Aaron O'Connell is a rock star geek. Seriously. He refuses to believe that we are limited to the cliche either/or of Right Brained (intuitive) or Left-Brained (logical). We are both, or most specifically he is a both - or the bigger thought, that it is not a binary choice. And due to his flexing and utilizing of both aspects - intuition and logic - he has been inspired to a career as an Experimental Quantum Physicist. He is funny, super cool, super smart and telegenic.
I can't wait for my kids, all kids really, to see his TED video. Just to have other images and notions of aspiration than to be on the cast of Jersey Shore. And his idea, and his passion, really captured my attention today. He is convinced (and convincing) that rules and laws of quantum mechanics (the very very very small things) apply to more than just quarks, atoms and molecules. For instance, he has been able to logically prove that a particle can be in two places at once ( a term know as "delocalized") and that if we can prove this in the quantum space, we can achieve it in our physical space. Perhaps I connected with the "delocalization" idea, since I would like to be at a TED AND at home with family AND at the creative lab that is my office. At the same time. I would like to delocalize.
Today's theme was/is Radical Collaboration. Another notion I can passionately embrace. I think the myth of the Lone Ranger creative soul is exactly that - a myth. Leo Burnett's famous quote about the "lonely man at the typewriter" is as outdated as the technology referenced in the quote. Yes, we need individuals that spend time alone, incubating and thinking deep, but we need to be aggressive at collaboration. Collaboration is not a passive, namby-pamby "no bad ideas" activity. It is a highly-energetic, full contact, tenacious, dynamic practice and process. We need smart, ambitious people from different points of view, getting together, sharing, pushing, pulling, banging on ideas and interacting. It's the most Human thing we can do.
Ok, whew. Getting a little riled up here. Overstimulated and over-caffeinated.
One of the things that is happening this year, the first year, is "Ads Worth Spreading", in fact I was part of a lunch today that was chasing down the question - "what makes a Ad worth spreading?" which quickly turned into "what is an ad?" two questions we grapple with everyday. I think what is interesting and important here, is that a community like TED, where bio-chemists and experimental quantum physicists give talks about plankton and quarks (not at the same time), a question about advertising and marketing, and the future thereof, and taking the subject seriously, if not critically, is cool. Cool mainly because it's on my mind 24/7, most of my waking time for sure.
Two little films shared are the following (ad worth sharing in my pov):
Intel, "the chase" and "Strindberg goes to the beach". Watch. This is content. Not even branded content, just INTERESTING content on the subject of a brand.
But there's more.
Deb Roy gave, so far, my absolute favorite talk at TED.
He "filmed" with audio/video cameras in every room of his house, his family life for 5 years. He captured his new born son through all aspects of development from walking to speech. I can't possibly capture the magic of his research here, other than to say it ladder into a scientific method that can measure and visually graph engagement on any pieced of televised content and how much social energy it generates. It is exciting, to me, because it scientifically validates that we have to generate content that causes reaction and/or interaction or it is a waste of money. And as I have ranted before, TV is interactive now. All reality is augmented. And all media is social. We all carry little handheld feedback machines.
JR is the 2011 TED prize winner. He is amazing. He announced the formation of a site which the beginning of a global art project.
From the site the "Inside Out Project site:
INSIDE OUT is a large-scale participatory art project that transforms messages of personal identity into pieces of artistic work. Upload a portrait. Receive a poster. Paste it for the world to see.
Other highlights today include Indra Nooyi talking about "Refresh University"; Morgan Spurlock previews his upcoming movie "The Greatest Movie Ever Sold" and Bill Ford pushing his company forward to help mitigate "Global Gridlock" - creating a smart car network to have our cars "collaborate" with each other in real time to reduce gridlock.
Now that's radical.
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