This is not a pipe. It is a painting of a pipe. But it's not even that! It is a video of a painting of a pipe. BUT it's not even that! It is most likely an image taken from the internet of a copy of a photo of the painting of the pipe. I love this painting.
I've been learning Spanish and German and I'm amazed at how many words we take at face-value as the "correct word" to use in a sentence, but if asked to describe that word, what it really means besides how it's used, we fall short. For example the person living in the apartment is the tenant. We know to use the word tenant, but only because we've been taught it's the correct word to use. But if you studied a romance language like Spanish, or better still Latin, you'd know that it stems from the Latin " tenēre" which means "to hold". Once you realize this, the correlation between another word such as "Lieutenant" become obvious, someone who holds the fort in lieu, or in place of, someone else. This correlation is lost because the meaning is lost. We're at the point with the English language that most English speakers don't even realize that "Monday" comes from the older usage of "Moon Day", let alone that several of our days of the week come from Norse Gods, such as Woden, Thor, Freyja. The original meaning to the words we use every day has become so detached from their original meaning that to most people who speak the language, the words only have a meaning when used in the context with which we're taught. Monday is the 2nd day of the week, we know it comes after Sunday and before Tuesday, but what does the word really mean? Without that context, it's original meaning is completely lost, and is has no meaning in it's place.
Jake Cordova The main difference with English vs other languages, is that in most languages the words that share common origins are largely still in-use. In English, this is quite a bit different. We'll often use a Germanic word (English's ancestor) for one word, but we might swap out a word from French or Latin for related words. Thus we have situations where what would normally be a root word "Hold" in Germanic, and a number of related words with Latin origins "Tenacious" (Hold fast), "Tenant" (one who holds) "Lieutenant" (to hold in place of). Most other languages which have these Latin-derived words keep the meaning because they don't swap out words from different parts of the Indo-European language tree. "tener" in Spanish, "tenir" in French, "tenere" in Italian. Of course this is just one example of many, English is a Germanic Language at it's core, but Germanic words only account for around 1/4 of the vocabulary. Another 1/4 is French, another 1/4 is Latin, another 1/4 is a mixture of Greek, Unknown, Other, and Proper names. simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language#/media/File:Origins_of_English_PieChart_2D.svg
+Nerdwriter1 You've peaked my curiosity now, your articulate yet straightforward and well made 'understanding' videos would suit a breakdown of philosophy. May I ask, how would you tackle the field? Would you focus on individual philosophers? or on a particular philosophy?
The sentence makes perfect sense on many levels. This (representation) is not (literally) a pipe. (The word) "This" is not a pipe. This (is a framed painting and) is not a pipe.
+theparkourhobo But then again, we could argue that the concept of a mug without linguistic representation is meaningless; we could argue that the signification makes the object. The question of communication vs essence. Very much Chomsky, Wittgenstein and Plato. We're all so much dumber in thought than the philosophers of language. We could sit here and keep pounding out three-sentence theories for days.
I approve this debate. And at some point, it might occur to one that a mug with the words "This is not a mug" is a joke intended stimulate questions about truth, logic, and what is the difference between definition and language. In other words, it's a joke that makes anyone who reads it, the butt of said joke. It's a very smug mug indeed :-)
Thank you for this. Rene Magritte is one of my favorite artists. In fact I'm saving some cash to buy a print of one of his paintings in The Empire of Lights series. I remember seeing one of his works at a museum with my dad (who honesty could care less about modern art) and he said exactly what I believe Magritte would've wanted us to say, "It's like seeing a nightmare." His works are so confrontational and beautiful and this was a very great video analyzing his most famous work. Please continue to bless my timeline!!
Evan, +1 mug request from Turkey. Keep making these, man. Outstanding work. I'm glad that your talent had the chance to shine in public, instead of being locked in a university lecture hall or somewhere else. You compact high quality knowledge and present it through your art. Delightful..
with the deconstructive/logocentric angle he took on the art your suggestion would be far more fitting, after all the french have a tradition of privileging language above all else in analysis
"This" is probably the best RUclips video I've ever seen in my life! As an artist who studied in an art school (only for 2 years ok) I have learnt more insight from this video than in all my fine art and art history lectures. I've always loved surrealist art, I paint a kind of surreal art myself, but this video just gave me a wave of brand new appreciation for the genre. Blew my mind. Thank you for creating it. 🐝
I honestly shouldn't be surprised that your videos are always fucking awesome. I totally agree with the first portion of the video. I was never really into visual art so the question "what am I supposed to feel?" really resonates with me. This video, along with your other Understanding Art Painting videos have helped me learn how to appreciate visual art. Thanks for the amazing videos, they're always what I look forward to during the week. PS. Can you do an Understanding Art for a David Fincher film? In my opinion he's one of the best directors working today.
Lovely video! Startled me a bit because I'm literally, right now as I go through my subscriptions, working on a Magritte re-make of sorts. It's in my lap. One of the Interpretation of Dreams pieces instead of the not-a-pipe Pipe. Magritte has been a favorite artist of mine for over a decade now since I first saw his work in middle school at SFMOMA. It's stunning stuff in person. I guess most art is, but yeah. The combination of precious detail and smooth rendering is unsettling/mesmerizing. Great work with all the text manipulation. Very fitting. I tip my representation of a bowler hat to you!
upon seeing this work in high school art decades ago, i never realized how much it resonated. years later when i began painting myself, i insisted on the conceptual basis of my work needing to be understood. each of my pieces and paintings is made of a visual element, a conceptual foundation, a verbal clue (or red herring) and the audience. without them working in conjunction, i have mere clutter in my studio. thank you dissecting this piece, Nerdwriter.
