结缘: Encounter Art
2017年之前，去博物馆于我而言就是打卡著名旅游景点，至于那么无聊的博物馆为何会成为著名旅游景点这件事，我从来没有想过。
Museum to me was a mere routine place to visit, rather than an appreciation of art and history. I have never thought about how it became so famous that people from generation to generation would save and cherish it at all costs, until 2017.
2017年中旬，我非常幸运的获得了留学名额，能够到西班牙交换学习一年。去之前，我已经修完了本科毕业需要的学分，于是在西班牙的这一年便成为了偶尔翘课，利用申根签证，省吃俭用攒钱，而后环游欧洲的好时机。2017年下半年，我去了很多国家，也在各个国家的著名博物馆拍照打卡，一来二去，竟然开始眼熟达芬奇、戈雅、达利……偶尔有人谈艺术时，我也能插上几句嘴，这种有文化的感觉特别好。
I went to Spain as an exchange student in mid-2017, and it opened Pandora’s box unexpectedly. Before this voyage, I completed all the undergraduate credits. So the whole year in Spain was a perfect chance to occasionally skip classes, travel around Europe and explore the wonders. Da Vinci, Goya, Dalí were the famous artists whose artworks were literally in front of me, and I was so amused by the conversations and culture around them, and of course, only museums could make that possible.
于是2018年上旬，我选了“Historia de Arte II（艺术史）”，打算多认识几位艺术家，成为半个文化人。在艺术史的课堂上，拥有大量博物馆打卡经历的我常常会发出这样的感叹：“啊！这件作品我曾经见到过！”，这些熟悉的陌生人就这样一点一点成为了我熟悉的朋友。就这样，“艺术史”成为了我的艺术入门课。
I took “Historia de Arte II” in 2018, a start of the journey to understand artists and their works, and made myself an apprentice. We traveled from one museum to another. When I stood in front of the artworks I knew, I felt the distance, despite years of history they passed, was getting closer and closer, as friends who I could talk to. Art history, to me, was the very first touch of art.
学习艺术的过程，也是学习人类文明的过程。每一位艺术家都见证着一段历史，他们投注情感、用自己独特的手法来描绘这段经历。读懂一件作品，我们不仅能够收获一段遥远的故事，触碰一份跨时空的情感，更能从中获得仅属于自己的思考。这让我想起科幻小说《三体》中，描绘人类遭遇降维打击的那一段故事：灭绝前夕，人类将刻在石头上的《诗经》、亚历山大东征的历史，五代十国的故事，雕塑和油画……留在了冥王星上的地球文明博物馆里，或者说，留在了人类最后的墓碑上。购买一本《上下五千年》或是在家中挂上一幅塞尚的静物画，并不能让我们物质上更加富有。但在灭绝前夕，我们希望留在墓碑上的却正是这些见证人类文明的东 — — 这就是艺术、历史、文化的力量。
En voyage art is a path to appreciate humanity. Every artist has witnessed a part of history. They put in their emotions and inspirations from life to the artworks, having their own characters and styles moving around. I can hear the voice and see the moments, distance away and centuries ago, from the artwork in front. From them, my thoughts and feelings echo the story and stay only between us. This reminds me of The Three-Body Problem, when humanity is about to face the apocalypse, humans decide to keep Classic of Poetry, the story of Alexander the Great, sculptures and paintings in the museum, not on Earth, but on Pluto, as the final piece, the graveyard of humanity. Buying a book, a photo or an artwork that depicts a period of history will certainly not make us rich, but upon the apocalypse, they are the things we cherish and value more than our lives — this is the power of art, history, and culture we the people built.
然而还有很多人像曾经的我一样，认为学习艺术是一件门槛很高的事情，其实，“艺术真的很简单”。因而，我们决定利用自己的闲暇时间筹备Artlytics，一个“分享式教育平台”。在这里，我们会用朴实的语言、准确的插图、和有趣的数据与大家一同学习艺术，让艺术成为一门我们都可以使用的语言。
Art is just here. It is not abstract or distant, in contrast, it is here with us — we are part of the art, and art is part of us.
I decided to build Artlytics, a platform for shareable ideas and thoughts about art. Here, we will make art closer using simple languages, accurate diagrams, and interesting statistics to showcase art as a common language of humanity.
