So hello and good evening . Can you please close the light a little bit?
I like it more... more dark
Well… How do we start?
Uh… Well, I don't know if you are aware that we have about 5,600 languages
And I'm sure that we have about 10,000 dialects
and at least we have hundreds of different English uh... let’s say
dialects on English basis as here to speak
and here an good example is that Anurag speaks Indian English
and my English is of course, somehow, European English
Let me mention that... we have interpreters here
that have to interpret these different English.
So I would like you to give a hand to Suzana, to Angela, to Iolanda and to Shirley
thank you so much for giving us a voice.
Uh... secondly, I think it is important to note that we have 5,000 kinds of sign languages either,
so I think this is the same for you.
Okay, well… second let’s say,
pre note.
uh... Well, you know, I´m now doing for twenty three years Dialog in the Dark
and Dialog in the Dark means... it's an exhibition, it is a workshop held in
complete darkness
And uh…
it employs blind people now in thirty five countries thousands of blind
people are working for us
and doing some this sort of, let's, say a role swop.
So when you're coming to this exhibition, when you attend to a workshop, you are
blind
and the blind are sighted.
And I think you can easily imagine that this is not how to sell a Best
Seller, you know, who wants to buy Darkness, one kilo, two kilos, in chop
or in peaces
and who wants to employ blind people? Nobody.
And I think what is interesting and this is what I’m sharing with you
with you
how this idea came up and what helped me
in a certain way, to survive.
This third, let´s say, pre note ah...is about, let´s say, it is a lifeline
it this we have all in common.
You know for a long long time our lives seems to be so xxx that seems to be
so fragmented.
we do a lot of different attempts we try different ways
We make some try and error
and we heard wonderful stories as from Anurag, about his let´s say crisis and
how he manage how he came up to become a filmmaker.
And I think in the moment when you look back,
everything has a very very certain consequence especially when you do
somehow special things
in the moment, and maybe we can discuss it later,
We have all… it´s like a chain It is a consequence,
and I would like to share a my
little life journey
how I, let´s say grew up, how I could develop myself
now to be for twenty three years in the dark business, I´m the world market
leader in the dark business
and how I could, let´s say, develop
and stay alive with Dialog in the Dark.
First story:
I had a pain.
Well, you know, when I was thinking about what I'm doing why I'm doing and
how I could survive with it
I and I did make some, some… I asked myself and I, let´s say
moved back until I was maybe nine or ten years old
and I grew up in a in a in a in a middle class family in Germany
and we had, uh... well,
one of the boys who,
well, was mentally disordered,
uh... in these days he was just simply a fool
but every time when this guy
with Down Syndrome came up
all the boys came and beat him and kicked him
and he was somehow the one
who everybody makes fun out of it.
And then we´re standing in the circle
and uh... we...
I observed
I felt really really pain for him.
I felt really sorry and I was asking myself why I'm not standing up and saying:
- Hey guys stop and don't beat the fool.
Second story:
I was maybe thirteen years old
uh... when I had really a shock and this was maybe the most important,
uh... let´s say, experience
and the most important, uh... let´s say, situation in my life
when I was thirteen years old watched a documentary about the Second
World War
and, you know, all these pictures of Germans bomb, I don’t know Paris, Glasgow or Kiev
or whatever
and I was you know, I had glossy eyes, I was so fascinated by these German soldiers
good looking marching blah-blah-blah and their
conquered the world so to say
and then uh... in a moment there was a sequence
on TV when you see suddenly Jewish people
and how they were deported to the camps and you all know what happens
there
and in a moment
I stood up and said to
my mother, who was sitting beside, me behind me:
- They! They are the guilty ones why, we - the German - lost the war.
I was completely
sure
that the Jews were the guilty why Germany lost Second World War.
My mother at this moment started crying
and I said: - Hey, what´s on? Do you have any pity with the Jews?
I don’t understand, what´s up with the Jews? And she told me:
- Andreas, I have to tell your story
part of our family is Jew
and part of our family were Nazis
and really a very strong let´s say, a part of the Nazi regime
and you can imagine what can happen to a Jewish
when they were deported
and they were gased
and they weren´t anymore existing
and you know in this day, when I was thirteen years old I was quite how to
say
proud to be German
I had a huge army, these plastic tanks, and plastic aircraft and plastic
soldiers
and I was really really how to say very very
keen and attracted by all these military stuff
and the next day
I painted all my tanks and my warships and my aircraft white
and put a red cross on it
this was maybe the first European station
initiative
uh... with plastic toys.
But this was a turning point in my life and I was thirteen years old
and from thirteen
to thirty, seventeen years
I was exclusively
focused to understand
what leads people to turn from the good to the evil
what, you see,
was the methodology.
