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- This assemblage of mechanical music-makers is Felix’s Machines, featured at TEDGlobal 2009. Oxford, UK, July 21-24, 2009. Credit: TED / Robert Leslie
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- Felix Thorn, at left, plays Felix’s Machines at the Sheldonian Theater during TEDGlobal 2009, July 23, 2009, in Oxford, UK. Credit: TED / James Duncan Davidson
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- A detail of Felix’s Machines at TEDGlobal 2009. Oxford, UK, July 21-24, 2009. Credit: TED / Robert Leslie
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- TED speaker and Grammy-winning music engineer Imogen Heap (center left) and other audience members view Felix’s Machines after the bonus session at Sheldonian theater, July 23, 2009, in Oxford, UK. Credit: TED / James Duncan Davidson
In the gallery above, Felix Thorn talks about his instrument, Felix’s Machines — a bank of analog and mechanical instruments wired to two Mac laptops to play a haunting music. It sounds like the singing voice of a lonely robot.
Thursday night’s early-evening session at the Sheldonian Theatre, an ancient and storied venue (as we wired-up Americans scurried to set up the show, a local staffer was heard to say, “It’s been standing since 1669 and they want to know the password to the bleedin’ wi-fi”), packed a punch, featuring a performance from Felix’s Machines and talks from photographer James Balog on extreme ice loss, John Lloyd (the producer of QI) on understanding the invisible, and a tour-de-force from novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on the stories we tell about ourselves and others.
Watch the TED Talks filmed during this session:
James Balog: Time-lapse proof of extreme ice loss
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story
… and we even turned John Lloyd’s TED Talk into an animated TED-Ed lesson.
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