Three Bizarre1 Projects That Combine Art and Science

By Hamza Isaac

Maybe you have previously heard how bridging art and science can inspire some weird yet interesting works of art, from clothes made of bacteria to a woman giving birth to a shark.2. 也许你曾听说过艺术和科学的结合是如何启发了一些奇特而又有趣的艺术作品的诞生，从用细菌做成的衣服到一位妇女生出鲨鱼。work of art： 艺术作品；bacteria： 细菌（bacterium的名词复数）。Yet more and more of these bizarre artworks are out there, reminding us that the boundaries3. boundary： 范围，分界线。between art and science only exist in our minds.

1. Paper Sculpture4. sculpture： 雕刻，雕塑。纸雕

To maintain their shapes,sculptures are usually carved out of hard materials such as stone, metal, or ceramic.5. 为了保持形状，雕塑通常用坚硬的材料来刻，如石头、金属或陶瓷。ceramic： 陶瓷。However, Chinese artist Li Hongbo goes for the opposite by building his works out of unconventional material: paper. At first glance6. at first glance： 初看，乍看。,Hongbo’s sculptures look like those made of ceramic or stone.However, when the artist grabs one of them and pulls it apart, it twists, elongates, and retracts as if it were a giant Slinky.7. 然而，当这位艺术家抓过来其中一个纸雕，将它拉开，它就会扭曲、伸长再回缩，像个巨型的“机灵鬼”。elongate： 延长，加长；retract： 收缩，缩回；Slinky：机灵鬼，一种螺旋弹簧玩具。把它放在楼梯上，它就会在重力与惯性的共同作用下沿着阶梯不断伸展再复原，呈现“拾级而下”的有趣状态。

一般人看来，“艺术”与“科学”就是鱼与熊掌，艺术上几乎没有科学的用武之地。然而，一些天才艺术家却能够把这两者完美地结合起来，把科学技术加入艺术，或换言之，将艺术元素融入科技产品。比如，本文介绍的纸雕、“吃”尸体的蘑菇葬衣和雨屋。

Displayed at the Klein Sun Gallery in New York, the sculptures consist of 7,000—8,000 layered8. layered： 分层的。papers placed on top of one another.Hongbo has produced a variety of figures, including the head of Greek goddess Athena and Michelangelo’s David.9. 洪波创作了各种人物形象，包括希腊女神之首雅典娜和米开朗基罗的大卫。Athena： 希腊神话人物雅典娜，智慧女神；Michelangelo： 米开朗基罗（1475—1564），意大利文艺复兴时期成就卓著的画家、雕塑家。Regardless of the figures he chooses, Hongbo’s sculptures maintain their hidden element of surprise that is unleashed as they stretch into different shapes.10. 无论选择什么人物，洪波的雕塑都隐藏着惊喜，随着其扩展成各种形状而迸发。unleash： 释放。

2. Mushroom Burial11. burial： 埋葬，葬礼。 Suit“吃”尸体的蘑菇葬衣

You might think that our generous contributions to polluting our planet end when we die. But unfortunately,that is not the case.Our bodies are, in fact, a temporary storage for a variety of environmental toxins.12. 事实上，我们的身体是各种环境毒素的暂时储藏所。toxin： 毒素，毒质。Most of these toxins remain in our body until we die. Traditional burial methods release these toxins back into the environment. Jae Rhim Lee is a creative bio-artist that came up with a solution to this problem.13. bio-artist： 生物艺术家；come up with： 提出想法（办法或方案等）。

Through her Infinity Burial Project, Lee proposed an alternative14,environmentally friendly way of treating human bodies after death.The project involves developing a burial suit, which contains a

14. alternative： 可供选择的。mushroom that accelerates the decomposition of the human body after death.15. 该项目研发出一种葬衣，里面有一颗蘑菇，可加速人死后尸体的分解。decomposition： 分解，化解。The prototype of the burial suit,which Lee jokingly calls “Ninja pajamas,” is covered with threads of mushroom spores in a pattern similar to that of the dendritic growth of a mycelium.16. 这种葬衣的样品被李女士戏称为“忍者睡衣”，其表面覆盖有缕缕蘑菇孢子，状似呈树枝状生长的菌丝体。prototype： 原型，样品；Ninja pajamas： 忍者睡衣；spore： 孢子，胚种；dendritic： 树枝状的；mycelium： 菌丝体。To activate the suit, special makeup is applied to the body, consisting of a mixture of dry mineral makeup and dried mushroom spores. The makeup is necessary to stimulate the growth of the mushroom and accelerate decomposition.17. 这种“化妆品”是为了促进蘑菇生长，加快尸体分解。

The idea of using our dead bodies as food for mushrooms might not appeal to many people, but Lee has an entirely different perspective. According to her, the death suit will not only reduce our burden on the planet but also help us realize that death is only the beginning of our long-term influence on the environment.18. 她认为，这件葬衣不仅能减少我们带给地球的负担，而且还有助于我们认识到，死亡仅仅是人类对环境施加长期影响的开端。

3. Rain Room雨屋

Imagine if you could walk on the streets on a rainy day without getting a single drop of rain on you. That’s what it feels like when you walk into the Rain Room in The Curve Gallery at the Barbican Centre19. Barbican Centre： 巴比肯艺术中心。in London. Developed by Random International, the Rain Room consists of a 100-square-meter (1,076 ft2) field of falling water, which visitors are invited to walk through. Once the visitors enter the field, the rain stops around them, giving them an experience of how it might feel to control the weather.20. 游客一踏入这片区域，雨滴就在他们身体周围停住，让他们体验到控制天气的感觉。

The Rain Room is a highly sophisticated integration of art and technology. It is controlled by a number of cameras that map the positions of the visitors on the field. This data is then fed into a grid of square panels, each of which controls several outlets that eject a total of 2,500 liters (660 gal) of falling water.21. 然后数据导回方形控制板系统里，每个面板控制着若干喷头，总共可喷出2,500升（660加仑）落水。grid： 系统网络；panel： 控制板；eject： 喷射出；gal： gallon，加仑。Used water is then filtered, treated, and pumped back into the installation.22. 使用过的水经过过滤之后，重新抽运回装置里。filter： 过滤，渗透；pump： 用泵抽运；installation： 系统，装置。