My name is Ursus Wehrli, and I would like to talk to you this morning about my project, Tidying Up Art. First of all -- any questions so far? First of all, I have to say I'm not from around here. I'm from a completely different cultural area, maybe you noticed? I mean, I'm wearing a tie, first. And then secondly, I'm a little bit nervous because I'm speaking in a foreign language, and I want to apologize in advance, for any mistakes I might make. Because I'm from Switzerland, and I just don't hope you think this is Swiss German I'm speaking now here. This is just what it sounds like if we Swiss try to speak American. But don't worry -- I don't have trouble with English, as such. I mean, it's not my problem, it's your language after all. (Laughter) I am fine. After this presentation here at TED, I can simply go back to Switzerland, and you have to go on talking like this all the time. (Laughter)
Moje ime je Ursus Verli, i želim da vam ovog jutra govorim o mom projektu, Uređenje umetnosti. Najpre - ima li nekih pitanja? Prvo, moram da vam kažem da nisam odavde. Dolazim iz potpuno drugačije kulture, možda ste primetili? Mislim, nosim kravatu, kao prvo. A kao drugo, pomalo sam nervozan jer govorim stranim jezikom, i želim unapred da vam se izvinim, za bilo koju grešku koju možda napravim. Dolazim iz Švajcarske, i nadam se da ne mislite da je ovo švajcarski nemački koji govorim ovde. Ovako zvuči kada Švajcarac pokuša da govori američki. Ali ne brinite - nemam takav problem sa engleskim. Mislim, to nije moj problem, na kraju krajeva, to je vaš jezik. ( smeh ) Ja sam dobro. Nakon ove prezentacije ovde u TEDu, mogu jednostavno da se vratim u Švajcarsku, a vi morate da nastavite da govorite ovako sve vreme. ( smeh )
So I've been asked by the organizers to read from my book. It's called "Tidying Up Art" and it's, as you can see, it's more or less a picture book. So the reading would be over very quickly. But since I'm here at TED, I decided to hold my talk here in a more modern way, in the spirit of TED here, and I managed to do some slides here for you. I'd like to show them around so we can just, you know -- (Laughter) Actually, I managed to prepare for you some enlarged pictures -- even better.
Upitan sam od strane organizatora da čitam iz svoje knjige. Zove se, Sređivanje umetnosti i, kao što možete da vidite, manje više je to slikovnica. Tako da bi čitanje bilo vrlo brzo gotovo. Ali pošto sam na TEDu, odlučio sam da održim svoj govor na moderniji način, u TED duhu, i uspeo sam da napravim nekoliko slajdova za vas. Hteo bih da ih pokažem kako bismo, znate - ( smeh ) Ustvari, uspeo sam da pripremim za vas neke uvećane slike - još bolje.
So Tidying Up Art, I mean, I have to say, that's a relatively new term. You won't be familiar with it. I mean, it's a hobby of mine that I've been indulging in for the last few years, and it all started out with this picture of the American artist, Donald Baechler I had hanging at home. I had to look at it every day and after a while I just couldn't stand the mess anymore this guy was looking at all day long. Yeah, I kind of felt sorry for him. And it seemed to me even he felt really bad facing these unorganized red squares day after day. So I decided to give him a little support, and brought some order into neatly stacking the blocks on top of each other. (Laughter) Yeah. And I think he looks now less miserable. And it was great. With this experience, I started to look more closely at modern art. Then I realized how, you know, the world of modern art is particularly topsy-turvy.
