« TED2007: Day two wrap-up | Main | TED2007: Sketchblogging the conference »

09 March 2007

TED2007 Day Two: things that knocked my hat in the creek

Oh boy, Day Two of TED2007 was so full of interesting stuff that it bled in to Day Three, which is why I find myself here at 4am in the morning writing this blog post.  Again, I'll make no attempt to talk about everything (see Bruno's posts for that point of view), just a few things which stuck out for me.

Day Two for me was, above all, a day of vivid imagery.

John Maeda gave an elegant talk via a stream of beautiful images covering everything from a life responsibility curve to good tofu to cheese puff drawing tools to sushi.  He showed us everything we ever needed to know about simplicity with just two photos of cookies, one small and one large, and two photos of piles of laundry, one small and one large.  You want the large cookie but the small laundry pile, and that's simplicity in a nutshell.

Microsoft brought us some amazing demos, including one of Photosynth, which synthesizes a scalable image based on a search of flickr for all images of a specific subject, such as the cathedral of Notre Dame (photo credit Jurvetson):

Notredame

Theo Jansen showed us videos of his wind-driven walking creatures, and also had an actual working machine/artificial animal walking across the stage -- effortlessly stepping to create, in effect, a virtual wheel.  Here's a photo, but also be sure to see the video here:

Ted07theojansen1

2007 TEDPrize winner James Nachtwey's haunting images reminded us all how much needs to be done in the world.  And how lucky all of us in the TED community (which means YOU!) are to be in life circumstances which allow us to dream.  In the midst of so much talent, drive, imagination, as well as the wealth which results from the confluence of those three factors, it's easy to forget that this mode of existence is a far, far cry from the reality of so many citizens of our planet.  We heard many macro- and micro-economic statistics today.  But no statistics trying to describe life a less than a dollar a day can compete with Nachtwey's imagery of people's bodies wasting away from starvation.  See a few of them in this video:

A day of vivid imagery, indeed.

Posted by Diego Rodriguez |

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/523823/16719984

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference TED2007 Day Two: things that knocked my hat in the creek:

» Strandbeest - wind powered artificial life-form from Creation Noise
Theao Jansen builds artificial creatures, which can move with the wind. He calls his creation Strandbeest. Those beests combine an artistic beauty with technological fascination. Despite their size and complex structure, they move with s... [Read More]

Tracked on 13 March 2007 at 10:30 AM

Comments

Post a comment

This weblog only allows comments from registered users. To comment, please Sign In.

Who We Are

  • The TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference is an annual event where leading thinkers and doers gather for inspiration. (More at TED.com) The TEDBlog covers the same ground, on a rather more frequent basis.

What We Blog About

Recent Comments

TED Bloggers

What We're Reading

  • Chris Anderson: The Long Tail

    Chris Anderson: The Long Tail
    Wired Magazine Editor Chris Anderson (not to be confused with TED Curator Chris Anderson) has expanded on the thesis in his original article to create a must-read book for anyone remotely interested in business, marketing or communication in the Internet age. It shows clearly how and why millions of new businesses and voices are flourishing in our new connected economy.

  • Daniel Gilbert: Stumbling on Happiness

    Daniel Gilbert: Stumbling on Happiness
    In one of the most brilliant pieces of science writing we've come across, Harvard Professor Dan Gilbert turns our ideas about happiness -- and ourselves -- upside down. Stumbling on Happiness isn't just profound. It's also unbelievably readable and funny. We urge you to give the book a try. It will change the way you think about yourself.

  • Cameron Sinclair: Design Like You Give a Damn: Architectural Responses to Humanitarian Crises

    Cameron Sinclair: Design Like You Give a Damn: Architectural Responses to Humanitarian Crises
    From one of this year's TEDPrize winners comes a book bursting with intriguing -- and often beautiful -- examples of how designers and architects around the world have created innovative housing for those most in need of it. You can't read it without feeling inspired...

Archives

Powered by TypePad