How it could happen?
That in war time 6 million people were killed in an industrial way?
Was that a German phenomena? Germans are just bad?
I’m going to say eager
in technology and bombs
at the end they succeed in a certain way to gas people in such an unbelievable way
I was absolutely focused on it
and tried to understand what happens and how it could happen
this was my life routine so to say.
So let’s stop here. I was embarrassed.
When I finished my studies I started working for a radio station to work at the documentation
that I made some emissions on the radio
and one day I was asked
by my director
uh... if I can imagine
a work training for a journalist who lost his sight by an accident.
And I thought: - Oh my goodness twenty eight years old,
car accident, bang, blind this is not funny, bad luck, how he could
have fun, how he could stay alive if I would be
in the direction of a car accident, and I would be blind maybe I would kill myself
I could commit suicide, I mean I could not imagine
that his life was valuable
But okay, I, I went up and I visited him Mathias was his name, is his name
and I visited him
and I was ringing the bell, I rang the bell and then suddenly a tall good looking guy
opened and I said: - Sorry about that I´m looking for Mathias, the blind.
And he said: - Hey, I´m the blind.
And I: - What? You are blind? But you don´t look like.
The next question:
- How does a blind has to look like?
Okay, it was my first, let´s say,
how to say, a little embarrassing situation okay, we entered into his apartment
and the base, he had a living room and a basement
so he walked down the stairs and I so said: - Take care, take care, there are stairs
and so he said I know, I´m here,
I leave here so I know that the stairs are coming, okay.
we set down
he put some coffee and I said: - Oh my Goodness this is going to be a disaster
because a coffee is going to be all over
he started smoking The house didn´t burn out.
So, in a nutshell,
this first
encounter, this first, let´s say, meeting,
with a blind person, was my first encounter
With a blind person, was for me so unbelievable
that I was so shocked and embarrassed about myself
because how I, with my education, with family history, could judge so quickly
and think
this life is not valuable.
And there's no beauty, there´s no value
in a life, when you, when you lose eyesight
well... uh... then you keep in mind that German made their first test once
with disabled people to test
how effective gas chambers
are working
Then suddenly it was very very close
and I said: - Okay, wow, I have to do something.
Third story:
But to do what?
What and how can I, let´s say, motivate people to see different
How I can, let´s say, close the gap
between
me and you and us and them.
In a moment it was pretty pretty clear:
we had to close the light
we had to make a pitch dark room
and of course, I think, we had to invite blind people
because they are used to be in the darkness
and invite sighted people
to go trough
as then suddenly this role swop happens
and this is exactly what is Dialog in Dark about
And I was then was so thirty years old and it was exactly okay. That´s it!
I had no idea how's these can be elaborate and
how this can become somehow a sales product but I think this was definitely the
understanding
how I can, let´s say, move on
and I studied a PHD in Philosophy and when you do Philosophy
about eastern Judaism, that was my topic, you cannot ignore Martin Buber
a German Jewish philosopher
who hold the book: “Ich und Du” and the principle of dialogue.
There's one, let´s say
very important sentence, which I think is how to say definitely
my mentor for my entire life
The only way to learn is by encounter.
And what does it mean?
If I have a chance to meet somebody who is different and have an exchange, which
is not, how to say, based on prejudice is that on stereotypes, not based
on clichés
Which is not driven by pity
suddenly something happens
and that’s exactly what is Dialog about.
We try, let´s say, to bring people together under a new circumstance, under a new
environment
and we see what happens.
Well, I was xxx number four and number five I don´t count
and from that moment on I believe that I dedicated my life
and I tried to develop a plan. This is Dialogue in the Dark.
Of course which now that´s translated in, I don´t know, in X languages
and I really tried, let´s say, to emphasize this encounter
and now luckily after twenty tree years we are still alive, and now
We have I think, at this moment exhibitions in New York, in Buenos Aires, in Tokyo,
Singapore, in Hyderabad, India
in in in Estonia and go to Moscow so we have really, I think now ninety-one
exhibitions
and every year
around six hundred to eight hundred thousand people
have this experience and we can of course employ, we can encourage,
we can empower,
of course, hundreds of blind people which is of course fantastic.
And this is just an image from Rio de Janeiro
on where we have been on a fair
so what you see here is that people are coming to receive a white cane and then they
go to a maze and at the end of the maze is pitch dark
A blind voice, a blind guy says: - Hello, how are you?
and then you are going to a different environment at the end of this,
let´s say, one, one and a half hour journey
perspective of blindness, about otherness, is completely changed. 0:12:13.349,0:12:15.350 We do a lot of research and we know exactly
what happens
You start to think things differently.
and darkness is a wonderful media for learning, because it´s so emotional,
it´s so immersive, you are either in or you are out, you can not be in between.
and this is how it explains.
