Digital Montage: On Collage and the Legacy of Modernism數字蒙太奇：論拼貼藝術和現代主義傳統

瑪麗·沙泰爾/文　鄭秀君/譯

Copy-Paste. Today we take for granted this functionality on our laptops as if it had always been there. But the fragmentation， dislocation and recombination of visual and textual content only have a short history that finds all its meaning in art. Flourishing in the early 20th century through the movements of Cubism， Dada and Surrealism， collage and montage still have a visible impact on digital art. Beyond its actual process， the practice brought distinct aesthetics and new ways to represent society and technology.

如今，我們對筆記本電腦的復制粘貼功能早已習以為常，仿佛它一直都在。其實，視覺和文本內容的剪切、移置和重組出現的時間并不長，而且只在藝術領域受到關注。20世紀初，隨著立體主義、達達主義和超現實主義運動興起，拼貼藝術和蒙太奇迅速發展，至今對數字藝術仍然有顯著影響。除了實際操作，拼貼藝術還帶來獨特美學以及反映社會和技術的全新方式。

Collage： Kicking off the information age

拼貼：開啟信息時代

Collage is the action of pasting （in French）; montage is the action of assembling. Depending on your affinities， the artistic practice might bring about the vision of Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso’s Papiers collés， the geometric compositions of Jean Arp， the photomontages of Hannah H?ch， Raoul Haussman and John Heartfield， the Merz assemblages of Kurt Schwitters or the surreal narratives of Max Ernst. All these productions vary greatly. Yet they mark a shift away from the traditional art forms of painting and sculpture into a new media whose style and content both reflect changes in society.

collage一詞源于法語，指粘貼的動作，montage則指組裝的動作。每個人的喜好不同，拼貼藝術引發的聯想也不同，如喬治·布拉克和巴勃羅·畢加索的紙貼法，讓·阿爾普的幾何構圖，漢娜·霍赫、拉烏爾·豪斯曼和約翰·哈特費爾德的照片蒙太奇，庫爾特·施維特斯的“梅爾茲”集合藝術，或馬克斯·恩斯特的超現實主義敘事。這些創作迥然不同。不過，它們代表著藝術從傳統的繪畫、雕塑轉向一種新媒介，這種媒介的風格和內容都反應了社會變遷。

The end of the 19th century set pace for an industrialised culture. Train and mail， cinema and radio， entertainment and consumption became reachable at an increasing rate. Images turned widely available with entry to museums and movie theatres， but even more so with the beginning of shutter photography. The commercialisation of portable cameras and roll films in the late 1880s made the recording of photographs accessible to the masses. Likewise， the arrival of autotypy allowed for the mechanical reproduction of images. Pictures and illustrated prints went mainstream for the first time， with an unprecedented boom of the press media in the 1920s.

19世紀末，文化開始受工業化影響。火車和郵政、電影和廣播、娛樂和消費加速大眾化。人們進入博物館和電影院，得以廣泛接觸到圖像，照相技術的興起更是提升了圖像的可及性。19世紀80年代后期，便攜相機和膠卷逐漸商業化，影像拍攝走進千家萬戶。同理，復寫的發明也為圖像的機械復制創造了條件。20世紀20年代，新聞媒體業空前繁榮，圖片和插圖印刷品首次成為主流。

Accelerated modern perceptions required art forms to reflect hectic lifestyles， and collage brought this dynamism. Artists sourced content either in photographs， newspapers， labels， advertisements， theatre tickets or other urban substance. When combining fragmentary images from different spatiotemporal1 situations， artists documented or altered an overarching2 vision of modern times.

現代感知體驗加速，藝術形式需要反映忙碌的生活方式，拼貼就此大放異彩。藝術家們取材于照片、報紙、標簽、廣告、電影票等城市物料，在組合來自不同時空的碎片化圖像時，對包羅萬象的現代圖景或如實描摹、或加以改變。

Turning to digital tools

轉向數字工具

The appearance of media for digital image processing and recording， as well as the use of computer software to edit verbal and visual content， changed the scope of collage dramatically. One process that encapsulates3 the move from mechanical to digital reproduction is scanning—scanners provided with the possibility to translate analogue4 information into digital data. Images could be transferred instantaneously without losing the sharpness of the originals; in other words， more copies， better， faster.

處理和記錄數字圖像的媒體的出現，言語和視覺內容編輯軟件的應用，都大大擴展了拼貼的范疇。掃描儀能將模擬信息轉換成數字信號，掃描這種操作便是從機械復制向數字復制轉變的縮影。圖像實現即時傳輸，且清晰度絲毫不減。也就是說，可以復制得更多、更好、更快。

Robert Rauschenberg， who knowingly used collage as a technique to reflect on American visual culture， consumerism and the mass media， pioneered the use of scanners in his later works of the 2000s. The artist assembled photographs which he then transferred individually on paper before photographing and scanning the resulting copy.