Dakle, Uređivanje umetnosti, mislim, moram da kažem, to je relativno novi pojam. Neće vam biti poznat. Mislim, to je moj hobi kojem sam se prepustio poslednjih par godina, i sve je počelo sa ovom slikom američkog umetnika, Donalda Bičlera koja mi je visila kod kuće. Morao sam da je gledam svakoga dana i nakon nekog vremena nisam više mogao da podnesem taj nered u koji je ovaj momak gledao ceo dan. Da, nekako mi ga je bilo žao. I činilo mi se da se čak i on osećao loše suočen sa razbacanim crvenim kvadratima, dan za danom. Tako da sam odlučio da mu dam malo podrške, i uneo malo reda, uredno slažući blokove jedne na druge. ( smeh ) Da. I mislim da on sada ne izgleda toliko očajno.. I bilo je sjajno. Sa ovim iskustvom, počeo sam bliže da posmatram modernu umetnost. I onda sam shvatio, znate, svet moderne umetnosti je naročito istumban.
And I can show here a very good example. It's actually a simple one, but it's a good one to start with. It's a picture by Paul Klee. And we can see here very clearly, it's a confusion of color. (Laughter) Yeah. The artist doesn't really seem to know where to put the different colors. The various pictures here of the various elements of the picture -- the whole thing is unstructured. We don't know, maybe Mr. Klee was probably in a hurry, I mean -- (Laughter) -- maybe he had to catch a plane, or something. We can see here he started out with orange, and then he already ran out of orange, and here we can see he decided to take a break for a square. And I would like to show you here my tidied up version of this picture. (Laughter) We can see now what was barely recognizable in the original: 17 red and orange squares are juxtaposed with just two green squares. Yeah, that's great. So I mean, that's just tidying up for beginners. I would like to show you here a picture which is a bit more advanced. (Laughter)
I mogu da vam pokažem vrlo dobar primer. Ustvari vrlo je jednostavan, ali je dobar za početak. To je slika Pola Klija. I možemo da vidimo vrlo jasno ovde, to je pometnja boja. ( Smeh ) Da. Ovaj umetnik izgleda da ne zna gde da stavi različite boje. Različite slike različitih elemenata fotografije - čitava stvar je nestruktuirana. Mi ne znamo, možda je gospodin Kli verovatno bio u žurbi, mislim - ( smeh ) - možda je morao da uhvati avion, ili slično. Možemo da vidimo ovde da je počeo sa narandžastom, i da mu je iste ponestalo, a ovde možemo da vidimo da je odlučio da uzme odmor, za kvadrat. I voleo bih da vam pokažem ovde moju sređenu verziju ove slike. ( smeh ) Možemo da vidimo sada ono što je jedva bilo vidljivo u originalu: 17 crvenih i narandžastih kvadrata kojima su podređena ova dva zelena kvadrata. Da, to je odlično. Mislim, to je sređivanje za početnike. Voleo bih da vidite sliku koja je malo naprednija. ( smeh )
What can you say? What a mess. I mean, you see, everything seems to have been scattered aimlessly around the space. If my room back home had looked like this, my mother would have grounded me for three days. So I'd like to -- I wanted to reintroduce some structure into that picture. And that's really advanced tidying up. (Applause) Yeah, you're right. Sometimes people clap at this point, but that's actually more in Switzerland. (Laughter) We Swiss are famous for chocolate and cheese. Our trains run on time. We are only happy when things are in order.
Šta možete da kažete? Kakav nered. Mislim, vidite, sve izgleda kao da je besciljno razbacano po prostoru. Da je moja soba kod kuće izgledala tako, moja majka bi mi zabranila da izlazim tri dana. Tako da bih voleo - voleo bih da vam predstavim strukturu ove slike. I to je zaista napredno sređivanje. ( aplauz ) Da, u pravu ste. Nekada ljudi tapšu u ovom trenutku ali češće u Švajcarskoj. ( smeh ) Mi Švajcarci smo poznati po čokoladi i siru. Naši vozovi stižu na vreme. Mi smo jedino srećni kada su stvari u redu.
But to go on, here is a very good example to see. This is a picture by Joan Miro. And yeah, we can see the artist has drawn a few lines and shapes and dropped them any old way onto a yellow background. And yeah, it's the sort of thing you produce when you're doodling on the phone. (Laughter) And this is my -- (Laughter) -- you can see now the whole thing takes up far less space. It's more economical and also more efficient. With this method Mr. Miro could have saved canvas for another picture.
