What cross-disciplinary self-actualization has to do with motion graphics remix.
Starting tomorrow, we’ll be reporting live from TED 2011: The Rediscovery of Wonder. Last week, we warmed up with 5 must-read books by some of this year’s TED speakers. Today, we’re revisiting a Brain Pickings remix culture original, part of the TEDify project, celebrating what we most love about TED: The incredible cross-pollination of ideas across different disciplines that radically alters how we see the world and what we make of our role in it.
Previously on TEDify: The secret of happiness, as articulated by a collage of TED perspectives.
For complete coverage of this year’s event, keep an eye on the Twitter feed and swing by here starting tomorrow for exclusive soundbites and photos.
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We love, love, love Carl Sagan remixes. For the past couple of years, we’ve had a favoite: Carl Sagan + Sigur Rós. But this priceless mashup of Sagan’s iconic Pale Blue Dot and the Egyptian and Tunisian revolutions may just be the best one we’ve seen to date.
For more of Sagan’s genius, don’t forget his iconic 1980s TV series, Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, was recently restored and remastered — we couldn’t recommend it more.
Brain Pickings has a free weekly newsletter and people say it’s cool. It comes out on Sundays and offers the week’s best articles. Here’s an example. Like? Sign up.
What The Muppets have to do with hearing disabilities, self-cloning and TED.
“Bohemian Rhapsody,” from Queen’s 1975 album A Night at the Opera, is one of the most iconic songs in modern music history. And like any creative icon, it has been the subject of countless covers, remixes, parodies, mashups and homages. Today, we look at five of our favorites.
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY IN SIGN LANGUAGE
Could this be a new form of syneshtesia? ASL interpreter Sam Farley rocks out to “Bohemian Rhapsody” in his car and we don’t care that his handless wheel is a road safety hazard — we’re just grateful his sister secretly captured him on film from the driver’s seat, because he’s that hat-tip-worthy.
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY ON FOUR VIOLINS
Joe Edmonds arranges and performs the classic on four violins, all written out by hand without any sheet music. Pure joy. He’s also kindly made the track available as a free download.
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY ON SLIDE WHISTLES
He’s kooky. And he’s wonderful. Watch LA-based artist Joe Penna, better-known as Mystery Guitar Man, perform the classic on slide whistles. Don’t miss the excellent making-of.
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY BY THE MUPPETS
A huge cast of the Muppets takes on Freddie & co, and it might just be the best “Bohemian Rhapsody” cover in history — and they’ve even got a Webby win to show for it. From the ingeniously modified lyrics to the priceless a-cappella, it’s equal parts hilarious and brilliant. Lo and behold, the track is even available as a fully legitimate download, proof that the Sesame Street empire can merchandise anything. (But we love them anyway.)
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY ON A UKULELE
We loved it when we saw it live, and we love it still — Jake Shimabukuro’s phenomenal, virtuoso performance of the Queen classic on a tiny Hawaiian ukulele at TED 2010 is a heart-stopper.
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Last week, we featured Aaron Koblin’s insightful thoughts on the digital renaissance. The interview, produced by futurism exploration outfit Emergence Collective, was actually part of a larger “immediated autodocumentary” — a full-length documentary short and edited in an extraordinarily short amount of time — on the future of art, released this week. The film features interviews with 13 leading digital artists and creative entrepreneurs, interviewed at the 2011 Transmediale Festival in Berlin, and explores everything from remix culture to the role of content curators to collaborative creativity.
That is the role that we [curators] play — making connections between things that might not otherwise be obvious connections.” ~ Heather Kelley
The idea of originality and proprietariness also contributes to the whole Great Man Theory, which is slowly disintegrating — the idea of the genius, the Freud, the Marx, the Leonardo, the Einstein… They’ve come up with an idea that’s completely related to the man that came up with it. Whereas, today, the ideas just get thrown out there and used, and it’s that use that in a way is the art, rather than the person who comes up with the idea.” ~ Ken Wahl
Brain Pickings has a free weekly newsletter and people say it’s cool. It comes out on Sundays and offers the week’s best articles. Here’s an example. Like? Sign up.
Brain Pickings has a free weekly interestingness digest. It comes out on Sundays and offers the week's best articles. Here's an example. Like? Sign up.
donating = loving
Brain Pickings remains free (and ad-free) and takes me hundreds of hours a month to research and write, and thousands of dollars to sustain. If you find any joy and value in what I do, please consider becoming a Member and supporting with a recurring monthly donation of your choosing, between a cup of tea and a good dinner:
You can also become a one-time patron with a single donation in any amount:
Brain Pickings has a free weekly newsletter and people say it’s cool. It comes out on Sundays and offers the week’s best articles. Here’s an example. Like? Sign up.
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY IN SIGN LANGUAGE
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY ON FOUR VIOLINS
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY ON SLIDE WHISTLES
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY BY THE MUPPETS
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY ON A UKULELE
