“When I first devoutly represented the world, the mundane things in life attracted me. This comes from my character, life, and original understanding of beauty.”
“当我第一次虔诚地代表世界时，生活中的平凡事物吸引了我。这来自我的性格、生活和对美的独到理解。”
—Xu Bing 徐冰
About artist
关于艺术家
Xu Bing, born in Chongqing, Sichuan in 1955, obtained a master’s degree from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in 1987 and was awarded the “Genius Award” by the MacArthur Foundation, the highest honor in the field of American culture, in 1999. He currently lives and works in New York and Beijing.
徐冰，1955年生于四川重庆，1987年获北京中央美术学院硕士学位，获美国文化领域最高荣誉麦克阿瑟基金会“天才奖”， 1999年，他目前在纽约和北京生活和工作。
“Book from the Ground” is Xu Bing’s art project since 2003. Xu Bing called this period “living between regions”. Xu Bing, who frequently travels between his New York studio and various curatorial locations worldwide, spends most of his time at the airport. Before the iPhone was invented, airports were almost a microcosm of globalization. During the waiting period, a large number of symbols filling the airport caught Xu Bing’s attention. He has a specific innate sensitivity to “growing materials” as a conceptual artist.
“地书”是徐冰自2003年以来的艺术项目。徐冰将这时期称为“跨地域生活”。经常往返于纽约工作室和世界各地策展地点的徐冰，大部分时间都在机场度过。在 iPhone 发明之前，机场几乎是全球化的缩影。候机期间，充斥机场的大量符号引起了徐冰的注意。作为一名观念艺术家，徐冰对“生长的材料”有着与生俱来的敏感性。
“I think these symbols have a lot of vitality and malleability.”
“我认为这些符号具有很大的活力和延展性。”
“Book from the Ground” was conceived ten years ago. Xu Bing discovered that the little icons on chewing gum told a tale:
“地书”是十年前构思的。徐冰发现口香糖上的小图标讲述了一个故事：
“If you can create a story with only five symbols, you can absolutely make a novel with thousands of symbols.”
“如果你能用五个符号来创作一个故事，那你绝对可以写出一部有数千个符号的小说。”
Xu Bing has always wanted to write a book since then. This book does not have a standard script and may be read by anybody, including illiterates. The line between academics and regular people has been blurred at this point.
从那以后，徐冰就一直想写一本书。这本书没有标准脚本，任何人都可以阅读，包括文盲。在这一点上，学者和普通人之间的界限已经模糊。
Book from the Ground: From Point to Point
《地书：从点到点》
This vitality stems from the effective transmission of information through identifiers; on the other hand, more identifiers have been included in the super-regional consensus system due to the rapid advancement of standardized industrial production. Using these symbols, Xu Bing then spent 10 years making a wordless book called “Book from the Ground: From Point to Point.”
这个生机源于通过标识符有效传递信息；另一方面，由于标准化工业生产的快速推进，更多的标识符被纳入超区域共识体系。徐冰花了 10 年时间用这些符号制作了一本无字的书，名为《地书：从点到点》。
This is a storybook; the plot is very standardized, about a person’s life 24 hours a day. The standardization of life and the standardization and symbolization of materials used are related. Regardless of cultural background, anyone active in current life may read this book. In other words, as a natural person conversant with contemporary life, one may grasp the tale without needing first to translate it into Chinese. If you take it a step further and are an emoji fan, you can almost see the life of the characters in the book and smile knowingly.
这是一本故事书；剧情很规范，关于一个人一天24小时的生活。生命的标准化与所用材料的标准化和象征化是相关的。无论文化背景如何，任何活跃于当前生活的人都可以阅读这本书。换句话说，作为一个熟悉当代生活的人，无需先翻译成中文，就可以掌握这个故事。如果您更进一步并且是表情符号的粉丝，您几乎可以了解书中人物的生活并会心地微笑。
Is this what you face when you get up in the morning?
这是不是也是你早上起床时的情景？
“The alarm clock went off at seven a.m. I open my eyes, switch off the alarm clock, and notice that the weather outside the window is dreadful. Therefore, I should close my eyes and go to bed.”
“早上七点，闹钟响了。我睁开眼睛吧闹钟关掉，看见窗外的天气不是很好，还是闭上眼继续睡吧。”
“There is a boy who adores a girl and wants to offer her flowers,” says the opening sentence. Following that, the boy began to get to know the female. These phenomena often occur in our daily lives.
第一句说 “有一个男孩喜欢一个女孩，想给她送花“。之后这个男孩就开始进行认识女孩的行动。这些事经常发生在我们的日常生活中。
I believe that any friend, regardless of race or culture, who views this picture in modern society will find it easy to grasp and highly engaging; a language without sound brings people closer together since it may be anything we know and love, sound, and tone.
相信任何朋友，无论种族，文化，在现代社会看到这幅画，都会觉得它很容易掌握，也很有吸引力；没有声音的语言使人们更加紧密地联系在一起，因为它可能是我们所知道和喜爱的任何事物、声音和音调。
New languages, characters, and symbols are quickly forming due to the Internet’s development, and mixed-use has become the new normal. Young people collectively refer to them as“alien texts”, which vaguely contrasts the elements and foundations of a specific part of “Book from the Ground”.
