2008年2月29日 星期五

Hoping to Make Phone Buyers Flip

upend finicky psyche

flip

Hoping to Make Phone Buyers Flip


Published: February 29, 2008

These days, designing a new mobile phone can seem like something out of an episode of “Dr. Phil.”

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Ann Johansson for The New York Times

Rhys Newman is the head of a team at Nokia charged with forecasting what consumers will want next year, and into the future.

Ann Johansson for The New York Times

Raphael Grignani, a designer, at Nokia's design center in California. His research group is the first of its kind at Nokia.

Readers' Comments

"Emotional attachment to a phone or any features therein is a sign of deep, deep sickness. Put it down and go for a walk."
SB, Boston

LG Electronics, the maker of the Chocolate and Voyager phones, begins by asking focus groups to keep a journal, jotting down feelings about features they like most. Participants can call a toll-free number to share their emotions about the phone they are testing. And sometimes they are asked to draw pictures that represent their mood when they hold the phone.

“Our job is to be behaviorists and psychologists,” said Ehtisham Rabbani, LG’s vice president for product strategy and marketing. “We constantly have to be reminding ourselves that we tend to be geek types and our customers are not.”

Executives and industry analysts say it has become more important than ever to understand the psyche of consumers and why they pick one phone over another. That’s because LG, Motorola, Nokia and others are in a fierce battle to please finicky customers as new entrants like Apple, with its popular iPhone, seek to upend the traditional mobile phone business.

At stake are millions of dollars in profits and the fortunes of entire companies. Like fashion or entertainment, the cellphone industry is increasingly hit-driven, and new models that do not fly off the shelves within weeks of their debut are considered duds. The most gadget-conscious shoppers buy new phones every nine months, twice as fast as they did a few years ago. And teenagers, one of the fastest-growing markets, are especially quick to dump a brand if it loses popular appeal.

“The world has changed,” said Jeremy Dale, who is in charge of marketing for mobile devices at Motorola, where fortunes tumbled with the decline of its once popular Razr. “There is more relevance in what other consumers say than what the company is saying.”

Cellphone company executives are so concerned about these trends that, at the largest mobile phone trade show in Barcelona this month, panelists debated how their industry could better understand how to make customers happy, as Apple seems to do. One panelist suggested that cellphone makers tap into consumers’ “neural networks”, while another said they should understand their subliminal needs.

The speed of innovation — or rather, consumers’ appetite for it — makes it harder for companies to compete. Ten years ago, wireless carriers and mobile phone makers could thrive by offering consumers two or three new options a year. But now, with nearly 80 percent of Americans owning a mobile phone and hundreds of models available, a company’s fate can turn as quickly as a teenage girl’s temperament.

Mr. Dale says companies like his are forced to give consumers what they want even before they know they want it. Motorola was a market leader in late 2004 when it introduced the ultraslim Razr. But when the company failed to create a worthy successor, its stock plummeted and investors revolted.

Motorola’s share of handset sales in the United States dropped to 30 percent by the fourth quarter of 2007, from 35 percent in the first quarter, according to the NPD Group, which tracks sales. Now Motorola is considering a breakup of the company.

Different companies, of course, take different approaches to understanding consumer tastes. Along with extensive focus-group testing, LG executives regularly attend home and design shows looking for broader trends in popular culture.

Mr. Rabbani said that last year he and his colleagues noticed that natural materials like wood, metal and leather were popular among furniture and appliance makers. So when designing the Venus, which LG introduced in late 2007, designers molded the plastic back to give it the texture of grainy leather. Verizon and LG declined to give sales figures for the phone.

But whatever the cultural inspiration, if a new phone does not catch on quickly, it is not likely to catch on at all. Even interesting designs do not necessarily spell success. Helio, a joint venture of EarthLink and SK Telecom of South Korea that developed the Ocean and other phones for the youth market, is reported to be looking for a buyer for its business, too.

“The strongest marketing tool is the first 20,000 people who buy the device,” Mr. Dale of Motorola said. “If they like it, they will tell their friends.”

The focus on the consumer mindset can be intense. Three weeks ago, a small team of Nokia executives had their first gathering at a farmhouse 30 miles north of Santa Barbara, Calif., for a three-day retreat to discuss consumer behavior.

The group is the first of its kind at Nokia, the world’s No. 1 seller of mobile phones, bringing together 14 designers and researchers from California and Helsinki, where the company is headquartered. Their charge is to tell Nokia’s top executives not only what consumers will want next year, but 3 to 15 years from now.

“We have the ability to clarify the needs of real people,” said Rhys Newman, who heads the team.

A case in point: A few years ago one of Nokia’s designers visited China and noticed that people there used the light from their mobile phone screens to illuminate dark hallways so they could more easily unlock their doors. After he discussed his observation with other Nokia designers, Nokia added a penlight to some models.

“Design used to be inconsequential: just make it pretty, make it sell,” said Mr. Newman, who, along with three members of his team, was interviewed at Nokia’s design center near a strip mall in downtown Calabasas, north of Los Angeles. Now, he said, “we have to think about human fundamentals.”

Two and a half years ago, Nokia executives asked Mr. Newman and some colleagues to explore what Nokia’s strategy should be as consumers began to personalize their cellphones. Among those working on the project were Jan Chipchase, a human behavior researcher for Nokia who lives in Tokyo and travels the world studying culture and communication, and Andrew Gartrell, a 14-year veteran designer.

On a trip to Ghana last year, a colleague of Mr. Chipchase took a photograph of the crushed front panel of a Nokia 1100 mobile phone that had been discarded in the middle of a dusty road.

Mr. Gartrell, who had helped design the 1100, was unnerved by the image; the phone had just come out in 2003. Mr. Newman said Nokia’s designers and researchers became fixated on the notion that the company makes 16 mobile phones a second and that many of them end up in the garbage heap.

So instead of examining the personalization of phones, Mr. Newman and his fellow designers suggested that Nokia explore how to make more environmentally sound products — or, as Mr. Gartrell put it, “How do we turn waste into something beautiful?”

This month Nokia introduced Remade, a prototype of a mobile phone made entirely out of recycled aluminum cans, old tires and plastic soda bottles. As part of the same initiative, it has also developed a more efficient battery.

Nokia has not announced when the phone or battery will go on sale and is still working on their designs. If they arrive soon, though, Nokia’s marketers could try to ride the wave of eco-friendly products, like the increasingly popular Prius, that have captured consumers’ fancy.

When asked if they felt pressure to design new phones more quickly in an increasingly competitive market, Mr. Chipchase responded with a quizzical stare. “Why do you want to innovate faster?” he asked. “Are you innovating something gimmicky just to sell a product? Or is it saving the planet you are after?”

Not every company lets their designers be so idealistic. Some are more focused on investor expectations for profits than lofty research. “There is an awful lot of pressure to keep the wheels turning instead of putting money into new innovation and development,” said Rita Gunther McGrath, a professor at Columbia Business School who studies innovation at big companies.

And consumers are not the only demanding clients that cellphone makers must please. Wireless carriers like AT&T and Verizon are also customers. In 2004, for example, on the heels of the success of the Apple iPod, every major cellphone maker was experimenting with how to combine a music player with a mobile phone.

Steve McGaw, a senior vice president for AT&T’s wireless operations, said his company, then named Cingular, talked to Motorola about what model it could offer. Cingular was given two choices: the Rokr, which stored 100 songs and was the first mobile phone to work with Apple’s iTunes software, or the popular Razr, which would not incorporate a music player for another year.

Mr. McGaw said AT&T chose the Rokr because Motorola could deliver it quickly. But the phone was criticized for its lackluster design. It was not until Apple introduced the iPhone that consumers embraced such a combination.

AT&T abandoned the Rokr and now offers the iPhone exclusively in the United States. “At the end of the day it’s a judgment call,” Mr. McGaw said. “We don’t always get it right.”

