Hey everybody.
Today we're going to talk about Nina Katchadourian's
assignment, sorted books.
Yeah, I love this is assignment.
Great to see books used in art and to see biographies
through books.
We're going to do some critiquing today,
very exciting.
We're also going to share some of our favorites.
This was a great assignment because it caught on
not just with "The Art Assignment" community,
but also with other communities-- the "Book
Tube" community and a bunch of others.
It was cool.
Yeah.
And the more assignment responses we get, the better.
Because we get unexpected, fantastic responses,
and the whole project gets more interesting.
So we told you things might get a little tougher in season two.
And it's time for a little tough love.
Presentation matters, guys.
Yeah, it's really important.
In fact, you can't separate content from presentation,
I would argue.
Like, if I published a novel and it was the exact same
as any of my other novels, but the entire book was printed
in Comic Sans, it would change people's relationship with it.
Negatively.
So it's really important to use focus and lighting,
even on a camera phone.
Yeah, I mean making art is full of decision
making, even if you're not aware of it.
What's behind the books matter.
How you've stacked the spines matters.
The typography of the books you've chosen matters.
So one thing I saw a lot in the art assignment
is that people who took extra time
saw tremendous improvements in their work.
So you guys played a lot with the rules
on this one, which we always kind of like.
We sort of like it when people break the rules.
Yeah, we do.
Nina asked you to sort someone else's books
and to create a kind of portrait of them,
using three stacks of books.
But many of you sorted your own books, often
autobiographically.
And a lot of you did it really well.
JOHN GREEN: Yeah, like I really liked this one,
by Kyle Jones and also this one, by Michelle Koppel.
SARAH URIST GREEN: And I really like this one
by Louisa, who said, "It pretty much sums up
how studying politics at university
makes me feel about politics and the state of affairs in Germany
and the world."
Yeah, one thing I like about that one
is that it's sort of tilted.
Another example of how presentation matters.
SARAH URIST GREEN: And I really liked this one
by Meredith, which also gave us a little peek into her room.
JOHN GREEN: And then, of course, there
were many non-autobiographical interesting ones, like this non
self portrait, "Imagined Communities-- My life as a Fake
Fan Girl" by Kelsey, which imagines a character
through book spines.
But then there were some really beautiful responses
by people who did stick to the letter of the Katchadourian law
and sorted other people's books.
JOHN GREEN: Yeah, I really liked the cross generational ones,
like this one by Stephanie, using her grandmother's books.
And this one by Anna was suitably grandma-y,
complete with the little cat on top.
But there were also many other fascinating portraits
of family members.
SARAH URIST GREEN: Like this one,
of Erin Michelle's parents.
And I especially liked this portrait of a marriage,
by Rachel Johanna.
JOHN GREEN: And just one more.
I really love this artist's portrait
of her parents' marriage.
I like how right after "War and Peace" the books
just, tchuk-- you know.
Presentation.
And that reminds me of some of the great responses
you guys did that embraced the sculptural aspect
of this project.
When Nina Katchadourian forms these stacks,
they're really kind of these temporary sculptures that
exist, and then she photographs them,
and then they disassemble and return to their libraries.
But for this moment, you're really
aware of books as sculptural three dimensional objects.
Another thing I really enjoyed were the non-English language
submissions.
I can't read in those languages.
But it made me pay more attention to the context.
SARAH URIST GREEN: I actually found myself
looking at those submissions longer,
because I couldn't read them and I couldn't sort of
enter the story of them.
I looked at the background, I looked at the book design,
the typography.
I really enjoyed these.
And then it made it even better to then read the descriptions.
Lots of people who didn't have access
to large book collections of their own or their friends
also went to the library, which I thought was awesome.
For one thing, the library usually removes dust jackets
from books, which makes the titles kind of cooler
and more interesting to read.
But a lot of these library submissions really struck me.
SARAH URIST GREEN: Right.
And then, instead of doing a portrait
of an individual or a couple, you're
making a portrait of a community.
Many of the ones I enjoyed in particular
were thematic in nature.
JOHN GREEN: Yeah, like I really liked
Nancy's portrait of Malcolm X. Art Assignment producer Matt
Vree, the amazing Matt Vree, had this fascinating one
about the life and mind of a photographer.
SARAH URIST GREEN: And this great one by Kevin Townsend,
about a life in the arts.
Some of the other focuses were on creating actual narratives
from book spines, which I thought was awesome.
Particularly this one, which used "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa
Puffs" and "Breakfast of Champions"
to tell a story about America.
SARAH URIST GREEN: And then some of them
were just beautiful and great.
And I'm just going to let you look at them.
JOHN GREEN: Yeah, Sarah really liked these.
And she didn't want to end the video without them.
And they are really good.
So here.
SARAH URIST GREEN: I found that many of my favorites
were the shortest stacks of just two or three books.
I really marveled at how much you can communicate
with just a few short phrases.
JOHN GREEN: Yeah, this episode of "The Art Assignment"
gave me one of my new, all time favorite sentences,
The sun also rises when things fall apart.
Looking at all of these, I kept marveling
at the eclecticism of most everybody's book collections.
How you don't just have one kind of book
or another kind of book, but we all
have this crazy mix of books that
can yield some really interesting sorted
books projects.
JOHN GREEN: Yeah, it reminds me of how complicated we all are.
The same person can own dry, philosophical texts
and "Weirdos from Another Planet."
This is definitely the kind of assignment
that I plan to continue doing, as I
go along and meet new people and stay at new people's houses.
And I think you guys should continue to do it too.
Yeah, thank you so much for all of the sorted books
assignments that you've done.
Please continue to do them.
Let us know about them by using #theartassignment or submitting
it on Tumblr.
And thanks again.
This has been so fun.
You guys are bunch of weirdos from another planet.
And we're really glad about that.