Here's an idea.
Nail art proves that anything can
be a canvas for artistic expression.
[THEME MUSIC]
I'm sorry, wait, nail art?
Like on your nails, nail art?
[BLEEP] yeah, nail art.
Nail art ranges from, "Wow, that probably took a while"
to "Oh my god, what?
On your nails?
Get out of town."
If you're like me, you probably have
some pretty standard assumptions about painting nails.
It's a simple, delicate, and largely feminine activity which
places a premium on neatness.
It's not really technique-intensive or
thematic.
In short, it's not art, it's craft.
And the battle between these two ideas
goes back about as far as the idea of art itself.
Nope, further.
Even further.
Nope, keep-- keep going.
Oh, no, that's too far.
Ancient Greeks used the word techne
to describe creative pursuits which are functional.
You know, things like blacksmithing, cigar-rolling,
and putting together Swedish furniture.
(WHISPERING) I hate you.
Sure, they're creative, but they don't express bigger ideas.
And they don't concern themselves
with things like ethics, politics, or meaning.
These more lofty subjects are tackled
by artworks which contain a sort of poetry, or poesis,
as it was called back in the day.
The point being anything not about serious ideas is a craft.
And as we all know, painting on your nails--
seriously not serious.
Unless-- what if the idea expressed by the craft
is the extreme attention to detail,
the devotion to technique?
To be fair, isn't nail art taking the painting of nails
well beyond any kind of function and bringing it
to a level of artistry, and even, maybe, beauty?
In a way, this makes nail art a lot like fashion.
Most clothing design has a practical, craft-like nature.
But the goal of much high fashion
is not practical at all.
I would buy that.
The goal is to express, evoke, and inspire.
And in doing so, fashion can cross
that techne-poesis border.
This artfulness comes when designers
rethink all of the details.
What if pants didn't have two legs?
And who says hats need to be round?
And you know what?
Symmetry isn't that cool to begin with.
Fashion superhero Karl Lagerfeld said
that "Fashion doesn't have to prove that it's serious.
It is the proof the intelligent frivolity can be something
creative and positive."
In nail art, just like in fashion, just like in art art,
you can be your most free when you assume zilch about your art
form and allow yourself to just go nuts.
With this attitude, you begin to see yarn as a drawing medium,
chocolate as a sculptural material,
and fingernails as teeny little canvases
ready to express those big ideas.
German philosopher Martin Heidegger describe poesis
as a kind of bringing forth, a moment where
the stuff that makes up the artwork-- the metal
or pixels or fingernails or whatever--
becomes more than the sum of its parts,
and you have a realization.
A moment.
Nail art's strength is that it's an art form which exists
on people, out in the world.
It's this context-- crafty, quotidian, personal--
which makes it special and more than a little surprising.
Because we're used to seeing this.
But when you see this, you're all like, "Er, mah, gerd."
Because that is some poesis up in here.
What do you guys think?
When does craft become art?
Let us know in the comments.
And if you like us, you should subscribe.
And tell your mom to tell her book club about us,
and to subscribe.
Please subscribe.
I just flew in from VidCon, and boy, is my sunburn tired.
I had an amazing weekend where I got
to hang out with some of my favorite people from YouTube.
John and Hank Green, Vsauce, Minute Physics,
Veritasium, Destin from Smarter Every Day,
Brady from Numberphile, Vi Hart from Khan Academy,
Forest for Know Your Meme-- all people who I have huge nerd
crushes on.
And I also got to meet a ton of you
guys, which was so much fun.
Let's do it again sometimes.
And I got to do an interview with our PBS bros, National
Film Society.
We'll put a link in the description
so you can check it out.
They are very charming.
There were so many opinions about our music genres episode.
Let's see what you guys had to say.
Rookie8254 makes a really awesome comparison
between music genres and a broken pencil eraser.
It's actually really good.
I might use that.
Can I use that?
threenorth3 makes the point that music genres aren't helpful
because they don't tell you whether or not music is good.
Maybe we should just make two music genres-- good and bad.
I'm sure we can all come to an agreement about what
goes where.
2bitgirly007 makes explicit the fact
that genres help people feel comfortable.
Some genres make me feel uncomfortable.
Like polka.
Staticseven187 points out that the homogenization of genres
might be caused by the homogenization
of music-making tools.
In some circles I think that's called
technological determinism, and I'm
sure someone has a PhD in it.
aRockandRollNerd makes a very convincing argument
for the difference between sci-fi
writing and magical realism.
I am very convinced.
DannoHung makes a really interesting point
that genre might just be a lacking facility of language,
and that we should come up with better ways to describe music.
I kind of agree.
Really.
That's pretty smart.
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