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- [00:01]
Eugenio Derbes
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- [00:24]
Capital One Bank Guy
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- [00:30]
Elise Hu
Foreign for the show comes from Capital One. Banking with Capital One helps you keep more money in your wallet with no fees or minimums on checking accounts and no overdraft fees. Just ask the Capital One bank guy. It's pretty much all he talks about in a good way. He'd also tell you that this podcast is his favorite podcast too. Oh really? Thanks Capital One Bank Guy. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. See CapitalOne.com Bank Capital One NA Member FDIC this episode is sponsored by Cozy. You know how daunting it can be to transform your living space? Well, Cozy is aiming to make that process a whole lot easier. Cozy is all about blending style with practicality. Their furniture is customizable so people can start small and add pieces as they go. And get this, they've got this AR feature that lets you see how the furniture looks in your space before you buy. Pretty cool, right? They've also launched the new Mistral Outdoor Dining collection. It's designed for creating the ultimate patio setup with powder coated aluminum furniture that's both durable and easy to store. Cozy offers free swatches and quick two to five day shipping. Seems like they're really trying to simplify the whole furniture buying process. So if you are thinking about giving your space a makeover, you might want to check it out. Transform your living space today with cozy. Visit cozy.com spelled C O Z E Y to start customizing your furniture. Cozy Modern living made simple for you. You're listening to TED Talks Daily where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hu. Leo Villareal is a light artist. He manipulates light and color to create dazzling images and experiences. In his talk, he reflects on how light can shape our perceptions of the world around us and why he believes it's a uniquely powerful tool for self reflection and connection.
- [02:39]
Capital One Bank Guy
I'm an artist, but I don't use traditional materials. I use code and light as my palette. And I came to this in a somewhat unexpected way. I was a kid interested in this thing called burning man before it became the global phenomenon that it is today. At this point, it was a tiny event out in the desert that no billionaire had ever heard of. This was also misunderstood as a hippie gathering in the desert. So in 1994, I got a tent and and went out to the playa. I set up my tent and the first thing that happened was I got profoundly lost. It was amazing to experience this as a 20 something year old. And I was interested in having to relearn to navigate in this new kind of space. By my third year out there, I decided to do something about it and created the contemporary equivalent of breadcrumbs. I made a beacon for myself using 16 strobe lights and a microcontroller. And I mounted this creation on top of my mobile home. I programmed it at the lowest level with 0 being off and 1 and being on. This is the first time I connected software, light and space. And it definitely helped me get home at night. And my neighbors were also immensely grateful. In 2008, I had the chance to bring what I learned at Burning man to an art museum. Instead of 16 strobe lights, I had a chance to work with 41,000 LED nodes that I had installed in a 200 foot long corridor at the National Gallery of Art in Washington dc. So I used my computer to engage in concepts of emergent behavior, which means I was improvising, trying things out, learning things. And when I would find something compelling, I would take those sequences layered in a randomized fashion, non repeating. I don't use any kind of imagery or text in my work, and I'm interested in creating these abstract journeys. So as people go on this walkway, they're kind of washed by these patterns and this kind of abstract storytelling. Several years later, I joined a group of people that wanted to enliven the Bay Bridge, which was sadly under recognized and appreciated. In San Francisco, 250,000 cars move across the Bay Bridge every day. So it's really the Bay Area's workhorse. But it's really overshadowed by the postcard beauty of the iconic Golden Gate Bridge, which is just a few miles away. So we thought, how can we use light to transform this piece of infrastructure and change people's perceptions of it? So I started and I thought, well, what would I do if the bridge was my canvas? So I was working on this animation in photoshop and different 3D tools, and I was very excited when I placed 25,000 lights on the suspender cables of the bridge. But I thought, this is probably never going to happen. Because of the scale and the complexity. But to my surprise, we started showing it to the owners and stakeholders and the people who ran the bridge. And they got very excited, which for a group like that aren't normally an artist friendly organization. We went to the next step. They said, okay, let's take you up to the bridge. It's one thing to do it in Photoshop and a whole other to encounter it physically. So I did my first cable walk. They gave me a harness with a small shock absorber and we started walking up the bridge. So looking down one side, it was 250ft to traffic on the other, 225 to the water. This was a moment of awe, but also of abject terror. Eventually I got over that and I started to realize and then see the beauty that surrounded me. The fog, the light, the shadow of the bridge on the water. And I started to think, if I could only translate what I'm seeing here into the sequences of light, I could create a really