Lessons from TED

We watched the beginning of three talks on TED today:
Jaime Lerner
Vik Muniz
Doris Sung Kim

Jaime Lerner was speaking about city design.  He seemed very comfortable and earnest, but he was also not afraid to joke around.  He began with very beautiful photos of cityscapes and he also used slides of basic drawings, city plans, and text outlines.  He spoke about cars and cities not just factually but also metaphorically to engage the audience.

Vik Muniz had an interesting opening strategy: he appeared to be somewhat nervous and began by talking about a very serious subject (creation v. creativity) and then turned the seriousness on its head by showing a slide of a dog with a chicken pattern on its fur.  Through his introduction, which was a series of jokes, we learned that he was born in Brazil, he loved media, his first job was is advertising, and he was shot!  He then talked about his own work.  Some of his slides used text which introduced different categories of his work.

Doris Sung Kim was the most straightforward of the three speakers.  She began with a slide of girl with her out of the window and a personal story, which she then linked to a discussion about the energy that buildings consume.  She showed the special energy sensing metal she uses in her work as a prop and in a video.