Great video as always! To start, I rarely if ever comment on youtube videos but I had to say I've really loved how much more frequently your videos are coming out. I check literally every day for new videos to my subscribed channels and you're one of the ones I look forward to most of all. As a physics degree science buff and medical student, I find that people like me benefit extraordinarily from your art videos. You know a great amount about science-y topics but far more than anyone I've seen about art, history, and media and your ability to communicate that is so well done. If you're wanting to do more Understanding Art videos, I'm sending my request for a Big Lebowski video! I love the movie but I'd really like to see what you could come up with, knowing I won't be disappointed. My only regret is that I think your level of analysis is so deep that it is hard for your channel to become as mainstream as channels like VSauce (another favorite). You have almost the same quality with 1/100th of his subscribers. Good luck in the future, I wish I knew more about advertising on youtube to help you but I'm sure you'll skyrocket soon.
Why does that ending music always make me cry? Especially with carefully cadenced words. I'm mildly intrigued or amused throughout one of these videos, then at the very end, I'm scrunching up my face, holding back tears, and mumbling, "This is not a pipe, oh god, don't cry, it's not a pipe, ugggh--" ...The power of music. Especially piano music of any kind. Damn it all.
I love this! Magritte is one of my favorite artists. I saw his art at the Art Institute of Chicago two summers ago and I could have spent hours speculating at the content of the paintings. The painting that struck me the most was "the Rape". It's quite something. Anyways, I'm excited for next week as always!
I love how the Nerdwriter gives every video a little dramatic twist with his voice at the end. Makes the content seem even more impressive and important.
"Ceci n'est pas un pipe" is tantamount to saying our perceptions, the intersection of which is essentially our own individual, flawed perceptions, creates our consensus reality, the world. A world built on subjectivity, but proceeding from a Source that is beyond all explanation, is by definition a world we cannot comprehend. Thus, I suppose, "ceci n'est pas in pipe". Even though it is clearly a pipe. That is the paradox of reality.
as much as I detest deconstructivism I think its proponents have a valid answer in that culture, history, power structures etc maintain or preserve an arbitrary relation between signifier and signified through convention, and the excision of convention allows signifier and signified to drift apart unanchored in our minds in such a way that is truly representative of reality. whatever the fuck that is. The fact that they must communicate this frantic desire for the deconstruction of all convention through language is, I think, the greatest irony of all.
I have fallen in love with this channel... everything is just so beautiful... the music, the presentation, his voice, the narration, the way everything makes sense and nothing makes sense at the same time. Damn your channel is so so so so much better than a lot of crap that happens on RUclips
honestly as an artist doing art which plays on some idea in a tricky way is one of the most amusing things. Doing amusingly clever things with art is why I do art. It's a joke to me, and I think it was to Renee in at least some way too. But one of those deep jokes you have to think about and don't quite make you laugh, but smile while pondering
I love how you use deconstruction criticism to critic this artwork + explained symbols and signs (even mentioning Saussure) without mentioning semiotics. I really love this video. In my world literature class, when we critiqued a text, I watched your videos as inspiration on how to critic a certain work. I studied few channels including this one and it really helped me!
I spent the summer in Brussels, Belgium and had the opportunity to visit the Rene Margritte museum. How work both fascinated and challenged me. I hope you get to visit it one day if you haven't already. Thank you for this video.
I'm from Brazil and I'm very sad that we don't have channels as interesting as yours here. Every video that I saw on your channel inspires me to continue searching about understand things, understand art, music, movies. Thank You! You're making the difference in whole world, even with this guy here on Brazil.
My skin stands. But these are not goosebumps. These are the feelings of feelings themselves. "The treachery of watching nerdwriter." My skin stands. But these are not goosebumps. These are the feelings of feelings themselves. "The treachery of watching nerdwriter." My skin stands. But these are not goosebumps. These are the feelings of feelings themselves. "The treachery of watching nerdwriter." Interesting approach. You started with something relatable -the absence of any meaning emerging to us when we look at a painting and then simply relying on our own "unanchored interpretation" ..I was there with you and then you flipped it! Went in the direction where the opposite happens. To the paintings where meaning emerges to us effortlessly! The analysis was brilliant! Thank you!
I think he knew how contradictory his painting was, and liked it that way. It was never about being smug and looking down on people, it was about making them think about it. In a way, he'd take any answer someone says to him once they start talking about it. He'd just smile and nod, as if to say "Now you get it."
+Nerdwriter1 I've always been wanting to get into philosophy, history and art. I hope you could create some more about this stuff, art styles, philosophies or types of religion or your views on socialism or other things like that.I would love to donate and take part in your channels growth, but as a college student from the third world country I have limited options. Thank you for putting up intellectual content , makes me realize how much time I waste watching stupid stuff on RUclips instead of this.
Nerdwriter's video about the ugliest Van Gogh's masterpiece was recommended to me and from then on I've been binge-watching all his painting related videos. Now I can't stop. Please (don't) send help.
There is a vocal thought experiment you can do to achieve this perspective. Find a word you use regularly, then in solitude repeat this word over and over, back to back like a chant. You will find the word ceases to retain meaning, it becomes an unrecognisable vocal blur.
The painting is not about language. You forgot to analyse the context in which the painting was created. The painting was created in a time when realism was popular. Magriitte simply mocked the realist artists.
Hei Evan!Belated Happy Birthday !I am from Indian city Kolkata,kudos to you to make such videos...simply love them!Keep it up!you enlighten me with lot of knowledge!I would have really found it boring to read all these stuff in text.I can guess how much effort and hard work you put in to make a single video like this....to put is philosophically....your plant the seed ,raise the tree and give us the fruits it bear !Thank you!.....keep it up! cheers!appreciate it !
