美国国家公共电台 NPR Making Art Off The Grid: A Monthlong Residency At A Remote National Park

Making Art Off The Grid¹: A Monthlong Residency At A Remote National Park

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Now we're going to visit one of the most remote national parks in the country. It's a group of islands 70 miles off of Key West, Fla., in the Gulf³ of Mexico. It's called Dry Tortugas National Park. It's surrounded by coral reefs. Dry Tortugas is one of the country's least visited national parks, but two young filmmakers recently got a rare opportunity. They spent a month there as artists in residence, living by themselves off the grid on an uninhabited island. NPR's Melissa Block visited them on their last day there.

MELISSA BLOCK, BYLINE⁴: To get there, I go first by seaplane and then...

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: OK, you ready?

BLOCK: Yeah.

...By boat across crystal-clear turquoise⁵ waters, headed to Loggerhead Key, a narrow strip of an island lined with coconut⁶ palms, its lighthouse puncturing⁷ the horizon.

CARTER MCCORMICK: Hi.

BLOCK: How are you?

MCCORMICK: I'm great - and yourself?

BLOCK: I'm good - pleased to meet you.

PAULA SPRENGER: Nice to meet you, too.

BLOCK: Meet filmmakers Carter McCormick and Paula Sprenger. He's 26 from Lookout⁸ Mountain, Ga. She's 24 from Chile. And for one more day, this island is their tropical home.

MCCORMICK: We're walking through sea lavender, island morning glory, some cactus⁹ and a tree called buttonwood.

BLOCK: Carter and Paula met in art school two years ago. They've been a couple ever since. And this past summer when they saw an article about an artists in residence program...

MCCORMICK: Spend a month on a deserted¹⁰ island making art.

BLOCK: They jumped, submitted a proposal and beat out nearly 400 other applicants¹¹.

MCCORMICK: Should we do high frame rate, 4K?

BLOCK: So they packed up everything they'd need for a month - all the food, camera and scuba¹² gear, everything - and came to Loggerhead Key to make art. Part of the deal is that afterward¹³ they have to donate some of their work to the National Parks Collection. They've been filming the island's ecosystems¹⁴ on land and underwater on a reef called Little Africa.

MCCORMICK: Great snorkeling, great diving here right at the back door.

BLOCK: This is your playground right here.

MCCORMICK: This is the playground.

BLOCK: This will be their final dive on the island.

MCCORMICK: A little sad that it's our last time in.

BLOCK: Out at the reef, Carter dives to the bottom to shoot. Paula and I snorkel¹⁵ above. We see schools of silvery bar jacks¹⁶, spectacular bright indigo¹⁷ tangs, a prehistoric-looking spotted¹⁸ trunkfish shaped like a triangle and corals of every shape and color. After the dive, Paula and Carter take their last walk around the island.

MCCORMICK: See; right here - sea turtle.

SPRENGER: Oh, yeah.

BLOCK: A wide curved path in the sand leads to a deep pit where a sea turtle has laid her eggs. Loggerhead Key is just 49 acres. The artists in residence stay in an old lightkeeper's house. There's solar power and drinkable water through a desalination¹⁹ system. There is a radio to contact park headquarters but no phone, no television, no internet.

MCCORMICK: I have loved every second of not being connected to the digital world.

BLOCK: I think a lot of people listening to this will be going, that sounds so great.

MCCORMICK: (Laughter) It is great. You need to get off Facebook. Stop worrying about politics, and live on a deserted island.

BLOCK: That night, we sit outside as a lightning storm flashes across the sky in all directions.

SPRENGER: It's everywhere around us. But you know, right on top of us there are stars.

BLOCK: There is zero light pollution on Loggerhead Key, and if it's a night with no moon - total darkness.

MCCORMICK: I literally²⁰ held my hand just inches in front of my face and could not see a thing.

BLOCK: So after a month off the grid, together 24/7 all by themselves, maybe they're ready to leave.

MCCORMICK: Gosh, no. I told them a couple weeks ago that we'll be here chained to the dock on our last day. Like, bring the bolt cutters because we're not leaving.

SPRENGER: And I think one of the saddest things to think is that we don't know if we're ever coming back. In 50 years, it could be completely covered with water because of global warming.

BLOCK: The next morning at the dock, a park service boat comes to take Carter and Paula off the island, and back they go to the real world. I'm Melissa Block on Loggerhead Key in Dry Tortugas National Park.

