This idea came to me in Turkey. I was on a tour of this ancient underground city in Cappadocia, and after taking a few poorly lit photos of the haunting chambers, I decided I could skip the snapshots and just buy a book of postcards later. What's the difference whether I took them, if the subject was the same? So then, a photo is basically like an IKEA product, a kind of prefabricated piece of art that you happened to have assembled yourself. But then I thought...suppose my camera fell into the ocean on the way home. How many photos from this trip could I replace with one of a thousand identical others I found online? I mean, is there any point in anyone taking another picture of the moon, or the Taj Mahal, or a sparrow? Really, the only irreplaceable photos would be of the faces of people I know-which means, for all their indulgences, selfies are at least pointed in the right direction.
You forget that you assembled that "ikea" photo yourself and it is yours even though many others own the same one. We all wear clothes, but that doesn't kill fashion.
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows I had the same thought when I visited Venice. So many people taking pictures of the exact same thing. Why not just give people a collection of photos when they arrive on the island and say "Here, these are the best pictures you could ever take of Venice, we've saved you the trouble." Then at least the only pictures worth taking yourself would be of people.
***** That's very sad and very on point, thank you. Here's the relevant quote, for those interested, of Clive Barker interviewing William Gibson: Bill: "...Because of the Internet and the World Wide Web, in effect, the world's attic is being sorted. It's being sorted with a speed and precision that would have been impossible ten or fifteen years ago. The whole concept of rarities and random finds is disappearing very, very quickly. Every book in every used book shop on the planet will be accessible to a search engine soon. Clive: Yes. Bill: And there's something... it's really something horribly sad about that. Clive: Yes. It really is. (laughter) Bill: Anything that you're looking for, I can tell you, for instance, I can tell you today in Fort Meyers, Florida, there is a 1948, mint, in-box Rolex Oyster (watch). With the original band. As far as I know, it's the only mint, in-box Rolex Oyster in the world. (laughter all around) Or at least the only one that's currently up for sale. There's not one in New York that I can find on the Net. And there's not one in Los Angeles. And there's not one in London. We're losing something there. Some very magic part. Clive: So there's no way, going to your attic analogy again, there's no sense that we're going to be able to discover the lost beloved rocking chair up there, because we'll know that it's there. I mean, the magic of it is going? Is that what you're saying? The magic of something which is hidden and covered in dust and... Bill: No, the magic of the search. Clive: Yes. Bill: I was talking the other night to a VERY wealthy woman who all her life collected just exquisitely arcane books and magazines, mostly surrealist periodicals. And this has kind of sustained her in her otherwise boring existence. Clive: Right. Bill: The hunt for these impossible editions. And the other day she got on her son's web browser and scored about twenty in an hour. Clive: And it spoiled it. Bill: Yeah! She was telling me about it and she was very excited and she saying, "I got this and I got that" and then she's saying, "I don't know if I like this though." We talked about it and we decided it commodified it in a different way. All that was involved now was rarity. There was no skill .. relative rarity and value ... there was no longer a skill involved."
@@RonaldRaiden idk what either of your points were about but counter-whoooosh. Yeah I definitely didn't get the irony when I went out of my way to cite the quote about citing sources
I was a philosophy major and one of my professors once said that many quotes are 'misattributed' to existentialist philsophers because of time gaps in the movement of existentialist dialectic, but i had already read much existentialism and the reality was, they all said the same things in their own words. A quote might be misattributed to one or the other in its exact words, but in other words, they all said the same things. Ironically they all reached the same conclusions too, that nobody has anything interesting to really offer you about this existence, its all been written down, its all intuited, when you read it you just feel the confirmation of already knowing it. Ironically the conclusion almost all existentialist philosphers throughout all time came to is the concept captured in this video, which is also one of the 'misattributed' quotes and thats "the only real philosophical question one should ask oneself is whether or not to commit suicide, everything else is masturbation"
I've discovered this channel only 30 minutes ago, and I still cannot understand how brilliant an entity has to be in order to make a grown man cry profusely for 29 of those. I've read millions of words in prose and poetry, and this might as well be the first instance in which I become deeply moved by language. Thank you sir, whoever u are
THE MAKING OF: You would not believe how many weeks this episode took to make. Piecing together the work of almost 500 different people, making sure they had the right copyright status, lining them up frame by frame to match the beat. Adding subtle shifts, like the expanding iris, the lift of Mary's head, and of course the sunset. But actually, the most time-consuming part was having to follow blind alleys, in which I found dozens of photos of a subject, but they were too visually varied to fit together. In order for this rapid-fire effect to work, the subjects need to be nearly identical, but they also need to have a prominent foreground element AND be shot from almost the same angle. Which means there were dozens of photos of crowds taking snapshots of the Mona Lisa that I couldn't use simply because they were shot from the wrong angle. So then, here are the "deleted scenes": a teenager doing a flip on a beach; a girl tossing her long hair back in a meadow; a closeup of red lips; "___ was here" graffiti; a scuba diver doing the OK hand signal; the tunnel of torii gates in Kyoto; the field of white gravestones in a national cemetery; someone drawing from a cigarette while wearing aviators; an African mother in a shawl looking concerned; an Indian man with a white mustache and red turban; groups posing at the summit signpost of Mt. Kilimanjaro; and, of course, See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil.
NintendoROCK3T Dude, I JUST wrote a whole block of text about that while thinking "Someone must've left a comment like this before." And whelp, here you are. xD
Don't let it stop you brother. Even when I've remade someone else's work, it comes out somewhat original. It gets flavored with your personal flare. No path is perfectly rewalkable
Well, I've always thought this way about art, which stopped me from even attempting it for a long time. So one day I tried copying one of my favorite artists' artstyle because I assumed it would come out exactly the same. And boy did it come out way different. Even if I copied her step by step it was always going to come out different. And I find comfort in that.