I watched one of your videos today. I had never seen nerdwriter before today. Now I am several videos down and I now have to binge watch every video you have made. Phenomenal. Well done. On fleek. 100,000 subscribers is a fraction of your future. Keep it up, I will head to your patreon page soon too!
as a writer AND painter this sort of blows my mind.... but it also points out, what i know already. it points out the obvious. but who would question it? i know how i use words to create images, how i use metaphors and such. i know how i use unrealistic styles in art, to bring out a certain feature. and yet... this still is a sort of eye-opening analysis...
I just knew your channel 2 days ago and I am already loving. The themes, the script, the music background, everything is loveable. Thank you for your work.
So I went to a French school & we had serious lessons about how to see or understand art, even a little bit, & about the history of art, because for the French art, culture, philosophy... matter. So what we learned back then is that this idea of "this is an image or a drawing/a representation/a possibility conveying a concept" was something new. It came at a time when the world was changing, transforming in fundamental ways at an increasingly rapid rate. Many, most of them philosophers in their own domain, had written about the concepts of writing, representation or imagery. But this type of discussion was limited to the intellectuals, the artists & the elite. But surrealism brought to a larger public the idea of questioning what were considered self evident concepts the ordinary person never had to think about. Funnily enough, even after being taught all these concepts & ideas, or maybe thanks to those teachings, when I went to see an exposition about Magritte, I had to stop & ponder, look sideways, up close or at a distance & mostly think about the meaning of things. Meanwhile, my companion, who had a different education, mostly didn't understand my fascination. His reaction was mostly interesting, weird or strange with a connotation of uneasy & after a discussion, "I need to think about this".
hi! I'm studying creative writing from the Philippines! All of your ideas are helpful in sharpening my critical reading skills. Thank you! I hope you live a long life ^_^
It is weird that I try to stay ignorant of arts meaning? I love paintings but I generally don't dissect them. I enjoy them for what they are...a holder of a memory, a piece of reality that doesn't exist...like with songs. I'm a huge music lover, but I never care about lyrics. I just enjoy songs in there entirety, as a whole soundscape. I stay ignant dawg
+Mud Kips that's not weird at all. I too do the same. Its like not wanting to beak behind the closed door to see that its just another room in the house.
+Mud Kips “I have a friend who's an artist and has sometimes taken a view which I don't agree with very well. He'll hold up a flower and say "look how beautiful it is," and I'll agree. Then he says "I as an artist can see how beautiful this is but you as a scientist take this all apart and it becomes a dull thing," and I think that he's kind of nutty. First of all, the beauty that he sees is available to other people and to me too, I believe. Although I may not be quite as refined aesthetically as he is ... I can appreciate the beauty of a flower. At the same time, I see much more about the flower than he sees. I could imagine the cells in there, the complicated actions inside, which also have a beauty. I mean it's not just beauty at this dimension, at one centimeter; there's also beauty at smaller dimensions, the inner structure, also the processes. The fact that the colors in the flower evolved in order to attract insects to pollinate it is interesting; it means that insects can see the color. It adds a question: does this aesthetic sense also exist in the lower forms? Why is it aesthetic? All kinds of interesting questions which the science knowledge only adds to the excitement, the mystery and the awe of a flower. It only adds. I don't understand how it subtracts.” - Richard Feynman
Man... u are genius... G-zus... Im a brazzilian guy, i start to writting. I do think that i can see the world in certain way of perspective that goes to another direction ''out side the box''. Really. But u... man... Its hard to put a name or classified what u do, your videos. Its just about everything and nothing, at the same point/time. Sometimes i feel like u just take over the cloak of subjects and show or discrebi the closer that they really are, or maybe the close as u can to reach the - real/''real''- meaning. Anyway, thx for the reflection. I hope that u didnt missunderstod my words, or my bad inglesh. Cheers brother. Keep up the amaizing work.
For a long time my understanding of this painting was basically the one presented here. What the video does not explain is why the painting shows a pipe in particular rather than another everyday object. If the work was simply illustrating a philosophical concept about language and images then it would most likely have been a picture of a table or a chair. Philosophers love talking about tables and chairs. Then a friend of mine dated a woman from France who explained to him that there is a rude joke at play. "Une Pipe" is a slang term for a particular sex act. This doesn't undermine the interpretation in the video but does add extra layers: Freudian psychoanalysis, the connection between creativity and sex, the pleasure of insiders sharinging an in joke at the expense of the mainstream, the visceral difference between experience and the language used to decribe that experience.
That was a very good, very concise and very clear piece. I have not thought of De Saussure since my semester abroad in college - brings back a tonne of memories and a nice little reminder that not every aspect of my degree was lost on me. Sir, you have earned my subscription.
Hi, I am a new viewer, and really enjoy your work. However, and I am not trying to undermine your work here, but I 'd hope to maybe give you something to think again about, with relation to this painting: 'ceci' does not mean 'this' in French. It means 'this [thing] here'. The sentence is referring directly to the image above, rather that, as you say, itself. There is a grammatical object to the subject of the sentence, which I feel affects its' meaning and its' meaning in relation to the picture. Ah, ignore me, I'm going home now anyway.
This channel does wonders to bring about amazing thoughts. Truely makes you think, no matter how old the videos are I always go back to them. Thank you for making these videos.
+CampingforCool41 wouldn't it be because saying "this is not a pipe" implies that the word 'pipe' in the sentence refers to the actual object pipe? And later in the video he explains how the referring process is just consensus without intrinsic meaning, so there would be: 1) a drawing of a pipe 2) a phrase saying "this is not a.." and then 3) 'pipe', which is a word that it's not a pipe either. It's just a word referring to pipe object, just like the drawing.
