Event signage by LazenbyBrown | Image courtesy of Paul Richardson
We had a incredibly inspiring day at TEDx York, the variety of speakers and delegates and overall quality of the event was flawless, we were inspired to write an entry and then we read Heather Niven’s (Creative York Manager for Science City York) blog and thought – Yeah! that’s what we thought! So here’s Heather’s account of a fantastic day:
Yesterday’s TEDxYork conference at the Ron Cooke Hub orchestrated by Pilot Theatre and supported by Creative York, left me feeling exhilarated about future possibilities for the creative and arts industries in this new age of interactive, augmented and ubiquitous technology. Tools are maturing and are becoming easier to use, more sophisticated and the era is moving beyond ‘technology for technology’s sake’ into one of a hugely expanded and accessible rich creative palette, which can be used in multi-locations with many people, shared instantaneously. TEDxYork was an illustration of how important the Arts are to innovation and development, as much as Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM). We spent the day putting the Arts into STEM (Hence a new STEAM age).
To me this is mindblowing!
Within 7 hours yesterday we communicated and shared ideas with Adelade-Au, Christchurch-NZ and Canada. We experienced 360 degree gaming, made hydrogen racecars, and reused old phone chargers to make mood lamps with the Jam Jar collective.
BabaIsrael showed us multi-location dance using projections and gauze, to create live interactions between dancers in Manchester and NY, which looked hauntingly beautiful and created an electrifying atmosphere.
We recognised the power of stories, through Alan Lane’s inspirational talk and understood how this might affect future game plots and interactions with Maria Arinbjarnar from WeEnrich introducing her emergent software story engine technology. We even shared our own stories with Alexander Kelly in his inspirations exchange, which were told at the end to conclude the day.
Bill Thompson was a real highlight for me, with his talk ‘The Internet ate my brain’ looking at how the brain has evolved, that capacity for learning spoken language is hardwired into the brain but that reading is a relatively new phenomena and needs to be taught/learned. His argument is that if the areas of the brain weren’t used for reading they would be utilised for something else and that by using many forms of digital technology (often at the same time) neural paths and specialisations may change, but that this isn’t necessarily an unnatural response to change and isn’t necessarily a bad thing. We adapt and change to suit our environment – our brains innovate.
These are a few highlights of the day, with other amazing talks by Daniel Bye (about his imaginary friend he put on ebay!) Kristin Alford, and Yatterbox to name a few. The recordings will be available on the TED.com website soon, and also through Pilot Theatre (watch this space) A full Programme and more info on all the speakers can be found here
Here’s a link to Heather’s blog