2008年2月27日 星期三

the Morph - a nanotechnology concept device

hc案這概念產品不只是"柔性"而已 還可伸展 stretchable and flexible

■日文原文
フィンランドNokia社と英University of Cambridge,柔らかくて曲げられる携帯電話機のコンセプト‧モデルを発表




芬蘭諾基亞與英國康橋大學發佈柔性手機概念模型
DATE 2008/02/2
http://big5.nikkeibp.co.jp/china/news/edit/mobi200802280125.html



 芬蘭諾基亞與英國康橋大學發佈了採用奈米材料的未來手機概念模型“Morph”(英文發佈資料)。 Morph的特點是柔軟、可伸縮。用戶可以把Morph變成各種形狀。該產品已在2008年2月24日~2008年5月12日于紐約現代藝術博物館(MoMA)舉行的““設計與彈性思維(Design and the Elastic Mind)”展上展出。

  Morph是根據諾基亞研究中心和英國康橋大學奈米科學中心的研究開發而成的。材料及零部件採用了奈米技術,手機透明、柔軟,可彎曲。通過採用具有自 動清潔功能的手機表面,可以降低腐蝕和磨耗,延長壽命。另外,手機表面採用的是可接受太陽能的構造,可以自己製造手機所需要的電量。

  諾基亞表示,“Morph所採用的主要技術7年以內有望應用於手機”。不過,最初僅應用於高端機型。

  諾基亞與康橋大學2007年3月宣佈,雙方將聯手從事長期的共同研究項目。諾基亞研究中心在康橋大學內設立了研究設施,一直與康橋大學的多個部門開展共同研究。(記者:迦納 徵子)
■日文原文
フィンランドNokia社と英University of Cambridge,柔らかくて曲げられる携帯電話機のコンセプト‧モデルを発表



null
Nokia and University of Cambridge launch the Morph - a nanotechnology concept device
February 25, 2008


New York, US and Espoo, Finland - Morph, a joint nanotechnology concept, developed by Nokia Research Center (NRC) and the University of Cambridge (UK) - was launched today alongside the "Design and the Elastic Mind" exhibition, on view from February 24 to May 12, 2008, at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. Morph features in both the exhibition catalog and on MoMA's official website.
Morph is a concept that demonstrates how future mobile devices might be stretchable and flexible, allowing the user to transform their mobile device into radically different shapes. It demonstrates the ultimate functionality that nanotechnology might be capable of delivering: flexible materials, transparent electronics and self-cleaning surfaces. Dr. Bob Iannucci, Chief Technology Officer, Nokia, commented: "Nokia Research Center is looking at ways to reinvent the form and function of mobile devices; the Morph concept shows what might be possible".
Dr. Tapani Ryhanen, Head of the NRC Cambridge UK laboratory, Nokia, commented: "We hope that this combination of art and science will showcase the potential of nanoscience to a wider audience. The research we are carrying out is fundamental to this as we seek a safe and controlled way to develop and use new materials."
Professor Mark Welland, Head of the Department of Engineering's Nanoscience Group at the University of Cambridge and University Director of Nokia-Cambridge collaboration added: "Developing the Morph concept with Nokia has provided us with a focus that is both artistically inspirational but, more importantly, sets the technology agenda for our joint nanoscience research that will stimulate our future work together."
The partnership between Nokia and the University of Cambridge was announced in March, 2007 - an agreement to work together on an extensive and long term programme of joint research projects. NRC has established a research facility at the University's West Cambridge site and collaborates with several departments - initially the Nanoscience Center and Electrical Division of the Engineering Department - on projects that, to begin with, are centered on nanotechnology.
Elements of Morph might be available to integrate into handheld devices within 7 years, though initially only at the high-end. However, nanotechnology may one day lead to low cost manufacturing solutions, and offers the possibility of integrating complex functionality at a low price.
For further information, please visit the websites www.moma.org/elasticmind and http://www.nokia.com/A4126514
Photos are available on www.nokia.com/press -> Photos -> Corporate - Research and Development.
About Nokia Research Center
Nokia Research Center (NRC) looks beyond Nokia's existing business and product development to challenge current strategies and to stimulate renewal in the company's direction. Working closely with all Nokia business units, NRC's research explores new frontiers in digital services, physical-digital connections, human interaction, data and content technologies, device architecture, and access and connectivity. NRC promotes open innovation by working on research projects in collaboration with universities and research institutes around the world. For more information, see our website: http://research.nokia.com
About Nokia
Nokia is the world leader in mobility, driving the transformation and growth of the converging Internet and communications industries. Nokia makes a wide range of mobile devices and provides people with experiences in music, navigation, video, television, imaging, games and business. Nokia also provides equipment, solutions and services for communications networks.
About the University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge will celebrate its 800th anniversary in 2009. It is one of the finest universities in the world, a superb British university with global reach. It is renowned for its 31 colleges and world class teaching departments, ground breaking research and breathtaking architecture. It attracts the very best and brightest students, regardless of background, and offers one of the UK's most generous bursary schemes.
Cambridge was recently ranked number two in the world and the number one University outside the US, in two separate surveys, the Shanghai Jiao Tong University 2006 survey, and in the Times Higher Education magazine's world rankings.
Cambridge people have been awarded more Nobel Prizes than those from any other UK university with more than 80 laureates.
The Nanoscience Centre is an 1800m² research facility completed in January 2003 and located at the north east corner of the University's West Cambridge Site. The Centre provides open access to over 300 researchers from a variety of University Departments to the nanofabrication and characterisation facilities housed in a combination of Clean Rooms and low noise laboratories. Office space is primarily home to the Department of Engineering's Nanoscience Group, technical and administrative staff and members of other research groups who require long term access to facilities. www.nanoscience.cam.ac.uk
The Electrical Engineering Division of the Department of Engineering is housed in a purpose-built laboratory in the University's West Cambridge site that was opened in January 2006 that includes a 650 m2 clean facility, dark rooms, chemical laboratories and electronics labs. It builds on Cambridge's history of world-leading research in Photonics and Electronics by significantly enhancing collaboration with industry and by providing a focus for multidisciplinary research involving over 200 engineers, as well as chemists, physicists, materials scientists and bioscientists. It includes the 'Centre for Advanced Photonics and Electronics' and the 'Cambridge Integrated Knowledge Centre for Advanced Manufacturing Technologies for Photonics and Electronics'. http://www.eng.cam.ac.uk/research/div-b/divhomeB.shtml

Wivenhoe Park

Wivenhoe Park, located on the Eastern edge of Colchester is a multi-acre landscaped green space.

Until the 1960s its main claim to fame was that it was the setting for one of Constable's landscape paintings.



John Constable
Wivenhoe Park, Essex, 1816
Widener Collection
1942.9.10

From the '60s onwards, however, it has been home to the University of Essex. The University buildings (a mass of typical sixties concrete) fit well with their landscaped green surroundings. The park is also host to a very large colony of rabbits.

2008年2月26日 星期二

Filippo Brunelleschi

"......但這些都擋不住遊客如潮湧來。馬蹄清脆地敲在石版路上。這是三步一個古蹟、十丈一個驚喜的迷城。才出了我們住的名叫做 Brunelleschi 的旅館,就看到兩個日本團在導遊的指揮下猛按快門。過了七天才知道 Brunelleschi 也是一個了不起的文藝復興時代的藝術家,而這個旅館,有一部分是古時的女子監獄,是翡冷翠最早的建築!難怪它有一個相當古樸的石堡。

  才從六米的古巷道轉出來,五十公尺之後,赫然聳立在面前的,又是教堂、鐘樓和另一座教堂。這是翡冷翠的觀光及購物中心。遊客一波一波地湧來,有的是大把大把的,有的是精打細算的,可是都在花銀子。

  看過米蘭的大教堂,眼前的雖好,但並不那麼逼人。教堂用白、綠二色的大理石鑲出,有一些阿拉伯的味道。紅色的大圓頂是 Brunelleschi 的傑作。隔壁的八角型教堂建得較早。三扇銅門,最老的是1318年建的,一個世紀之後,一個叫做Ghiberti的人,在艱困的比賽中擊敗了 Brunelleschi,得到做另外一個銅門的權利。這個人一點都沒有偷懶,他用了二十七年。這個門後來被叫做 “到樂園之門”,因為米蓋蘭基羅說過,這樣的門,就是放在天堂的門口都配得過了。 比賽輸了的 Brunelleschi 便全心放在建築上。他的精心傑作是紅色的大教堂穹頂,用八條白石撐起頂端的大理石燈架,內部是拜占庭風格的馬賽克裝飾。這是翡冷翠的象徵,任一個角度都可 以清楚的看到。....." 義大利心影

引文是趙先生的 他提到兩著名的藝術家: Ghiberti與 Brunelleschi
我們簡單紹後者 參考很好的 Wikipedia article "Filippo Brunelleschi".

维基百科,自由的百科全书

跳转到: 导航, 搜索
布魯涅內斯基的雕像,看著佛羅倫斯圓頂
布魯涅內斯基的雕像,看著佛羅倫斯圓頂

伯鲁乃列斯基Filippo Brunelleschi或譯菲利波·布魯內列斯基1377年1446年4月15日),文藝復興的代表建築師。他曾為金匠,曾參加佛羅倫斯洗禮堂Battistero di San Giovanni)大門競圖,為第二名,第一名為洛倫佐·吉貝爾蒂Lorenzo Ghiberti)。後又參加佛羅倫斯主教教堂圓頂競圖,由於其提出之施工技術之可行性,而取得圓頂之設計權


Section of the Dome.
Section of the Dome.


Brunelleschi's dome of Santa Maria del Fiore. Brunelleschi's dome of Santa Maria del Fiore.