Not everyone has the courage to carry out their ideas though, to face the fear of being unoriginal and staying true to your project no matter how difficult or time-consuming it is to carry out. Take novels for an instance: nearly everyone has an idea for one, but very few of those people take on the task of carrying it out, and even less finish it and refine it into something worth reading.
Imagine what the world would be like if every time we took a photo of something, it left a visible outline of the photo frame around it. How many cities and coasts would look like bird's nests. How many women would build up photographic haloes over time. The faces of kids and the backs of homeless people. How you'd find frames surrounding rare birds in the middle of nowhere, and give up birdwatching entirely. You'd have to see a beautiful sunset become scribbled over on the way down, as if it was a football replay. Visible frames would be the worst kind of pollution, and would drain most of the fun out of life-I think a lot of joy has the idea of discovery secretly buried in it somewhere.
I really do not like your video. The words seem empty and the music is hoaky. The images are synced up to the music and not the words most of the time which gives false impact. The whole point of this video seems to be to make people think they are getting something out of it, it is really just turning confusion into hope (for some anyway). You say these random yet deep sounding things and people want to get it so there mind fills in the blanks, It is like I am the Walrus by the beatles where the song seems like it is about something but really it is not. Unlike I am the Walrus your video is proclaiming something in the tittle that is not reflected in the video.
Eli Kelley I beg to differ, we all fear being unoriginal to a certain extent. The feeling is more or less universal, so the video doesn't try to explain what it feels like. Instead it responds to the tendency to have this kind of fear, and says that perhaps it isn't something to be feared at all, perhaps this is just part of being human.
For an earlier version of this project I made a video montage of people taking photos. It's a weird sight, their faces mashed up behind their cameras, eyes squinted shut like a kid playing Hide and Seek trying to hide by covering their eyes. It makes you think about the word "viewfinder" and what it implies. Maybe in the end we run around taking photos to give each of our lives some focus. To see the black on the edge of the viewfinder. To step into the comfort of a dark room with a tiny window, that lets us shut out most of the world, and choose one thing from a billion others, and pretend-for a split second-that's everything there is.
This comment is so beautiful that I want to save it somewhere so that I can hope to rediscover it sometime in the unforeseen future. But, like a photo, the illusion of completeness--that so much meaning is inherent in this one sentiment--will eventually fade and become obscure.
This is what I sometimes feel when trying to create new, interesting and creative stories, characters, locations, etc. for new pictures, comics or video games. So many times do I realize midway through, "Wait... this is really similar to this other thing that has already been done." And in the fear of seeming like a copycat I discard them again and start from scratch. This sometimes results in my ideas having to become even more outlandish and random to the point where they just seem ridiculous. :/ And even when I DO create something completely original I always have this nagging feeling in the back of my head that tells me "What if there IS something extremely similar out there that you're not aware of and if you release it into the public you will look like a rip-off and people will accuse you of stealing ideas!"
This makes me depressed but not the kind of sad depressed but the thinking depressed. It made me realize that in the grand scheme of things we are nothing. One in 7 billion, a letter in a newspaper, a drop in an ocean. We will be ancient history in a few thousand years. People will look back at us and scoff. History will remember only 1 in 10,000 of us. we will be forgotten and I find it depressing to think that we won't be able to make a mark in the world as it seems all have been taken. History has a reputation of repeating itself and I guess we will have to follow its rules.
John, I remember interviewing you about your process and how you came to create the dictionary. Your work is truly awe-inspring. Thank you for the value you create through these obvious, yet esoteric experiences we haven't yet abstracted enough to use in normal conversation. You're a BOSS!
Indeed! That character was quoting Walt Whitman. Here's the full poem: "O ME! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; Of the endless trains of the faithless-of cities fill’d with the foolish; Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?) Of eyes that vainly crave the light-of the objects mean-of the struggle ever renew’d; Of the poor results of all-of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me; 5 Of the empty and useless years of the rest-with the rest me intertwined; The question, O me! so sad, recurring-What good amid these, O me, O life? Answer. That you are here-that life exists, and identity; That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse."
I've seen the worst of the worst there exists in this world Lost dear ones And yet held back tears and absorbed it all inside And you make my eyes numb with videos like this Even if you heard this before, Thank you.
I assume you all realize that this is even more true with his latest video, libraryofbabel.info Even this comment is written in it All that you could possibly write, written in math. Tis sadening to know Volume 10 of wall 4 of hexagon.
Thank you! I mean it· my sincerest thanks from the bottom of my heart. Never before have I encountered something sad, beautiful AND inspirational at the same time, as your videos. I hope you continue your work.
This is a thought provoking and well executed video. Thank you. For me, though, I prefer to think that time makes everything unique. Everything may have been said and done before, but never was it done and said by you, that unique individual that you are, or in that moment which will never repeat itself, or in that particular light or shadow or angle. Our journey as souls have meaning to a greater 'information cloud' than anything man made. I can't prove any of this, any more than you can disprove it. But I choose to believe it because it is better for this life's journey to live with hope and love and peace, than it is to immerse ourselves in self sabotage and hopelessness. We are similar, but we are not the same.
this is stunning! I love everything about this video. (there's this book, by T. Mann, 'Joseph and His Brothers', and it talks about the repetitiveness of lives at length, but in a more positive context. it explains that for centuries all lives followed the same paths and were so completely identical that different people were viewed as the same person simply because they shared a common role: the younger brother, the loved wife, the slave and so on. you knew your path from very early on and had no choice but to follow it. in doing so you became something more than an individual - an archetype - but lost your identity. I find it both beautiful and horrible, in equal measures.)
I thought I'd clicked on some crap click-bait, but this was a surprising little treat of a video. Got me expounding on a philosophical theme of the day I've been pondering about how important every little difference we all have as humans is.
This is as beautiful as a wildfire, scary, deep, powerful.....this is the first time i have ever felt poetry.... i just want to go now, exit my office, go to a library and find meaning in the words, warm in the thougts of someone else.....