+CampingforCool41 1) the sentence "This is (the word ->) pipe" 2) the sentence "This is not (the word ->) pipe" is self-contradictory. If things only reference themselves, the sentence "This is not a pipe" becomes self-contradictory.
This video is reminding me of a passage from Romeo and Juliet: "What’s in a name? that which we call a rose/ By any other name would smell as sweet;/ So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d, /Retain that dear perfection which he owes/ Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name;/ And for that name, which is no part of thee,/ Take all myself." Language and naming can be seen as arbitrary. Romeo is still Romeo if he name is changed (though Juliet thought this in correlation to his last name and their families feuding but I digress).
Douglas Hofstadter, in "Godel, Escher, Bach", develops an even more interesting reading of the painting, which is that we read, "Ceci n'est pas une pipe", and take from it the meaning that the pipe is only smudges on canvas - but that means that the sentence is only smudges on canvas too. So the moment you appreciate the true implication of the sentence, it ceases to have any meaning at all, as the entire thing, pipe, words and all, collapses into nothing more than smudges of paint on canvas.
The Menil Collection in Houston, Texas houses outstanding pieces by Magritte and other masters of Surrealism like Ernst and de Chirico. Thank you for a wonderful episode.
This is not a pipe. It is a painting of a pipe. But it's not even that! It is a video of a painting of a pipe. BUT it's not even that! It is most likely an image taken from the internet of a copy of a photo of the painting of the pipe. I love this painting.
In reality, everything may only be an illusion.
3D = 1D X 1D X 1D
Can you prove 1D physical existence?
Thus, is the concept of 3D real?
@Carpet Hooligan
How are seemingly perfect images formed from light distortions?
Dude you are funny
They're just pixels on our screen
The painting is ok
I've been learning Spanish and German and I'm amazed at how many words we take at face-value as the "correct word" to use in a sentence, but if asked to describe that word, what it really means besides how it's used, we fall short.
For example the person living in the apartment is the tenant. We know to use the word tenant, but only because we've been taught it's the correct word to use. But if you studied a romance language like Spanish, or better still Latin, you'd know that it stems from the Latin " tenēre" which means "to hold". Once you realize this, the correlation between another word such as "Lieutenant" become obvious, someone who holds the fort in lieu, or in place of, someone else. This correlation is lost because the meaning is lost.
We're at the point with the English language that most English speakers don't even realize that "Monday" comes from the older usage of "Moon Day", let alone that several of our days of the week come from Norse Gods, such as Woden, Thor, Freyja.
The original meaning to the words we use every day has become so detached from their original meaning that to most people who speak the language, the words only have a meaning when used in the context with which we're taught. Monday is the 2nd day of the week, we know it comes after Sunday and before Tuesday, but what does the word really mean? Without that context, it's original meaning is completely lost, and is has no meaning in it's place.
+Dan O'Connell Hasn't this been a constant process in the development of language? EDIT: you never implied it wasn't
Jake Cordova The main difference with English vs other languages, is that in most languages the words that share common origins are largely still in-use.
In English, this is quite a bit different. We'll often use a Germanic word (English's ancestor) for one word, but we might swap out a word from French or Latin for related words.
Thus we have situations where what would normally be a root word "Hold" in Germanic, and a number of related words with Latin origins "Tenacious" (Hold fast), "Tenant" (one who holds) "Lieutenant" (to hold in place of).
Most other languages which have these Latin-derived words keep the meaning because they don't swap out words from different parts of the Indo-European language tree. "tener" in Spanish, "tenir" in French, "tenere" in Italian.
Of course this is just one example of many, English is a Germanic Language at it's core, but Germanic words only account for around 1/4 of the vocabulary. Another 1/4 is French, another 1/4 is Latin, another 1/4 is a mixture of Greek, Unknown, Other, and Proper names.
simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language#/media/File:Origins_of_English_PieChart_2D.svg
Very interesting, I'd never considered that.
it's your advantage whether you want it or not
Um dude Im pretty sure monday isnt the second day of the week, its the first. After all it comes aftet the weekEND.
Have you considered doing an 'understanding philosophy' series. Just a suggestion.
+Pigeon Ferguson I have considered it .
+Nerdwriter1 Is it a possibility in the future, or an idle curiosity, like my questions?
Certainly a possibility.
+Nerdwriter1 You've peaked my curiosity now, your articulate yet straightforward and well made 'understanding' videos would suit a breakdown of philosophy. May I ask, how would you tackle the field? Would you focus on individual philosophers? or on a particular philosophy?
+Nerdwriter1 I would love that! Please do one, you explain things so well and it would be immeasurably helpful to tons of people.
I was listening to Tree and smoking a Bear whilst sitting under a Kanye when a Pipe came running by.
Tree=Indy PsyRock band
Bear=A badass forester's tobacco
Kanye=Exotic tree
Pipe=You're on drugs
@@guitar3421 😂
Nerdwriter has been killing it lately
He always has.
3D = 1D X 1D X 1D
Can you prove 1D physical existence?
Thus, is the concept of 3D real?
Killing reason? I agree. Enough of this intellectual drivel.
@@ManHeyuan Yes and yes.
this is not a comment
+Ben Collier This is the best not comment ever! This is not a compliment.
These are not letters.
+ThePooper3000 these are not words
Ben Collier That wasn't a reply, nor is this one
+Ben Collier yur ghey lol
The sentence makes perfect sense on many levels.
This (representation) is not (literally) a pipe.
(The word) "This" is not a pipe.
This (is a framed painting and) is not a pipe.
Also, "this (painting) is (titled) 'not a pipe' " (which, incidentally, it is not).
The sentence below is true.
The sentence above is false.
Loved this observation, brings forth new meaning!!
You have taken this from Foucault 's essay
@@Ignirium No. Just no.