1 grid   

n.高压输电线路网；地图坐标方格；格栅

参考例句：

• In this application,the carrier is used to encapsulate the grid.在这种情况下，要用载体把格栅密封起来。
• Modern gauges consist of metal foil in the form of a grid.现代应变仪则由网格形式的金属片组成。

2 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

3 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 turquoise   

n.绿宝石；adj.蓝绿色的

参考例句：

• She wore a string of turquoise round her neck.她脖子上戴着一串绿宝石。
• The women have elaborate necklaces of turquoise.那些女人戴着由绿松石制成的精美项链。

6 coconut   

n.椰子

参考例句：

• The husk of this coconut is particularly strong.椰子的外壳很明显非常坚固。
• The falling coconut gave him a terrific bang on the head.那只掉下的椰子砰地击中他的脑袋。

7 puncturing   

v.在（某物）上穿孔( puncture的现在分词 )；刺穿（某物）；削弱（某人的傲气、信心等）；泄某人的气

参考例句：

• Complement enzymes attack antigens by puncturing the cell membrane. 补体酶通过刺穿细胞膜来攻击抗原。 来自互联网
• Purpose:Re-modifying the method of DSA puncturing arteria cerebri through arteria carotis communis. 目的 ：对经颈总动脉穿刺行脑动脉DSA的方法进行再次改良。 来自互联网

8 lookout   

n.注意，前途，瞭望台

参考例句：

• You can see everything around from the lookout.从了望台上你可以看清周围的一切。
• It's a bad lookout for the company if interest rates don't come down.如果利率降不下来，公司的前景可就不妙了。

9 cactus   

n.仙人掌

参考例句：

• It was the first year that the cactus had produced flowers.这是这棵仙人掌第一年开花。
• The giant cactus is the vegetable skycraper.高大的仙人掌是植物界巨人。

10 deserted   

adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的

参考例句：

• The deserted village was filled with a deathly silence.这个荒废的村庄死一般的寂静。
• The enemy chieftain was opposed and deserted by his followers.敌人头目众叛亲离。

11 applicants   

申请人，求职人( applicant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There were over 500 applicants for the job. 有500多人申请这份工作。
• He was impressed by the high calibre of applicants for the job. 求职人员出色的能力给他留下了深刻印象。

12 scuba   

n.水中呼吸器

参考例句：

• I first got hooked on scuba diving when I was twelve.12岁时我开始迷上了带水中呼吸器潜水。
• While on honeymoon in Bali,she learned to scuba dive.她在巴厘岛度蜜月时学会了带水肺潜水。

13 afterward   

adv.后来；以后

参考例句：

• Let's go to the theatre first and eat afterward. 让我们先去看戏，然后吃饭。
• Afterward,the boy became a very famous artist.后来，这男孩成为一个很有名的艺术家。

14 ecosystems   

n.生态系统( ecosystem的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There are highly sensitive and delicately balanced ecosystems in the forest. 森林里有高度敏感、灵敏平衡的各种生态系统。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Madagascar's ecosystems range from rainforest to semi-desert. 马达加斯加生态系统类型多样，从雨林到半荒漠等不一而足。 来自辞典例句

15 snorkel   

n.泳者所戴的通气管，潜水艇的吸、排气装置

参考例句：

• With a snorkel,however,a diver can stay under water for quite a long time.潜水员携带一根通气管就可以在水下呆很长时间。
• I did buy a mask and fins and a snorkel.我买了面镜、蛙鞋和一个呼吸管。

16 jacks   

n.抓子游戏；千斤顶( jack的名词复数 )；（电）插孔；[电子学]插座；放弃

参考例句：

• Hydraulic jacks under the machine produce the movement. 是机器下面的液压千斤顶造成的移动。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The front end is equipped with hydraulic jacks used for grade adjustment. 前瑞安装有液压千斤顶用来调整坡度。 来自辞典例句

17 indigo   

n.靛青，靛蓝

参考例句：

• The sky was indigo blue,and a great many stars were shining.天空一片深蓝，闪烁着点点繁星。
• He slipped into an indigo tank.他滑落到蓝靛桶中。

18 spotted   

adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的

参考例句：

• The milkman selected the spotted cows,from among a herd of two hundred.牛奶商从一群200头牛中选出有斑点的牛。
• Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.山姆的商店屯积了有斑点的短袜。

19 desalination   

n.脱盐(作用)

参考例句：

• Crops can be grown on this land after desalination. 这片土地经过脱盐就可以种植庄稼了。
• One source is by desalination-taking the salt out of salt water to make it drinkable. 淡水的来源之一是使水淡化--把含盐的水中的盐份去掉，使之能够饮用。

20 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。