I know that you have created these videos some time ago, but for me they are new. I am terrified by the thought that I missed it; That I did not water the plant when it needed to be watered. Please carry on and give me one more to savor, cherish and treasure.
I watched and loved this video so many years ago. I watched them all after. I fell in love with the channel. I missed you when you left.... Today, on Christmas, someone gave me a book. It was yours. It was the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. I was immediately struck with happy tears in my eyes. The reasons they gave it to me were clear. They said they always liked that I liked linguistics and etymology and words. So they thought that i might like a different kind of Dictionary. God, were they right. I've only read about 20 pages so far but it might be my favorite present ever. Because it seemed so insanely unlikely it would end up in my hands. Thank you for everything and Merry Christmas.
For a Dictionary of Sorrows I always feel better after watching a video this one tells me I am unique while still like everyone else and me wanting to leave a mark in the world of people wanting to leave marks to not be left behind or forgotten. I end up feeling better that even if I am not remembered I left a mark and made something and even after it dies and disappears from recognizing definition my life still was here even if no one knows or remembers it and because I view that as me being bigger than nothing I feel better sure I'm not a President, Actor, or Hero but I know for myself that I am and was still something even after I move on. Thank You for making such great videos.
I have watched this video "n" number of times, and yet the words and images still moves me. Thank you for articulating an emotion that is so complex in such a poetic yet tangible way.
Gorgeous - one of my favorite passages: "The powerful play goes on and you WILL contribute a verse". I just never realized that the verse, and the admonition itself, was a retracing of old lines. It just never occurred to me.
I had this exact thought as I was at the Abbey Road Crosswalk re-creating The Beatles cover, along with plenty of other people doing the exact thing. My photo was perhaps a bit different, as it was only two people, me and my girlfriend and her walker, but the joy was in re-creating what The Beatles had done more than 50 years ago and the knowledge that so many others had done the same.
I think a lot of the videos from this channel can sometimes be a little dramatic or draw a lot out a simple statement, but I feel that the way this one was written (and animated) was very poetic. Beautifully done in every way. Nice job, guys!
I've watched this video several times and in all of them it had a deep impact in my inner feelings. This is simply one of the most poetic and beautiful videos I've ever seen in my life.
As an erstwhile poet and lifelong logophile, I freak out over your work. I am restlessly, relentlessly always in -pursuit of new words and new flavors of existing words...,to feed my vast maw of "word choices." To me, there is no human construct so exquisite as language. Your work pays that aspiration homage.
The omnipresent Obscure Sorrows and repetition do not trouble me terribly. There is that aspect of subtle difference in the thousands of flowers, sunsets, mountains, rainbows, wedding snapshots that is uniquely personal and much to be said without fear for continuity and individual contributions to it. These differences are, as the authors stated, to be celebrated. Well done.
I've felt this for a long time but never known quite how to describe other than "I want something greater but it feels like there's nothing left to pick from"
Dubstep From God I suppose because there is no "you" with which to seek happiness. In order to have happiness, there must be some individual with which to experience it, but if the individual "you" doesn't matter, then neither does your experiencing, and if your experiencing doesn't matter, then your experiencing of happiness doesn't matter either. Why should "you" experience happiness, if anyone else can? Why should there even be a "you" in the first place if there is someone else who can easily slip into your slot without the world noticing? Huh, I just depressed myself...
Rephiam Seeking individuality will not make you happy, in fact, it will make your life miserable, like most videos on this channel which make you sad about things/concepts which are not even physically real, by making you think about them. "You" does not exist, in fact, life does not exist, you are just experiencing a simulation of a group of cells working together, which are nothing more than millions of molecules interacting, you don't need anything to be happy, happiness is already there in your mind, you just need to achieve inner peace by getting rid of your ego, a quick way to understand what I'm talking about is doing LSD, a slow one is to meditate every day for years or read into buddhism.
I've had this feeling for the longest time and never knew how to describe it. I'd go on crazy long rants about how we're all the same in different ways. Everyone I tried to explain to simply asked, "And what is this supposed to mean?" After the longest time of trying to understand this thought myself- the thought that every thing has been overdone and nothing is left to be unique- I found this channel, and I watched ever video you had. This was of course the first video I found, and I fell in love with it. I know this is mostly associated with photography, and I am obsessive as a photographer, but I also associate this with writing and almost any other form of art. I know that this channel doesn't have 'official' words or whatever, but I still use words from this channel in my every day life. Don't worry, I credit you every time I fangirl. ^-^ I love this channel and I'm using some of the words from here in my newest book. I'll be finishing it sometime in April.
wow, the first video I have seen from you/this channel, and it is so, so well done. it evoked just the emotion you were describing, and the sheer amount of effort put into compiling and presenting the photos is to be commended! great quality work, you have a new subscriber!
this is the strongest video i have ever seen in my entire pathetic life. somehow made me cry for the first time in 5 years. Asside from genious who made the video i would have never guessed such an emotion visually and verbally can be squized into 2 minutes and 55 seconds....
To the makers of this series. Very powerful shorts with great writing, music, and imagery. As a filmmaker myself, I'm interested in where you take this series! I yearn to contribute more than one verse and leave as big of a mark as I can on this world!
That last stanza there reminded me of Rust from True Detective. The "Time is a flat circle." philosophy. Also, I collect these words. This is my new favourite channel. Thanks.
I watched this to be inspired to be original. I was taken by surprise when, due to the horrors of racism and hate we are currently cursed with, I found joy and comfort in our uniformity. Our common humanity, in all the small things in life, in how we see the world, what gives us joy. For now, this may be the greatest gift of this video.
It was as if I found myself when I found your channel! This project is amazing and beautiful! You're a genious. How you observe and put into words what the hunam experiance is like! Those videos are the best thing I've discovered this year!