Ali da nastavimo, evo vrlo dobrog primera za videti. Ovo je slika Džoan Miro. I da, možemo da vidimo da je umetnik nacrtao nekoliko linija i oblika i bacio na bilo koji poznati način na žutu pozadinu. I da, to je nešto nalik škrabanju dok ste na telefonu. ( smeh ) A ovo je moja - ( smeh ) možete da vidite sada kako sve to zauzima mnogo manje mesta. Ekonomičnije je i efektnije. Sa ovim metodom gospodin Miro je mogao da sačuva platno za još jednu sliku.
But I can see in your faces that you're still a little bit skeptical. So that you can just appreciate how serious I am about all this, I brought along the patents, the specifications for some of these works, because I've had my working methods patented at the Eidgenössische Amt für Geistiges Eigentum in Bern, Switzerland. (Laughter) I'll just quote from the specification. "Laut den Kunstprüfer Dr. Albrecht --" It's not finished yet. "Laut den Kunstprüfer Dr. Albrecht Götz von Ohlenhusen wird die Verfahrensweise rechtlich geschützt welche die Kunst durch spezifisch aufgeräumte Regelmässigkeiten des allgemeinen Formenschatzes neue Wirkungen zu erzielen möglich wird."
Ali mogu da vidim na vašim licima da ste i dalje pomalo skeptični. Kako biste mogli da cenite to koliko sam ozbiljan po pitanju svega ovoga, doneo sam patente, specifikacije za neke od ovih radova, jer sam patentirao svoje radne metode u Eidgenössische Amt für Geistiges Eigentum u Bernu, Švajcarska.. ( smeh ) Citiraću specifikaciju. "Laut den Kunstprüfer Dr. Albrecht --" Nije još kraj. "Laut den Kunstprüfer Dr. Albrecht Götz von Ohlenhusen wird die Verfahrensweise rechtlich geschützt welche die Kunst durch spezifisch aufgeräumte Regelmässigkeiten des allgemeinen Formenschatzes neue Wirkungen zu erzielen möglich wird."
Ja, well I could have translated that, but you would have been none the wiser. I'm not sure myself what it means but it sounds good anyway. I just realized it's important how one introduces new ideas to people, that's why these patents are sometimes necessary. I would like to do a short test with you. Everyone is sitting in quite an orderly fashion here this morning. So I would like to ask you all to raise your right hand. Yeah. The right hand is the one we write with, apart from the left-handers. And now, I'll count to three. I mean, it still looks very orderly to me. Now, I'll count to three, and on the count of three I'd like you all to shake hands with the person behind you. OK? One, two, three. (Laughter)
Da, pa mogao sam to da prevedem, ali ne biste bili ni malo mudriji. Ni sam nisam siguran šta znači, ali svakako zvuči dobro, Upravo sam shvatio da je važno kako neko predstavlja nove ideje ljudima, zato su ovi patenti ponekad važni. Voleo bih da uradim kratak test sa vama. Svi sede na prilično uobičajen način ovog jutra. I zamoliću vas da svi podignete svoju desnu ruku. Da. Desna ruka je ona kojom pišemo, osim levorukih. I sada, brojaću do tri. Mislim, i dalje izgleda prilično uobičajeno. Sada, brojaću do tri, i onda rukujte se sa osobom iza vas. OK? Jedan, dva, tri. ( smeh )
You can see now, that's a good example: even behaving in an orderly, systematic way can sometimes lead to complete chaos. So we can also see that very clearly in this next painting. This is a painting by the artist, Niki de Saint Phalle. And I mean, in the original it's completely unclear to see what this tangle of colors and shapes is supposed to depict. But in the tidied up version, it's plain to see that it's a sunburnt woman playing volleyball. (Laughter) Yeah, it's a -- this one here, that's much better. That's a picture by Keith Haring. (Laughter) I think it doesn't matter. So, I mean, this picture has not even got a proper title. It's called "Untitled" and I think that's appropriate.