Well that's enough thinking for today
I just watched his video on how to understand Picasso and my brain hurts. My brain literally hurts. Am I an idiot?
Hahahahaha
@@MrRobot01010 I dont know. If you are, youre certainly not the only one!
😂 😂 😂 😂 😂
Enough thinking for this year
Meanwhile Magritte is laughing "lmao i was just tryin 2 mess wit u niggas lol"
That was precisely his point, maybe not worded exactly like this :-)
"You call that a pipe, this is a pipe"
-Some guy, a long time ago
"Oh, a tough ghy, huh? What're you gonna do, beat me to death?"
- Man bludgeoned by pipe
I want a mug that says "This is not a mug".
Please please please please!
+Samuel Vimes Well, that would be fallacious. You can ask for a picture of a mug that says, "This is not a mug."
+Tris Summers Well, you could say that the word "mug" is not actually a mug, but a collection of symbols/sounds we use to represent a mug.
+theparkourhobo But then again, we could argue that the concept of a mug without linguistic representation is meaningless; we could argue that the signification makes the object. The question of communication vs essence. Very much Chomsky, Wittgenstein and Plato. We're all so much dumber in thought than the philosophers of language. We could sit here and keep pounding out three-sentence theories for days.
Johan P. I'm so out of my league D:
I approve this debate.
And at some point, it might occur to one that a mug with the words "This is not a mug" is a joke intended stimulate questions about truth, logic, and what is the difference between definition and language. In other words, it's a joke that makes anyone who reads it, the butt of said joke.
It's a very smug mug indeed :-)
Thank you for this. Rene Magritte is one of my favorite artists. In fact I'm saving some cash to buy a print of one of his paintings in The Empire of Lights series. I remember seeing one of his works at a museum with my dad (who honesty could care less about modern art) and he said exactly what I believe Magritte would've wanted us to say, "It's like seeing a nightmare." His works are so confrontational and beautiful and this was a very great video analyzing his most famous work. Please continue to bless my timeline!!
+Austin Gaebe Thanks for the kind words, Austin!
Austin Gaebe , you should visit the Magritte museum in Brussels, Belgium. it's definitely worth your time and money! :)
Fuck I'm too high for this.
+Niuniu Lai Too high?
I feel like I'm not high enough for this, it's intimidating.
Try rewatching this video after your plane has landed.
dude im in the clouds rn but i feel like the world is finally making sense
This is not a doobie.
*“As a rule, the more bizarre a thing is, the less mysterious it proves to be.”*
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Complete Sherlock Holmes
Evan, +1 mug request from Turkey.
Keep making these, man. Outstanding work. I'm glad that your talent had the chance to shine in public, instead of being locked in a university lecture hall or somewhere else.
You compact high quality knowledge and present it through your art. Delightful..
Why does it feel like my brain is dancing?
Because Magritte & Foucault just did a tap-dance on top of it.
Because you're high on intellectualism. The painting is worthless.
@@howtubeable and you, sir, are very ignorant
So it could just as easily be called "treachery of language"
Or "Semiotics in art". Rather odd that he references Saussure without discussing the concept of signifier and signified in his terms...
You could go a step further and say "the treachery of symbols".
+Daniel Huelsman Semiotics is super fun. I thought so at least. I had a whole class on it last year, and I had a blast.
with the deconstructive/logocentric angle he took on the art your suggestion would be far more fitting, after all the french have a tradition of privileging language above all else in analysis
Just caught a snipet of something by Lyotard where he sates that insistence on Signs is a from of social control.
"This" is probably the best RUclips video I've ever seen in my life! As an artist who studied in an art school (only for 2 years ok) I have learnt more insight from this video than in all my fine art and art history lectures. I've always loved surrealist art, I paint a kind of surreal art myself, but this video just gave me a wave of brand new appreciation for the genre. Blew my mind. Thank you for creating it. 🐝
I honestly shouldn't be surprised that your videos are always fucking awesome. I totally agree with the first portion of the video. I was never really into visual art so the question "what am I supposed to feel?" really resonates with me. This video, along with your other Understanding Art Painting videos have helped me learn how to appreciate visual art. Thanks for the amazing videos, they're always what I look forward to during the week.
PS. Can you do an Understanding Art for a David Fincher film? In my opinion he's one of the best directors working today.
+ASENBAISEN He is a wonderful director. I would love to do that.
Most famous dad-joke ever!
Grrr
you're goood.
Dad joke that triggers existential horror and angst.
So just a dad joke tbh...
I just love the way you use particular words in your explanations. Each word holds an unambiguous meaning. How can I write like you?
Holy shit that was amazing. I've never seen this piece pulled apart and contextualized like you just did. It makes the painting even more impactful.
Lovely video!
Startled me a bit because I'm literally, right now as I go through my subscriptions, working on a Magritte re-make of sorts. It's in my lap. One of the Interpretation of Dreams pieces instead of the not-a-pipe Pipe. Magritte has been a favorite artist of mine for over a decade now since I first saw his work in middle school at SFMOMA. It's stunning stuff in person. I guess most art is, but yeah. The combination of precious detail and smooth rendering is unsettling/mesmerizing.
Great work with all the text manipulation. Very fitting.
I tip my representation of a bowler hat to you!
+AlleyBetwixt Why, thank you.
upon seeing this work in high school art decades ago, i never realized how much it resonated. years later when i began painting myself, i insisted on the conceptual basis of my work needing to be understood. each of my pieces and paintings is made of a visual element, a conceptual foundation, a verbal clue (or red herring) and the audience. without them working in conjunction, i have mere clutter in my studio.
thank you dissecting this piece, Nerdwriter.
Great video as always!
