Shadowing Practice: Why do some artists become famous? | Albert-László Barabási - Learn English Speaking with Video
Choose a practice mode
Each mode opens a full-screen practice room.
78 sentences
If sentences are too short or too long, click Edit to adjust them.
1
There are multiple measures of success in art.
2
Some artists work for the pleasure of producing and they really don't care about external recognition.
3
Some really want to make an impact in their immediate community.
4
However, the traditional measure of success is really external recognition.
5
What galleries show your work?
6
What museums show your work?
7
Is your work selling?
8
Is it entering the auction market?
9
The amount of money collectors are willing to pay for it.
10
What are the factors that really drive these measurable successes?
11
Before starting my studies in science, I wanted to be an artist.
12
And I studied to be an artist and I hang out with artists and collectors and so on.
13
Many of my friends as artists are convinced that they have only one job in front of them, to really express their talent,
14
to paint, to sculpt, to do whatever they do.
15
And it is not their job to be discovered.
16
That's a society's work.
17
One of the reasons I'm really interested in art beyond the intellectual interest towards art
18
is because art is very different from other measures of performance.
19
If you are a runner I can just have a chronometer
20
and measure how fast you run and
21
that will uniquely determine whether you're a good runner
22
or a bad runner and also will determine the rewards you get from running.
23
The problem in art is that we don't have a chronometer.
24
In contemporary art it's almost impossible to look at the work in isolation and decide what is its value, how important it is.
25
In the contemporary art context, the value of an artwork is determined by very complex networks.
26
Who is the artist?
27
Where that artist has exhibited before?
28
Where was that work exhibited before?
29
Who owns it and who owned it before?
30
And how these multiple links connect to the canon and to art history in general. So
31
if we want to understand how really value emerges in the art world
32
we need to really map out these dependencies and the multiple networks that drive the value of art.
33
A few years ago we did that.
34
Through this mapping process we ended up getting a worldwide map of institutions where it turned out the most central nodes,
35
the most connected nodes happened to be also the most prestigious museums.
36
MoMA, Tate, Gogossian Gallery, some of the biggest museums worldwide.
37
The most interesting aspect of this network was that it allowed us to predict artistic success.
38
That is, if you give me an artist and their first five exhibits, I put them on the map and we could fast forward their career.
39
Were they going to be 10, 20 years from now?
40
And the predictions were incredibly accurate.
41
You have to think from the perspective of the gatekeepers, And the gatekeepers are the institutions.
42
And the network of how the gatekeepers are connected
43
and who is paying attention to whom is really the one that determines your access to the art market as an artist.
44
Because the path towards the center is much faster if you are already next to it.
45
And it's very difficult for somebody to enter from the periphery.
46
But our research did show that it's possible.
47
We ended up finding about roughly 250 artists who really started from the bottom,
48
from the periphery, from unknown institutions and made it all the way to the top.
49
And what the data indicated is that they did not follow the traditional advice of how you succeed as an artist,
50
which is get a gallery and work with them.
51
That is, the gallery will guarantee your future.
52
rather these artists who managed to go from the periphery to the center
53
at the beginning of their career they worked with many many institutions
54
they practically exhibited everywhere they were willing to show their work
55
and through these many random acts of exhibitions they ended up hitting a couple of better connected notes
56
that offered a path for them towards the center it's really reconfirmed of how important networks are in art
57
and how important it is for an artist to really understand the networks in which their work is embedded in,
58
in order to guarantee that sooner or later the work will arrive where he or she dreams to arrive at.
59
Artistic success is driven by many factors.
60
Location is one of them.
61
Talent is another one.
62
Talent is what gives you access to the nodes
63
that you start the working talent is the one that gives you entry into the network.
64
And the more talented you are, more and higher level institutions are willing to work with them.
65
So the reason we can predict your future from the first five exhibits,
66
because by who was willing to work with you in your five exhibits is already a measure of your talent
67
and your future journey in the art world.
68
The problem is that as a young artist, you don't really understand which is the better institution and which is more connected.
69
Of course everybody knows the role of MoMA and the big big galleries
70
but what you don't know is that among the many small galleries
71
that you have access to who may have a path towards the center.
72
The question you need to ask are you there in the short run on the long run?
73
In the short run you can make a career to Instagram
74
and these many social networks but if you are in for the long run these noise making effects don't really matter.
75
The question is, can you bring an artistic practice that resonates with the time and has a unique visual characteristics?
76
In that sense, science and art are not different.
77
The influential artists and the influential scientists are those on whose work the next generation of artists or scientists can build on.
78
Thank you.