Možete da vidite sada, to je dobar primer: čak i ponašanje na uobičajeni, sistematski način može ponekad da dovede do potpunog haosa. Možemo to da vidimo vrlo jasno na sledećoj slici. Ovo je slika umetnika, Niki de Sejnt Fale. I mislim, na originalu je potpuno nejasno za videti šta to klupko boja i oblika treba da predstavlja. Ali u sređenoj verziji, jasno se vidi da to žena izgorela od sunca igra odbojku. ( smeh ) Da, to je - ovo ovde, to je mnogo bolje. Ovo je slika Kit Haringa. ( smeh ) Mislim da nije važno. Dakle, mislim, ova slika nema čak ni odgovarajući naziv. Nazvana je "Bez naslova" i mislim da je to odgovarajuće.
So, in the tidied-up version we have a sort of Keith Haring spare parts shop. (Laughter) This is Keith Haring looked at statistically. One can see here quite clearly, you can see we have 25 pale green elements, of which one is in the form of a circle. Or here, for example, we have 27 pink squares with only one pink curve. I mean, that's interesting. One could extend this sort of statistical analysis to cover all Mr. Haring's various works, in order to establish in which period the artist favored pale green circles or pink squares. And the artist himself could also benefit from this sort of listing procedure by using it to estimate how many pots of paint he's likely to need in the future. (Laughter)
Tako, u sređenoj verziji imamo neku vrstu prodavnice rezervnih delova Kit Haringa. ( smeh ) Ovo je Kit Haring statistički gledano. Možete da vidite vrlo jasno ovde, možete da vidite da imamo 25 svetlo zelenih elemenata, od kojih je jedan u obliku kruga. Ili ovde, na primer, imamo 27 ružičastih kvadrata sa samo jednom ružičastom krivom. Mislim, zanimljivo je. Mogao bi se produžiti ovaj statistički niz da pokrije sve vrste radova gospodina Haringa. kako bismo utvrdili u kom periodu je umetnik favorizovao svetlo zelene krugove ili ružičaste kvadrate. I sam umetnik može da profitira iz ove nabrajajuće procedure koristeći je da proceni koliko kanti boje će mu verovatno trebati u budućnosti. ( smeh )
One can obviously also make combinations. For example, with the Keith Haring circles and Kandinsky's dots. You can add them to all the squares of Paul Klee. In the end, one has a list with which one then can arrange. Then you categorize it, then you file it, put that file in a filing cabinet, put it in your office and you can make a living doing it. (Laughter) Yeah, from my own experience. So I'm -- (Laughter) Actually, I mean, here we have some artists that are a bit more structured. It's not too bad. This is Jasper Johns. We can see here he was practicing with his ruler. (Laughter)
Neko očito može da napravi kombinacije. Na primer, sa Kit Haringovim krugovima i Kandinskijevim tačkama. Možete ih dodati svim kvadratima Pol Klija. Na kraju, možete imati listu da se vidi sa čime može da se usklađuje. Onda ih kategorišete, dokumentujete, ostavite u sobi za dokumente, ostavite u kancelariji i počnete tako da zarađujete za život. ( smeh ) Da, iz ličnog iskustva. Dakle ja sam - ( smeh ) Ustvari, mislim, imamo umetnike koji su malo strukturiraniji. Nije loše. Ovo je Džasper Džons. Možemo da vidimo da je ovde vežbao sa svojim lenjirom. ( smeh )
