TED comes to town

The global phenomenon TED, or ‘Technology, Entertainment and Design’, will be in Sydney for one day only, on Saturday May 26 at Carriageworks, Eveleigh.

There will be up to 30 presenters from diverse fields including a linguist, a robotic engineer, cartoonist and a rhythm magician speaking on the day.

The Licensee and Director for TEDx Sydney Remo Guiffre, said: “It’s about providing a platform for stories and ideas that inform and inspire.

“There is a very strong educational mission that uses the power of internet technology to deliver high quality thinking and storytelling to every corner of the planet.”

Performances will be interlaced between the lectures transforming TED from a symposium to what Mr Guiffre describes as a “carnival atmosphere”.

‘Four Play’ a string quartet, ‘Circle of Rhythm’ percussion collaboration, and singer Ted Freedman are some of the performers.

Though there is no prescribed theme at the event, Mr Guiffre infers a common thread, saying, “there are some recurring issues. They seem to be Australia’s place within Asia, new economy, new economic models and new models of democracy. It’s all about the new Australia.”

An associate professor in the Evolution & Ecology Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, Angela Moles, will be speaking about the prospect of weeds evolving into plants.

Ms Moles is excited about the TED initiative coming to town saying “I love the format of getting together a bunch of people with a bunch of ideas through some interesting talks.”

Tarsha Finney is an architectural urbanist, designer, curator and a senior lecturer in the School of Architecture at the University of Technology.

She will be exploring possible solutions for cities to cope with climate change and population growth through shared spaces, like kitchens, as a radical way of re-thinking our cities.

“We have to get better at living together. We have to work out better mechanisms and methods in living together, sharing more, so more of us can live together,” Ms Finney said.

“How do we use housing as material from which we build cities? How do we deploy houses to make better collective spaces for ourselves?”

Ms Finney is excited that a forum of ideas is coming to Sydney. She said: “We live in an environment where we don’t really like to talk about ideas.”

“We like to talk about sport, we like to be down on politics. So TED is great but we need more of them and we need to cultivate the ground for lots of things.”

Mr Guiffre encourages Sydney-siders who have missed out on tickets for the sold out show to watch the event live on the jumbo screen at Carriageworks or on Youtube. Go to www.youtube.com/ tedxsydney.

ABC’s Radio National will also be airing the event live from 3-5pm.

By Kate Horowitz