The 2008 TED prize winners have just been announced. As usual they are stunning individuals with global minds and big ideas! Check out the winner through the TED video above or here. I can’t wait to hear their dream announcements in March.
I’ve returned from the mind-numbing inspiring PopTech Conference still a bit jittery from the collective curious minds at this year’s awesome gathering. This year’s theme “The Human Impact” was way more than I expected covering everything from politics, waste, medicine, minds, communities, art, science, music, and everything else in between. The speakers filled the opera house with passion, greatness, huge questions, and ideas that sparked the hundreds attending and thousands watching online.
PopTech also launched a new extension to their conference called the “Pop!Tech Accelerator” facilitating world changing projects starting off with “Masiluleke“which is a groundbreaking software tool for HIV/AIDS patients throughout Africa. The idea of “Accelerator†is to leverage the community of PopTech attendees with their network to create world changing projects.
As usual, I’ll point my fingers to ninja blogger Ethan Zukerman who sat in the dungeon simulcast room next to me zipping his feisty fingers onto his furious laptop for the complete detailed recap, but I’™ll post more on my experience, a bit on the speakers, lots of pictures, and my journey up to beautiful Camden Maine. I’m not sure when all the footage will be archived and available for viewing, but they’ll eventually appear on their PopCasts Streams which I’d suggest catching up to.
My recap after the jump, otherwise, Poptech 2008, a definite must go to!
Here’s another great TEDtalk by Vilayanur Ramachandran on the brain, phantom limbs, synestesia, and how vision plays a critical role in all our minds.
“In a wide-ranging talk, Vilayanur Ramachandran explores how brain damage can reveal the connection between the internal structures of the brain and the corresponding functions of the mind. He talks about phantom limb pain, synesthesia (when people hear color or smell sounds), and the Capgras delusion, when brain-damaged people believe their closest friends and family have been replaced with imposters.”
Many friends ask me why am I so scientific about design, or why do I dissect every element possible before concluding to a final design direction (interaction, experience, and industrial design). Usually I just say there is no other choice, but such videos as the above explain it all. There is reason for everything and that’s the exciting part. I can stop and say I just like a design, but to figure out why someone likes, hates, or experiences a design differently is the good stuff. Everyone has a different experience growing up hence in my world there is no such thing as an exact definition but only dynamic definitions. This goes for words, colors, emotions, scents, ideas, cultures, objects, people, etc.
Anyways, I won’t dive into this argument too long because there is no wrong or right… just an opinion. I’ll admit I wasn’t always like this, but I’ll list a few videos over the years that have that made me dive deeper into the “design thinking” world. Hearing from non-designers is key in our future. We are a hybrid society of designers. If you inspire only from designers, you’ll just become the same… so diversify and become the hybrid that we all are.
Sweet goodness! What a great idea. Manufacturing Beer bottles to convert to brick structures for later use. This reminds me of the POM bottles that can be used as regular glass cups for home use. Why can’t this come back to reality! The amount of bottles tossed each year is absurd. Makes me want to ask photographer Chris Jordan to make a visual map of it for his “Running Numbers” series! (Did ya know in the USA alone we go through 106,000 aluminum cans every 30 seconds! It’s absurd!) There’s also the “66 Beer Bottle= a cheap solar water heater” direction.
“Upcycling is a 21st century term, coined by Cradle to Cradle authors William McDonough and Michael Braungart, but the idea of turning waste into useful products came to life brilliantly in 1963 with the HeinekenWOBO (world bottle). Envisioned by beer brewer Alfred Heineken and designed by Dutch architect John Habraken, the “brick that holds beer†was ahead of its ecodesign time, letting beer lovers and builders alike drink and design all in one sitting.
Mr. Heineken’s idea came after a visit to the Caribbean where he saw two problems: beaches littered with bottles and a lack of affordable building materials. The WOBO became his vision to solve both the recycling and housing challenges that he had witnessed on the islands.”
I want I want!!! It’s like buying Lego’s with your beer bottle as an adult! or you can just reuse what you have laying around much like the students at Western Washington University.(their show is in Seattle today, Nov 10th, 5-7pm)
“Larry Lessig gets TEDsters to their feet, whooping and whistling, following this elegant presentation of “three stories and an argument.” The Net’s most adored lawyer brings together John Philip Sousa, celestial copyrights, and the “ASCAP cartel” to build a case for creative freedom. He pins down the key shortcomings of our dusty, pre-digital intellectual property laws, and reveals how bad laws beget bad code. Then, in an homage to cutting-edge artistry, he throws in some of the most hilarious remixes you’ve ever seen.”
Afterwards, watch some of my favorites from TED2006 here.
Check this out. Some students get summer jobs holding up signs on street corners, they get bored, so they start competing against each other, flipping their signs like bartenders with bottles or pizza dough spinners. They start up their own advertising company, their acrobatic signage goes viral , and now they have a multi million dollar company with sign spinners across the country! via The Big Idea
Seriously, you can freshen up any dead business and make millions… very cool!
Watch the video above, their website, story, or other videos.
Woa! People crashing through dry walls, flying boxes, and debris while gliding through slimmers of water above you on a transparent surface, stomping furiously through rooms, pumping their arms and feet to music, under, over, and on all sides of you! Very cool! Check out their video above, hit up their website, and go get tickets for their brief NYC visit!
“Att: New Yorkers. Get your credit cards ready, and book your standing space at ‘Fuerzabruta’, one of the most unique shows you’ll ever see. ‘Fuerzabrutaâ’ is a celebration of pure physicality, where performers move seamlessly between three stages – ground , air and underwater – to a thumping score that’ll make you feel as if you’re in an experimental Paris nightclub. Sexy, exhilarating and breath-taking to say the least. “There are people who see the show that dance and stomp and get caught up in the physical parts, while some just watch with their mouths hanging open” says co-creator Diqui James. The audience is obliged to stand during the performance, but really, you’d be giving the same amount of standing ovations anyway. Fuerzabruta is on at the Daryl Roth Theatre until February 17. Tickets are $70 but a limited quantity of $25 rush tickets are made available at the box office 2 hours before show time (cash only)” via coolhunter
“A very simple modification to a standard electrical coverplate changes its function from one of consumption into conservation. A standard junction box behind the face plate catches your coins and saves them.”
Neat! I’d probably need a cash or credit card slot, but I like the concept. I wonder if there are any electrical metering attachments, somewhat like the iSave water meter concept. This almost makes me want to make a piggy bank for the green, sustainability, aids, foundations etc…take all that pocket change that pile high monthly and donate it. A Donation Piggy bank.
I’m all for cool interfaces, but sometimes fun interfaces overwhelm the users experience being too complex and taking too much time hence not getting the user adoption needed. The thing I really like about Airtight Interactive is that they put just enough freshness into their products without over doing. Keep it rocking!