But I think it could still benefit from more discipline. And I think the whole thing adds up much better if you do it like this. (Laughter) And here, that's one of my favorites. Tidying up Rene Magritte -- this is really fun. You know, there is a -- (Laughter) I'm always being asked what inspired me to embark on all this. It goes back to a time when I was very often staying in hotels. So once I had the opportunity to stay in a ritzy, five-star hotel. And you know, there you had this little sign -- I put this little sign outside the door every morning that read, "Please tidy room." I don't know if you have them over here. So actually, my room there hasn't been tidied once daily, but three times a day. So after a while I decided to have a little fun, and before leaving the room each day I'd scatter a few things around the space. Like books, clothes, toothbrush, etc. And it was great. By the time I returned everything had always been neatly returned to its place. But then one morning, I hang the same little sign onto that picture by Vincent van Gogh. (Laughter) And you have to say this room hadn't been tidied up since 1888. And when I returned it looked like this. (Laughter) Yeah, at least it is now possible to do some vacuuming. (Laughter)
Ali mislim da i dalje može da profitira sa više discipline. I mislim da se čitava stvar poboljšava ako je uradite ovako. ( smeh ) I ovde, to je jedna od mojih omiljenih. Sređivanje Rene magrite - ovo je stvarno zabavno. Znate, postoji - ( smeh ) Pitali su me šta me je inspirisalo da se upustim u sve ovo. To seže do vremena kada sam često boravio u hotelima. Jednom sam imao priliku da odsednem u ricu, hotelu sa pet zvezdica. I znate, tamo je bio taj mali znak - Stavljao sam taj mali znak ispred vrata svako jutro, na kojem je pisalo, "Molimo sredite sobu." Ne znam da li ih imam ovde. Ustvari, moja soba nije bila sređivana jednom dnevno, već tri puta na dan. I posle nekog vremena odlučio sam da se zabavim, i pre napuštanja sobe svakoga dana razbacao bih par stvari po sobi. Poput knjiga, odeće, četkice za zube, itd. I bilo je sjajno. Dok sam se vratio, sve je uvek bilo uredno vraćeno na svoje mesto. Ali onda jednog jutra, okačio sam isti mali znak na tu sliku Vinsenta van Goga. ( smeh ) I morate da kažete da ova soba nije sređivana od 1888. I kada sam ga vratio, izgledala je ovako. ( smeh ) Da, sada je bar moguće usisati. ( smeh )
OK, I mean, I can see there are always people that like reacting that one or another picture hasn't been properly tidied up. So we can make a short test with you. This is a picture by Rene Magritte, and I'd like you all to inwardly -- like in your head, that is -- to tidy that up. So it's possible that some of you would make it like this. (Laughter) Yeah? I would actually prefer to do it more this way. Some people would make apple pie out of it. But it's a very good example to see that the whole work was more of a handicraft endeavor that involved the very time-consuming job of cutting out the various elements and sticking them back in new arrangements. And it's not done, as many people imagine, with the computer, otherwise it would look like this. (Laughter)
OK, mislim, vidim da uvek ima ljudi koji reaguju na jednu ili drugu sliku kao da nije odgovarajuće sređena. Možemo da uradimo kratak test svi. Ovo je slika Rene Magrite, i voleo bih da svi iznutra - u svojoj glavi, tačnije - sredite ovo. Moguće je da će neki od vas to uraditi da liči na ovo. ( smeh ) Da? Ja bih više voleo da to uradim na ovaj način. Neki ljudi bi napravili od toga pitu od jabuka. Ali to je veoma dobar primer da se vidi da je čitav rad više zanatski poduhvat koji je uključio dugotrajan proces rezanja različith elemenata i ponovnog spajanja u nove aranžmane. I nije gotovo, kao što mnogi misle, sa računarom, inače bi izgledalo ovako. ( smeh )
So now I've been able to tidy up pictures that I've wanted to tidy up for a long time. Here is a very good example. Take Jackson Pollock, for example. It's -- oh, no, it's -- that's a really hard one. But after a while, I just decided here to go all the way and put the paint back into the cans. (Applause) Or you could go into three-dimensional art. Here we have the fur cup by Meret Oppenheim. Here I just brought it back to its original state. (Laughter) But yeah, and it's great, you can even go, you know -- Or we have this pointillist movement for those of you who are into art. The pointillist movement is that kind of paintings where everything is broken down into dots and pixels. And then I -- this sort of thing is ideal for tidying up. (Laughter)
