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Monday, February 13, 2012
TEDxAustin 2012: the next level
It’s rare, if not impossible, for a new Austin cultural event to arrive fully formed in its first year and get everything right. It’s even rarer for an event to go from good idea to an essential part of the city in just two years.
When TEDxAustin debuted in 2010, it broke several rules for new, unproven events; the speaker’s list wasn’t released in advance, attendance was by application and invitation only, and it wasn’t free.
But despite an uneven mix of local celebrities and live performance, it was well received. The 2011 edition, dubbed, “Right Now” was even better. The first year’s semi-hippie-dippy, stargazing vibe was replaced by a more focused set of speakers and spectacularly curated videos. It soared in spots despite one or two speakers who were more self-promotional than inspirational and one genuinely offensive clunker of a presentation. Overall, it was very good.
The 2012 TEDxAustin, “Beyond Measure” was on Saturday at the Austin Music Hall and it took the annual event to another level. The presentations were, as a whole, more consistently surprising and inspiring, the lunch segment (carefully crafted restaurant areas instead of last year’s boxed lunches) wowed and the video segments were even more mindblowing. The mix of speakers, live musical intro, dance performance, a lesson in mixing from DJ Spooky and even an end-of-the-day sing-along led by Conspirare’s Craig Hella Johnson, left many attendees (myself included) alternately tickled, teary-eyed and blown away.
TEDxAustin has found its voice and this year hit a high note that’ll be tough to top in 2013.
The first thing attendees noticed was a visual update to the cavernous Austin Music Hall. What last year was called the “Black box” was this year infused with color, from chairs with blue-lit backs to orange-hued hanging lanterns and purple lights in the balcony areas. The stage was simple with two chairs that were unused and a large screen. As is tradition at TEDxAustin, the use of electronic devices was discouraged; unlike most conference, there weren’t a sea of laptop, iPad or smart phones screen lit up through the day’s presentations.
A video intro explained the concept of a licensed TED conference, leading in to a musical performance by Jeff Lofton (trumpet) and Graham Reynolds (piano) accompanying photos by Dan Winters and text from the applications of attendees on what things they believe are “Beyond measure.”
Organizer Nancy Giordano explained at the start that many of the day’s themes were about size, scale, numbers and growth. The themes of “Wonder,” “Explore” and “Jump” would divide the day,
The day’s first talk, from Chris Riley, a former Apple executive who now travels extensively and explores the changing role of media narratives in the world, set a challenge that would be repeated throughout the day: stop talking or viewing and start acting. He showed off provocative photos that belied the myth that there’s no joy in war-torn countries and encouraged attendees to help create new narratives that could transform media, “many voices” and “complex stories” to supplant the homogenization of the stories we’re fed.
David R. Dow, founder of the Texas Innocence Network delicately avoided discussing the morality of the death penalty but presented the idea that murder cases may be prevented entirely if governments can intervene earlier in the lives of at-risk kids headed for a life of crime. He earned the first of the day’s many standing ovations.
One of the day’s only talks focused primarily on technology, Todd Humphreys of the University of Texas discussed the ways that GPS technologies, which came into their own starting in 2000 with more precise measuring, are heading for a collision course with privacy (say if you’re being stalked by someone who implants a GPS device on your car, which is not illegal) and new technologies allowing for jamming or spoofing a geo-positional signal. Such tech could be incredibly disruptive, even deadly, as the so-called “GPS dot” (a very tiny GPS sensor that could be implanted anywhere) becomes a reality. A provocative, scary and sobering TED talk.
A great TED Talks video from Deb Roy about an MIT research project to record hundreds of thousands of video in his own home to study how speech is learned blew my mind. You can watch it here:
16-year-old Austinite Ellie Audet showed off paper fashion designs she created, including a dress she designed specifically for TEDxAustin (pictured below).
Food photographer Penny de los Santos told two touching stories, one about trying to capture the photo of Iraqis breaking a Ramadan fast when the power suddenly went out. The lighting of candles produced a beautiful photo she shared with the audience. Her other story, about the death of her mother and their last meal together, again proved her theme, “Food connects us.”
It was a great lead-in to a lunch organized by Jennie Chen, who, impressively, coordinated six separate restaurant areas. I was lucky enough to be seated in the Uchi/Uchiko area and the meal was phenomenal, a big step up from last year’s sandwiches and chips.
Ballet Austin got the afternoon sessions started with a high-energy dance performance of a DJ Spooky composition.
Comedian Chris Bliss spoke about his crazy journey into joining an effort to create a Bill of Rights plaza at the Texas capitol. He spoke about the power of monuments in an age of apps and Internet ephemera and asked attendees to get started on whatever moves them that can be turned into action. “Begin it now,” he urged.
By far my favorite talk of the day was from IT consultant and arts activist Jason Roberts of The Better Block, who took some of the uglier parts of his Oak Cliff neighborhood in Dallas and transformed it with the help of friends. His hilarious, manic presentation detailed the ways he broke antiquated city codes and created real change in some of the most architecturally soulless places in Oak Cliff. His description of how he created the fictional Oak Cliff Transit Authority website (which, eventually, became a real thing) earned huge laughs as did the photos of transformed theaters and plazas. Eventually his group won a $43 million grant to make his dream of bringing back the Dallas streetcar a reality. His three rules for making real change: Show up, give your dream a name so people take it seriously and set a date and publish it to blackmail yourself into not backing out giving up. Amazing presentation, a prototypical, perfect TED talk.