To start, I rarely if ever comment on youtube videos but I had to say I've really loved how much more frequently your videos are coming out. I check literally every day for new videos to my subscribed channels and you're one of the ones I look forward to most of all.
As a physics degree science buff and medical student, I find that people like me benefit extraordinarily from your art videos. You know a great amount about science-y topics but far more than anyone I've seen about art, history, and media and your ability to communicate that is so well done.
If you're wanting to do more Understanding Art videos, I'm sending my request for a Big Lebowski video! I love the movie but I'd really like to see what you could come up with, knowing I won't be disappointed.
My only regret is that I think your level of analysis is so deep that it is hard for your channel to become as mainstream as channels like VSauce (another favorite). You have almost the same quality with 1/100th of his subscribers. Good luck in the future, I wish I knew more about advertising on youtube to help you but I'm sure you'll skyrocket soon.
+Nerdwriter1 Oh yeah and happy birthday man :)
Why does that ending music always make me cry? Especially with carefully cadenced words. I'm mildly intrigued or amused throughout one of these videos, then at the very end, I'm scrunching up my face, holding back tears, and mumbling, "This is not a pipe, oh god, don't cry, it's not a pipe, ugggh--"
...The power of music. Especially piano music of any kind. Damn it all.
I love this! Magritte is one of my favorite artists. I saw his art at the Art Institute of Chicago two summers ago and I could have spent hours speculating at the content of the paintings. The painting that struck me the most was "the Rape". It's quite something. Anyways, I'm excited for next week as always!
I love how the Nerdwriter gives every video a little dramatic twist with his voice at the end. Makes the content seem even more impressive and important.
"Ceci n'est pas un pipe" is tantamount to saying our perceptions, the intersection of which is essentially our own individual, flawed perceptions, creates our consensus reality, the world. A world built on subjectivity, but proceeding from a Source that is beyond all explanation, is by definition a world we cannot comprehend.
Thus, I suppose, "ceci n'est pas in pipe". Even though it is clearly a pipe. That is the paradox of reality.
Here's a paradox: how do you deconstruct the notion of reference in imagery and language if said notion is truly without meaning?
Egg salad sandwich
A BLT
+punked101 oooh good thinking
cos the deconstruction is as meaningless as the notion
as much as I detest deconstructivism I think its proponents have a valid answer in that culture, history, power structures etc maintain or preserve an arbitrary relation between signifier and signified through convention, and the excision of convention allows signifier and signified to drift apart unanchored in our minds in such a way that is truly representative of reality. whatever the fuck that is.
The fact that they must communicate this frantic desire for the deconstruction of all convention through language is, I think, the greatest irony of all.
me: *gets existential af*
you: well, that was fun!
I have fallen in love with this channel... everything is just so beautiful... the music, the presentation, his voice, the narration, the way everything makes sense and nothing makes sense at the same time. Damn your channel is so so so so much better than a lot of crap that happens on RUclips
"Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar." - Sigmund Freud
honestly as an artist doing art which plays on some idea in a tricky way is one of the most amusing things. Doing amusingly clever things with art is why I do art. It's a joke to me, and I think it was to Renee in at least some way too. But one of those deep jokes you have to think about and don't quite make you laugh, but smile while pondering
I am terribly impressed with your work. Lovely job. Keep up the good work.
I love how you use deconstruction criticism to critic this artwork + explained symbols and signs (even mentioning Saussure) without mentioning semiotics.
I really love this video. In my world literature class, when we critiqued a text, I watched your videos as inspiration on how to critic a certain work. I studied few channels including this one and it really helped me!
That is not a mug.
I spent the summer in Brussels, Belgium and had the opportunity to visit the Rene Margritte museum. How work both fascinated and challenged me. I hope you get to visit it one day if you haven't already. Thank you for this video.
Hey, I have been a fan of your channel for a time now, I'm happy you decided to do this full time.
... AND I'm from Finland and I want the mug too :D
+Paula Eske Thanks!!
I'm from Brazil and I'm very sad that we don't have channels as interesting as yours here. Every video that I saw on your channel inspires me to continue searching about understand things, understand art, music, movies. Thank You! You're making the difference in whole world, even with this guy here on Brazil.
Hey, Evan. I'm from Brazil and I'm interested in the mug. I think your channel is awesome!
My skin stands. But these are not goosebumps. These are the feelings of feelings themselves. "The treachery of watching nerdwriter."
My skin stands. But these are not goosebumps. These are the feelings of feelings themselves. "The treachery of watching nerdwriter."
My skin stands. But these are not goosebumps. These are the feelings of feelings themselves. "The treachery of watching nerdwriter."
Interesting approach. You started with something relatable -the absence of any meaning emerging to us when we look at a painting and then simply relying on our own "unanchored interpretation" ..I was there with you and then you flipped it! Went in the direction where the opposite happens. To the paintings where meaning emerges to us effortlessly! The analysis was brilliant! Thank you!
I remember seeing this painting and Duchamp's Fountain in art class and being like "what"
I think he knew how contradictory his painting was, and liked it that way. It was never about being smug and looking down on people, it was about making them think about it.
In a way, he'd take any answer someone says to him once they start talking about it. He'd just smile and nod, as if to say "Now you get it."
Happy birthday for yesterday, dude
+FrozenEternity Thanks!
+Nerdwriter1 I've always been wanting to get into philosophy, history and art. I hope you could create some more about this stuff, art styles, philosophies or types of religion or your views on socialism or other things like that.I would love to donate and take part in your channels growth, but as a college student from the third world country I have limited options. Thank you for putting up intellectual content , makes me realize how much time I waste watching stupid stuff on RUclips instead of this.
