Review
Micro/Macro
About
It is a striking paradox about Western historical ideas and thinking that they have been most often presented as if there were of necessity dualistic polarities, namely right and wrong, good and bad, inside and outside, part and whole and so on. And, we might be tempted to think so today with the topic of micro/macro, the little as against the large, the local and global, or big and small of things. But it seems far more plausible in the hybrid-synchronic world of today, to speak of micro-macro as if they are necessarily and mutually interconnected as mere boundary-less extensions that flow into each other (like communicating vessels of consciousness), or alternatively presented as created positions of a shared singularity that are being seen from different view points. The late French Philosopher Gilles Deleuze conceived of our contemporary world and its ideas as being like a rhizome, that is to say a decentred (or pluralized) reality that was in certain respects analogous to the internet. This is particularly fitting since it is the very medium that makes the ideas behind the TEDx project communicable to the wider world. Each one of us and our ideas are therefore a singularity (a microcosm), and in the sharing and discussion that will take place in the conference we become a sort of shared and/or collective set of intentions (a macrocosm); that is to say micro/macrois not merely the topic we undertake, but the actual reality of what we are about to experience and enact while sharing our ideas. Beyond that and in the wider communication outside of the present space (physical or video linked), and which may be generated as a result, we are of course transformed into a collective microcosm as against the greater macrocosm of that larger attendant world. Thus we are as it were the fundamental basis for the very nature of how to initiate, inspire and innovate, always remembering, like the insightful artist, that value is not attached to size of a picture, but to the quality or depth of the contents that are expressed by it. What we communicate to each other today is our beginning, the final outcome of which we cannot know, and, perhaps, is ultimately the excitement that drives independent ideas and free thought.
Photos
Speaker
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Erik Spiekermann
Erik Spiekermann
Erik Spiekermann is information architect, type designer and author of books and articles on type and typography. He was founder (1979) of MetaDesign, Germany's largest design firm with offices in Berlin, London and San Francisco. In 1988 he started FontShop, a company for production and distribution of electronic fonts. Erik is board member of ATypI and the German Design Council and Past President of the ISTD, International Society of Typographic Designers, as well as the IIID. In 2001 he left MetaDesign and is now a partner in Edenspiekermann with offices in Amsterdam, Berlin, London and San Francisco.
Erik is also Honorary Professor at the University of the Arts in Bremen and in 2006 received an honorary doctorship from Pasadena Art Center.
He was made an Honorary Royal Designer for Industry by the RSA in Britain (2007) and Ambassador for the European Year of Creativity and Innovation by the European Union for 2009.
Twitter : @Erik_Spiekerman | LinkedIn: Erik Spiekermann www.linkedin.com/in/espiekermann/
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Noa Lerner
Noa Lerner
Noa Lerner, industrial designer.
Current work as CEO & Creative director-music-drop gmbh – a small start-up for innovation in the music industry and as a member of Betterplace.org platform as the creator and the designer of the x-runner sanitation social business as her first social project for the Bottom of the Pyramid.
Noa specialised in the concept and research aspect and deal a lot in her work with topics as human behaviour, relation and interaction.
Website: design.udk-berlin.de/2018/09/music-drop-noa-lerner/
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Ralf Schmerberg
Ralf Schmerberg
Unconventional, experimental, without complacency and suitability. Ralf Schmerberg, filmmaker and artist, covers with his projects and works a broad spectrum. Always in the centre the visual media film and photography. His work with photography led him in the 1990s into the movie business. From his demanding international commercial projects he developed his focus from shooting music videos to artistic films. With that Schmerberg links his creative potential with the social and develops with his works modern forms of social discourses.
Surprised about the less active American peace movement during the Iraq war, Ralf Schmerberg and other partners initiated 2002 the international project dropping knowledge. The idea „the table of free voices“ was born, a symposium, where 112 people were asked 100 questions concerning the current affairs. With his team Schmerberg travelled to the striking points worldwide, asked global questions that effect us and documented all through films and photos.
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Heather Cameron
Heather Cameron
Heather Cameron is a social activist entrepreneur based in Berlin Germany. Her sport for social change project Boxgirls International has helped thousands of girls in Berlin, Nairobi and now Cape Town become leaders in their communities and work towards economic independence. She studied Philosophy and Social and Political Thought in Toronto and is now a Professor of Inclusive Education at the Freie Universitaet Berlin.
Website: www.respact.org/home/uber-uns/team/heather-cameron/
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Fabian Hemmert
Fabian Hemmert
Fabian Hemmert ist Designforscher. Er wuchs in Deutschland auf, studierte Mediengestaltung und Interface-Design an der Universität Bielefeld und an der Fachhochschule Potsdam. Er arbeitete für Nintendo of Europe und Marvel Comics, heute forscht er für seine Doktorarbeit bei den Deutsche Telekom Laboratories. Das Thema der Arbeit: Die Technik menschlicher machen.
Fabian Hemmert is a design researcher, born and raised in Germany. During his studies towards an M.A. degree in Interface Design, he worked for Nintendo of Europe and Marvel Comics. He currently finishes his PhD at Deutsche Telekom Laboratories, with a focus on new ways of interacting with technology.