This is so beautiful and so relatable... I cannot imagine the HARDWORK put behind this humble video...May you keep surprising us with your unique visuals.
sometimes I go out with my camera in my hand and this feeling just overwhelms me: why do I even take photos of this pretty flower if a simple google search would bring up hundreds of images like this. so, I end up not taking photos . instead I just try to look and feel everything around me like i'm seeing it for the first time
This is just so powerful....I have no words. Oh, a new idea for your video - the feeling that you want to express your emotions in detail that you just can't find a single word. ;)
I like the concept its just so damn depressing. Of course when you look at snowflakes from a certain distance their differences and uniqueness is difficult to see. But this applies to everything in our world, if we don't get close enough to anything, we can't see the intricacies and quirks in people that make them beautiful and unique. You have to strive to see the details, otherwise you end up pulling yourself farther and farther away from the world, grotesquely seeking to find the ways in which none of us are unique or different, but I dare you to get closer and find that all of us truly do have a story woven from something that no one else has.
I love your work. You truly bring poesy and art in youtube, a place that lacks it so much. If I may, this is a french translation of your text in this video: Vous êtes unique. Il y en 7 milliards d'autres, tout aussi uniques que vous. Chacun d'entre nous est différent, avec son propre point de vue sur le monde, mais qu'est ce que cela signifie si les vies que nous sommes si occupés à façonner, finissent par toutes se ressembler? Facilement remplacées par un millier d'autres identiques? Vemödalen. Alors, nous nous propageons, cherchant des restes de frontières, essayant de capturer quelque chose de spécial, quelque chose de personnel. Comme si nous étions effrayés d'être capturés nous mêmes, si rapidement pris pour exactement ce que nous sommes, si facilement mépris pour quelqu'un d'ordinaire, tout comme n'importe qui d'autre. Cela devrait être un réconfort que nous ne soyons pas si différents, que nos perspectives s'alignent si parfaitement, que les mêmes images continuent de se montrer, encore et encore. Ce n'est pas grave si nous racontons la même blague que nous avons tous déjà entendu avant, Ce n'est pas grave si nous continuons à refaire les mêmes films, Ce n'est pas grave si nous continuons à se dire les mêmes phrases les uns aux autres, comme si elles n'avaient jamais été prononcées auparavant. "Le grand spectacle se poursuit, et vous y contribuerez avec un couplet". Et vous et moi, et 7 milliards d'autres, nous laisserons notre marque sur ce monde dont nous avons hérité. Mais si, à la fin, nous nous retrouvons sans plus rien à dire, sans rien de nouveau à ajouter, traçant paresseusement les contours de choses laissées par d'autres longtemps auparavant, ce sera comme si nous n'avions pas été ici du tout. Cela aussi a été dit de nombreuses fois auparavant, " Le grand spectacle se poursuit...", et quand vous recevrez le signal, vous prononcerez votre texte.
This idea came to me in Turkey. I was on a tour of this ancient underground city in Cappadocia, and after taking a few poorly lit photos of the haunting chambers, I decided I could skip the snapshots and just buy a book of postcards later. What's the difference whether I took them, if the subject was the same? So then, a photo is basically like an IKEA product, a kind of prefabricated piece of art that you happened to have assembled yourself. But then I thought...suppose my camera fell into the ocean on the way home. How many photos from this trip could I replace with one of a thousand identical others I found online? I mean, is there any point in anyone taking another picture of the moon, or the Taj Mahal, or a sparrow? Really, the only irreplaceable photos would be of the faces of people I know-which means, for all their indulgences, selfies are at least pointed in the right direction.
Really cool to hear the behind the scenes thoughts of where the idea came from.
You forget that you assembled that "ikea" photo yourself and it is yours even though many others own the same one. We all wear clothes, but that doesn't kill fashion.
Kaymakli! I've been there. What a tour it was. :)
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows I had the same thought when I visited Venice. So many people taking pictures of the exact same thing. Why not just give people a collection of photos when they arrive on the island and say "Here, these are the best pictures you could ever take of Venice, we've saved you the trouble." Then at least the only pictures worth taking yourself would be of people.
***** That's very sad and very on point, thank you. Here's the relevant quote, for those interested, of Clive Barker interviewing William Gibson:
Bill: "...Because of the Internet and the World Wide Web, in effect, the world's attic is being sorted. It's being sorted with a speed and precision that would have been impossible ten or fifteen years ago. The whole concept of rarities and random finds is disappearing very, very quickly. Every book in every used book shop on the planet will be accessible to a search engine soon.
Clive: Yes.
Bill: And there's something... it's really something horribly sad about that.
Clive: Yes. It really is. (laughter)
Bill: Anything that you're looking for, I can tell you, for instance, I can tell you today in Fort Meyers, Florida, there is a 1948, mint, in-box Rolex Oyster (watch). With the original band. As far as I know, it's the only mint, in-box Rolex Oyster in the world. (laughter all around) Or at least the only one that's currently up for sale. There's not one in New York that I can find on the Net. And there's not one in Los Angeles. And there's not one in London. We're losing something there. Some very magic part.
Clive: So there's no way, going to your attic analogy again, there's no sense that we're going to be able to discover the lost beloved rocking chair up there, because we'll know that it's there. I mean, the magic of it is going? Is that what you're saying? The magic of something which is hidden and covered in dust and...
Bill: No, the magic of the search.
Clive: Yes.
Bill: I was talking the other night to a VERY wealthy woman who all her life collected just exquisitely arcane books and magazines, mostly surrealist periodicals. And this has kind of sustained her in her otherwise boring existence.
Clive: Right.
Bill: The hunt for these impossible editions. And the other day she got on her son's web browser and scored about twenty in an hour.
Clive: And it spoiled it.
Bill: Yeah! She was telling me about it and she was very excited and she saying, "I got this and I got that" and then she's saying, "I don't know if I like this though." We talked about it and we decided it commodified it in a different way. All that was involved now was rarity. There was no skill .. relative rarity and value ... there was no longer a skill involved."
"Originality is the art of concealing your sources." - Benjamin Franklin
@Phi6er Clever. You applied the idea of Benjamin on Benjamin's quote itself. Nice.
