TED 2009: Understand
This was the top session of the conference so far….
Kicked off by Nina Jablonski we enjoyed a fascinating combo of history and science. The history of human evolution has been written in our skin and Nina took us through what this astounding assertion really means.
Next up was Louise Fresco who bravely baked bread while delivering her TED talk. She talked about authenticity in our food and how removed we have become from what our bread really is. This drives many people to advocate a return to small scale farming and the growing popularity of farmers markets is a part of this. However, Louise’s argument is that if we embraced a return to this type of farming on a universal scale we would essentially be relegating the third world to poverty. This is a luxury solution for us but is damaging for them.
Instead world food production needs to increase rapidly. And what we need to do this is clever low-key mechanisms. She urged the audience to lobby government for an integrated food policy and that as individuals we need to understand our own food chain - where our food comes from. I don’t really understand what an integrated food policy for NZ might look like or whether we have an issue with this in NZ but it has certainly sparked my interest in the role of food in the world economy.
I loved the book Eat, Pray, Love and had high anticipation that Elizabeth Gilbert would be talking about her next book. Instead she provided a thought provoking discussion of genius and creativity. She asked ‘Is it rational that anyone should be afraid of the work they feel compelled to do?’ And this is the curse that many creative people are burdened with. One suggestion is to create a protective emotional construct - that genius is something we have, not something we are. And the implication of this is that genius is both on loan and also that we cannot get too attached our marvellous creations because they are not entirely from us.
I don’t feel blessed with genius - I don’t draw or paint; I write a little but only in a purely functional working sort of a way. But maybe it’s ok to keep playing with some of the things that interest me because it’s my job even though I might not be the most talented person in the world - or even on the second, third, fourth or lower teams. Great talk!
Jacek Utko, through great design, has revitalised newspapers in eastern europe. This talk reinforced the utility+significance equation for great products or services. Jacek extended it further by combining strategy+content+design.
Who would have thought that crocheting could be compelling and scientifically revealing? Even I enjoyed the maths in this talk and I now understand hyperbolic geometry - present in lettuce, sea slugs and crocheting. What was extremely cool about this talk wasn’t just that we learnt about how Margaret Wertheim is crocheting coral reefs - quite frankly I think this would have left me cold - but rather the significance that she drew from this. What’s at stake is:
- the importance and value of embodied knowledge
- the ability to make abstract concepts real
- the use of modes of play to help us deepen our understanding of the world around us.
Tags: Elizabeth Gilbert, Jacek Utko, Louise Fresco, Margaret Wertheim, Nina Jablonski, TED2009