。其後作品為麥迪奇家族聖羅倫佐教堂Basilica di San Lorenzo

サン・ロレンツォ教会内部
サン・ロレンツォ教会内部

棄嬰收容院Ospedale degli Innocenti)之廊道等。


日文版参考文献

  • G・C・アルガン著 浅井朋子訳『ブルネッレスキ』(鹿島出版会)

捨子保育院 捨子保育院




2008年2月24日 星期日

紐約愛樂樂團往朝鮮

美國樂團即將啟程前往朝鮮演出
紐約愛樂樂團
紐約愛樂樂團將于明年2月26日在東平壤大劇院登台演出。

美國紐約愛樂樂團將於周一赴朝鮮進行演出,以緩解美國和朝鮮之間的緊張關係。

紐約愛樂樂團的這次演出是美國和朝鮮兩國關係史上,規格最高的一次文化交流活動。

此前,美國一直試圖說服朝鮮放棄發展核武器的計劃,但收效卻並不明顯。可以說,美國方面對這次音樂盛會給予了極高的希望。

但批評人士認為,紐約愛樂樂團的文化之旅除了將被朝鮮當局用作對外宣傳的工具之外,不會起到任何其它效果。

還有人認為,如此高規格的美國樂團赴朝鮮演出,實在是太抬舉了在核武器問題上冥頑不化的朝鮮政府。

一家紐約小報評論說,愛樂樂團的這次境外表演只會讓美國很沒面子。

但紐約愛樂樂團的負責人馬特爾說,這次演出將有助於朝鮮用更積極的態度重新認識美國。

他說,如果我們不去打破隔閡,那麼兩國人民就永遠無法瞭解彼此,更別說去改變他們的態度。

在接受去朝鮮演出的邀請之前,紐約愛樂樂團提出了三個條件:第一,朝鮮國家媒體必須對演出進行全程直播﹔第二,朝鮮政府必須允許外國記者隨同樂團一同出訪﹔第三,音樂會必須以美國國歌作為開場曲目。

目前,尚不清楚朝鮮領導人金正日是否會出席演出。


莫斯科、北京到平壤

美國與共產國家的音樂外交史

在紐約愛樂訪問蘇聯近半世紀後,誰能想到,如今竟是頑強的北韓延續當年的交流模式,出面邀請紐愛至平壤演出?……面對冷戰消失的國際局勢與日益低俗的美國文化,以古典音樂為主的外交是否還能夠達到預期的破冰成效,就讓我們拭目以待…… 美蘇二次大戰後的交流,

就是以文化開路

在美國政治學界倡導「軟力量」(Soft Power),強調以文化與價值觀發揮影響的今日,許多人卻忽略了「文化外交」早是行之有年的政策,在美國與共產國家互動上更一度扮演關鍵角色。誠如歷史 學家Akira Iriye所言,兩國若文化國情相似,自然沒有太大「交流」空間。雙方價值觀差異愈大,文化交流也愈有意義,也才能在敵對狀態下為政治破冰,摸索出可行的 互動模式。

美國和蘇聯在二次大戰後的交流,就是以文化開路,先鋒則是古典音樂。在意識型態掛帥的時局下,「有形」藝術交流仍然窒礙難行,「無形」的音樂就成了文化破 冰的希望。1955年10月3日,具猶太血統又有共產黨員身分的蘇聯鋼琴大家吉利爾斯(Emil Gilels),在國家授命下以柴可夫斯基《第一號鋼琴協奏曲》和費城交響在美首演,以高超技巧贏得輝煌勝利。風水輪流轉,三年後一位來自德州的金髮少 年,以獨特的浪漫句法和無所畏懼的青春,在首屆柴可夫斯基鋼琴大賽上竟大敗諸多蘇聯好手奪得壓倒性勝利,而評審主席正是吉利爾斯!范‧克萊本(Van Cliburn)讓美國一掃蘇聯搶先發射人造衛星史普尼克的陰霾,也讓人看到音樂的力量——如果德州參賽者能在莫斯科贏得殊榮,證明意識型態終究無法禁錮 深受藝術感動的心靈,音樂當真是全人類的語言。

范‧克萊本所帶來的衝擊效應,讓已交涉三年的美蘇文化交流得以加速進行。就在1958年,美蘇正式簽訂「Lacy-Zarubin協議」,就文化、技術和 教育領域展開交流。雖然兩極強權對峙仍然激烈,該年十一月赫魯雪夫甚至還下達「柏林最後通牒」,要求英美法於六個月內撤出其西柏林駐軍,但美蘇雙方仍然認 可文化交流的重要,相信文化成就能為彼此帶來善意與尊重。1959年兩國續簽協議,雖將重心置於科學與技術,但文化交流還是最顯而易見的亮點。該年八月, 伯恩斯坦率領紐約愛樂在蘇聯舉行長達二十天的巡迴演奏。此次出訪並非為蘇聯特別舉行,僅是紐愛歐洲和中東十周行程中的一站,但其演出仍和莫斯科的美國國家 展覽結合,並納入美蘇文化交流計畫的一環。出乎意料,伯恩斯坦在蘇聯享有選曲的完全自由——他不但演奏了美國作曲家艾維士(Charles Ives)《未回答的問題》,甚至還指揮在蘇聯被禁已久的史特拉汶斯基,而他瀟灑奔放的個人魅力和紐約愛樂的精湛演奏,更贏得蘇聯聽眾的熱烈讚賞,堪稱大 獲全勝。

李希特、堅尼斯的互訪,

各自在對方領土

掀起驚人回響

投石問路就好評不絕,美蘇雙方在隔年趁勝追擊,為音樂家特別設計巡迴演出,只是這次的主力再度回到鋼琴家。1960年兩國派李希特(Sviatoslav Richter)和堅尼斯(Byron Janis)互訪,各自在對方領土掀起驚人回響。「等你們聽過李希特再說吧!」期待五年,美國終於得見這位吉利爾斯口中不得不聽,在蘇聯也神祕非常的音樂 巨擘。他於10月15日在芝加哥以布拉姆斯《第二號鋼琴協奏曲》在美登台並立即錄音,一出手就技驚天下。美國鋼琴名家列文(Robert Levin)就說:「雖然李希特多次表示他如何不喜歡那張唱片,但我還是要說,那真是我永難忘懷的神奇演奏!聽聽那第二樂章!那還是一氣呵成,毫無剪接的 錄音!」錄音後兩天,李希特旋即在卡內基音樂廳演出,一連開了五場曲目幾無重複的獨奏會,讓美國聽眾持續瞠目結舌。

一如李希特訪美所造成的震撼,蘇聯也驚異堅尼斯能讓霍洛維茲收為弟子的絕世才華。他首訪蘇聯即造成轟動,兩年後不但又被請回巡演,更在莫斯科一晚連奏拉赫 曼尼諾夫第一號、舒曼a小調和普羅柯菲夫第三號等三首鋼琴協奏曲,作為第二屆柴可夫斯基大賽後的「示範」演出。這場音樂會不但柴可夫斯基大賽得獎者皆到場 聆聽,普羅柯菲夫遺孀親臨致意,聽眾更完全為堅尼斯瘋狂,在座位上鼓掌、叫喊、跳躍、跺步半個多小時,就是不肯讓鋼琴家離開。逼不得已,堅尼斯聽從指揮 「勸告」,未排練下即席演奏柴可夫斯基《第一號鋼琴協奏曲》第三樂章當安可——孰料此曲一出「弄巧成拙」,已經瘋狂的聽眾自此陷入全然的歇斯底里,竟一路 追隨鋼琴家到下榻旅館,在窗前繼續歡呼直到深夜……

中共習得真傳,

四人幫以音樂為政治工具

美蘇以音樂推動文化交流的構想,最後倒是中共習得真傳。1972年尼克森訪中簽定〈上海公報〉後,四人幫為拉攏美國,在隔年向西方世界打開門戶。文革十 年,中國只在1973年對外開放過一次,即為容許倫敦愛樂、維也納愛樂和費城交響樂團到北京與上海演奏。中共開放樂團訪問,在於樂團能見度最高,話題性最 強,最能達到效果。而就排場而言,倫敦愛樂和維也納愛樂僅獲禮貌性對待,只有費城交響受到隆重歡迎,甚至獲江青本人接待,其政治宣傳意圖自不在話下。

四人幫算盡機關,要把音樂當成政治工具,音樂也就不可能只是文化交流。即使堅尼斯在蘇聯,他一樣享有選曲的絕對權力,甚至能演奏蘇聯所不容的爵士樂,但如 此自由在中國卻不復見。在姚文元胡亂批鬥,鬧出荒唐的「德布西(德彪西)事件」後,德布西音樂在中國全國被禁。費城交響總監奧曼第本想指揮德布西《牧神的 午後》,最後也只得放棄。不只德布西是碰不得的禁忌,中共和蘇聯公開交惡後,俄國作曲家全被批成「資本主義毒草」,一樣演奏不得。然而,費城交響不得不演 奏的,卻是改編冼星海《黃河大合唱》的《黃河》鋼琴協奏曲,由留學列寧格勒的殷承宗擔任鋼琴獨奏。鋼琴家,又悄悄成為文化交流的重點。