@@Ganitiya_Saundarya wdym? he came up with that. it says so right there.
@@RonaldRaiden idk what either of your points were about but counter-whoooosh. Yeah I definitely didn't get the irony when I went out of my way to cite the quote about citing sources
I was a philosophy major and one of my professors once said that many quotes are 'misattributed' to existentialist philsophers because of time gaps in the movement of existentialist dialectic, but i had already read much existentialism and the reality was, they all said the same things in their own words. A quote might be misattributed to one or the other in its exact words, but in other words, they all said the same things. Ironically they all reached the same conclusions too, that nobody has anything interesting to really offer you about this existence, its all been written down, its all intuited, when you read it you just feel the confirmation of already knowing it. Ironically the conclusion almost all existentialist philosphers throughout all time came to is the concept captured in this video, which is also one of the 'misattributed' quotes and thats "the only real philosophical question one should ask oneself is whether or not to commit suicide, everything else is masturbation"
@@Ganitiya_Saundaryade hecho no, porque agrego la fuente
I've discovered this channel only 30 minutes ago, and I still cannot understand how brilliant an entity has to be in order to make a grown man cry profusely for 29 of those. I've read millions of words in prose and poetry, and this might as well be the first instance in which I become deeply moved by language. Thank you sir, whoever u are
It's an amazing channel.
allxtar music just as mentioned in video im already too late to say the same thing you have said.. makes me sad.. it was exacly the same
ruclips.net/user/willunicycleforfood you might love this channel as well.
Just found out about this channel 30 minutes ago as well. And thank you for nicely taking the words off my mouth and putting it down so nicely here!
Really? Brought you to tears? What books have you read?
THE MAKING OF: You would not believe how many weeks this episode took to make. Piecing together the work of almost 500 different people, making sure they had the right copyright status, lining them up frame by frame to match the beat. Adding subtle shifts, like the expanding iris, the lift of Mary's head, and of course the sunset. But actually, the most time-consuming part was having to follow blind alleys, in which I found dozens of photos of a subject, but they were too visually varied to fit together. In order for this rapid-fire effect to work, the subjects need to be nearly identical, but they also need to have a prominent foreground element AND be shot from almost the same angle. Which means there were dozens of photos of crowds taking snapshots of the Mona Lisa that I couldn't use simply because they were shot from the wrong angle.
So then, here are the "deleted scenes": a teenager doing a flip on a beach; a girl tossing her long hair back in a meadow; a closeup of red lips; "___ was here" graffiti; a scuba diver doing the OK hand signal; the tunnel of torii gates in Kyoto; the field of white gravestones in a national cemetery; someone drawing from a cigarette while wearing aviators; an African mother in a shawl looking concerned; an Indian man with a white mustache and red turban; groups posing at the summit signpost of Mt. Kilimanjaro; and, of course, See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil.
Subbed xD
Subbed
Awed and Subbed :D
Your dedication is admirable :) rest assured, it was not all in vain. Thank you are for this wonderful video!
Samir Patnaik Afraid awe has already been experienced,and will ba again,by others....nothing new
OMG I always have this feeling anytime I get creative thoughts!
"Someone must have already done this."
NintendoROCK3T Dude, I JUST wrote a whole block of text about that while thinking "Someone must've left a comment like this before." And whelp, here you are. xD
Don't let it stop you brother. Even when I've remade someone else's work, it comes out somewhat original. It gets flavored with your personal flare. No path is perfectly rewalkable
Well, I've always thought this way about art, which stopped me from even attempting it for a long time.
So one day I tried copying one of my favorite artists' artstyle because I assumed it would come out exactly the same.
And boy did it come out way different.
Even if I copied her step by step it was always going to come out different. And I find comfort in that.
Not everyone has the courage to carry out their ideas though, to face the fear of being unoriginal and staying true to your project no matter how difficult or time-consuming it is to carry out. Take novels for an instance: nearly everyone has an idea for one, but very few of those people take on the task of carrying it out, and even less finish it and refine it into something worth reading.
Same!!
I wish that "the dictionary of obscure sorrows" was a book
luciano mano it's going to be! Look in the end of the last video uploaded :)
yeah,I saw it on the day he uploaded the latest video, I'm so excited!
That's depressing. I wan't it
It could be in dictionary format
November 16th 2021!!!
Imagine what the world would be like if every time we took a photo of something, it left a visible outline of the photo frame around it. How many cities and coasts would look like bird's nests. How many women would build up photographic haloes over time. The faces of kids and the backs of homeless people. How you'd find frames surrounding rare birds in the middle of nowhere, and give up birdwatching entirely. You'd have to see a beautiful sunset become scribbled over on the way down, as if it was a football replay. Visible frames would be the worst kind of pollution, and would drain most of the fun out of life-I think a lot of joy has the idea of discovery secretly buried in it somewhere.
I really do not like your video. The words seem empty and the music is hoaky. The images are synced up to the music and not the words most of the time which gives false impact. The whole point of this video seems to be to make people think they are getting something out of it, it is really just turning confusion into hope (for some anyway). You say these random yet deep sounding things and people want to get it so there mind fills in the blanks, It is like I am the Walrus by the beatles where the song seems like it is about something but really it is not. Unlike I am the Walrus your video is proclaiming something in the tittle that is not reflected in the video.
Eli Kelley Where's your well edited take on the world?
Eli Kelley I beg to differ, we all fear being unoriginal to a certain extent. The feeling is more or less universal, so the video doesn't try to explain what it feels like. Instead it responds to the tendency to have this kind of fear, and says that perhaps it isn't something to be feared at all, perhaps this is just part of being human.
Jed Fuchs No where, but if you have 465 pictures send them to me and I will make one.
