For this special issue of The New York Times Magazine, entitled “How to: A User’s Manual for Modern Living,” we asked Christoph Niemann to propose an illustrated story in which he would instruct the reader to accomplish something complex. Niemann, who had been learning to play the piano, proposed visualizing the playing of “Fur Elise,” which is the classic piece in every piano student’s repertoire. Niemann diagrammed it like dance notation, and the difficulty of playing this complex composition became instantly apparent.

“The Times hires illustrators as contributors. It seems that these were stand alones in terms of space and authorship.”

“The Times lets the illustrator provide the content. It’s communication through pure illustration as opposed to the pure editorial model.”