然而音樂若只是宣傳工具,評價自然完全操之於掌權者。1974年江青針對林彪和周恩來發動「批林批孔」政治鬥爭時,《人民日報》即以專文批判費城交響曲目 中雷史碧基《羅馬之松》是資產階級音樂,連貝多芬都被形容成資本主義走狗——撰文者豈會不知,當時正是江青要求費城交響演奏貝多芬《田園》交響曲?但音樂 不過是工具,反正給解釋的還是四人幫,為了政治目的,再怎麼前後矛盾也無所謂。

時移事往,

俄國作曲家已不是禁忌

不過中共始終沒有忘記音樂交流的功用。1979年美國承認中華人民共和國後,中方立即派表演藝術團赴美表演,並邀請出生於東北,之前已至中國訪問兩次的日 本指揮小澤征爾,帶領其任音樂總監的波士頓交響至中國演出。這次中方語氣極為客氣謙虛,期待小澤與波士頓交響團員能「教導中國音樂家演奏西方音樂的技 巧」。時移事往,俄國作曲家已不是禁忌,小澤征爾指揮了拿手的柴可夫斯基《悲愴》交響曲;只是他們仍須「平等互惠」,這次,他們演奏的是吳祖強、王燕樵、 劉德海合寫的琵琶協奏曲《草原小姐妹》,但此曲「黨的關懷記心間」、「千樹萬樹紅花開」等共黨宣傳段落標題,卻是中方不敢翻譯到英文節目單上的祕密。

隨著蘇聯解體,民主與共產國家彼此以藝術競賽的歷史也成為過去。在紐約愛樂訪問蘇聯近半世紀後,誰能想到,如今竟是頑強的北韓延續當年的交流模式,出面邀 請紐愛至平壤演出?據說金正日還要派神祕的「北韓交響樂團」赴美,讓人更是好奇。但面對冷戰消失的國際局勢與日益低俗的美國文化,以古典音樂為主的外交是 否還能夠達到預期的破冰成效,就讓我們拭目以待。

【2008/02/25 聯合報


2008年2月21日 星期四

Dell Precision T3400 入門工作站

CNET總評

Dell Precision T3400作為入門工作站,在價位方面很具吸引力。基本配置規格雖不高,但最低只要約NT$ 30000就可入手(不選配螢幕) 。跟測試機同樣具水準的規格配下來, 大約NT$ 70000也還算合理。而且規格選配頗具彈性,在預算範圍內應該都能客製出不錯的工作站。此外,T3400漂亮具質感的機殼,也有加分效果。

除了預算有限的3D設計工作者外,其實高階使用者(不玩遊戲的)、攝影玩家等,若有新購或更新電腦需求的話,也不妨可以將Dell Precision T3400列入考慮。

優點:1. 設計優質漂亮的機殼;2. 運作音量極低;3. 規格、效能與價格的平衡性佳; 4. 規格客製化網頁設計理想。

缺點:1. I/O數量稍不豐富;2. 作業系統客製選項僅有Vista。

2008年2月19日 星期二

东芝新款燃料电池手机

“终于做到了这么薄”——东芝新款燃料电池手机仅厚17mm


【日经BP社报道】

厚度为17.5mm
背面容纳有燃料电池单元和燃料罐
供应作为燃料的甲醇
单独采用锂电池与采用混合动力方式时的比较,图中为两种方式在驱动时间上的差异
  东芝在Mobile World Congress 2008的会场上,展出了内置燃料电池的折叠式手机。这是一款以KDDI(au)的手机“W55T”为原型、嵌入了超薄燃料电池的手机试制品,此次在MWC上的展示是首次亮相。

  折叠时的厚度为17.5mm,相对于W55T的9.9mm来说加厚7.6mm左右即可。“终于实现了如此薄的厚度。这一厚度十分接近现行的普通手机”(东芝)。

  东芝在07年7月召开的“Wireless Japan 2007”上,展出了预定以大约7mm的厚度形成燃料电池单元和燃料罐的手机模型(参阅本站报道)。此次的试制品与这一模型所设想的外观设计非常接近。

  燃料电池的燃料采用甲醇。是向燃料极供应直接甲醇的直接甲醇(Direct Methanol)方式。试制品中设有燃料表,可通过目测确认燃料余量。至于能够容纳多少燃料,尚未公布。不过,“填充一次燃料,可确保约为普通手机2倍 的驱动时间”。试制品的重量方面,填充完燃料后为150g~160g左右。

  新款手机还嵌入了锂离子充电电池。燃料电池主要用于给锂离子充电电池充电。东芝将这种利用方式称为“混合动力式”,与单独利用的方式相比,这 种方式更具可行性。握住正在工作的手机,就会明显地感觉到因燃料电池产生的热量。今后将进一步减少热量、降低成本。(记者:蓬田 宏树)

■日文原文
【MWC】「やっとここまで薄くできた」,東芝の燃料電池ケータイは厚さ17mm

■相关报道
【Wireless Japan】东芝展出燃料电池手机的“近未来模型”

【CEATEC】KDDI将展出燃料电池手机样机

【3GSM】东芝展出用燃料电池驱动的头戴耳机型音乐播放器

Radical Design, Radical Results

Radical Design, Radical Results

Executive Summary:

Consumers appear increasingly willing to make purchase decisions based upon their emotions about a product—how it looks, or sounds, or makes them feel using it. But the traditional design process based on user experience goes only so far in creating radical innovation. Harvard Business School visiting scholar Roberto Verganti is exploring the new world of "design-driven innovation." Key concepts include:

  • Innovative product design is risky, but provides competitive advantage to companies that understand how a product "speaks" to customers.
  • Little theory exists to point the way for companies that want to create a successful design strategy beyond the traditional user-driven design process.
  • Companies often adopt one of three design strategies: launch and see, see and launch, or wait and see. Innovators may often be in the see and launch category.
  • Innovators understand and build off each other's ideas better than the imitators do.
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When furniture designer Herman Miller presented a prototype of its sleek, mesh Aeron chair to a consumer focus group, many asked if they could see a finished, upholstered version.

Innovative product design can be a risky proposition. Yet as consumer purchases become increasingly driven by emotion, the competitive advantage gained by how a product "speaks" to a customer is clear. Just think about how Apple began its resurrection in 1998 with the unthinkable design of computers made of translucent blue, orange, and pink plastic, the original iMac.

Despite the importance of industrial design, little theory exists on how companies might go about creating a successful design strategy. In a recent article, "Strategies of Innovation and Imitation of Product Languages," published in the Journal of Production Innovation Management, HBS visiting scholar Roberto Verganti addresses this shortfall as part of a larger research agenda investigating how companies manage to succeed in this particular arena. Verganti coauthored the article with Claudio Dell'Era, his colleague at Italy's Politecnico di Milano.

"Researchers have been investigating technological innovation for decades, but we know almost nothing about how companies manage design innovation," Verganti says.

For their study, Verganti and Dell'Era focused on the Italian furniture industry, using a database (Webmobili.com) to classify 2,000 objects by shape, color, surface, and material. They also divided the corresponding sample of 100 manufacturers into innovators and imitators, identifying a company as an innovator if it had been selected for or received the coveted Compasso d'Oro, a prestigious international prize awarded to groundbreaking design products.

Uncertainty increases

Verganti says that design innovation often involves a high degree of uncertainty in terms of market success.

"It's very hard to understand what people want," he says. "If I make a car that can brake in 10 yards instead of 50, that's a quantifiable advantage that is easy to understand. But if I decide to create a computer out of translucent, colored plastic, it's much more subjective. People will love it, or they won't."

Focus groups and market research can help to define a product, of course, but Verganti has found that design-driven innovation is not user-centered. Instead, it comes from within the organization. "Rather than being pulled by user requirements," he wrote recently, "design-driven innovation is pushed by a firm's vision about possible new product meanings and languages that could diffuse in society."

"Apple is a company that is pushed by a vision," Verganti says. "Steve Jobs has said that the market doesn't always know what it wants. Companies that do radical innovation do not listen to users; they eventually value market feedback, but first they propose things to the users."

In the face of this market uncertainty, Verganti has found that companies adopt one of three different strategies:

  • Launch and see. The company launches a variety of products, and then measures market reaction to each, relying on the selective capability of consumers to determine which products to focus on.
  • See and launch. The company employs some sort of research process and then launches products based on its findings.
  • Wait and see. The company allows others to experiment with various products, observes what is most successful, and reacts accordingly.

In Verganti's study of the Italian furniture industry, one would expect those who wait and see to have the least amount of variety in their product line. After all, if the imitators decide to stand back and observe what is most successful, wouldn't they choose to copy just a few, choice products? Conversely, it would seem that the innovative companies would probably have higher levels of variety in their products because of the experiments they conduct.

