Museum Rules: Talk Softly, and Carry No Selfie Stick
自拍神器在許多博物館遭禁

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)的黑猩猩把兩根連鎖棍連到一起，拉下了一個不易得到的獎品——它的手夠不到的一串香蕉。

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(jì)后，熱切的游客們也在進行這樣的實驗。在配備了被稱為自拍桿（又稱“自戀神器”）的相機延長器之后，現(xiàn)在不管走到哪兒，他們都能拍到惹人喜愛的寬屏自拍照。

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.

藝術(shù)博物館緊張地關(guān)注這一發(fā)展，擔(dān)心用戶們肆意揮舞自拍棒時會對藏品或其他游客造成傷害?，F(xiàn)在他們采取了行動。美國的博物館一個接一個發(fā)布禁令，禁止在博物館內(nèi)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），這再次表明，控制過度擁擠已經(jīng)成為博物館的任務(wù)之一。

The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington prohibited the sticks this month, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston plans to impose a ban. In New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which has been studying the matter for some time, has just decided that it, too, will forbid selfie sticks. (New signs will be posted soon.)

本月，華盛頓的赫什霍恩博物館(Hirshhorn Museum)和雕塑公園(Sculpture Garden)禁止使用自拍桿，休斯頓的美術(shù)館(Museum of Fine Arts)也計劃發(fā)布禁令。在紐約的大都會藝術(shù)博物館已研究這個問題一段時間了，剛做出決定將禁止使用自拍桿（很快將設(shè)立新的提示標(biāo)牌）。

“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(xiàn)在起，我們將委婉地請求你把它收起來，”大都會藝術(shù)博物館的首席數(shù)據(jù)官斯里·斯里尼瓦桑(Sree Sreenivasan)說，“伸出胳膊拍照沒問題，但是如果你伸出的東西是胳膊的三倍，那么你就是在侵犯他人的私人空間?！?/p>

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.

其他游客的私人空間只是其中一個問題。藝術(shù)品則是另一個問題?！拔覀儾幌氚阉兴囆g(shù)品都放進玻璃罩，”華盛頓國家藝術(shù)館的首席公共信息官德博拉·齊什卡(Deborah Ziska)說。該博物館已悄悄執(zhí)行對自拍桿的禁令，正在把它正式加到紙質(zhì)游客指南上。

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.”

最后一個問題也同樣重要， 自拍桿對相機使用者同樣有威脅——他們專注于捕捉完美鏡頭，往往會忽視周圍環(huán)境?！霸诘よI神廟，人們?nèi)绻涣羯?，可能會掉進水里，和鱷魚雕塑為伍，”斯里尼瓦桑說，“如果不小心，你可能會從我們這里的很多露臺上掉下去，或者絆到臺階?！?/p>

At the Met on Thursday, Jasmine Adaos, a selfie-stick user from La Serena, Chile, expressed dismay. “It’s just another product,” she said. “When you have a regular camera, it’s the same thing. I don’t see the problem if you’re careful.” But Hai Lin, a student from Shandong, China, conceded that the museum might have a point. “You can hit people when they’re passing by,” she said.

自拍桿使用者賈絲明·亞當(dāng)(Jasmine Adaos)來自智利拉塞雷納，周四，她在參觀大都會博物館時說，“它只是一個產(chǎn)品，跟你用普通相機沒有區(qū)別。我覺得只要小心一點就不會有問題。”但是來自中國山東的學(xué)生林海（音譯）承認，博物館的做法可能也有道理?！坝腥私?jīng)過時，你可能會碰到別人，”她說。

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(shù)博物館很久以前就發(fā)現(xiàn)，自拍能增進游客與藝術(shù)的感情，為博物館免費做宣傳。去年夏天，凱蒂·佩里(Katy Perry)順道去參觀芝加哥藝術(shù)學(xué)院的馬格里特(Magritte)展，然后繞道在格蘭特·伍德(Grant Wood)的《美國哥特式》(American Gothic)前拍了張自拍照，把它發(fā)布到了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(shù)博物館在自己的杰夫·昆斯(Jeff Koons)回顧展上分發(fā)卡片，上面用大寫字母寫道：“昆斯的作品很適合自拍！”鼓勵游客把自拍照發(fā)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(chǎn)生了現(xiàn)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(dāng)代藝術(shù)博物館來說（這兩處從未出現(xiàn)過使用自拍桿的情況），這項禁令是預(yù)防性的。與此同時，倫敦的泰特現(xiàn)代美術(shù)館(Tate Modern)和國家美術(shù)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(jīng)?？梢钥匆妬喼抻慰驮谑褂米耘臈U。

Noah Rasheta, whose photographic accessories company, iStabilizer, has produced 150,000 selfie sticks since 2011, said, “It’s not the product that’s at fault, it’s the behavior of the people using it.” If the museums think of the selfie as a free form of advertising, he argued, they should encourage visitors to take a better picture.

諾亞·拉舍塔(Noah Rasheta)的照相配件公司iStabilizer從2011年起已生產(chǎn)了15萬根自拍桿。他說，“錯的不是這種產(chǎn)品，而是使用者的行為?！彼J為，如果博物館認為自拍是一種免費廣告，他們應(yīng)該鼓勵游客拍出更好的照片。

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，把藏品盡可能展示給更多的觀眾。他們的努力通常體現(xiàn)在參觀指南中，有些要求很普遍——不要觸摸藝術(shù)品，不要抽煙，不要帶食品，不要打手機——有些很特別。