Why did he say my birthday will be yesterday?? I don't get it
You were the only news commentator that I liked in seeker stories and I am so glad that I found you here! !!
Nerdwriter's video about the ugliest Van Gogh's masterpiece was recommended to me and from then on I've been binge-watching all his painting related videos. Now I can't stop. Please (don't) send help.
I literally got hooked on the same video!
There is a vocal thought experiment you can do to achieve this perspective. Find a word you use regularly, then in solitude repeat this word over and over, back to back like a chant. You will find the word ceases to retain meaning, it becomes an unrecognisable vocal blur.
The painting is not about language. You forgot to analyse the context in which the painting was created. The painting was created in a time when realism was popular. Magriitte simply mocked the realist artists.
Charleroifa painting was created way back before when humans lived in caves xD
frostpiercer the word "painting" is used as a noun, not a verb.
Abstract artists had been around for more than 20 years before this painting.
Hei Evan!Belated Happy Birthday !I am from Indian city Kolkata,kudos to you to make such videos...simply love them!Keep it up!you enlighten me with lot of knowledge!I would have really found it boring to read all these stuff in text.I can guess how much effort and hard work you put in to make a single video like this....to put is philosophically....your plant the seed ,raise the tree and give us the fruits it bear !Thank you!.....keep it up! cheers!appreciate it !
Magritte: “Naw I just wanted to confuse people”
I watched one of your videos today. I had never seen nerdwriter before today. Now I am several videos down and I now have to binge watch every video you have made. Phenomenal. Well done. On fleek. 100,000 subscribers is a fraction of your future. Keep it up, I will head to your patreon page soon too!
Sorry, but Shakespeare said it first, “A rose by any other name is still a rose.”
Language simply expresses an idea…language is NOT the thing.
as a writer AND painter this sort of blows my mind.... but it also points out, what i know already. it points out the obvious.
but who would question it?
i know how i use words to create images, how i use metaphors and such. i know how i use unrealistic styles in art, to bring out a certain feature.
and yet... this still is a sort of eye-opening analysis...
This is the first video of yours that I have watched. It was very cool. I will watch more!
you are AWESOME. Even going a little further than most descriptions of the painting and the series wrap it up. Thank you
He said, "It will be my birthday yesterday." Interesting in the context of the video as a whole
I just knew your channel 2 days ago and I am already loving. The themes, the script, the music background, everything is loveable. Thank you for your work.
"His voice is soothing, but not as soothing as Morgan Freeman's."
-Chantelle
So I went to a French school & we had serious lessons about how to see or understand art, even a little bit, & about the history of art, because for the French art, culture, philosophy... matter. So what we learned back then is that this idea of "this is an image or a drawing/a representation/a possibility conveying a concept" was something new. It came at a time when the world was changing, transforming in fundamental ways at an increasingly rapid rate. Many, most of them philosophers in their own domain, had written about the concepts of writing, representation or imagery. But this type of discussion was limited to the intellectuals, the artists & the elite. But surrealism brought to a larger public the idea of questioning what were considered self evident concepts the ordinary person never had to think about.
Funnily enough, even after being taught all these concepts & ideas, or maybe thanks to those teachings, when I went to see an exposition about Magritte, I had to stop & ponder, look sideways, up close or at a distance & mostly think about the meaning of things. Meanwhile, my companion, who had a different education, mostly didn't understand my fascination. His reaction was mostly interesting, weird or strange with a connotation of uneasy & after a discussion, "I need to think about this".
I feel kind of dumb now.
You made philosophy and abstract understandable.
hi! I'm studying creative writing from the Philippines! All of your ideas are helpful in sharpening my critical reading skills. Thank you! I hope you live a long life ^_^
It is weird that I try to stay ignorant of arts meaning? I love paintings but I generally don't dissect them. I enjoy them for what they are...a holder of a memory, a piece of reality that doesn't exist...like with songs. I'm a huge music lover, but I never care about lyrics. I just enjoy songs in there entirety, as a whole soundscape. I stay ignant dawg
+Mud Kips that's not weird at all. I too do the same. Its like not wanting to beak behind the closed door to see that its just another room in the house.
+Mud Kips “I have a friend who's an artist and has sometimes taken a view which I don't agree with very well. He'll hold up a flower and say "look how beautiful it is," and I'll agree. Then he says "I as an artist can see how beautiful this is but you as a scientist take this all apart and it becomes a dull thing," and I think that he's kind of nutty. First of all, the beauty that he sees is available to other people and to me too, I believe. Although I may not be quite as refined aesthetically as he is ... I can appreciate the beauty of a flower. At the same time, I see much more about the flower than he sees. I could imagine the cells in there, the complicated actions inside, which also have a beauty. I mean it's not just beauty at this dimension, at one centimeter; there's also beauty at smaller dimensions, the inner structure, also the processes. The fact that the colors in the flower evolved in order to attract insects to pollinate it is interesting; it means that insects can see the color. It adds a question: does this aesthetic sense also exist in the lower forms? Why is it aesthetic? All kinds of interesting questions which the science knowledge only adds to the excitement, the mystery and the awe of a flower. It only adds. I don't understand how it subtracts.” - Richard Feynman
+Josh Paulson aye, there's different ways to appreciate things.
Mud Kips I'm glad you read it that way. That quote come come off a bit condescending, but it's the artist who can appreciate without overthinking.
Congrats nerdwriter. You did it. This video is being taught a part of our learning modules now.
yes my teacher sent the link
Whose pipe is this? That's not a pipe, it's a pipe baby? Whose pipe is this? It's Ned's. Who is Ned? Ned the Head baby, Ned the Head.
that moment your mind is utterly blown about a deeper analysis of something that seems so utterly simple.
It seems like this guy could do a great video on "Vanilla Sky."