And secondly,
you know, you have this sort of blackout and you cannot see
Of course other hidden potentials are coming up, hidden senses
are coming up
and of course in the beginning you say: - Oh, the poor blind.
But at the end of the journey you say:
- Wow, I really adore, I can admire blind people who can
easily
can go around and know exactly where I am.
Sixth history: I have a history, you know. I’m here in Brazil now, in São Paulo,
it is definitely based on a wonderful story and I was not tall to stay and had courage enough
to say ok, I have a love story and the story is based on this gentleman,
Bernard Kaplan. This guy built fifteen shopping malls in Brazil.
And you know,
shopping malls are something here in Brazil.
In the moment he thought about it he said:
- Wow, what can I do to give a little bit more
meaning to shopping malls
He made some research and he found out, OK, let´s start to look to the Dialogue in the Dark.
that sounds interesting
why not put the Dialogue in the Dark in shopping malls Brazil?
and he called and he emailed back and forth and suddenly the guy
disappeared, he wasn´t anymore there and I said S**t, now we gave all the
information
and he´s been doing by his own, by himself
what has to be done.
After one year later, he called again and apologized:
- Listen, I really have to apologize, but I had a stroke
and I was almost dead, I was dead, in fact for fifteen, seventeen seconds
I was dead
And now I am back, and now let´s bring Dialogue in the Dark and move on in Brazil.
he came to Germany,
he visited and then he came out of the Dialogue in the Dark
and He said: now I know why St. Peter
has sent me back. This was a very touching moment,
he thought he was reborn
to bring Dialog in the Dark to Brazil
Okay, we made it and then we became really friends
and one day we discussed about our family
and then I became aware that he was born in the same day
as my father
And I told him: I have to tell you something,
my father passed away on his birthday.
And he said: - OK, I can give you as a promise, I will pass away
on the same day.
And he kept his word because he passed away in May and this was the reason
why our business colapsed completely in Brazil
after Bernard passed away, but maybe we can relaunch it.
You know, I have a vision, of course I am doing it for twenty three years
I am a social entrepreneur,
we have found, how to say, a mechanism to blend
business mechanisms, market mechanisms with a social mission.
We do sort of franchise
but of course, I think, the business techniques,
are just how to say, enabling us to
go to the market and go across the world.
And what´s the ambition? of course,
It´s definitely clear that we want to bring blind people,
and sighted people more close. And this is an wonderful image from Mexico,
out of one workshop. You see, of course, here this blind lady with
a cane
and holding hands with the other person. Both are smiling.
and everything's, how to say, let´s say
umbrelled by a heart. This is exactly what is about.
you know, for me
it is really, really difficult to understand.
Why is it complicated to go, to move, to meet people
who are different.
I can tell stories in length about
how much my life is enriching by this encounter, by this exchange, with blind people.
it is definitely
of mutual benefit.
Just one story, a short story from Japan.
Now We have Dialog there for ten years. There was a brain researcher
and he was in a moment interested to understand
how blind people perceive space
what is blind space, how blind people can understand the dimension
of a room
and so he asked them and suddenly a coin fell down on the floor
and one of the blind guys said: ten yen!
and the guy says: - What ten yen? How do you know ten yen? And he said:
- I heard it, I can recognize the value of a coin
by the noise.
And this was a very famous brain researcher. He said it was impossible and dropped
another coin and the guy said: - twenty yen!
I don´t know how many times he made it.
That means our brains
are capable
to compensate the lack of senses. And it´s really, really fantastic.
And the second story, again from Japan, when I was there people generally are
very respectful
I was introduced to the team
of new members of the
Japanese team.
And there was one young
blind lady who looked very weak and she was all the time pushing
to talk to me.
But she could not speak English so I had to translate it
and the moment she told me her story: she lived in a
village out of Kobe, in the middle of nowhere, family sheltered
and then she heard about Dialogue in the dark, she took a train and went to Tokyo, applied for the job,
moved to Tokyo and now she is a guide there
and has an income, has a recognition
and lives pretty happy.
and as I said, she didn´t speak any English so I had to translate and this
was a hard work xxx from
uh... from from from xxx from
at xxx analysts
and later on she was telling me,
asking me,
what the hell I was afraid about.
you know, when I see this girl, isn´t
exactly what she is.
when I talk about my vision,
here we have in capital letters
TED that is Technology, Education and Design,
but my vision is to convert I think TED as in Tolerance, Empathy
and of course, Dialogue.
Thank you very much.
Special thanks to Alysson Sonohara Yui, Fernando Molini and Marcia Golfieri for the transcription.