Twitter: @fabianhemmert | Website: www.linkedin.com/in/fabianhemmert/
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Reto Wettach
Reto Wettach
Reto Wettach is a Professor at the University of Applied Sciences in Potsdam/Germany, where he teaches "Physical Interaction Design" and researches innovative, bodily-focused approaches to human-computer interaction. Reto is also the design director with the Interaction Design Studios (IxDS), a design research agency in Berlin. Previously Reto has worked as an Associate Professor with the Interaction Design Institute in Ivrea, and as a designer/researcher with Sony in Tokyo and Ideo in San Francisco. He studied Industrial Design at UdK Berlin and Mechanical Engineering at TU Berlin. Prior to his studies, Reto had an apprenticeship as a stonemason in Southern Germany.He (Reto) is the initiator of Fritzing - an open-source initiative to support designers and artists to take the step from physical prototyping to actual product. The vision of Fritzing is to democratize the production of electronics.
Twitter: @RetoWettach | Website: www.ixds.com
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Christophe Maire
Christophe Maire
Christophe has more than 15 years entrepreneurial and investing track record in Media- and Mobile communications-related technology areas. He has consistently delivered product innovation and has led the build-up of disruptive businesses (through both up- and downturns).
In 2000, Christophe founded and co-headed gate5 AG, the Berlin-based pioneer in mobile mapping & community service before selling the company to Nokia in late 2006. He led the company through multiple phases of venture financing and in turn grew gate5 to Euro 18 Mio in sales. As head of Maps and Explore, Christophe contributed to grow a very successful worldwide service business for Nokia (Ovi Maps). The former gate5 unit today employs more than 300 highly qualified developers in Berlin alone.
LinkedIn: Christophe Maire www.linkedin.com/in/christophe-maire-9073196/
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Peter Eigen
Peter Eigen
Prof. Dr. Peter Eigen is a lawyer by training. He has worked in economic development for 25 years, mainly as a World Bank manager of programs in Africa and Latin America; from 1988 to 1991 he was the Director of the Regional Mission for Eastern Africa of the World Bank. In 1993 Eigen founded Transparency International (TI), a non-governmental organization promoting transparency and accountability in international development. From 1993 to 2005 he was Chair of TI and is now Chair of the Advisory Council. In 2005, Eigen chaired the International Advisory Group of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and became Chair of EITI in 2006. In 2007 he founded the Berlin Civil Society Center and chairs its Board. Since 2002, he is teaching as an Honorary Professor of Political Science at the Freie Universität, Berlin.
Twitter: @petereigen | Website: www.transparency.org
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Bernard Lietaer
Bernard Lietaer
Bernard Lietaer has been active in the domain of money systems for a period of 25 years in an unusual variety of functions. While at the Central Bank in Belgium he co-designed and implemented the convergence mechanism (ECU) to the single European currency system, and served as President of Belgium’s Electronic Payment System. He was General Manager, and Chief Currency Trader for the Gaia Hedge Funds, during which time Business Week identified him as “the world’s top currency trader” in 1990. He was Visiting Professor of International Finance at the University of Louvain. He is the author of fifteen books, including The Future of Money translated in 18 languages.
Twitter: @BernardLietaer | Website: www.lietaer.com
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Till Behnke
Till Behnke
Till Behnke felt the need to combine his degree in business informatics, his professional expertise as a project manager and the ambivalent encounter with the African continent to a more meaningful end than a career in a transnational corporation.
In 2007 he surrounded himself with a highly motivated, interdisciplinary team to start betterplace.org – a global platform that was to be a bridge between needs and new, innumerable opportunities. In 2008, Till won an fellowship from Ashoka, the biggest organization for social entrepreneurship in the world. Within the first 24 months, betterplace.org generated more than 1 million Euros from more than 20,000 users for 1500 projects from all over the world.
Twitter: @betterplace | LinkedIn: Till Behnke www.linkedin.com/in/betterplace/
Performer
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Benyamin Nuss
Benyamin Nuss
Benyamin Nuss was born in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany in 1989.
he showed his fascination and passion formulaic in his early childhood. He not only grew up with different musical genre but he could also not sleep without hearing music. His favourite toy was the piano and at the age of three started to play melodies of music that he had heard. His musical talent was discovered by his parents when he started to tinkle along the tune of “Freude schöne Götterfunken” on the piano, as part of his `repertoire’. He finally started with piano lessons at the age of six.
This good-looking young artist sees music as the best this world has to offer. It is with music that he is able to express himself and to intensively develop his train of thought which for him is not possible in other forms.
His conception of music is to be able to interprete the music in such a way that the audience can feel with him the intensity of the music. Together with his own emotion he would like to awaken the emotion of the audience, to feel the tension among the listeners and to communicate with them through his performance.
LinkedIn: Benyamin Nuss www.linkedin.com/in/benyamin-nuss-a24240b2/
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Kaleidoskop
Kaleidoskop
The soloist ensemble KALEIDOSKOP is a young Berlin chamber orchestra that has set itself the task of breaking through traditional concert forms. Founded in 2006 by cellist Michael Rauter and conductor Julian Kuerti, it consists of 14 strings and is supplemented by guest musicians depending on the programme. In addition to the excellent musical qualifications, it is above all the openness, the personal commitment and the willingness to take risks of the musicians that characterise the ensemble. KALEIDOSKOP's special trademark is that the members of the ensemble nevertheless see themselves as soloists and are also used in chamber music formations.
Program
| 8am - 9am | Registration | ||||||||||||
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| 9am - 11am | Session 1 | ||||||||||||
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| 11am - 12.00pm | Coffee Break | ||||||||||||
| 12pm - 2pm | Session 2 | ||||||||||||
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| 2pm - 3.30pm | Lunch Break | ||||||||||||
| 3.30pm - 5.30pm | Session 3 | ||||||||||||
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Location
Partner
SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR PARTNERS OF TEDxBERLIN "Micro/Macro"!
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