Sada sam mogao da sredim slike koje sam dugo vremena želeo da sredim. Ovo je vrlo dobar primer. Na primer Džekson Polok. To je - o ne, to je - to je zaista teško. Ali nakon nekog vremena, odlučio sam da idem do kraja i da vratim boju nazad u konzerve. ( aplauz ) Ili možete da koristite trodimenzionalnu umetnost. Ovo je Fur Cup od Meret Openhajma. Samo sam je vratio u originalno stanje. ( smeh ) Ali da, sjajno je, možete čak, znate - Ili imamo ovaj pointilist pokret za one koje umetnost zanima. To je ona vrsta slikanja gde je sve svedeno na tačke i piksele I onda sam - ova vrsta je idealna za sređivanje. ( smeh )
So I once applied myself to the work of the inventor of that method, Georges Seurat, and I collected together all his dots. And now they're all in here. (Laughter) You can count them afterwards, if you like. You see, that's the wonderful thing about the tidy up art idea: it's new. So there is no existing tradition in it. There is no textbooks, I mean, not yet, anyway. I mean, it's "the future we will create." (Laughter) But to round things up I would like to show you just one more. This is the village square by Pieter Bruegel. That's how it looks like when you send everyone home. (Laughter) Yeah, maybe you're asking yourselves where old Bruegel's people went? Of course, they're not gone. They're all here. (Laughter) I just piled them up. (Laughter)
Jednom sam se prijavio za rad izumitelja tog pravca, Žorž Sera, i sakupio sam sve njegove tačke. I evo ih sve. ( smeh ) Možete da ih izbrojite posle, ako želite. Vidite, to je sjajna stvar u vezi sa idejom sređivanja umetnosti: Nova je. Dakle nema postojeće tradicije u njoj. Nema udžbenika, mislim, bar ne još. Mislim, to je " budućnost koju ćemo stvoriti." ( smeh ) Ali da zaokružimo stvari pokazaću vam još jednu. Ovo je seoski trg od Pitera Brojgela. Ovako izgleda kad sve pošaljete kući. ( smeh ) Da, možda se pitate gde su Brojgelovi ljudi otišli? Naravno da nisu otišli. Svi su tu. ( smeh ) Samo sam ih odstranio. ( smeh )
So I'm -- yeah, actually I'm kind of finished at that moment. And for those who want to see more, I've got my book downstairs in the bookshop. And I'm happy to sign it for you with any name of any artist. (Laughter) But before leaving I would like to show you, I'm working right now on another -- in a related field with my tidying up art method. I'm working in a related field. And I started to bring some order into some flags. Here -- that's just my new proposal here for the Union Jack. (Laughter) And then maybe before I leave you ... yeah, I think, after you have seen that I have to leave anyway. (Laughter) Yeah, that was a hard one. I couldn't find a way to tidy that up properly, so I just decided to make it a little bit more simpler. (Laughter) Thank you very much. (Applause)
Ja - da, ustvari nekako sam završio u ovom trenutku. A za one koji žele da vide više, moja knjiga je dole u knjižari. I biću srećan da je potpišem za vas sa imenom bilo kog umetnika. ( smeh ) Ali pre odlaska želeo bih da vam pokažem, trenutno radim na još jednom - sličnom polju sa mojim metodom sređivanja. Radim na sličnom polju. I počeo sam da unosim red u neke zastave. Evo - ovo je moj novi predlog za Junion Džek. ( smeh ) I možda pre nego što vas ostavim ... da, mislim da ću svakako morati da odem kad je pogledate. ( smeh ) Da, to je bilo teško. Nisam mogao da nađem način da je propisno sredim, pa sam odlučio da je pojednostavim. ( smeh ) Mnogo vam hvala. ( aplauz )