Instead, the results showed just the opposite.

While the cost of experimentation in the furniture industry is relatively low, Verganti and his colleague found that the innovator companies actually used a see and launch strategy, conducting research in order to understand what sort of product language might be most successful. (This research is less of the focus-group variety and more of a broad-based assessment of cultural trends and scenario building.)

"Companies that do radical innovation do not listen to users."

"Innovators avoid proposing a wide range of product signs and languages as a way to protect brand identity," says Verganti. "They tend to adopt strategies that allow customers to easily reconnect specific product signs to their brands."

In contrast, imitators show a greater variety in their product portfolio. They observe what innovators do and how the market reacts. But the feedback they receive is initially so ambiguous, with several languages coexisting, that they eventually imitate everything.

"The confusion that this creates in the market is called semiotic pollution," Verganti says. "Imitators can be successful if they wait four or five years to determine what they should produce. But in the beginning it's not clear which product is the winner. So when it comes to product languages, imitation is a very expensive strategy."

Another key finding is that the innovators' products tended to be more homogeneous as a group. "It seems that the innovators understand and build off each other's ideas better than the imitators do," Verganti remarks. "They innovate in a circle; it's a similar dynamic to what occurs in a visual arts movement like Impressionism."

Lead or suffer?

Do these findings have implications beyond the design-heavy world of the Italian furniture industry? Regardless of the product in question, Verganti believes that companies need to consider the importance of design.

"In every industry, sooner or later, there is a radical change in the language of its products," he says. "So the point for companies is, do they want to lead the change, or do they want to suffer the change?"

Verganti will present some of the secrets of strategy and process behind successful product language development in a book to be published by HBS Press in late 2008 or early 2009.

"It's a fascinating topic on many levels," he says. "Many of the Italian furniture companies I've studied are as small as 80 employees. They don't have the marketing muscle or distribution power of larger entities. Yet they're world leaders in the field."

Is Verganti a consumer of design himself? "If you come to my house you will find a lot of semiotic pollution," he laughs. "Having many different styles in one home is actually a trend, though; people today want to have their own look."


And that, of course, makes it even harder for companies to discern dominant trends.




Stolen Art on Display in a Search for Owners

Stolen Art on Display in a Search for Owners

Yossi Zamir/European Pressphoto Agency

Paintings by Cézanne, left, and Degas are part of the exhibition “Looking for Owners.” More Photos >


Published: February 20, 2008

JERUSALEM — In a remarkable feat of cooperation between France and Israel, requiring intensive negotiations and the passage of a law by the Israeli Parliament, the Israel Museum here has opened an exhibition of important art looted by the Nazis from France and then returned after the war. Some of it was never reclaimed, presumably because the owners were killed in the Holocaust.

Running parallel to the show of French-held art is a companion exhibition: looted art, with no known owners, held in custody by the Israel Museum itself.

The two exhibitions are haunting, and they also contain some notable art, including works by Cézanne, Manet, Degas, Chagall, Delacroix, Egon Schiele, Monet, Alfred Sisley, Max Liebermann, Pieter de Hooch and others.

Some of the French-held art was ordered taken by Hitler himself, for the Third Reich. Some pieces were looted; others were forced sales. After the war some works were immediately returned; de Hooch’s 1658 painting “The Drinker,” for example, was returned to the family of Édouard de Rothschild, whose daughter donated it to the Louvre in 1974. Some owners sold their works to museums, but some owners were never found.

The 53 French-held paintings are among some 2,000 works still not restored to their owners or descendants and maintained by French museums. The Israeli collection is smaller and less distinguished but includes an important Schiele cityscape of his mother’s birthplace, “Krumau — Crescent of Houses (The Small City V),” whose splayed arrangement of the houses carries an implicit sexual power.

The French exhibition is titled “Looking for Owners: Custody, Research and Restitution of Art Stolen in France During World War II.” France’s minister of culture and communications, Christine Albanel, came to Jerusalem to help open the exhibit Monday evening, despite a fierce winter storm.

France has both a duty and “a very strong desire” to keep alive the memory of the Holocaust, she said. In part, the exhibition fulfills a requirement of a French commission formed in 1997 to study Jewish property restitution, which recommended a project with the Israel Museum.

But Ms. Albanel is credited by the Israelis for working with the French Foreign Ministry to persuade the French bureaucracy to approve showing such important paintings, instead of more ordinary work; not all looted art was either good or valuable.

Still, Israel first had to pass a law that prevents the seizure of art temporarily exhibited in Israel by those who claim to own it. The 2007 legislation states that claims can be made only in the exhibition’s country of origin, in this case France. France would not have allowed the pictures to be shown here without such a law, a legacy of the 1998 controversy over the seizure in New York of Schiele paintings on loan from the Leopold Foundation in Vienna.

James S. Snyder, the director of the Israel Museum, praised Ms. Albanel, saying that “there is a resonance between the art and the state of Israel” because both were rescued, in a sense, “from the ashes of the tragedy of the war.”

The exhibition, he said, “is a kind of memorial to our loss in Europe.”

The parallel Israeli exhibition — some 50 paintings, drawings, artifacts and Judaica — is called “Orphaned Art: Looted Art From the Holocaust in the Israel Museum.” The display is drawn from some 1,200 works collated by the Jewish Restitution Service Organization, charged by the United States to gather looted art from Germany after the more obvious postwar restitutions had been made. The organization distributed the art to Jewish institutions in Israel and worldwide.

Much of the collection is indifferent or anonymous, and the museum has no record of its provenance. But Israel wanted to show, Mr. Snyder said, that “the issue of art lost in the war is a challenge shared by museums and countries around the world, including Israel.”

The Israel Museum (www.imjnet.org.il) has put the unclaimed art on its Web site. The two exhibitions will be on view here through June 3, and then appear at the Museum of Jewish Art and History in Paris from June 24 to Sept. 28.

Information on exhibition dates and on the artworks is available at lootedart.com.

iPhones in China

After China Ships Out iPhones, Smugglers Make It a Return Trip

Ryan Pyle for The New York Times

A store manager with an iPhone in Shanghai, where the iPhone costs about $555, more than the $400 in the United States.


Published: February 18, 2008

SHANGHAI — Factories here churn out iPhones that are exported to the United States and Europe. Then thousands of them are smuggled right back into China.

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Ryan Pyle for The New York Times

Deals for the iPhone advertised at a market in Shanghai.

The strange journey of Apple’s popular iPhone, to nearly every corner of the world, shows what happens when the world’s hottest consumer product defies a company’s attempt to slowly introduce it in new markets.

The iPhone has been swept up in a frenzy of global smuggling and word-of-mouth marketing that leads friends to ask friends, “While you’re in the U.S., would you mind picking up an iPhone for me?”

These unofficial distribution networks help explain a mystery that analysts who follow Apple have been pondering: why is there a large gap between the number of iPhones that Apple says it sold last year, about 3.7 million, and the 2.3 million that are actually registered on the networks of its wireless partners in the United States and Europe?

The answer now seems clear. For months, tourists, small entrepreneurs and smugglers of electronic goods have been buying iPhones in the United States and then shipping them overseas.

There the phones’ digital locks are broken so they can work on local cellular networks, and they are outfitted with localized software, essentially undermining Apple’s effort to introduce the phone with exclusive partnership deals, similar to its primary partnership agreement with AT&T in the United States.

“There’s no question many of them are ending up abroad,” said Charles R. Wolf, an analyst who follows Apple for Needham & Company.

For Apple, the booming overseas market for iPhones is both a sign of its marketing prowess and a blow to a business model that could be coming undone, costing the company as much as $1 billion over the next three years, according to some analysts.

But those economic realities do not play into the mind of Daniel Pan, a 22-year-old Web site designer in Shanghai who says a friend recently bought an iPhone for him in the United States.

He and other people here often pay $450 to $600 to get a phone that sells for $400 in the United States. But they are happy.

“This is even better than I thought it would be,” he said, toying with his iPhone at an upscale coffee shop. “This is definitely one of the great inventions of this century.”

Mr. Pan is among the new breed of young professionals in China who can afford to buy the latest gadgets and the coolest Western brands. IPhones are widely available at electronic stores in big cities, and many stores offer unlocking services for imported phones.

Chinese sellers of iPhones say they typically get the phones from suppliers who buy them in the United States, then have them shipped or brought to China by airline passengers.

Often, they say, the phones are given to members of Chinese tourist groups or Chinese airline flight attendants, who are typically paid a commission of about $30 for every phone they deliver.

Although unlocking the phone violates Apple’s purchase agreement, it does not appear to violate any laws here, though many stores may be avoiding import duties.

Considering China’s penchant for smuggling and counterfeiting high-quality goods, the huge number of iPhones being sold here is not surprising, particularly given the popularity of the Apple brand in China.