Eli Kelley It exemplifies and is a testament to the recursiveness of reality, from my perspective at least
For an earlier version of this project I made a video montage of people taking photos. It's a weird sight, their faces mashed up behind their cameras, eyes squinted shut like a kid playing Hide and Seek trying to hide by covering their eyes. It makes you think about the word "viewfinder" and what it implies. Maybe in the end we run around taking photos to give each of our lives some focus. To see the black on the edge of the viewfinder. To step into the comfort of a dark room with a tiny window, that lets us shut out most of the world, and choose one thing from a billion others, and pretend-for a split second-that's everything there is.
Man, you´re one hell of a thinker. Thanks for sharing :)
This comment is so beautiful that I want to save it somewhere so that I can hope to rediscover it sometime in the unforeseen future. But, like a photo, the illusion of completeness--that so much meaning is inherent in this one sentiment--will eventually fade and become obscure.
A perpetuum mobile of the mind... Also, try to look up your own comment, and what you in turn replied on. I wonder what you'd think. :)
Going back through your stuff again and found this comment. Pretty relevant to the Morii segment.
Always remember you are unique, just like everybody else...
An oddly terrifying video. Nicely done.
"Helen Parr: Everyone's special, Dash.
Dash Parr: Which is another way of saying no one is.
From The Incredibles (2004)"
These videos make me depressed in a good way.
That is an oxymoron
Literal thinking is not necessarily better thinking. And sadness can be healthy, even joyful. Just my opinion.
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows what do you think about limits? is it really necessary or not.
hey "being depressed in a good way" - that is a frequent state that we experience...it requires a word! think about it :)
Melancholy
This is what I sometimes feel when trying to create new, interesting and creative stories, characters, locations, etc. for new pictures, comics or video games.
So many times do I realize midway through, "Wait... this is really similar to this other thing that has already been done." And in the fear of seeming like a copycat I discard them again and start from scratch. This sometimes results in my ideas having to become even more outlandish and random to the point where they just seem ridiculous. :/
And even when I DO create something completely original I always have this nagging feeling in the back of my head that tells me "What if there IS something extremely similar out there that you're not aware of and if you release it into the public you will look like a rip-off and people will accuse you of stealing ideas!"
This makes me depressed but not the kind of sad depressed but the thinking depressed. It made me realize that in the grand scheme of things we are nothing. One in 7 billion, a letter in a newspaper, a drop in an ocean. We will be ancient history in a few thousand years. People will look back at us and scoff. History will remember only 1 in 10,000 of us. we will be forgotten and I find it depressing to think that we won't be able to make a mark in the world as it seems all have been taken. History has a reputation of repeating itself and I guess we will have to follow its rules.
John, I remember interviewing you about your process and how you came to create the dictionary. Your work is truly awe-inspring. Thank you for the value you create through these obvious, yet esoteric experiences we haven't yet abstracted enough to use in normal conversation. You're a BOSS!
Amazing!
"That the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse"
Love that movie.
This channel is full of silience :).
Indeed! That character was quoting Walt Whitman. Here's the full poem:
"O ME! O life!... of the questions of these recurring;
Of the endless trains of the faithless-of cities fill’d with the foolish;
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light-of the objects mean-of the struggle ever renew’d;
Of the poor results of all-of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me; 5
Of the empty and useless years of the rest-with the rest me intertwined;
The question, O me! so sad, recurring-What good amid these, O me, O life?
Answer.
That you are here-that life exists, and identity;
That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse."
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows Dude where do those 160k views come from? :O
I've seen the worst of the worst there exists in this world
Lost dear ones
And yet held back tears and absorbed it all inside
And you make my eyes numb with videos like this
Even if you heard this before,
Thank you.
thank you Vsauce ...
True
Hisham RD Things will never be the same now..
I assume you all realize that this is even more true with his latest video, libraryofbabel.info Even this comment is written in it All that you could possibly write, written in math. Tis sadening to know
Volume 10 of wall 4 of hexagon.
Hey! I am from Vsauce, too. This is my first video!
:D
Thank you! I mean it· my sincerest thanks from the bottom of my heart.
Never before have I encountered something sad, beautiful AND inspirational at the same time, as your videos.
I hope you continue your work.
This is a thought provoking and well executed video. Thank you. For me, though, I prefer to think that time makes everything unique. Everything may have been said and done before, but never was it done and said by you, that unique individual that you are, or in that moment which will never repeat itself, or in that particular light or shadow or angle. Our journey as souls have meaning to a greater 'information cloud' than anything man made. I can't prove any of this, any more than you can disprove it. But I choose to believe it because it is better for this life's journey to live with hope and love and peace, than it is to immerse ourselves in self sabotage and hopelessness. We are similar, but we are not the same.
this is stunning! I love everything about this video. (there's this book, by T. Mann, 'Joseph and His Brothers', and it talks about the repetitiveness of lives at length, but in a more positive context. it explains that for centuries all lives followed the same paths and were so completely identical that different people were viewed as the same person simply because they shared a common role: the younger brother, the loved wife, the slave and so on. you knew your path from very early on and had no choice but to follow it. in doing so you became something more than an individual - an archetype - but lost your identity. I find it both beautiful and horrible, in equal measures.)
I thought I'd clicked on some crap click-bait, but this was a surprising little treat of a video. Got me expounding on a philosophical theme of the day I've been pondering about how important every little difference we all have as humans is.
This is as beautiful as a wildfire, scary, deep, powerful.....this is the first time i have ever felt poetry.... i just want to go now, exit my office, go to a library and find meaning in the words, warm in the thougts of someone else.....
This is rapidly becoming one of my favourite channels on RUclips. Brilliant. Thank you
I know that you have created these videos some time ago, but for me they are new. I am terrified by the thought that I missed it; That I did not water the plant when it needed to be watered. Please carry on and give me one more to savor, cherish and treasure.
I watched and loved this video so many years ago. I watched them all after. I fell in love with the channel. I missed you when you left....
Today, on Christmas, someone gave me a book. It was yours. It was the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. I was immediately struck with happy tears in my eyes. The reasons they gave it to me were clear. They said they always liked that I liked linguistics and etymology and words. So they thought that i might like a different kind of Dictionary. God, were they right. I've only read about 20 pages so far but it might be my favorite present ever. Because it seemed so insanely unlikely it would end up in my hands.