Download App
Everything you need to speak fluently
AI PronunciationScore every sentence
IPA PracticeMaster every sound
VocabularyBuild your word bank
Vocab GameLearn while playing
Same Channel
C12
We can cure almost all human diseases. Here’s how. | Albert-László Barabási
Daily ConversationUniversity Students
C13
I study demonic possession dreams. Here’s what we’ve found. | Patrick McNamara
Daily ConversationUniversity Students
C16
We could make every human on Earth rich and happy—if we decided to | Agustín Fuentes
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C14
Why sex, food, and shelter aren’t enough for Homo Sapiens | Agustín Fuentes
Daily ConversationUniversity Students
C11
Master your anxiety. Unleash your genius | Jesse Eisenberg for Big Think+
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C13
A mind-blowing explanation of symmetry | Frank Wilczek for Big Think
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
How evolution works, in 54 minutes | Sean B. Carroll: Full Interview
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
The psychology of persuasion, as told by an Ivy League professor | Jonah Berger for Big Think+
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C12
Why ‘turning the other cheek’ is fundamentally misunderstood | Bishop Robert Barron
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C15
How many people are in hell? | Bishop Robert Barron
Daily ConversationUniversity Students
C14
What kind of atheist are you? | Clay Routledge
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B23
How do elite performers automate their habits? | Wendy Wood
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C12
Where is the evidence for God? | Bishop Robert Barron
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C12
Why I’m against empathy | Paul Bloom
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
The famous tree-falling thought experiment has a new answer | Lisa Feldman Barrett
Daily ConversationUniversity Students
C14
Become a great strategic thinker | Ian Bremmer
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C12
The absurd power of shared belief | Lisa Feldman Barrett
Daily ConversationUniversity Students
C12
Would a society based on genetics be… good? | Kathryn Paige Harden
Daily ConversationUniversity Students
C12
The lost art of accomplishment without burnout | Cal Newport for Big Think +
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C113
Supernatural thinking: Your brain’s anti-anxiety mode | Clay Routledge
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
FOR YOU
Recommend Video
B22
23 sentences
Why Study Art? | TateShots
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C1331 sentences
The New Generation of YouTube Influencers
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
167 sentences
Bestselling Author Adam Grant on Why We're More Disconnected Than Ever
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B214
45 sentences
What makes art so expensive? | CNBC Explains
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
C111
32 sentences
Is This Really Art? The Banana on the Wall
American AccentBritish AccentDaily ConversationUniversity Students
C12
68 sentences
Monet's Water Lilies: Great Art Explained
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
288 sentences
Art Direction Techniques You Can Use
Daily ConversationUniversity Students
C13
159 sentences
Episode 1: "What is social ontology?" - Prof Brian Epstein
Daily ConversationUniversity Students
C17
175 sentences
The Lost Art Of The Intellectual Life
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C12
40 sentences
The Airport Story That Reveals How Great Thinkers Solve Problems | Terence Tao | MasterClass
Daily ConversationUniversity Students
Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Why do some artists become famous?”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: artist, network, institution, talent, measure. This video has 55 sentences and 971 words to shadow. The speech runs for 6:07. The speaker talks at a natural 159 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 89% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow. 12 of its 55 sentences are questions, so it is good practice for question intonation and short answers.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| institution noun | /ˌɪn.stɪˈtʃuː.ʃən/ | A long-established organization or type of organization, particularly one involved with education, public service, or charity work. |
| exhibit verb | /ɪɡˈzɪbɪt/ | To display or show (something) for others to see, especially at an exhibition or contest. |
| connect verb | /kəˈnɛkt/ | To join (to another object): to attach, or to be intended to attach or capable of attaching, to another object. |
| node noun | /noʊd/ | A knot, knob, protuberance or swelling. |
| runner noun | /ˈɹʌnɚ/ | A person who moves, on foot, at a fast pace, especially an athlete. |
| artistic adjective | /ɑɹˈtɪs.tɪk/ | Having or revealing creative skill. |
| recognition noun | /ˌɹɛkəɡˈnɪʃ(ə)n/ | The act of recognizing or the condition of being recognized (matching a current observation with a memory of a prior observation of the same entity). |
| guarantee noun | /ˌɡæɹ.ənˈtiː/ | Anything that assures a certain outcome. |
| arrive verb | /əˈɹaɪv/ | To reach; to get to a certain place. |
| scientist noun | /ˈsaɪəntəst/ | One whose activities make use of the scientific method to answer questions regarding the measurable universe. A scientist may be involved in original research… |
| influential adjective | /ɪnflʊˈɛnʃəl/ | Having or exerting influence. |
| predict verb | /pɹɪˈdɪkt/ | To make a prediction: to forecast, foretell, or estimate a future event on the basis of knowledge and reasoning; to prophesy a future event on the basis of… |
| collector noun | /kəˈlɛk.tɚ/ | A person who or thing that collects, or which creates or manages a collection. |
| aspect noun | /ˈæspɛkt/ | Any specific feature, part, or element of something. |
| discover verb | /dɪˈskʌvə/ | To find or learn something for the first time. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. |
| turn out verb | To end up; to result. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- What galleries showed your work?
- What museums show your work?
- Is your work selling?
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 10 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, you're, gonna. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: institution /ˌɪn.stɪˈtʃuː.ʃən/, recognition /ˌɹɛkəɡˈnɪʃ(ə)n/, influential /ɪnflʊˈɛnʃəl/, exhibition /ɛksɪˈbɪʃən/, auction /ˈɔkʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: institution /ˌɪn.stɪˈtʃuː.ʃən/, recognition /ˌɹɛkəɡˈnɪʃ(ə)n/, influential /ɪnflʊˈɛnʃəl/, incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/, exhibition /ɛksɪˈbɪʃən/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like institution, exhibit, connect.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.