Translator: Massimo Garzotto Reviewer: Ioannis Papacheimonas
Hello everybody.
What we are having right now is an experience.
It is one for you, and above all it is one for us on this side of the stage.
By the way, today, Steve was right: it feels good to see you all in underwear.
(Laughter)
For those on this side, the idea is to leave a mark,
to communicate something,
to get you involved, to trigger your senses,
and to give you an experience.
But how can this be done?
We need to understand what inspires us while remembering a situation,
just like when we were kids.
As kids, listening was hard,
but remembering through experience was much easier.
Now that we are adults, we are not so different:
experience is the best way to learn.
My team and I make immersive and interactive installations,
designed to offer to people a special moment of being,
aiming to be remembered when they go back home.
Doing this, we discovered three kinds of situations
that characterize these important moments.
We try to reach them through technology.
It’s not easy, because it depends on the situation,
on the means at our disposal,
like, for instance, this presentation.
Now I’m here, you are here, and we have this screen - or maybe not.
(Electronic sound)
We try to attract people with the unusual, with the 'impossible',
but nowadays it’s hard to find something different and unique.
Everyone does something different,
everybody tries to do something in order to be original,
but everything happens too fast.
It happens overnight.
Indeed, we try to create the sensational, we try to amaze,
but the sensational is nothing more than the breaking of an equilibrium.
It’s the unexpected in a moment of comfort.
(Sound of falling masonry)
But why is this so?
Because our brain works with patterns.
It processes all that surrounds us, and that is why it’s flexible.
It's receptive to the repetitiveness of our past.
It recognizes what it has seen before,
and that happens all the time, it’s primordial.
'I’ve already experienced this situation, so it’s all right.'
We reason according to emotional connections that are predictable.
Thus our state of equilibrium is disrupted
and most of the time this brings a joy of the unexpected.
However, to have a disruption we need to break something:
we need equilibrium.
This, for instance, is visual rhythm, and that is the disruption.
Therefore, as you see, the sensational is the first key characteristic,
and it does not arise without time and rhythm.
In our studio we work with visual arts;
therefore, the most important sense for us is sight.
We look for something different, we look for disruption,
and we do it through technology
that helps us think 'out of the box'.
It helps us with solutions, formulae.
So the first thing we asked ourselves was:
Why do we use a white and plane surface
when there are other more interesting shapes out there?
This is a structure made of poor material.
But let’s imagine, for a moment, it's a product to be presented,
or it's the unveiling of a piece of art, or even, a marble monolith.
In our studio, we lovingly called it 'Monalita'.
We designed it as an example
to help people understand the possibilities
of communicating through shape,
as this, in fact, may be potentially considered
a new level of communication.
Just imagine its uses.
Imagine a showroom.
Imagine a purse in a store, a purse able to communicate with the hide it's made of,
the various materials it's made of,
or the various colours in which it's offered.
Take a step back, imagine furnishings, or something even bigger.
We took that step back and we thought:
Since a screen may have its limitations,
why should light stay stuck inside a bulb?
Why mightn't it be free to draw itself on walls?
Could this be a new way to create
a non-conventional and unique lighting system?
Yes, it's possible!
And that is how, last year, we designed and patented VEDO.
(Simple electronic chime-like music)
This is a corner of our studio.
The walls are white, as is the furniture.
Everything happens live and is synchronized with the subject.
This system is similar to the one in use today.
(Electronic, piano-like music)
These are what we call 'immersive atmospheres';
they’re living walls, and lighting sources different from those we are familiar with.
The environment changes dynamically, letting us cross spatial boundaries.
Everything is controlled via a smartphone, via an app
that allows me to change the atmosphere according to my emotions
and according to the experience I want to live that moment, in that space.
(More powerful, pulsating electronic music)
We are talking about a pulsing environment.
We’re talking about stimulation of the senses.
There are no more displays.
And it’s not a form of communication between people anymore,
but communication between people and environment.
Suppose you’re entering the lobby of a hotel as a guest,
and the environment changes
according to the situation, the time frame, or the event.
Imagine that you’re in a restaurant, and while you’re eating
your senses are enhanced by the walls that surround you.
Again, museums, small ambients like those in boats, yachts,
up to huge public areas.
They communicate geometries.
So why are we limiting ourselves to a white screen
when we can have all this?
This is spatial involvement, and is the second key characteristic.
We call it 'immersive experience'.
It’s a skin-changing architecture,
which enhances concepts, augments my senses and my space,
while communicating emotions, imagination.
This is the most ancient indoor theatre in the world.
Imagine taking an immersive tour around it.
Suppose you could see within its structure,
see how it was conceived.
Imagine you could immerse yourself in the work,
see how it was designed,
and all this via a completely hidden technology.
Imagine how you could explore it -
(Rumbling electronic music with percussive sounds)
via a new form of communication.
Another way to penetrate the places you’d like to visit.
So no more interactive kiosks that nowadays look like outdated tablets;
and no more gigantic advertising video walls screaming 'sales' everywhere.
Nowadays, technology can be much more than that.
It can emphasize the value of things.
(Electronic sound)
revealing information.
It can entertain people in a functional way.
It can bring out majesty,
or simulate its past
(Electronic airplane sound followed by electronic explosive sound)
by exposing its very scars.
But all this has no value
(Discordant electronic sound)
without the third and last key, which is probably the most important:
Emotion.
We and our senses are at the core of all this;
all the rest is an alchemy of means.
It reaches its peak only if we, acting like conductors of orchestras,
are able to balance them correctly,
and express ourselves in the same way we express emotions through our senses.
The medium must be in line with the content.
Just as it happens here at TEDx,
where speeches and ideas are encapsulated and packed-up
under one sole title: 'Planting the Seeds'.
Its meaning is nothing but the planting of a seed
(Electronic sound of plants growing)
of what will be great in the future,
as well as a vital part of what we are.
Thank you.
(Applause)