Category Archives: Conference

Domi No – TEDx Vienna 2011 is Ramping Up Fast

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UPDATE: First speakers confirmed for TEDx Vienna 2011;

The TED conference idea, concept, and execution is so inherently Californian that it is quite amazing to see a spin-out emerging in Vienna – one of the more unlikely places at first sight. San Francisco? Sure – Berkeley? Yes – But Vienna?

Yerba Buena ca. 1840

Looking closer at the fine mesh that interweaves technology, entertainment and design. In the 1830s, when Yerba Buena (“good herb” , Span.) -  “San Francisco” since 1847) was merely an anchorage with barely a few houses, Vienna had probably the most advanced integration of technology, entertainment and design. The Imperial Court as well as the Vienna society on all levels participated in all aspects of scientific explorations as well as artistic work both as ways of innovation as well as entertainment.

Rudolf von Alt - Die Jägerzeile in Wien - 1844

Rudolf von Alt - Die Jägerzeile in Wien - 1844

The access to world-class scientists and artists in the Reichshaupt- und Residenzstadt Wien – de-facto center of the Holy Roman Empire. Vienna has always integrated art, technology, design and science in a way rarely found anywhere else and it is about time that Vienna regains this status in the domain of digital technology, entertainment and design. As much as one element requires the others, it creates a domino effect that allows new forms to rise and take shape. Take a look the two events TEDx SanFrancisco and TEDx Vienna to see how both events in their own rights create completely different domains of competence.

This year’s topic at the TEDx Vienna is the “Domino Effect” - I’ll integrate the opening video as soon as I can figure out how.

I had the chance to speak at the 2010 conference on Bridging the Gap via Skype and look forward to be live at the event this October.

 

 

TEDx Vienna – Bridging the Crack

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TEDx Vienna invited me to give a brief talk about my personal experience with the TED conference since TED2 in 1990 and about the topic of the TEDx Vienna: Bridging the Gap.

Marion, who manages PR for TEDx Vienna, brought us together and as much as I would like to enjoy a cold, wet November in Vienna, I’ll do the talk via Skype on Monday, November 29 at 16:50 CET = 7.50 AM PST.

I prepared an abstract about my talk on Bridging the Crack:

There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.
— L. Cohen, Zen priest and writer

Here are some slides as pdf.

Austria – and especially Vienna – has a long tradition in bridging gaps, crossing boundaries and developing new creative opportunities in areas that did not even exist before. Vienna is especially creative when things don’t work out, when new approaches are required, old things need to be separated or when multiple domains need to be merged to create something new. In music, literature, theater, painting, medicine, and technology – Vienna always welcomed the misfits, the innovators, those recognizing the cracks in the continuum. [more]

Bridging the Crack

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There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.
— L. Cohen, Zen priest and writer

Austria – and especially Vienna – has a long tradition in bridging gaps, crossing boundaries and developing new creative opportunities in areas that did not even exist before. Vienna is especially creative when things don’t work out, when new approaches are required, old things need to be separated or when multiple domains need to be merged to create something new. In music, literature, theater, painting, medicine, and technology – Vienna always welcomed the misfits, the innovators, those recognizing the cracks in the continuum.

Cracks develop as old forms break and are essential for new forms to rise. Accepting radical impermanence is difficult, especially in a socio-cultural environment built on the bedrock or the Holy Roman Empire and the Monarchy of Austria-Hungary. Yet art and science were always an essential part of society as disruptors and this dichotomy created the tension critical for innovation.

Recognizing a crack not as an unfortunate occurrence of decay but as an opportunity to look inside, as a way for the light to get inside to see what makes the system work, to disclose the secrets and possibly to break the shell and expose new perspectives. The Japanese design of Wabi Sabi always preferred the imperfect, the intentionally or unintentionally damaged and the beauty of the unique form that is in stark contrast to the industrially produced uniformity.

To bridge the crack means to recognize the crack. To recognize the crack means to accept the crack. To accept the crack opens a whole different perspective and set of opportunities to realize new ideas. In the same way the negative space surrounding an object may at some times tell us more than the form of the object itself, a crack provides enhances our understanding.

Now recognizing the crack is only the beginning – we have the responsibility to act on our knowledge and as we bridge gaps East and West bring together people who would otherwise never meet to create unique new ideas that would otherwise not germinate. That is the function of a gathering, a conference like TEDx and it is the function that Austria had in the past and has today.

http://tedxvienna.at/#Speakers