Thank you for everything and Merry Christmas.
For a Dictionary of Sorrows I always feel better after watching a video this one tells me I am unique while still like everyone else and me wanting to leave a mark in the world of people wanting to leave marks to not be left behind or forgotten. I end up feeling better that even if I am not remembered I left a mark and made something and even after it dies and disappears from recognizing definition my life still was here even if no one knows or remembers it and because I view that as me being bigger than nothing I feel better sure I'm not a President, Actor, or Hero but I know for myself that I am and was still something even after I move on.
Thank You for making such great videos.
Great editing!
Well guess what? You John Koenig, never have to worry about vemödalen.
well said
Wow!
dude your a fcuking genius how do you even come up with these things ... beyond words.
Being an artist, I get this feeling a LOT. Thanks for giving it a name in my head and for this terrifyingly great video
I have watched this video "n" number of times, and yet the words and images still moves me. Thank you for articulating an emotion that is so complex in such a poetic yet tangible way.
Gorgeous - one of my favorite passages: "The powerful play goes on and you WILL contribute a verse". I just never realized that the verse, and the admonition itself, was a retracing of old lines. It just never occurred to me.
"Listen up, maggots. You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else." ;D
Lol, let's not talk about it
"I want to be unique" "I dont want to be alone" are a conflict of interests then
There is no way in which I can adequately describe the absolute joy it has been for me to have stumbled upon this channel. Lovely.
I had this exact thought as I was at the Abbey Road Crosswalk re-creating The Beatles cover, along with plenty of other people doing the exact thing. My photo was perhaps a bit different, as it was only two people, me and my girlfriend and her walker, but the joy was in re-creating what The Beatles had done more than 50 years ago and the knowledge that so many others had done the same.
I like how the music quietly lullabys while the video shreds the illusion of individuality.
I think a lot of the videos from this channel can sometimes be a little dramatic or draw a lot out a simple statement, but I feel that the way this one was written (and animated) was very poetic. Beautifully done in every way. Nice job, guys!
I've watched this video several times and in all of them it had a deep impact in my inner feelings. This is simply one of the most poetic and beautiful videos I've ever seen in my life.
As an erstwhile poet and lifelong logophile, I freak out over your work. I am restlessly, relentlessly always in -pursuit of new words and new flavors of existing words...,to feed my vast maw of "word choices." To me, there is no human construct so exquisite as language. Your work pays that aspiration homage.
wow. one of my favorites so far.
incredible. you created a word for this strong sensation
The comfort this makes me feel cannot be understated. Thank you so much.
Pardon, this should say "overstated".
The omnipresent Obscure Sorrows and repetition do not trouble me terribly. There is that aspect of subtle difference in the thousands of flowers, sunsets, mountains, rainbows, wedding snapshots that is uniquely personal and much to be said without fear for continuity and individual contributions to it. These differences are, as the authors stated, to be celebrated. Well done.
I've felt this for a long time but never known quite how to describe other than "I want something greater but it feels like there's nothing left to pick from"
This is my favourite one of these videos. I love seeing all the different pictures :)
It's actually a comfort to me to know all of these things have been experienced by others.
Found this channel 15 minutes back. I'm 21 and yet to get hit by the sweet bitters of life. And I cried helplessly. I just don't know what to do
This is exactly the type of content I want in my RUclips feed
Why seek individuality when instead you can seek happiness?
Why seek happiness when you can seek dubstep (the equivalent of happiness)?
Dubstep From God well spoken
Dubstep From God I suppose because there is no "you" with which to seek happiness. In order to have happiness, there must be some individual with which to experience it, but if the individual "you" doesn't matter, then neither does your experiencing, and if your experiencing doesn't matter, then your experiencing of happiness doesn't matter either. Why should "you" experience happiness, if anyone else can? Why should there even be a "you" in the first place if there is someone else who can easily slip into your slot without the world noticing? Huh, I just depressed myself...
DFG Music Because there is an odd illusion of truth that lies within individuality that the 'happy' person will never experience.
Rephiam Seeking individuality will not make you happy, in fact, it will make your life miserable, like most videos on this channel which make you sad about things/concepts which are not even physically real, by making you think about them. "You" does not exist, in fact, life does not exist, you are just experiencing a simulation of a group of cells working together, which are nothing more than millions of molecules interacting, you don't need anything to be happy, happiness is already there in your mind, you just need to achieve inner peace by getting rid of your ego, a quick way to understand what I'm talking about is doing LSD, a slow one is to meditate every day for years or read into buddhism.
I get so caught up in what you say I forget everything around. I'm in a state of flow till the video ends.
Stunning. Absolutely gorgeous from the art to even the description. I'm going to thoroughly enjoy this channel.
this channel is literally all of my thoughts put into my youtube channel and i love that
Beautifully done. Great editing, this must have taken ages to line up and pace. Kudos!
I've had this feeling for the longest time and never knew how to describe it. I'd go on crazy long rants about how we're all the same in different ways. Everyone I tried to explain to simply asked, "And what is this supposed to mean?" After the longest time of trying to understand this thought myself- the thought that every thing has been overdone and nothing is left to be unique- I found this channel, and I watched ever video you had. This was of course the first video I found, and I fell in love with it. I know this is mostly associated with photography, and I am obsessive as a photographer, but I also associate this with writing and almost any other form of art. I know that this channel doesn't have 'official' words or whatever, but I still use words from this channel in my every day life. Don't worry, I credit you every time I fangirl. ^-^ I love this channel and I'm using some of the words from here in my newest book. I'll be finishing it sometime in April.
wow, the first video I have seen from you/this channel, and it is so, so well done. it evoked just the emotion you were describing, and the sheer amount of effort put into compiling and presenting the photos is to be commended! great quality work, you have a new subscriber!
this is the strongest video i have ever seen in my entire pathetic life. somehow made me cry for the first time in 5 years. Asside from genious who made the video i would have never guessed such an emotion visually and verbally can be squized into 2 minutes and 55 seconds....