羅伯特·勞申伯格有意用拼貼工藝反映美國視覺文化、消費主義和大眾傳媒，于是在2000年代后期的作品中開創性地使用掃描儀。他將各種照片組合在一起，然后分別轉移到紙上，再拍照掃描成品。

Many contemporary artists such as Ria Patricia R?der follow this tradition in mixing analogue and digital through the use of scans. Her scanograms are digitally created with the scanner without any further manipulation after the exposure. As such， the scanner not only helps with creating a final， digital rendition but acts as a tool to manipulate 2D and 3D objects to provide effects of focus and blur， and intriguing perceptions of dimensionality.

許多當代藝術家遵循這一傳統，用掃描儀混合模擬信號和數字信號，例如里婭·帕特里夏·勒德爾。她的掃描作品是數字化創作，用掃描儀曝光后沒有再進行任何加工。由此看來，掃描儀不僅促成最終的數字化視覺再現，而且是一個對2D和3D素材操縱自如的工具，能制造出聚焦或模糊的效果和新奇有趣的維度感知體驗。

Internet： A new source of graphic traffic

互聯網：圖像信息流的新來源

Along with digital technologies， the internet revolutionised our approach to images， written material， and by extent， collage. Suddenly， press institutions and companies were not the only one to spread content （at a cost）. All people could create， distribute， and access information for free as browsers advanced the democratisation of the web. With internet channelling vernacular5 knowledge， people could relate to， empathise with， and appropriate others’ content. The amount of data available gave artists a new breath in collecting and recalibrating existing material. An excellent example is Lorna Mills， who creates GIFs from online videos which she fragments and displaces out of their first interface. Her use of re-contextualisation offers a gripping portrait of online communities which parallels social depictions found in Modern collages.

除了數字技術，互聯網也變革了我們處理圖像、書面材料的方式，在一定程度上也改變了拼貼藝術。一夜之間，出版機構和出版公司不再壟斷（付費）內容的傳播。瀏覽器推動網絡大眾化，人人都能免費創作、發布、獲取信息。互聯網成為各地風土人情的傳播平臺，人們得以理解、共情、借用他人發布的內容。對于藝術家而言，互聯網上可獲取的數據量使他們在收集和校準現有素材上有了令人耳目一新的選擇。洛娜·米爾斯就是一個很好的例子。她從網絡視頻的原始界面截出片段，制成GIF動圖。她用重新語境化呈現出一幅引人入勝的網絡社群圖景，可與現代拼貼藝術中的社會描寫相媲美。

While the illustrated press offered a configuration6 that assigned meanings to images through texts， captions and branding， on the web， purpose and context are up to personal interpretation and information is fluid， participatory and interactive rather than definite and site-specific. The notion of background on the web is therefore versatile， and the material that artists reframe often comes as already manipulated， de-contextualised or repurposed.

帶插圖的報刊通過文本、圖片說明和標記將意義賦予圖像，而在互聯網上，意圖和情境取決于個人解讀，且信息是流動的、參與式的、交互的，而非凝滯、場域特定的。因此，在互聯網上，事件背景具有多種解讀的可能，藝術家用來重構的材料往往經過加工、去語境或更改用途。

As digital artists alternatively fuel their montages with personal photographs or pictures from the internet， the source of information becomes irrele-vant. In Alexandra Gorczynski’s compositions， for instance， both online and offline media come at play， drawing an intentional ambiguity on reality versus virtuality.

數字藝術家在他們的蒙太奇作品中交替使用個人拍攝的照片和網絡上的圖片，信息的來源因而變得無關緊要。例如，亞歷山德拉·戈爾琴斯基的作品既取材于網絡媒介，也取材于線下媒介，刻意繪制出亦虛亦實的效果。

Continuing or disrupting the aesthetics of Modernist collages？

現代主義拼貼美學：傳承還是瓦解？

In Modern times， photography had a documentary and irreversible nature and collage allowed for the connection of disparate7 events that assumably took place. But as digital photography came along， viewers started to wonder about the actual happening of action in space and time. To address this new photographic paradigm， digital artists either erase the boundaries and edges in their montages or exacerbate8 the fragmentary nature of the content they put together.

現代攝影具有紀實和不可逆的特性，而拼貼卻能將多半已經發生但互不相干的事件聯系起來。然而，數碼攝影的出現使觀看者開始在意行動在時空中的實際發生過程。面對這種攝影新范式，數字藝術家有兩種解決方法：要么消除蒙太奇中的邊界和邊沿，要么加重所創建內容的碎片感。

In the first scenario， post-photographic9 montages provide with visions of alternative realities playing on people’s awareness that the image has been altered. For Felicity Hammond， the digital collage composes a simulated form of existence that shows the precariousness10 of our post-industrial economy. Growth juxtaposes decay. Hoardings and lustrous large-format advertisements confront abandoned sites falling into landfills of detritus11. While the composition departs from the scattered aesthetic of 20th-century collages， the content shares Modernists’ aim to describe society overall， as well as attention to advertising and consumer culture.