Indeed, within months of the release of the iPhone in the United States last June, iPhone knockoffs, or iClones as some have called them, were selling here for as little as $125. But most people opt for the real thing.

“A lot of people here want to get an iPhone,” says Conlyn Chan, 31, a lawyer who was born in Taiwan and now lives in Shanghai. “I know a guy who went back to the States and bought 20 iPhones. He even gave one to his driver.”

Negotiations between Apple and China Mobile, the world’s biggest mobile-phone service operator with more than 350 million subscribers, broke down last month, stalling the official release of the iPhone in China. Long before that, however, there was a thriving gray market.

“I love all of Apple’s products,” said a 27-year-old Beijing engineer named Chen Chen who found his iPhone through a bulletin board Web site. “I bought mine for $625 last October, and the seller helped me unlock it. Reading and sending Chinese messages is no problem.”

An iPhone purchased in Shanghai or Beijing typically costs about $555. To unlock the phone and add Chinese language software costs an additional $25.

For Apple, the sale of iPhones to people who ship them to China is a source of revenue. But the company is still losing out, because its exclusive deals with phone service providers bring in revenue after the phone is sold. If the phones were activated in the United States, Apple would receive as much as $120 a year per user from AT&T, analysts say.

But there are forces working against that. Programmers around the world collaborate on and share programs that unlock the iPhone, racing to put out new versions when Apple updates its defenses.

While Apple has not strongly condemned unlocking, it has warned consumers that this violates the purchase agreement and can cause problems with software updates.

Some analysts say abandoning the locked phone system and allowing buyers to sign up with any carrier they choose, in any country, could spur sales.

“The model is threatened,” Mr. Wolf, the analyst, said. But “if they sold the phone unlocked with no exclusive carrier, demand could be much higher.”

An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment on the proliferation of iPhones in China. When asked about the number of unlocked iPhones during a conference call with analysts last month, Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief operating officer, said it was “significant in the quarter, but we’re unsure how to reliably estimate the number.”

The copycat models are another possible threat to Apple. Not long after the iPhone was released, research and development teams in China were taking it apart, trying to copy or steal the design and software for use in knockoffs.

Some people who have used the clones say they are sophisticated and have many functions that mimic the iPhone.

In Shanghai, television advertisements market the Ai Feng, a phone with a name that sounds like iPhone but in Chinese translates roughly as the Crazy Love. That phone sells for about $125.

Some of the sellers of the copycats admit the phones are a scam.

“It’s a fake iPhone, but it looks nearly the same,” said a man who answered the phone last week at the Shenzhen Sunshine Trade Company, in southern China’s biggest electronics manufacturing area. “We manufacture it by ourselves. We have our own R. &D. group and manufacturing plant. Most of our products are for export.”

Most people here seem to want the glory that comes with showing off a real iPhone to friends.

“My friends envy me a lot,” says Mr. Pan, the Web designer. “They say, “Wow, you can get an iPhone.’ ”

John Markoff contributed reporting from San Francisco.

2008年2月18日 星期一

The Open Door by Peter Brook

Brook, Peter (彼得·布魯克1995). The Open Door: Thoughts on Acting and Theatre. {敞開的門--談表演和戲劇 },于東田譯,北京: 新星出版社,2007

  The Open Door: Thoughts on Acting and Theatre
副標題翻譯成「談表演和戲劇」,似乎有點勉強。

翻譯者的序(「好戲在後頭」)一開始就提出他對1988年翻譯本《空的空間》(The Empty Space,1968年)的糾正或重譯。不過,我認為他的翻譯過份抽象:
Yet when we talk about theatre this is not quite what we mean. Red curtains, spotlights, blank verse, laughter, darkness, these are all confusedly superimposed in a messy image covered by one all-purpose word

要了解這書名或許要借用作者之語摘:「戲劇絕不能讓人覺得沒勁,絕不能墨守成規,必須讓人意想不到。戲劇通過驚訝、通過刺激、通過遊戲、通過好玩,來把我們導向真理。
  重要的是此時此刻的真實,只有當演員和觀眾完全一致的時候才會出現的絕對的信服。這時候,形式就完成了它的使命,把我們帶到了這個獨一無二的、不可重複的時刻。這時候,門敞開了,我們的視界改變了。」


Wikipedia article "Peter Brook".

內容簡介:
   從《李爾王》(King Lear)到《卡門的悲劇》(The Tragedy of Carmen),從《馬拉/薩德》(Marat/Sade)到《摩訶婆羅多》(Mahabharata),彼得•布魯克再度創造了現代劇場——不是一次而 是一而再再而三。在《敞開的門》(The Open Door)裏,這位先知般的導演和理論家,為他的作品做出了明白易懂、全面詳盡的哲學闡釋。

   這是一個悖論的哲學:我們到劇場裏來尋找生活,但那個生活必須迥異於我們在劇場外看到的生活;演員們必須極其刻苦地做準備,同時又要願意放棄這些準備工 作的結果;導演的最可靠的本事可能是他對乏味的承受能力。布魯克從他的整個職業生涯中挑出實例來說明這些原則,這些故事還展示了他與莎士比亞、契訶夫,以 及印度和伊朗的本土戲劇息息相通。這些討論的結果是一種無與倫比的視點,它同時關注台前臺後,它的洞察力是新鮮的,它的文字是優雅的。


  讚譽:
  “他是我們這個時代最偉大的藝術探索者之一。”
  ——安德列•格萊格雷(Andre Gregory)
  “彼得•布魯克總是不斷地讓我們驚訝——不是以那些普通的流行的方式,而是以古老的持久的方式,永遠影響著你的心靈。”
  ——肯•伯恩斯(Ken Burns)
  “他是二十世紀戲劇界少有的真正的戲劇革新家之一。”
  ——克萊夫•巴恩斯(Clive Barnes)

作者簡介 · · · · · ·

  彼得•布魯克(Peter Brook)
   出生于倫敦,牛津大學碩士,大學期間他創建了牛津大學電影社。他曾在皇家莎士比亞劇院(Royal Shakespeare Company)擔任導演,現在他領導著位於巴黎的國際戲劇研究中心(International Centre of Theatre Research)。

  他執導了50多部作品,其中包括《愛的徒勞》(Love’s Labour’s Lost)、《暴風雨》(The Tempest)、《李爾王》(King Lear)(斯特拉福[Stratford-upon-Avon]);《環繞月亮的指環》(Ring Around the Moon)、《俄狄浦斯王》(Oedipus)、《橋頭眺望》(A View from the Bridge)、《哈姆雷特》(Hamlet)(倫敦);《貴婦還鄉》(The Visit)、《馬拉/薩德》(Marat/Sade)、《仲夏夜之夢》(A Midsummer Night’s Dream)、《卡門的悲劇》(The Tragedy of Carmen)(紐約);《穆斯格拉夫中士之舞》(Sergeant Musgrave’s Dance)、《飛鳥大會》(The Conference of the Birds)、《雅典的泰門》(Timon of Athens)、《摩訶婆羅多》(Mahabharata)、《櫻桃園》(The Cherry Orchard)。

  他執導的電影有《蠅王》(Lord of the Flies)、《李爾王》(King Lear)、《與傑出人士相遇》(Meeting with Remarkable Men)。

   他還執導了歌劇《費加羅的婚禮》(The Marriage of Figaro)、《伯里斯•戈都諾夫》(Boris Godunov)(倫敦寇文花園劇院[Covent Garden])和《浮士德》(Faust)、《葉甫蓋尼•奧涅金》(Eugène Onegin)(紐約大都會歌劇院[Metropolitan Opera])。

  他的著作包括《空的空間》(The Empty Space,1968年)、《流動的視點》(The Shifting Point,1987年)。


 譯者簡介:
  于東田:上海戲劇學院教師,上海市作家協會會員。著有長篇小說《大路千條》、中短篇小說集《狗不是狼》。

2008年2月17日 星期日

兩本設計相關翻譯書

Product Design: Fundamentals and Methods (A Wiley Series in Product Development) (原書荷蘭文,此為英文本)

by N. J. M. Roozenburg (Author), J. Eekels (Author)

John Wiley & Sons Inc; New Ed edition (June 1995)

產品設計—設計基礎和方法論 張建成譯,台北:六合出版社,1995

這本有一假設之qfd案例


The Design Agenda: A Guide to Successful Design Management by Rachel Cooper, Mike Press , Wiley, 1994
「設計進程:成功設計管理的指引」 游萬來,宋同正譯,台北:六合出版社,1998


2008年2月13日 星期三

英国人发明“绿色iPod”

英国老汉发明“绿色iPod”
“回声媒体播放器”(Eco Media Player)
“绿色”播放器受消费者青睐
时尚、环保两不误。英国七旬老汉发明手动发电式iPod,成为环保人士新宠。

