Christoph Niemann: You are fluent in this language (and don't even know it)
كريستوف نيمان: أن تجيد لغة الفن دون أن تعلم ذلك
With charm and incisive wit, Christoph Niemann sketches the moments of our shared experience. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
is the greatest job there is.
each and every one of you
discovering new galaxies
is also a daunting job.
from nine to six, doing this.
إلى 6 مساءً وأنا أقوم بهذا.
that consists entirely
of the creative process.
about what makes my life difficult.
عن ما يجعل حياتي صعبة.
you are fluent in a language
of reading images.
of an intellectual effort.
is that you can take a very complex idea
في تقبل فكرة معقدة للغاية،
in a very simple, efficient form.
exactly the same ideas.
at the college hat,
the accessory you wear on your head
لا تمثل ما ترتدونه على رؤوسكم
is they cannot only communicate images,
an unfamiliar place and you see this.
إلى مكان غير مألوف ويرى هذا..
or maybe downright panic.
أو ربما بالذعر الواضح،
more than just graphic icons.
رموز رسومية.
of modern-day struggle,
عن قصة صراع العصر الحديث
between two airplane seats
30 seconds to fight it out
for the rest of the flight.
فإنه يحتفظ بالمسند طيلة الرحلة.
is full of these images.
the idea of discomfort,
to make you more comfortable --
is I fall into a sort of painful coma.
أنني أغفو في نوعٍ من السبات الموجع.
taste in my mouth.
it cannot be described with words,
prefer to do it while spooning.
في وضعية المعانقة.
for close to 20 years,
على مدى 20 عامًا تقريبًا،
I've never figured out
even more complicated
"I had a bad dream."
" لقد رأيت كابوسًا فظيعًا".
sorry for them, they're your kids,
فإنهم أطفالكم،
they're really cute and warm and snugly.
يكونون في البداية حلوين ولطيفين ومريحين.
فإنهم على نحوٍ غير قابل للتفسير...
they inexplicably --
into your consciousness,
to have an emotional reaction.
لنحصل على رد فعل عاطفي.
at filling in the blanks.
there's this concept of negative space.
هنالك شيء من الفراغ السلبي.
of drawing the actual object,
بدلاً من أن ترسموا الشيء الفعلي،
to project food into a void.
لإسقاط الطعام في الفراغ.
is a pair of AA batteries
من البطاريات العادية آي آي (AA)
by moving my desk lamp up and down.
مكتبي صعودًا ونزولًا.
to trigger such an image?
هذه الصورة؟
is to use the smallest amount possible.
one more element,
as an artist is abstraction.
which I call the abstract-o-meter,
التجريد وفق مقياس المتر (abstract-o-meter)
for example the heart and the arrow,
as the symbol for love,
of realism or abstraction.
it just grosses everybody out.
سيفضحنا كلنا.
and do very abstract,
وجعلته تجريديًّا بحتًا،
what they're looking at.
the perfect place on that scale,
المكان المناسب هو في الوسط تقريبًا.
to a more simple form,
become possible.
new angles in storytelling.
في السرد القصصي.
cultural areas and bring them together.
وجمعهم معًا.
things become so obscure
ستصبح غامضة في نهاية المطاف
to have a good understanding
vocabulary of your audience.
a comment on the Olympics in Athens,
of the "New Yorker"
idea of Greek art.
even appreciate the small detail,
فإنه قد يثمنُ التفاصيل الصغيرة،
on the bottom of the vase.
with magazine editors,
radical leaps with images
is that they often seem to push me
هو أنهم غالباً ما يدفعونني
of really tired visual clichés
النمطية المتعبة
climbing up a ladder,
الذي يتسلق السلم،
morphs into a stock market graph,
لسوق الأوراق المالية،
that's always good.
يعتبر جيدًا دائمًا.
here in the audience,
بين الجمهور هنا،
like this is published,
جيدة أو سيئة؟
and the tsunami in Japan,
one of the greatest drawings ever.
واحدة من أعظم الرسومات على الإطلاق.
in Fukushima got out of hand.
في فوكوشيما وخرج عن السيطرة.
of the workers in hazmat suits,
مرتدين سترات الحماية،
was how quiet and serene it was.
of a silent catastrophe.
من هذا الصمت الفاجع.
an aha moment, for you, for the reader.
إحداث لحظة تيقظ لكم وللقارىء.
when I create these images.
going off in my head.
عملية بطيئة جدًا
lead to a good idea.
and I'm trying to decode
blurry upside-down,
what to do with that.
on the Brooklyn bridge in a traffic jam.
في جسر بروكلين عند ازدحام مروري.
but also kind of poetic.
ولكنها شاعرية إلى حد ما.
and put them together in this idea.
is not show a realistic scene.
already had this image with you,
الصورة كانت لديكم فعلًا.
were carrying it with you all along.
تحملونها معكم طوال الوقت.
this is a very delicate process
nor scalable, I think.
important skill for an artist
from the perspective of the reader.
by becoming a better observer of images.
عن طريق أن أكون متمعنًا أفضل للصور.
an exercise for myself
a random object I found around the house
أجده حول المنزل كل يوم أحد
could trigger an idea
إثارة فكرة ما
with the original purpose of that item.
من ذلك الشيء.
I'm blank for a long while.
is if I open my mind
هي لو فكرت جيدًا
I have stored up there,
قمت بتخزينها في ذهني،
a few lines of ink to connect --
أضيفُ فقط خطوطًا حبرية للربط
moment of inspiration.
من الإلهام.
doesn't happen on paper.
clash with my artistic intentions.
مع مقاصدي الفنية.
be bothered or bored or inspired
وإحساسكم بالملل أو الانزعاج أو الإلهام
as my artistic contribution.
an artistic statement
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Christoph Niemann - Illustrator, artist, authorWith charm and incisive wit, Christoph Niemann sketches the moments of our shared experience.
Why you should listen
Christoph Niemann is the master of the deceptively simple. His work -- which often combines line drawing or brushwork with physical objects, or eschews drawing altogether in favor of LEGO -- has appeared on the covers of the New Yorker, WIRED and the New York Times Magazine and has won many awards. He has drawn live from the Venice Art Biennale and the Olympic Games in London, and he has sketched the New York City Marathon -- while running it. He created the New Yorker's first augmented reality cover as well as a hand-drawn 360-degree VR animation for the magazine's US Open issue.
Niemann is the author of many books, including the monograph Sunday Sketching, WORDS and Souvenir. With Nicholas Blechman, he published the book Conversations. With Jon Huang, he created the kids' apps Petting Zoo and Chomp. His work is subject of an episode of Abstract, a new original Netflix series.
Christoph Niemann | Speaker | TED.com