『自拍神器逐漸受到越來越多博物館的排擠
Selfie Sticks Banned in More and More Museums』
(New York Times, Feb. 17, 2015) —In a famous lab trial, a chimp named Sultan put two interlocking sticks together and pulled down an elusive prize, a bunch of bananas hanging just out of arm’s reach.
在一項著名的實驗室試驗中，一個名叫蘇丹(Sultan)的黑猩猩把兩根相互連結的棍子串在一起，拉下了一個不易得到的獎品——牠用手搆不著的一串香蕉。
Nearly a century later, eager tourists have conducted their own version of the experiment. Equipped with the camera extender known as a selfie stick, occasionally referred to as “the wand of narcissism,” they can now reach for flattering CinemaScope selfies wherever they go.
將近一個世紀後，熱切的遊客們也在進行這樣的實驗。在配備了被稱為自拍桿（又稱「自戀魔杖」）的相機延長器之後，現在不管走到哪兒，他們都能拍到惹人喜愛的廣範圍自拍照。
Art museums have watched this development nervously, fearing damage to their collections or to visitors, as users swing their sticks with abandon. Now they are taking action. One by one, museums across the United States have been imposing bans on using selfie sticks for photographs inside galleries (adding them to existing rules on umbrellas, backpacks, tripods and monopods), yet another example of how controlling overcrowding has become part of the museum mission.
許多美術館緊張地關注此一發展，擔心用戶們恣意揮舞自拍棒時會對收藏品或其他遊客造成傷害。現在他們採取了行動。在美國，這些博物館一間接著一間發佈禁令，禁止在博物館內使用自拍桿（之前已遭禁止的物品包括傘、背包、三腳架和單腳架），這不啻再次表明，控制人潮過度擁擠已經成為博物館的任務之一。
“From now on, you will be asked quietly to put it away,” said Sree Sreenivasan, the chief digital officer at the Met. “It’s one thing to take a picture at arm’s length, but when it is three times arm’s length, you are invading someone else’s personal space.”
「從現在起，我們將委婉地請求你把它收起來，」大都會藝術博物館的資料室主任斯里·斯里尼瓦桑(Sree Sreenivasan)說，「伸出胳膊拍照是沒問題，但如果你伸出的東西是胳膊的三倍，那麼你就是在侵犯他人的私人空間。」
The personal space of other visitors is just one problem. The artwork is another. “We do not want to have to put all the art under glass,” said Deborah Ziska, the chief of public information at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, which has been quietly enforcing a ban on selfie sticks but is in the process of adding it formally to its printed guidelines for visitors.
其他遊客的私人空間只是其中一個問題。藝術品則是另一個問題。「我們不想把所有藝術品都放進玻璃罩，」華盛頓國家藝術館的公共資訊室主任狄波拉·齊斯卡(Deborah Ziska)說。該博物館已悄悄執行對自拍桿的禁令，而正要把它正式加到紙本印刷的遊客指南上。
Last but not least is the threat to the camera operator, intent on capturing the perfect shot and oblivious to the surroundings. “If people are not paying attention in the Temple of Dendur, they can end up in the water with the crocodile sculpture,” Mr. Sreenivasan said. “We have so many balconies you could fall from, and stairs you can trip on.”
最後一個問題也同樣重要， 自拍桿對相機使用者同樣有威脅——他們專注於捕捉完美鏡頭，往往會忽視周圍環境。「在丹鐸神廟，人們如果不留神，可能會掉進水裡，和鱷魚雕塑為伍，」斯里尼瓦桑說，「如果不小心，你可能會從我們這裡的很多露臺上掉下去，或者絆到臺階。」
Generally, the taking of selfies is not merely tolerated, it is encouraged. Art museums long ago concluded that selfies help visitors bond to art and create free advertising for the museum. When Katy Perry dropped by the Art Institute of Chicago’s Magritte exhibition last summer and detoured to take a selfie in front of Grant Wood’s “American Gothic,” the museum reaped a publicity windfall after the image was posted on Pinterest.
