This past weekend was one of virtual inspiration. Just a few days before it happened, I found out that TEDIndia was happening again, but it had been restructured to be called the INK conference (in association with TED) that would happen on an annual basis in India (TEDIndia was a one-time thing). It is the brainchild of Lakshmi Pratury.
If you don’t know about TED, let me introduce you. It’s a treasure vault of inspiration. TED spreads ideas. It started off as a single conference that has exploded globally to be many conferences. Inspirational folks from all fields are given 6 to 18 minutes to share their work, story and/or idea with the world. While I don’t have a bucket list per say, attending a TED conference is most definitely something I want to do one day.
Anyways, bringing it back to INK. They live streamed one session each day, which was fantastic to watch and thanks to social media like twitter I could get the take-away messages from the other talks that happened over the three days. Some of the best talks are going to be on the TED website, but here are some of the take-aways and stories from the three days (compiled from tweets).
Side: For Avatar fans, James Cameron is coming out with Avatar that will be going to a new biome – the ocean.
DAY 1:
A great write-up on Day 1 is on the TED Blog here – http://blog.ted.com/2010/12/10/the-ink-conference-day-1/
DAY 2:
Alexander Tsiaris: “When we’re born, we’re given a pristine cardiovascular system. Then, we screw it up.” He shares stories about wellness to communicate its importance because “Data does not speak to you. Pie Charts never changed anyone’s life – story speaks”
Deepti Naval (after visiting and writing about mental institutions): I could never look at life in the same way again. She gave an intense reading of her poetry, capturing the tortured life of a mentally ill woman.
Simon Lewis: “I believe that we can all rise and shine.” (He gave a talk that started with his almost life-ending accident to the importance of consciousness to science and healing). He explains the experimental sensor-based technology that allows him to walk today and raises awareness about head injuries and ways to recover from them.
Sophie Morgan: Her life changed when she ended up in a wheelchair. Changed, but didn’t end. She designed The Mannequal to incorporate wheelchairs in shop windows because disabled girls like fashion too.
Deepak Chopra: proposes that consciousness creates reality. Ultimately, there is only one kind of healing — the holiness that we experience when we return to our ground state.
Nancy Duarte: You have the power to change the world. It only takes a single idea. I’m really passionate about presentations, brilliant ideas can be forgotten just because of how they’re presented. (Great talk on how to make effective presentations)
Anand Kumar begins with the story of Santosh Kumar, a rural Indian who did not have access to formal education but studied on his own. Anand accepted Santosh Kumar to his “Super 30” program. Santosh is now a scientist in Belgium.
George Mathew: When people make music together, they have to listen to each other — that’s an important lesson for young people.
When being beaten in a mugging, his metronome fell out of his pocket. They began asking questions — mugging became a music lesson.
Luis Dias (bringing el sistema to India): Our children are talented. All they need is a chance. Let us give it to them.
Tom Wujec: 3 tech trends might change everything: Digitized reality, infinite computing and rapid fabrication. Once the 3D printer can replicate itself we will definitively have the democratization of design. When we’re able to build anything, what will we build?
Corey Bridges: I think the most important thing the Internet enables is collaboration
Sunitha Krishnan: Only when the most excluded, rejected, isolated are included will we have a world that will be a better place for all.
Her story post TEDIndia talk – Google grant led to led to construction of a school, youth home, adult home, hospital. Her Sunitha shelter has been attacked multiple times by mobs, her life attacked. Today the challenge is how to build a team of people who will be committed under such conditions?
C Mallesham innovated an automatic loom to revive the dying tradition of Pochampally silk sari weaving (took him 5 years, he was told only educated engineers could design something like this).
Mussaret Zaidi: Hygiene hypothesis: lack of exposure to bacteria at a young age may hinder immune development (proven to be true). Food policy should take into account local conditions, consider human/animal/environmental health
Ugesh Sarcar: His father, also a magician, told him magic is all about psychology
Mark Koska: Contaminations from injections kill twice as many people as malaria worldwide. He invented a 5-cent syringe that breaks if you try to reuse it.
Ashwini Akkunji started out by running after cattle in her village in Karnataka. Ashwini Akkunji was supported by her father in becoming an athlete, but faced many hurdles of health, isolation, community disapproval. She went on to become an Commonwealth champion.
DAY 3
Alexander Tsiaras’ advice for the young (but really all): You are only limited by your imagination. The possibilities are endless.
Raghava KK: We need to pop our bubbles and continue to reinvent ourselves. My learning is all about unlearning. Everything we do is art. The way I live my life is art.
His favorite new art project – an iPad app that lets you play with and personalize his illustrations.
John Henry Harris: Play hard, work better. When we play, we’re open to creativity. At Lego, we have co-creation sessions with kids. It’s really about what the children can teach us. True beauty often lies with the simplest things.
He gave each participant a bag of lego and asked them to build a duck in 30s. 30s led to many possibilities à simple way to share that creativity is inherent in us.
Sharada Srinivasan: The striving for perfection in dance is the same as the craftsman striving to create their perfect project.
Arvind Gupta: Often one doesn’t know what one wants to do. Sometimes, it’s good enough to know what one doesn’t want to do. Children want to make things, they want to do things. Science must reach the most oppressed, most marginalized children.
Help spread science and toys to all. Arvind wants others to use his design. See all the toys he makes from nothing and get instructions on how you can do the same: http://ow.ly/3nMeP)
Philippe Starck (Very humourous and wearing crazy pants): Everything is organic, even me. When you produce, you have the responsibility to keep your product clean. Anything extra will boomerang and kill you.
Shivam Sai Gupta (India’s youngest animator) – I believe creativity is born from pain and suffering. And, creativity can solve any problem.
Lynda Barry (Hilarious talk) – Starts with how her grandmother is Filipino, which she, unlike Americans, is not crazy. What is an image? It’s spontaneous and feels somehow alive. The image world is so much more than art, it’s all around you. The thing that scares me about technology is that reduces eye contact between children and parents.
Matt Groening (another hilarious talk): He began with wisdom from the Simpsons and gave insight into what each character was based off of. His dad told him “Matt, you can’t draw, so don’t try to make your living as a cartoonist.” Ultimate payback: naming a character (Homer) after him.
Rives did a funny wrap-up of the conference, poking fun at attendees.
KUDOS to the INK team. How can I attend next year? 😉
Rhythmic Thoughts 