Danish architect Bjarke Ingels is the principal of the architecture firm BIG, based in Copenhagen. An alumnus of Rem Koolhaas’ OMA practice, Ingels takes a similar approach: experimenting with pure space, but never losing sight of the building as a solution to a real-world problem. In his talk, Bjarke Ingels rockets through photo/video-mingled stories of his eco-flashy designs. His buildings not only look like nature — they act like nature: blocking the wind, collecting solar energy — and creating stunning views.
What does technology mean in our lives? That’s the question Kevin Kelly explored in his new talk. Kelly presented a new definition of technology: ‘anything useful invented by a mind’ – whether it be a hammer or the rule of law. So technology is more than gadgets; it’s part of a great story that started long ago, an extension of life and it is moving through us.
Prof. dr. Wubbo J. Ockels is a Dutch physicist, and also the Netherlands’ original astronaut. He is a Professor of Aerospace Sustainable Engineering and Technology at the University of Delft, and tries to stimulate a mentality change among Dutch citizens.
In his mind-bending TEDxAmsterdam talk, Ockels explains how ‘time’ is created by human beings, as a way our brains can make sense of gravity. The speed of light is constant, because it is made by us: it’s the clock by which we have calibrated our existence. Based on this premise, Ockels proposes a new way to explore life in our galaxy.
“The original Dutch astronaut, Professor Wubbo J. Ockels, sliced through the atmosphere of self-congratulation to give a mind-bending talk, based on his experiences in space. He started by berating the audience for pretending to understand the universe and mysteriously declaring, “I know what it is that you don’t know yet and it will change your life”. What we didn’t know, and were told, was that time is a creation of life, since it’s the only way our brains can make sense of gravity. This can be pithily put in the very post-Cartesian phrase: “I live, therefore time passes”. Such a view isn’t a new notion philosophically (Heidegger suggested being and time determine each other reciprocally), nor physiologically (which acknowledges time is a construct of the central nervous system) but it was not treated with seriousness in physics.” Read the full article…
Composer Merlijn Twaalfhoven is most known by the remarkable projects he creates, connecting styles, cultures but first of all people. Twaalfhovens intention is to bridge worlds of contrast, and to mix unusual elements to a new unity. In his TEDxAmsterdam talk, he suggests that art needs to be reconnected to society to open the art world for new audiences.
Or as he says on his own website,
“‘Strictly speaking, I am not interested in adding more and more new art to the existing arsenal, but want to investigate ways to refine the perception of the visitor and open their senses. I think contemporary, innovative art should be placed in the great open world and not only in the laboratory – or museum-like environment of theaters, concert rooms and cultural institutions. By taking art out of its setting of the existing expectations and behavior patterns of the audience, I would like them to look at experience at hand in a new and refreshed way. I do not wish to mark art by its boundaries, but instead melt it with commonplace matters and the space around it.”‘ Read the full article…
Tony DiSanto is President of Programming and Development at MTV in New York in the United States. In his TEDxAmsterdam talk he explores the way we tell stories in a digital age. DiSanto developed several reality shows and was executive producer of hit series Run’s House, The Hills, The City, Paris Hilton, My New BFF and Made. In 1998 DiSanto co-founded very popular shows like Total Request Live (“TRL”) with Carson Daly and Say What? Karaoke. DiSanto studied at the NYU Film School and worked as a director of music videos, shorts and commercials before he joined MTV in the nineties.
Karsu Dönmez (1990) is a pianist and singer from Amsterdam of Turkish descent. She is seen as a major talent in the field of jazz and is being called the Dutch Norah Jones. Young as she is, she has already performed in Carnegie Hall in New York twice, and played her repertoire of original music, easy listening, classical and ethnic music in the world reknowned Concertgebouw. She is also a regular performer on Dutch TV, and has recently signed up with AT Productions/Sony Music.
Karsu, together with violinist Muge Alpay, contributed some wonderful songs to TEDxAmsterdam. In the video above she sings “I’ll leave alone”, followed by the Turkish song “‘Cok Uzaklarda” Read the full article…
“Holons and Holarchies, Complex Networks Unravelling the Origin of Knowledge and Culture“ was the title of the talk given by Prof Dr ir Nico Baken. In his talk, Baken explores the knowledge we can gain by observing networks and networks characteristics, knowing that all logical entities, holons, can be organized in networks. What if we transfer this knowledge and mechanisms from one network domain to another? Not sure what a holon is? You are one, and so are we – listen to this talk to get an idea what that means!
Professor Dr. ir. Nico Baken currently holds a part-time chair in the Telecommunications Department at Delft University of Technology alongside his primary position as Visionary and Senior Strategist within the department Corporate Strategy of the Royal KPN, the Dutch incumbent Telecom operator.
His main interests concern Broadband Networks and Services, dealing with a broad range of themes such as Sensors (RFID’s), Vehicle, Home and Personal Networks, Fiber To The Home, fixed-mobile convergence, operations, financial strategies e.g. the Real Option Analysis, managerial complexity and regulations. Read the full article…
We are in the middle of a golden era of exploration. Particle physicists are probing the smallest distances; cosmologists are looking at the very end of the universe. All are looking for answers to fundamental questions. What is matter made of? Are there extra dimensions? What is the nature of space and time? What can we learn from our past and future?
Robbert Dijkgraaf (1960) is Distinguished University Professor of Mathematical Physics at the University of Amsterdam. From 1 May 2008 he is President of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). In his TEDxAmsterdam talk, he showed us how we now know how much we do not know.
Gary Carter is Chief Operating Officer of FremantleMedia, one of the largest independent entertainment brand companies in the world. His responsibilities include the management of the central creative functions of the company across all genres and platforms, as well as the management of the overall strategic development of the group.
In his TEDxAmsterdam talk, he presented his world from two very different angles. He started with the world from the perspective of FremantleMedia, a world of target audiences and formats, ”universal” stories and a search for the greatest common denominator; but then, in a move that surprised many in the audience, he turned to his own family and the world of his son.
He showed how different his son’s world is, how the views and interpretations of that world differ too, and how wide the range of human experience can be. Garter concluded that our differences are actually what matter most. As part of Gary Carter’s talk, Albana Shala read her poem ‘Learning to kiss’, and the talk ended with a beautiful rendition of the song Learning to Kiss (music by Jonathan Cooper, lyrics by Albana Shala. performed by Paulien Adriana, Marius de Vos and Kevin Walton, from the CD: Jonathan Cooper: The Madness of Kisses and with pictures by Ania Dabrowska) Read the full article…
Dr. Gerhard Knies is a co-founder of TREC, a network of experts on sustainable energy. TREC gave rise to the DESERTEC initiative, a unique industry initiative to develop a reliable, sustainable and climate-friendly energy supply from the deserts in the Middle East and North Africa. In his TEDxAmsterdam talk Knies explains the concept and shows that the idea is realistic.
From Wired UK, Our Man in Amsterdam: “His solution was exciting – converting deserts into massive solar farms, and more importantly, feasible: he estimated that with the help of subsidies, the technology could become an attractive option to the financial markets within 6 years. The momentum from that, he argued, would mean clean energy for all within 25 years and would cost less than €40 billion.” Read the full article…