第一種情況下，后攝影蒙太奇使人們看到另類現實，讓人們產生錯覺，以為圖像被改變了。對于費利西蒂·哈蒙德而言，數字拼貼組合成一種模擬存在形式，展現后工業經濟的動蕩：一邊是欣欣向榮，另一邊是衰敗凋零；熠熠生輝的巨幅廣告牌正對著逐漸淪為垃圾填埋場的廢棄場地。這種拼貼在構圖上背離了20世紀拼貼藝術的零散美學，但內容上和現代主義一樣，都是為了描述社會全景，都關注廣告和消費文化。

Meanwhile， other digital artists overtly show the fragments composing their images. Akin to Modernist aesthetics， Crosslucid12 assembles pieces from magazines， science and travel journals but also books， vintage catalogues and glossy periodicals. The art collective sees collage as “a medium in [its] practice [that] comes back to the idea of recomposing and fusing realities， re-assembling existing particles， a way of prototyping a speculative world”. Comparably， Carolyn Janssen explains， “Collage allows me to incorporate all forms of my practice—by photographing sculptures， tiny sets， costumes and drawings I’ve made IRL13. The technique allows the digital canvas to act as an almost hyperlink to my physical world—with any cement texture， food leftover or doodle up for grabs14.” In turn， the artist repurposes these scattered photographic elements as miniature objects which she combines in a Photoshop-y manner to construct meticulous and uncanny sceneries mark by mark.

另一種情況是突顯組合成圖像的碎片。藝術團隊Crosslucid從雜志、科學期刊、旅游日志、圖書、老式目錄和用亮光紙印刷的期刊中選材，集合各種碎片，頗有現代主義美學的意味。該藝術團隊認為拼貼是“一種媒介，在實踐中回歸重構和糅合現實、重組現有部件的理念，也是建立一個臆測世界原型的方式”。卡羅琳·詹森提出了類似的觀點：“拼貼使我能通過拍攝我在現實生活中創作的雕塑、小型布景、服裝和繪畫融合我所有的創作形式。有了這項技術，數字畫布好比超鏈接，觸發這個鏈接可以跳轉到我的現實世界，因為無論是水泥紋理、殘羹剩飯，還是隨手亂畫的作品，都可以成為素材。”藝術家繼而可以改變這些零散的攝影元素的用途，將其作為微型物件，像操作PS圖像處理軟件那樣，一步一步，用它們組合出細膩、怪誕的畫面。

While in modern times， the city presented a new space for dreaming with the fantasy of a hectic urban lifestyle， professional possibilities， leisure activities， and social change， now artists’ imagination gives in to other-worldly places that merge real and virtual elements in an ethereal whole. This move away from grounded social possibilities into abstract social aspirations or predictions reveal hope for other realities or at least a wish to reconcile with beauty as we realise the crude being of our present and future existence.

現代城市提供了新的想象空間，引發人們對快節奏都市生活方式、職業可能性、娛樂消遣和社會變革的幻想。不過，當今藝術家的想象力超然于世俗生活之外，趨向能將現實與虛擬元素融合成一個超凡整體的地方。從實際的社會可能性，轉向抽象的社會追求或預見，透露的就算不是對其他現實可能的向往，至少也是我們與美和解的愿望，因為我們已感受到當下的存在和未來的存在中的混沌。

（譯者為“《英語世界》杯”翻譯大賽獲獎者，單位：中山大學）

1 spatiotemporal時空的。? 2 overarching 首要的；概莫能外的。

3 encapsulate簡述；概括。? 4 analogue模擬的。

5 vernacular（藝術的）民間風格。? 6 configuration 語言學中常用的術語，指語言中詞匯或語法成分的排列方式和組合規則。

7 disparate迥然不同的；無法比較的；不相干的。? 8 exacerbate使加重。 9 post-photographic后攝影的（指使用數字技術的攝影，區別于傳統銀鹽的前攝影）。

10 precariousness不穩定、不確定的狀態。? 11 detritus（尤指某項活動后留下的）廢棄物，垃圾。? 12 系由西爾瓦娜·齊布拉（Sylwana Zybura）和托馬斯·C.托特（Tomas C. Toth）于2018年在上海共同創立的藝術團體。? 13 IRL = in real life 在現實生活中（多用于電子郵件、社交媒體等）。

14 up for grabs提供的；可供爭奪的。