Chris Anderson introduces this talk by saying that we were about to see a technology that could be as game-changing as Jeff Han’s touchscreen demo in 2006, a year ahead of the iPhone.
When recording music, it can take days or weeks to get the perfect performances for an album. But when it comes to recording the symphony of nature, the process can take even longer. According to Bernie Krause, a legend in the field of natural soundscapes, it can take 1,000 hours of recording to get just […]
Colorblind artist Neil Harbisson is an intrepid “eyeborg” wearer. That’s a device that converts color into audible frequencies, meaning that Harbisson gets to hear a symphony of color, instead of seeing a world only in grayscale. Below, Harbisson’s talk from TEDGlobal 2012 gets the graphic treatment in a beautiful chart that shows precisely which colors sound which musical notes for him. This is […]
Bernie Krause is here to talk about soundscapes, the unique sound signatures he says are the foundation of every habitat, if only you know what you’re listening for. He certainly knows; the sound engineer has been recording in the wild for the past 45 years. “There was a time when I considered natural soundscapes to be […]
In the noise of a city, peace and quiet can be hard to find. Australian composer and sound artist Jason Sweeney has a solution — Stereopublic, a free smartphone app that lets users geo-locate and share their favorite tranquil city spaces. This week, in advance of TEDGlobal 2013, Stereopublic has launched a custom Edinburgh version […]
Julian Treasure cares very deeply for your ears. That’s why he’s given TED talks like “The 4 ways sound affects us” and “Why architects need to use their ears.” Treasure is on a mission to make policymakers, engineers, architects and, well, everyone think more about what they hear around them — because the way things […]
Through visual art, composition and performance, deaf artist Christine Sun Kim explores ways of transmuting sound and silence to come to terms with her relationship with it. In the process, she challenges the ways in which the hearing take sound for granted. Here, she talks about her work and career path. Did you always know […]
Julian Treasure watches out for the ears. In the four TED Talks he’s given so far, he’s offered up “5 ways to listen better” and “Sound health in 8 steps.” At TED2013, we asked him: What speakers have given you the best auditory experience so far? It was nice to hear Jinsop Lee today talking […]
Honor Harger isn’t your typical artist. Or your typical astronomer. At the TEDSalon London Spring 2011, Harger shared how she brings these two seemingly unrelated disciplines together — the study of sound and the study of space — to record the songs of planets, moons and quasars. Her talk is called “A history of the universe in […]
[ted id=1617 width=560 height=315] Ernesto Sirolli learned a big lesson, thanks to a group of hippos. In this hilarious talk from TEDxEQChCh, economic development expert Ernesto Sirolli recalls spending 1971 to 1977 in Africa working for an Italian NGO. The experience was a comedy of errors. “Every single project we set up in Africa failed,” […]
[ted id=1564] Architects design with their eyes rather than their ears — which means that spaces generally look great and sound terrible. At TEDGlobal 2012 University, sound consultant Julian Treasure warned that — even though we’re rarely conscious of sound — terrible acoustics can have very negative effects on our well-being. “We’re designing environments that […]