Christoph Niemann: You are fluent in this language (and don't even know it)
Christoph Niemann: Jesteście biegli w tym języku (nawet o tym nie wiedząc)
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
odkrywają nowe galaktyki
discovering new galaxies
od globalnego ocieplenia.
is also a daunting job.
from nine to six, doing this.
od 9 do 18, robiąc to.
that consists entirely
związane z procesem twórczym.
of the creative process.
about what makes my life difficult.
co utrudnia moje życie.
you are fluent in a language
of reading images.
w języku czytania obrazów.
of an intellectual effort.
is that you can take a very complex idea
in a very simple, efficient form.
exactly the same ideas.
dokładnie te same pojęcia.
at the college hat,
the accessory you wear on your head
is they cannot only communicate images,
an unfamiliar place and you see this.
w nieznanym miejscu i widzi się to.
or maybe downright panic.
more than just graphic icons.
niż graficzne ikony.
of modern-day struggle,
o współczesnych problemach,
between two airplane seats
30 seconds to fight it out
na niego wyłączność do końca lotu.
for the rest of the flight.
is full of these images.
the idea of discomfort,
to make you more comfortable --
is I fall into a sort of painful coma.
taste in my mouth.
it cannot be described with words,
prefer to do it while spooning.
for close to 20 years,
I've never figured out
even more complicated
około czwartej rano
"I had a bad dream."
"Miałem zły sen".
sorry for them, they're your kids,
bo to nasze dzieci,
cieplutkie i milutkie.
they're really cute and warm and snugly.
they inexplicably --
into your consciousness,
utrwalone w podświadomości,
to have an emotional reaction.
at filling in the blanks.
there's this concept of negative space.
przestrzeni negatywnej.
of drawing the actual object,
to project food into a void.
żeby wypełnić pustą przestrzeń jedzeniem.
is a pair of AA batteries
by moving my desk lamp up and down.
to trigger such an image?
żeby wywołać skojarzenie?
is to use the smallest amount possible.
one more element,
as an artist is abstraction.
which I call the abstract-o-meter,
for example the heart and the arrow,
przykładowo serce i strzałę.
as the symbol for love,
of realism or abstraction.
realizmu czy abstrakcji.
it just grosses everybody out.
wszystkich obrzydzi.
and do very abstract,
i namaluję go zbyt abstrakcyjnie,
what they're looking at.
the perfect place on that scale,
to a more simple form,
become possible.
new angles in storytelling.
nowy punkt widzenia.
cultural areas and bring them together.
things become so obscure
pewien poziom abstrakcji
to have a good understanding
vocabulary of your audience.
jakim posługują się jego odbiorcy.
a comment on the Olympics in Athens,
do Letnich Igrzysk Olimpijskich w Atenach,
of the "New Yorker"
idea of Greek art.
okładka będzie nieczytelna.
even appreciate the small detail,
on the bottom of the vase.
with magazine editors,
z redaktorami magazynu,
radical leaps with images
is that they often seem to push me
of really tired visual clichés
climbing up a ladder,
morphs into a stock market graph,
that's always good.
bo to jest zawsze dobre.
here in the audience,
podejmujący decyzje,
like this is published,
and the tsunami in Japan,
w Japonii w 2011 roku
one of the greatest drawings ever.
najlepszy obraz w historii.
in Fukushima got out of hand.
w Fukushimie wymknęła się spod kontroli.
of the workers in hazmat suits,
w kombinezonach ochronnych
was how quiet and serene it was.
of a silent catastrophe.
obraz cichej katastrofy.
an aha moment, for you, for the reader.
coś im uświadomić.
sam przeżywam coś takiego.
when I create these images.
going off in my head.
lead to a good idea.
prowadzą do dobrych pomysłów.
and I'm trying to decode
próbowałem rozgryźć
blurry upside-down,
odwrócony do góry nogami
what to do with that.
on the Brooklyn bridge in a traffic jam.
korek na Moście Brooklińskim.
but also kind of poetic.
and put them together in this idea.
is not show a realistic scene.
already had this image with you,
że to już w was było,
were carrying it with you all along.
że cały czas miał już to w sobie.
this is a very delicate process
nor scalable, I think.
important skill for an artist
from the perspective of the reader.
widza na swoje dzieło.
by becoming a better observer of images.
lepiej przyglądając się obrazom.
an exercise for myself
a random object I found around the house
w domu losowy przedmiot
could trigger an idea
with the original purpose of that item.
z jego pierwotną funkcją.
I'm blank for a long while.
w głowie przez dłuższy czas.
is if I open my mind
tylko gdy otworzę umysł
I have stored up there,
w nim zgromadzonych.
a few lines of ink to connect --
moment of inspiration.
doesn't happen on paper.
clash with my artistic intentions.
z moimi artystycznymi intencjami.
be bothered or bored or inspired
poruszenie, znudzenie czy inspiracja
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