由于互联网的发展，新的语言、文字和符号正在快速形成，混合使用已成为新常态。年轻人将它们统称为“外星文”，这似乎也隐约对照了“地书”某部分的元素与基础。
“The alarm clock rang! Where am I, and who am I? I was dozing, so I switched on the light, and wow! Is it already 7:00 p.m.? I’m leaving for America at 11:00 a.m. today! Please hurry and pack my bags. My last reward was hidden in my suitcase!”
“闹钟响了！我是谁，我在哪里？原来我在睡觉，把灯打开，哇！已经七点了？我今天上午11:00 要去美国！快点收拾好我的行李。把我收到的最终奖品是在行李里！”
“The big prize is a 7-day trip to the United States! Return airfare is included! This package consists of a seven-day stay in a five-star hotel! Serve a lavish meal! “
“大奖是到美国的7天假期！包括往返机票！包括在五星级酒店的七天住宿！提供丰盛的晚餐！”
It’s more of a tale without words and full of imagination than an art form. Because of distinctions in ethnic groups, regions, and nations, the language and characters used in communication constitute a logical force internally, but also generate cognition disparities between various individuals and nationalities; Xu Bing’s keen observation and subsequent reflection on the work can serve as a point of reference for readers now and in the future, yet the world’s transformations follow a predictable path.
与其说是一种艺术形式，不如说它更像是一个没有文字、充满想象力的故事。由于民族、地区、民族的差异，交流所使用的语言和文字在内部构成了一种逻辑力量，但也产生了不同个体和民族之间的认知差异；徐冰敏锐的观察和随后对作品的反思可以为现在和未来的读者提供参考，但世界的变迁遵循着可以预见的路径。
Books on the Ground – Drawing Language
《地书——画语》
Following the introduction of “Book from the Ground,” Xu Bing actively built a font library in the hopes that in the future, everyone may use the program to input in their native language, which will then be automatically turned into a graphic language. In 2007, Xu Bing ordered someone to build a set of interactive program “glyph file” software, that could transform the text into the ground book’s sign language, and everyone may play and observe in the exhibition hall.
在“地书”发表后，徐冰积极建立字库，希望以后可让借由软体，每个人用自己国家的语言输入，然后会自动转换成图形语言。2007年，徐冰请人设计了一套互动程式“字形档”软体，可以将文字转化为地书的标识语言，在展场中大家都可以动手玩玩看。
The installation consists of two computers that face each other and are separated by a transparent frosted glass wall. The conversation is printed on both sides of the glass wall with “icon text” explaining how the artist came up with the concept to create this sign language. The user sits at the computer desk, face to face. Despite their proximity, neither can see the person on the other side of the glass wall.
该装置由两台电脑组成，两台电脑面对面，由一堵透明的磨砂玻璃墙隔开。对话在玻璃墙的两侧印有“图片语言”，解释了艺术家如何提出创造这种手语的概念。用户面对面坐在电脑桌前。尽管距离很近，但谁也看不到玻璃墙另一边的人。
People today frequently experience this sense of closeness and remoteness. Email is used to send information even in the workplace, and two-sentence messages are sent back via remote satellites. Two PCs in the exhibition area are equipped with specialized chat software.
今天的人们经常体验到这种亲近感和疏离感。即使在工作场所，也使用电子邮件发送信息，两句话的信息通过遥远的卫星发回。展区的两台电脑都配备了专门的聊天软件。
When a user enters English, it is immediately translated into “icon text” for Xu Bing and shown on the screen. Two persons can use this “text” to talk or trade information.
当用户输入英文时，它立即被翻译成徐冰的“图标文本”并显示在屏幕上。这个“文本”可以被两个人用来交谈或交易信息。
MetaWords in Metaverse
元宇宙中的MetaWords
The “Book from the Ground” by artist Xu Bing has been cast into NFT and will be auctioned on the Lion NFT platform.
艺术家徐冰的《地书》已投进NFT，将在Lion NFT平台拍卖。
“The oracle bone inscriptions used more than 260 symbols to complete various narrative scenes of sacrifice, divination, and history writing, and there are many more modern symbols.”
“甲骨文用260多个符号，完成了祭祀、占卜、撰史种种叙事场景，而现代标识符号要多得多。”
Therefore, Xu Bing understood MetaWords as a kind of language infrastructure in the metaverse era. Using this infrastructure, an“art explosion” belonging to the public began in the metaverse.
所以，徐冰把MetaWords 理解成为元宇宙时代的一种语言基础设施，利用这种基础设施，元宇宙里开始了一次属于大众的“艺术大爆炸”。
The metaverse broadens the definition of globalization. After witnessing several ebbs in globalization in recent years, Xu Bing believes that the current contrarian tendency will either be a very brief historical stage or will be replaced by new forms. He is even more excited about the metaverse as a chance for people to rediscover the importance of globalization and even encourage everyone to embrace it.
元宇宙拓宽了全球化的定义。在经历了近几年全球化的几次退潮后，徐冰认为，当前的逆势趋势要么是一个非常短暂的历史阶段，要么会被新的形式所取代。他对元宇宙感到更加兴奋，因为它是人们重新发现全球化重要性的机会，甚至鼓励每个人更多地拥抱它。
*all images and artworks belong to the artist & his representing galleries respectively
*所有图像和艺术品分别属于艺术家及其他们代表的画廊
Translation 翻译 Alice Yip
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