现年70岁的特雷弗•贝利斯(Trevor Baylis)就是这种名叫“环保媒体播放器”(Eco Media Player)的发明者。

不同于苹果公司出品的iPod的是,特雷弗的发明的播放器后面有一个用于发电的手柄。

只需摇动手柄一分钟所产生的能量就能让播放器连续播放40首歌曲。对于那些总是忘记充电的歌迷发烧友们,这种“自给自足”的播放器真是方便极了。

此外,这种售价约为140英镑“绿色”播放器还能储藏500首歌曲,并带有短波收音机、手电、录音机和视频播放等功能。

前景广阔

贝利斯说,他相信他的发明对环保人士来说是很有吸引力的。

他说,“当今人们对气候变化的担心日益加重,因此节约能源是非常重要的。我希望我的发明能够受到打击的青睐。”

“我们起初从中国定制的1,000台播放器几乎在一夜间就售罄。我们还会再进一批,这批的外形比上批更好。”

除了手摇式充电以外,这种播放器也可以通过插入电脑充电。

这种播放器的使用者之一—英国喜剧演员史蒂芬•弗赖(Stephen Fry)说,“这个小玩意很讨人喜欢,它既小又实用。”

除了这个“绿色”播放器以外,特弗雷还发表了发条动力收音机(clockwork radio)。

特弗雷说,“我们现在还在考虑发明可以手动充电的手机,并希望能和英国电信(British Telecom)公司合作。”

2008年2月11日 星期一

a Theft of 4 Masterworks (E. G. Bührle Collection)

早上從CNN聽到這則新聞 很快就可以從紐約時報讀到這則報導


At Zurich Museum, a Theft of 4 Masterworks

E. G. Bührle Collection/The Zurich Police — Keystone, via Associated Press

The room at the E. G. Bührle Collection in Zurich that held the four paintings stolen by ski-mask-wearing robbers on Sunday.


Published: February 12, 2008

ZURICH — Three men wearing ski masks walked into a private museum here in daylight, grabbed four 19th-century masterpieces, tossed them into a van and sped off, pulling off one of the largest and most audacious art robberies of all time. It was the second multimillion-dollar art heist in Switzerland in less than a week.

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Agence France Presse—Getty Images

"Count Lepic and his Daughters" (1871), by Edgar Degas.

Agence France Presse—Getty Images

"Poppies near Vetheuil" (1879), by Claude Monet, was one of the four paintings stolen from a from the Buehrle Foundation museum in Zurich on Sunday.

Agence France Presse--Getty Images

"Boy in the Red Waistcoat" (1888), by Paul Cezanne.

Agence France Presse--Getty Images

"Blossoming Chestnut Branches" (1890), by Vincent van Gogh.

Switzerland was stunned, not just by the loss of half a dozen masterpieces by the likes of Picasso and Monet but, based on police reports emerging Monday, by the seeming ease with which they disappeared.

On Sunday, the three men who entered the E. G. Bührle Collection here took four paintings — a Cézanne, a Degas, a van Gogh and a Monet together worth an estimated $163 million — but not the most valuable works in the collection. The four just happened to be hanging in the same room.

The Wednesday before, in a nighttime theft in the nearby town of Pfäffikon, thieves stole two Picassos worth an estimated $4.4 million.

The twin robberies have focused attention on art theft as nothing has done since criminals in Norway stole the iconic painting “The Scream,” as well as “The Madonna,” by Munch in August 2004.

The Zurich theft was “probably the biggest art robbery in Europe,” according to Marco Cortesi, spokesman for the Zurich police, but did not appear to be the largest in history.

Estimates vary widely for such rare and rarely sold works, but the value of the paintings taken in the infamous 1990 robbery of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, the biggest art theft in American history, has been estimated as high as $300 million, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Web site.

Like the stolen Munch paintings, which were valued at $121 million, those stolen in Zurich are considered major works and so widely known as to be “unsalable,” said Richard Kendall, a prominent scholar of late-19th-century French art and a curator at large at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass.

The 1879 Monet, “Poppies Near Vertheuil,” and the 1890 van Gogh, “Blossoming Chestnut Branches,” “are classic statements by these two artists,” Mr. Kendall said in a telephone interview. He called the Cézanne, “Boy in a Red Vest” from 1895, “fabulous, stunning, powerful” and one of the artist’s “greatest achievements.”

The Degas, “Count Lepic and His Daughters” (circa 1871), he said, was less impressive than the other works seized and inferior to the artist’s best portraits.

The mix of value and quality added to the impression that the robbery was as haphazard as it was brazen.

According to the local police and officials at the Bührle Collection, one of the top private museums for Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art in Europe, three men wearing ski masks entered the museum barely a half hour before the 5 p.m. closing time on Sunday.

One of the thieves pulled a handgun and ordered terrified staff members and visitors to lie down on the floor, as the other two men pulled the paintings off the wall. The police said paintings appeared to be sticking out of the back of the white van the men used to make their getaway.

The museum’s director, Lukas Gloor, said the museum generally did not check visitors’ bags and had no metal detectors, which he said the entry hall of the building was too narrow to accommodate. The collection is housed in a 19th-century villa in a quiet residential neighborhood, where state-of-the art offices border on ancient villas with large private parks.

“It is a very bad experience because as museum director you live with these pictures day in day out; you become attached to them like family,” he said at a news conference.

The police said they were searching for links between the Zurich robbery and the thefts of the Picassos at a cultural center in Pfäffikon but had reported no connections.

For the police and the public, the looming questions were not only who committed the crimes but, given the near impossibility of selling the paintings, why.

A common myth, popularized in the movies, of a theft to order carried out at the behest of a private collector, “is really to be considered a fiction,” said Karl-Heinz Kind, team leader of the works of art unit at Interpol.

The fact that there are no buyers lined up helps account for the recovery of famous works, he said, like the Munch paintings, which were recovered in 2006. “The thieves have difficulty finding someone to take them,” he said. “They are obliged to multiply their contacts and proposals. That increases the chances for police.”

The F.B.I. estimates that the overall losses from art and cultural property crime run as high as $6 billion each year.

One detail that has drawn attention here is that one of the three Zurich robbers, according to the police, spoke German with a Slavic accent, increasing fears among the Swiss that their country has become a destination for foreign criminals.

While such fears may be overblown, a leading expert on stolen art said Balkan organized crime rings represented a genuine and significant threat to the invaluable art collections of wealthy European countries.

“Organized criminals from Serbia, Albania, Montenegro and other parts of the Balkans steal art through gangs which they send out to Western Europe,” said Julian Radcliffe, chairman of the Art Loss Register, the world’s largest private database of lost and stolen art, based in London.

Mr. Radcliffe said the peak of ski season, with large numbers of foreigners leaving and entering the country, made it a particularly good time for thieves to get in and out of Switzerland undetected.

The Bührle Collection has been controversial because the Zurich industrialist Emil Georg Bührle, who amassed the impressive array of paintings, was a major arms supplier to the Allied and Axis powers during World War II.

It was also found to contain several works that were sold in the prelude to World War II at relatively cheap prices by European Jews who were fleeing or persecuted by the Nazis.

One local resident, a 60-year- old woman who lives a stone’s throw from the scene of the crime and did not want to give her name, told the story of another art collector she knows who lives on the block.

“The other day she told me that she had put her Giacometti sculpture into her safe,” she said. “I thought to myself, What a shame. But today I understand why she did it.”

Uta Harnischfeger reported from Zurich, and Nicholas Kulish from Berlin. Carol Vogel contributed reporting from New York.

Franz Ehrlich

Franz Ehrlich (December 28, 1907 in Reudnitz near Leipzig - November 28, 1984 in Bernburg) was a German architect. Franz Ehrlich was a student at the Bauhaus in Dessau from 1927 to 1930.[1]

References

  1. ^ http://www.baufachinformation.de/denkmalpflege.jsp?md=1999107108543

文化社会 | 2008.02.10

从集中营走出的建筑设计大师埃尔里希

弗朗茨.埃尔里希曾经设计过家具,从事过绘画及雕塑艺术,然而他的本行是建筑师。战后时期,埃尔里希在原东德设计建造过诸多风格迥异的建筑,包括原东德广 播电台的大楼。2007年12月28日是埃尔里希诞辰100周年纪念日。拥有其大量作品收藏的德绍包豪斯基金会特地举办埃尔里希作品展。展品包括埃尔里希 被关在布痕瓦尔德集中营时期的设计原稿。德国之声记者报导如下。

弗 朗茨.埃尔里希的名字只被业内人士熟 知。其实至今还有千万家庭使用着他设计的“602”家具系列中的餐具柜,椅子和玻璃柜。原民主德国人40年之久只可以接收东德广播电台的节目。而1956 年竣工的广播电台大楼也是埃尔里希设计建造的。大大小小的演播室,录音间如今还是相当受欢迎的节目制作场地。广播大楼现在已经成了纪念象征。