Man... u are genius... G-zus... Im a brazzilian guy, i start to writting. I do think that i can see the world in certain way of perspective that goes to another direction ''out side the box''. Really. But u... man... Its hard to put a name or classified what u do, your videos. Its just about everything and nothing, at the same point/time.
Sometimes i feel like u just take over the cloak of subjects and show or discrebi the closer that they really are, or maybe the close as u can to reach the - real/''real''- meaning.
Anyway, thx for the reflection. I hope that u didnt missunderstod my words, or my bad inglesh.
Cheers brother.
Keep up the amaizing work.
You're the greatest. Mugs for overseas please!
Your use of building music leading into your endscreen is very, very powerful.
a man has no face
that's kind of the idea.
rishabh bajpai you know. know know
but a face...
...have a man?
*vsauce music starts playing*
And somehow that's "art"
@@acc2876 you obviously dont understand art.
Your videos always make me think and humble myself. Thanks for that man.
hats off, respect.
Rx. "Metonymy" (& sign-signal -> object probability).
The thumbnail immediately reminded me of The Fault in our Stars
For a long time my understanding of this painting was basically the one presented here. What the video does not explain is why the painting shows a pipe in particular rather than another everyday object. If the work was simply illustrating a philosophical concept about language and images then it would most likely have been a picture of a table or a chair. Philosophers love talking about tables and chairs.
Then a friend of mine dated a woman from France who explained to him that there is a rude joke at play. "Une Pipe" is a slang term for a particular sex act. This doesn't undermine the interpretation in the video but does add extra layers: Freudian psychoanalysis, the connection between creativity and sex, the pleasure of insiders sharinging an in joke at the expense of the mainstream, the visceral difference between experience and the language used to decribe that experience.
I was smoking a bent billiard while I watched this video, purely by coincidence.
you are instantly my favourite channel on youtube now
Am I the only one here who doesn't study art, philosophy, English or any related topic in college but still watches for the love of it all?
crazyadolescent16 o
That was a very good, very concise and very clear piece. I have not thought of De Saussure since my semester abroad in college - brings back a tonne of memories and a nice little reminder that not every aspect of my degree was lost on me.
Sir, you have earned my subscription.
That is not a Nerdwriter mug.
I just went to LACMA and saw this hanging tucked away in the corner, your video helped me appreciate it
Hi, I am a new viewer, and really enjoy your work. However, and I am not trying to undermine your work here, but I 'd hope to maybe give you something to think again about, with relation to this painting: 'ceci' does not mean 'this' in French. It means 'this [thing] here'. The sentence is referring directly to the image above, rather that, as you say, itself. There is a grammatical object to the subject of the sentence, which I feel affects its' meaning and its' meaning in relation to the picture.
Ah, ignore me, I'm going home now anyway.
+Douglas Burgess Very good grammatical information for all us non-French speakers, not at all detrimental to Mr. Puschak's argument as a whole
I can't thank you enough for the link to Foucault's essay on Margritte. Much obliged!
nice!!!!!!!!!!!!
+chobo301 thanks!!!!
I keep coming back to this one. In my opinion your finest video!
I want your channel to grow
This channel does wonders to bring about amazing thoughts. Truely makes you think, no matter how old the videos are I always go back to them.
Thank you for making these videos.
*_if you're a moa and got enlightened by this video, hello!_*
What the fuck is a moa
One of the best channels on YT. Cannot wait till you inevitably get big, you deserve it.
You lost me at the end there. How is "This is not a pipe" a contradiction?
+CampingforCool41 wouldn't it be because saying "this is not a pipe" implies that the word 'pipe' in the sentence refers to the actual object pipe? And later in the video he explains how the referring process is just consensus without intrinsic meaning, so there would be:
1) a drawing of a pipe
2) a phrase saying "this is not a.." and then
3) 'pipe', which is a word that it's not a pipe either. It's just a word referring to pipe object, just like the drawing.
+CampingforCool41 1) the sentence "This is (the word ->) pipe"
2) the sentence "This is not (the word ->) pipe" is self-contradictory.
If things only reference themselves, the sentence "This is not a pipe" becomes self-contradictory.
Because the sentence is not a sentence -- it is a representation of a sentence.
Crmccombs but the sentence is a sentence
Crmccombs if he wrote “SENTENCE. this is not a sentence” then I would agree.
This video is reminding me of a passage from Romeo and Juliet:
"What’s in a name? that which we call a rose/ By any other name would smell as sweet;/ So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d, /Retain that dear perfection which he owes/ Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name;/ And for that name, which is no part of thee,/ Take all myself."
Language and naming can be seen as arbitrary. Romeo is still Romeo if he name is changed (though Juliet thought this in correlation to his last name and their families feuding but I digress).
What is the intro song?
Douglas Hofstadter, in "Godel, Escher, Bach", develops an even more interesting reading of the painting, which is that we read, "Ceci n'est pas une pipe", and take from it the meaning that the pipe is only smudges on canvas - but that means that the sentence is only smudges on canvas too. So the moment you appreciate the true implication of the sentence, it ceases to have any meaning at all, as the entire thing, pipe, words and all, collapses into nothing more than smudges of paint on canvas.
Duh it's not a pipe. It's a sentence written under a pipe.
Beautifully explained. This is one of my favorite pieces of artwork and I love the logical ridiculousness of it.
watching this stoned. mind = blown
The Menil Collection in Houston, Texas houses outstanding pieces by Magritte and other masters of Surrealism like Ernst and de Chirico.
Thank you for a wonderful episode.
This video was perfect apart from your french accent 😂😂😂
Oh God, yes, when he said Rene Magritte i cringed. When he said Saussure I bust out laughing
One of the best RUclips's channel, by far.