一般來說，自拍不僅受到容忍，而且受到鼓勵。藝術博物館很久以前就發現，自拍能增進遊客與藝術的感情，為博物館免費做宣傳。去年夏天，歌手凱蒂·佩里(Katy Perry)順道去參觀芝加哥藝術學院的馬格裡特(Magritte)展，然後繞道在格蘭特·伍德(Grant Wood)的《美國哥特式》(American Gothic)前拍了張自拍照，把它發佈到了Pinterest上，這家博物館因此意外地得到了宣傳。
The Whitney Museum of American Art, at its Jeff Koons retrospective last year, passed out cards proclaiming, in capital letters, “Koons Is Great for Selfies!“ and urged visitors to post their work on Instagram.
去年惠特尼美國藝術博物館在自己的傑夫·昆斯(Jeff Koons)回顧展上分發卡片，上面用大寫字母寫道：「昆斯的作品很適合自拍！」並鼓勵遊客把自拍照貼到Instagram上。
So, selfies good; sticks bad. But bad in theory, not fact, since many museum officials in the United States acknowledge that they have experienced few actual instances of selfie-stick use, or, in some cases, none. For the Hirshhorn, and Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, which have yet to record a single sighting, the ban was a pre-emptive strike. Meanwhile, at the Tate Modern and the National Gallery in London, and the Louvre in Paris — two cities where Asian tourists, in particular, have made the selfie stick a highly visible part of the urban landscape — selfie sticks are still permitted.
所以說，自拍很好，但是自拍桿不好。但它只是理論上不好，而非產生了現實的惡劣影響，因為美國很多博物館的管理人員承認，他們很少見到（有的甚至從未見過）用自拍桿的人。對赫什霍恩博物館和芝加哥的當代藝術博物館來說（這兩處從未出現過使用自拍桿的情況），這項禁令是預防性的。與此同時，倫敦的泰特現代美術館(Tate Modern)和國家美術館(National Gallery)以及巴黎的盧浮宮仍允許使用自拍桿。在倫敦和巴黎，經常可以看見亞洲遊客在使用自拍桿。
Museums have always struggled with an intrinsic conflict: how to expose their collections to the maximum number of visitors while protecting their priceless treasures. Their efforts are generally encoded in a set of guidelines, some universal — do not touch the art, do not smoke, do not bring food, do not talk on a cellphone — and some quite particular.
博物館一直在一種固有矛盾中掙扎：如何在保護那些無價之寶的同時，把收藏品盡可能展示給更多的觀眾。他們的努力通常體現在參觀指南中，有些要求很普遍——不要觸摸藝術品，不要抽煙，不要帶食品，不要打手機——也還有些很特別的情況。
At the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, visitors are reminded that they cannot take guns. The Art Institute of Chicago does not allow flowers, wrapped packages or balloons. (If you have a balloon, you must check it.) Even rule No. 1 — do not touch the art — has variants. Visitors are asked to stay one foot away at the Kimbell, two feet at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The guidelines at the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City, Mo., include the following request: “Please wait until you are outside to erupt into cartwheels of joy.”
沃思堡的金貝爾藝術博物館(Kimbell Art Museum)提醒遊客不要帶槍支入內。芝加哥藝術學院不允許遊客帶花、包裹或氣球入內（如果你帶了氣球，必須寄放）。甚至連第一條規則——不要觸摸藝術品——也有不同的具體規定。金貝爾博物館要求遊客離藝術品一英尺遠，克利夫蘭藝術博物館(Cleveland Museum of Art)要求離兩英尺遠。密蘇里州坎薩斯城的納爾遜-阿特金斯博物館(Nelson-Atkins Museum)甚至有這樣一條規定：「高興得想翻跟斗，請到室外。」
高雄人 學習英文 請找 多益達人 林立英文