埃 尔里希作品展的艺术总监沃尔夫冈-特纳介绍 说:“即使用今天的眼光评价,广播大楼无论是演播室还是回廊的建筑设计都具有一流的水准。埃尔里希在对装饰的运用上很大胆。我们在展览中还会展出珍贵的纪 念相片,比如1957年大楼正式投入使用那天,当时东德总统皮克同埃尔里希以及其他工作人员在剪接工作台前的合影。”

弗 朗茨.埃尔里希是包豪斯学派风格最独特的艺术 家之一。1927至1930年,生于莱比锡的埃尔里希在德绍深造。他早在1930年就已经加入了德国共产党并在纳粹统治时期积极参与政治。1937至 1939年,他在布痕瓦尔德被捕关入集中营。然而与其他囚犯不同的是,纳粹利用埃尔里希的才能,为其搞建筑设计。在德绍埃尔里希作品展上,人们可以看到一 名纳粹首领住所的标有纳粹标志的地板以及壁炉的照片,其建筑风格当然完全背离包豪斯学派。

特纳介绍了一篇埃尔里希的手稿,其中写到他是如何为纳粹搞设计工作的,“手稿里写道,其他集中营囚犯对埃尔里希说,埃尔里希同志,你必须接受并利用这一项任务,比如你可以说某某某是个很好的木匠,可以做你的帮手。埃尔里希就通过这种方式救了不少人的命。”

1945 年之后,埃尔里希为德雷斯顿和科特布斯 设计了重建计划,并设计了多处广播建筑设施。他在柏林的代表作还有柏林布赫医院的园亭,以及柏林中区原文化俱乐部“约翰内斯-R-贝希尔”,现汉堡驻柏林 代表处。特纳继续介绍说:“50年代是百废待兴的时期,埃尔里希通过他的家具系列推出了一种十分美好而且有说服力的新理念。为此他赢得了艺术界不少掌声, 当然也有批评的声音。”

人 们对于埃尔里希的设计风格褒贬不一,甚至引发 了公开的讨论,这在原民主德国是很少见的。特纳讲道,对埃尔里希批评最强烈的是包豪斯学派的另一位建筑师,原民主德国建筑学院建筑理论院的院长汉斯.施密 特:“施密特1959年批评埃尔里希设计的建筑同样可以建造在西德,太世界政治化,因此不够体现社会主义建筑的风格。他甚至形容埃尔里希的设计像一个‘原 子弹的维美外壳’。”

埃尔里希当然也拥有不少支持者。70年代他为原民主德国驻巴黎及布鲁塞尔的商务代表处设计了办公大楼。其中在布鲁塞尔的建筑今天是德国萨克森-安哈尔特州驻欧盟的代表处。

德国之声版权所有

转载或引用请标明出处和作者

Sigrid Hoff

2008年2月10日 星期日

Iphigeneia

阿伽門農的愛女伊菲姬奈亞(Iphigeneia)--這翻譯者似乎不知道希臘文中h多為重音符號"伊匹根奈亞"イピゲネイア

本篇傳說和後代文人創作相當多** 請參考 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iphigeneia


Iphigeneia (Eng. /ɪfədʒə'naɪə/ Ἰφιγένεια, also Iphigenia) is a daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra in Greek mythology. In Attic accounts,[1] Iphigeneia is sometimes called a daughter of Theseus and Helen raised by Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. The name means "strong-born", though more literally "born to strength".[1].

"......「特洛伊之戰」打了十年,《依利亞德》說的卻是發生在第十年一個短短的七天裡的故事。有許多環繞著這場戰爭的傳說沒有呈現於這兩部史詩裡,後人將其綴連起來,把「特洛伊之戰」變成一個有頭有尾的故事——一個青銅時代的故事,以犧牲處女開頭,以犧牲處女結尾。

依據其中一個傳說,希臘聯軍曾出征兩次。第一次出征,遇上颶風,航道發生錯誤,到了另一個城(離特洛伊的考古遺址並不遠),攻下以後才知道並非特洛伊!大 軍只好拖曳回航。第二次已是八年之後,上千的聯軍戰船由各方聚集在奧利斯(Aulis)港口待發。奧利斯海灣在雅典的北邊,夾在半島與一個狹長的離島之 間,本適於泊船,此時卻突然颳起狂嘯的北風,船隻久久不能啟航,大軍開始煩躁不安。這就是第一場處女犧牲的背景。

在古典的希臘,「東風」(Eurus)名不見經傳,「西風」(Zephyrus)帶來和煦的春日。這是一個以血祭求西風的故事。

先前有兩隻老鷹,一白尾、一黑尾,俯衝而下,抓住懷胎的母兔,連母帶子血淋淋的啄食腹中。大軍的先知為此解讀。這二隻鷹是阿伽門農與梅納勞斯 (Menelaus)兩兄弟,表示這次遠征將勝利攻下特洛伊。但狩獵女神動怒了,她是一切幼小動物的守護神,最恨老鷹,稱牠們為父親宙斯的「有翼的狗」。 她對宙斯沒辦法,只好間接報復於受宙斯寵愛的阿伽門農,這狂嘯的北風就是她請來的。要狩獵女神息怒必須犧牲阿伽門農的愛女伊菲姬奈亞 (Iphigeneia)!

阿伽門農左思右想,難下決定。但大軍眼睜睜等著處女的血來換取和煦的西風,以揚帆東渡。不聽先知的話,就打不成這場仗,就不能燒殺擄掠。最後他心一橫,做下傷天害理的事:

她乞求神,她哀號「父親」

她無邪的青春,領袖們,

一心要打仗,對這全不理會;

祈禱過後,她的父親就命執事者

把她舉起,像一隻羊

臉朝下放在祭台上

——當她無助地匍匐在父親的袍裾

巾帶勒緊她柔和的嘴角

以防發出

任何對家族的詛咒。

她只能無聲地等著;

當她番紅花染的黃裳拽地,

射向每一個犧牲她的人

是她可憐的目光,

像畫中的人

想要出聲說話,

因為她常在父親的家裡為他們歌唱

在男人的華美的大廳裡;用她未受褻瀆的處女清純的嗓音;

當她摯愛的父親三灑祭酒,她就傾心地

唱著阿波羅歡樂的讚歌。

(阿奇里斯悲劇《阿伽門農》214-233行,作者由英文轉譯)

犧牲伊菲姬奈亞的故事被許多名家寫成劇本。希臘悲劇的三大家阿奇里斯、索福克里斯,和歐里庇得斯都寫過《伊菲姬奈亞在奧利斯》。可惜只有歐里庇得斯所作留 傳下來,就連這也是未完成作品,由後人續就。因為阿伽門農家族的歷史故事牽連廣泛,如在《阿伽門農》中,其他悲劇也常有描述犧牲伊菲姬奈亞的這一段。它們 的情節都有一些出入,由於取材自不同的傳說,也由於作者的取捨與創造。最重要的在於阿伽門農是否親自主持犧牲儀式,還有伊菲姬奈亞是否被狩獵女神在千鈞一 髮之際用一隻鹿取代了,類似《聖經》中上帝命亞伯拉罕犧牲兒子以撒來考驗其信心的故事。後來歐洲的名家包括拉辛和哥德也各用伊菲姬奈亞的故事寫過自認得意 的劇本,但是它們的情節趨於複雜,思想感情屬於作者的時代。**我還是最喜歡阿奇里斯悲劇《阿伽門農》裡犧牲伊菲姬奈亞的一段,阿伽門農親自把女兒送上祭台,伊菲姬奈亞也無《聖經》中以撒那麼幸運。像一把青銅鑄的刀,古典而沉重,靠的是砍下的力量,而非鋒利的刀刃。" 西風的話 【聯合報╱徐祁蓮】


The sacrifice of Iphigenia by the Illioupersis Painter
The sacrifice of Iphigenia by the Illioupersis Painter

**
Iphigénie en Aulide, play by Jean Racine.
Iphigenie auf Tauris, play by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
**



Artemis punished Agamemnon after he killed a sacred deer in a sacred grove and boasted he was the better hunter. On his way to Troy to participate in the Trojan War, Agamemnon's ships were suddenly motionless as Artemis stopped the wind in Aulis. A soothsayer named Calchas revealed an oracle that appeased Artemis, so that the Aechaean fleet could sail. This much is in Homer, who was unaware of the aspect of this episode in which the only way to appease Artemis was to sacrifice Iphigeneia to her. According to the earliest versions he did so, but other sources claim that Iphigenia was taken by Artemis to Tauris in Crimea to prepare others for sacrifice, and that the goddess left a deer or a goat (the god Pan transformed) in her place. The Hesiodic Catalogue of Women called her Iphimede/Iphimedeia (Ἰφιμέδεια)[2] and told that Artemis transformed her into the goddess Hecate.[3] Antoninus Liberalis said that Iphigeneia was transported to the island of Leuke, where she was wedded to immortalized Achilles under the name of Orsilochia.