Abstract: Christoph Niemann

Regardless of Niemann's witty humor, the realness he portrays makes him extremely relatable as an artist. This episode had two main ideas to me: we can not control our creative paths and that art is work. In particular, Niemann's ideas about controlling the situation really resonated with me. In my own life I like a sense of control. Every aspect has to be meticulously planned, so often times I do get frustrated with my creative work and I can't find a solution. It's interesting that in these same situations I face, Niemann endures the pain and preservers to find a solution. Many times when I can't find the right idea or I don't feel succesful, I want to give up. Niemann on the hand has used his instagram to challenge his frustrations. He said the process involves a lot of doing nothing and just "thinking", something that doesn't come easy to me. But he conveys that there are endless solutions, it simply depends on what angle we are looking from. Other times he also mentioned looking at your art as thought you were the audience to provide another perspective. This idea is confusing to me because I've always been told that art is an expression of self and the artists job is to put work out and hope someone enjoys it. Niemann flips this idea and rather creates for his audience. Overall, he offered some new insights that I hope I can adopt into my own creative process.