Craig Hella Johnson of choral ensemble Conspirare spoke on music, enchantment and finding love in our own voices, especially in moments of crisis. Accompanying himself on piano, he sang pieces of music including Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock” and pieces of “The Rose,” which seemed a little too nebulous and ephemeral for the day, but Johnson more than made up for this at the end of the day with a more fully realized sing-a-long.
Military widow Taryn Davis, who started the American Widow Project, detailed the process of starting a documentary and a non-profit for women widowed by war after losing her husband to the Iraq war. It began, she said, with a Google search for the word “Widow” that returned the result, “Did you mean ‘Window?’ ” Moving and emotional.
Michael McDaniel of Frog Design spoke about his efforts to create an inexpensive, durable structure that can be used to house people displaced by natural disasters. The design, which has been prototyped and was viewable outside the Austin Music Hall (see photo below) could also be used for music festivals (hello, ACL Fest?) and for any other housing uses. The buildings are stackable, have electrical outlets and can be connected to created larger living spaces.
A great, exhausting (in a good way) video showed how artist Shea Hembrey created a 100-artist biennial; the catch is that all the artists were fictional and all the art was created by Hembrey himself:
William Eggers next spoke about his book “If We Can Put a Man on the Moon” and the idea that there are no longer big projects on the scale of the lunar mission. Eggers spent his time disproving this idea by showing examples of health care, recycling and education projects where big things are happening, but the presentation wasn’t as convincing or as focused as some of the others. Its conclusion, “Make the change we want to see” seemed pat and redundant given what else attendees saw the rest of the day.
If Eggers wasn’t completely convincing, the next speaker, Jeremy Courtney gave a talk so emotionally attuned that it brought many audience members to tears. Courtney spoke about his experiences coordinating surgeries for children in Iraq where there are disproportionate number of heart birth defects, detailing several wrenching stories of sick kids in peril and the rewards of bringing non-Muslim doctors together with Muslims in need to break down barriers between cultures. The concept of “Preemptive love” appeared to strike a chord with the audience, which gave him one of the longest standing ovations of the day.
Next, Paul Miller (AKA DJ Spooky) gave a short talk on sound in the 21st century, which, truth be told, was a little too densely packed with quick-hit references and big ideas about the history of music. The intellectual blast about music was a little hard to follow (Spooky jumped from photo to photo on an iPad he used to present), but his message seemed to be that music isn’t just music, it’s information that can be manipulated, remixed and distributed without limit. If the audience wasn’t sold on the talk, it was enthralled by what came next, a musical demo of his iPad app, accompanied by a violinist and cellist. The eight-minute performance (hear an MP3 of it here or play it below) was stunning; on screen, audience members could see the iPad’s screen as Spooky did live remixing of the performance.
Another mind-blowing video, this one featuring Luis von Ahn, was about the creation of the CAPTCHA system (which makes you type in words to make sure you’re not an automated bot) and how that system was repurposed to translate books. (Watch it below)
The day’s last talk was by Tanya Streeter, who was thrown off her game by a malfunctioning prompter that wasn’t displaying her notes. She referenced the problem several times, making the presentation more nerve-wracking than it needed to be, but Streeter otherwise seemed a polished and confident presenter, telling the story of breaking the “No limits” freedive world record, her struggle with post-partum depression and participating in a documentary, “Plastic Oceans,” a video for which, unfortunately, took up too much of her presentation time.
TEDxAustin 2012’s programming concluded with the return of Craig Johnson, but this time he brought an entire chorus to stand amid the crowd and lead a big sing-a-long of songs like, “If I Only Had a Brain” and “Seasons of Love” from “Rent.” It was the end of the day, people were perhaps tired of sitting, but getting everyone int he room to stand and sing worked some kind of magic over the proceedings and ended the day on a (literally) full-throated, positive, charming vibe. If there were doubts about Johnson after his solo talk, they were completely dispelled by the thunderous applause that followed the end of this segment.
Attendees I spoke to after the event uniformly praised the increased quality of TEDxAustin. The consensus (which I share) was that there was a more consistent level of quality and inspiration to the talks this year and that the various art installations, well-organized and delicious lunch and production design of the event took it to another level.
When I spoke to Giordano in the hallway, she told me that next year they may try to go the opposite direction and make the theme about simplicity and scaling down. I wasn’t sure if she was joking or serious, or if that was just the exhaustion of putting such a top-notch event together. Whichever it may be, it’s clear that the creative team behind the event has earned the complete confidence of its audience. Wherever TEDxAustin goes, it deserves to be followed. They cracked the code for making a must-attend (or must-watch-online) event in Austin and we’re all the richer for all the hard work that goes into making such an event look so natural and effortless.
Other takes:
- Jack Holt on how he’d give up his space next year to let someone else experience the magic.
- Professional speaker Thom Singer came away impressed. He’s also writing up individual sessions on his blog.
- Photos from Eugene Sepulveda.
- Shawn Collins calls it “Transformative.”
- Amy Temperley of H.A.N.D. writes on the experience.
- Jennie Chen’s behind-the-scenes report.
- Matt Fangman posts his highlights from the day.
- Dennis Jackson writes about big questions and big solutions.
- Lisa Brooks likes what she saw.
Got blog entries or photos you want to share from the event? Post links in the comments and I’ll add them to the entry.
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