To the makers of this series. Very powerful shorts with great writing, music, and imagery. As a filmmaker myself, I'm interested in where you take this series! I yearn to contribute more than one verse and leave as big of a mark as I can on this world!
That last stanza there reminded me of Rust from True Detective.
The "Time is a flat circle." philosophy.
Also, I collect these words. This is my new favourite channel. Thanks.
Video of the year for me!! 💙
This video is humbling, comforting, beautiful, and terrifying.
This is my new favorite RUclips channel. Amazing work.
I watched this to be inspired to be original. I was taken by surprise when, due to the horrors of racism and hate we are currently cursed with, I found joy and comfort in our uniformity. Our common humanity, in all the small things in life, in how we see the world, what gives us joy. For now, this may be the greatest gift of this video.
Keep bringing this stuff, love every bit. Resonates so unlike other material i have ever experienced.
Wow, amazingly done my friend!
Brilliant!
I have always found a comfort in knowing that the thoughts I have had ARE all, likely, had by ANYONE, somewhere, in history.
This channel makes me so depressed but inspired at the same time... Whyyy
Just as I thought it would've been different to make videos about obscure, complex emotions... I stumbled upon this channel.
vemödalen?
It was as if I found myself when I found your channel! This project is amazing and beautiful! You're a genious. How you observe and put into words what the hunam experiance is like! Those videos are the best thing I've discovered this year!
This is so beautiful and so relatable... I cannot imagine the HARDWORK put behind this humble video...May you keep surprising us with your unique visuals.
Man, I just FREAKING LOVE YOUR CHANNEL!!!!
"Everything that has been done has been done already, but not until after you've done it."
Thank you for this beautiful collection of poetic videos
this makes me feel very sad. makes me feel like we're all useless
This is an amazing project! Found this channel by accident and I think I'll be staying!
This is some of the most profound content I've seen on RUclips. Wow. Just wow.
this channel is so underrated. you deserve so many more subscribers tbh
Absolutely beautiful
sometimes I go out with my camera in my hand and this feeling just overwhelms me: why do I even take photos of this pretty flower if a simple google search would bring up hundreds of images like this. so, I end up not taking photos . instead I just try to look and feel everything around me like i'm seeing it for the first time
Really awesome and hats off to the endless hours of work you gave for this vid.
I just experienced this feeling
And I came back to this video
.
Absolutely beautiful! I think we all appreciate the effort put in making this video
This is just so powerful....I have no words.
Oh, a new idea for your video - the feeling that you want to express your emotions in detail that you just can't find a single word. ;)
I've discovered this channel in 2024, nd it's mind-blowing 🔥
I rarely comment but I love these videos. Please keep it up!
And then, as Mr.Abercrombie would say, we go back to the mud. All unique, all alike.
Beautiful and inspiring.
I like the concept its just so damn depressing. Of course when you look at snowflakes from a certain distance their differences and uniqueness is difficult to see. But this applies to everything in our world, if we don't get close enough to anything, we can't see the intricacies and quirks in people that make them beautiful and unique. You have to strive to see the details, otherwise you end up pulling yourself farther and farther away from the world, grotesquely seeking to find the ways in which none of us are unique or different, but I dare you to get closer and find that all of us truly do have a story woven from something that no one else has.
I love that twist on Walt Whitman's 'powerful-play' line.
Powerful stuff!
This and shots of awe really have figured out the formula. John koenig & Jason siver, we salute you..
Silver*
souloptic Silva* :)
Nicolette Bethea oh yeah, thank you ; l
Haunting and irreparably touching
I love your work. You truly bring poesy and art in youtube, a place that lacks it so much.
If I may, this is a french translation of your text in this video:
Vous êtes unique.
Il y en 7 milliards d'autres, tout aussi uniques que vous.
Chacun d'entre nous est différent, avec son propre point de vue sur le monde,
mais qu'est ce que cela signifie si les vies que nous sommes si occupés à façonner,
finissent par toutes se ressembler?
Facilement remplacées par un millier d'autres identiques?
Vemödalen.
Alors, nous nous propageons, cherchant des restes de frontières,
essayant de capturer quelque chose de spécial,
quelque chose de personnel.
Comme si nous étions effrayés d'être capturés nous mêmes,
si rapidement pris pour exactement ce que nous sommes,
si facilement mépris pour quelqu'un d'ordinaire,
tout comme n'importe qui d'autre.
Cela devrait être un réconfort que nous ne soyons pas si différents,
que nos perspectives s'alignent si parfaitement,
que les mêmes images continuent de se montrer, encore et encore.
Ce n'est pas grave si nous racontons la même blague que nous avons tous déjà entendu avant,
Ce n'est pas grave si nous continuons à refaire les mêmes films,
Ce n'est pas grave si nous continuons à se dire les mêmes phrases les uns aux autres,
comme si elles n'avaient jamais été prononcées auparavant.
"Le grand spectacle se poursuit, et vous y contribuerez avec un couplet".
Et vous et moi, et 7 milliards d'autres,
nous laisserons notre marque sur ce monde dont nous avons hérité.
Mais si, à la fin, nous nous retrouvons sans plus rien à dire,
sans rien de nouveau à ajouter,
traçant paresseusement les contours de choses laissées par d'autres longtemps auparavant,
ce sera comme si nous n'avions pas été ici du tout.
Cela aussi a été dit de nombreuses fois auparavant,
" Le grand spectacle se poursuit...",
et quand vous recevrez le signal,
vous prononcerez votre texte.
Gracias por su trabajo . Todos mis respetos
Absolutely incredibly! Very thought provoking, great job!
this channel is underrated.
This was amazing! Thank you!
This is my favorite RUclips channel
This made me cry
In a meaningfull way
Thank you
great video, something often contemplated especially as an artist