我发现用批判的眼光看待艺术能够帮助我们在未知世界的水域锚定，无论你是待入伍的战士、看护者、医生还是母亲。因为我们得面对现实，事情总会出错。没有什么是万无一失的。但别误会，我完全不介意吃掉那个甜甜圈。
But we need to understand the consequences of what it is that we observe, and we need to convert observable details into actionable knowledge. Like Jennifer Odem's sculpture of tables standing sentinel on the banks of the Mississippi River in New Orleans,
但是我们需要理解我们观察到的内容的后果，我们需要把可观察到的细节转换为可行动的知识。就像珍妮弗·奥登在新奥尔良的密西西比河岸边耸立的桌子雕塑一样，
guarding against the threat of post-Katrina floodwaters and rising up against adversity, we too have the ability to act affirmatively and affect positive change. I have been mining the world of art to help people across the professional spectrum to see the extraordinary in the everyday,
警惕着威胁，在卡特里娜飓风过后的洪水中，在逆境中奋起，我们也有能力采取果断的行动，创造积极的变化。我一直在挖掘艺术的世界，以帮助各个专业领域的人看到日常生活中的不平凡，
to articulate what is absent and to be able to inspire creativity and innovation, no matter how small. And most importantly, to forge human connections where they may not be apparent, empowering us all to see our work and the world writ large with a new set of eyes.
最重要的是，在不显眼的地方建立人际关系，使我们能够以一种新的眼光看待我们的工作和整个世界。
Thank you.
谢谢。
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