amazing artwork. So miraculously we got an approval to do this. All the work had to be done from 11pm to 5am and we had a very brave crew of people that went up on the bridge with LEDs and started zip tying it, literally zip tying it to the cables of the bridge. We had a basket that we hung 250ft over the water. It's truly terrifying. And cars are zipping by at 60 miles an hour and you're protected just by a cone. In addition to the leds, we had to put hundreds of power supplies across the bridge, run miles of fiber optic cable in order to distribute all of our data to the lights. But this was really an amazing example of communal effort. And everyone worked on it, felt a real sense of participation, like we had all done this together. So finally, once all the lights were installed, I got to do my work. I got to connect my laptop to the bridge. And it's quite exciting to be able to control something the scale of the Bay Bridge with a simple laptop using my custom code. And when people realized I was doing this, I had huge crowds around me, cheering. So two and a half years later, after much organizing, you know, a lot of challenges, we finally were ready to illuminate the Bridge in 2013. On opening night, there was wind and rain like I had never experienced in San Francisco. We all ended up on Pier 14, huddled under umbrellas with local politicians, patrons, family members, team members. And I had a terrible moment of anxiety. What if this thing doesn't turn on? Fortunately, it did. It turned on and I was relieved and there was great celebration. Literally thousands of people were cheering and dancing despite the terrible weather. So through infrastructure, light and code, the Bay Bridge finally received the recognition of its more glamorous neighborhood. The bay lights had transformed the bridge through this addition of light, and it really changed people's perception of it. The artwork was so successful that we had a two year permit and that got extended to 2023. Meanwhile, leaders in London took notice. The bridges over the Thames were very dark and disappeared into the blackness at night. Some of them were barely lit at all. So they launched an international competition called the illuminated river. 100 teams participated, and I ended up winning the commission. So my thank you. My concept was to create a ribbon of light that could unify all the historic bridges in London into one monumental artwork. So in 2019, we launched the first phase of the project, beginning with London Bridge. Finally, the beauty of the bridges was revealed through the addition of sequence light. These bridges used to be very dark, and pedestrians would walk as quickly as possible past them. But suddenly, through this transformation, we had created these meditative focal points. And I'm very interested in the idea of entrainment by which our bodies synchronize with external signals. And I could literally watch people seeing the lights and watch them slow down in the middle of this Bustling City. In 2022, we launched the second phase of the project. And this was right as the UK was coming out of a countrywide quarantine. But the lights represented resilience and rebirth. And it was very exciting to be able to bring this public art to everyone. And it was free and available to all. Perfect pandemic art. I also was able to add this 21st century layer of sequence light to these historic structures. And I started learning about the history of the Thames as a creative place. It had inspired Turner and Whistler and Monet, and Monet had actually painted some of the exact bridges I was working with. So it was quite an honor. I was very humbled by it and really proud to be able to create this gift for London. So I never could have imagined that me getting lost out in the desert would have led to these monumental public art projects. But I think it's due to the power of light and the power of light to transform cities. And I often describe my pieces as digital campfires that people gather around and they create a sense of wonder and awe and bring people together, and they bring out the best in us as humans. Once something has been transformed, it's very difficult to go back. The Baylis was designed as a temporary project and last year, due to some technical issues, we had to turn the piece off. But the Bay Lights was not forgotten. Out of love for the project, community organizers raised funds and we were able to turn the baylights on next year and the lights will shine for an additional 10 years. So I hope you all will come to San Francisco and I appreciate the time. Thank you.
- [11:21]
Elise Hu
That was Leo Villarreal at TED Next 2024. If you're curious about TED's curation, find out more@ted.com curationguidelines and that's it for today's show. TED Talks Daily is part of the TED Audio Collective. This episode was produced and edited by our team, Martha Estefanos, Oliver Friedman, Brian Greene, Lucy Little, Alejandra Salazar and Tonsika Sarmarn. It was mixed by Christopher Faizy Bogan. Additional support from Emma Tobner and Daniela Ballarezzo. I'm Elise Hu. I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for your feed. Thanks for listening. Support for this show comes from Capital One. Banking with Capital One helps you keep more money in your wallet with no fees or minimums on checking accounts and no overdraft fees. Just ask the Capital One bank guy. It's pretty much all he talks about in a good way. He'd also tell you that this podcast is his favorite podcast too. Oh really? Thanks Capital One bank guy. What's in your wallet? Terms apply see capital1.com Bank Capital One NA Member FDIC.
- [12:36]
Warby Parker
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