[Event] TEDxAmsterdam: angst, wetenschap en eco #bigquestions
De angst die internationaal heerst, het gevecht om behoud van vrijheid, de wetenschappelijk vooruitgang (‘Zijn mannen klaar om zwanger te worden?’), alles onder leiding van host Jim Stolze. Het zijn vooral internationale #bigquestions die TEDx in de Amsterdamse Schouwburg bezig houden. Sterk is het multimediale aspect met een zeer levendige Twitter-stream – te danken aan de selectie van aanwezigen -, een sterke livestream en behind the scenes. TEDx houdt vooral de vaart in met een mix van muziek, optredens en Nederlandse en internationale talks. Host Jim Stolze – en de man die TEDx toch vooral naar Nederland heeft gehaald – wil er duidelijk een internationaal toonaangevende show van maken. Zo ook zijn geflirt met RTLZ.
Druk
Ruim 15.000 wilden bij deze editie van TEDx zijn. Helaas biedt de schouwburg aan niet meer dan 750 aanwezigen plek. Wellicht is dit wel de eerste learning. Het wordt tijd voor Stolze – en de ruim 200 vrijwilligers – om op te schalen. Tienduizenden hebben TEDx Amsterdam via de livestream gevolgd en de handig gelinkte hashtage #bigquestions is in meer dan acht landen door de dag heen trending geweest. De verhalen schoten van links naar rechts. Inspiratie, visie, toekomst, behoud van vrijheid en een abstract internationaal denken, vormen wederom de kracht van deze TEDx. Prinses Magriet opende de dag met een verhaal over vluchtelingen en gelinkte rampen. De speech was direct on spot en legt vooral uit hoe de Rode Kruis een gedegen aanpakt kent om te gaan met de rampen die momenteel de media beheersen. Een verhaal over het opgroeien in het ‘bevrijd’ Zuid-Afrika (als vrouw) en een discussie in het kader van de wetenschap quiz, houden TEDx editie Amsterdam spannend. Uit Israël een bijna emotionele spreker die sprak over het bijna overlijden na de diagnose kanker. Na een eigenwijze periode om geen medicijnen meer te gaan gebruiken, begon hij een opvallend proces van herstel waar zelfs CNN bij was.
Filosofie, visie en inzicht
Filosoof Damiaan Denys – en TEDxAmsterdam 2015 spreker – sprak over ‘What is the Relationship Between Angst and Freedom?’. Gevat zijn standpunt en inzicht:
“Watch out for wish balloons!”
Are you aware of the new guidelines for wish balloons?
Do you know what a wish balloon is?
The peaceful paper lantern,
Invented approximately 200 years after Christ
And in usage for over 2000 years in China.
Is not allowed to be launched in the Netherlands.
At a wind power of more than two Beaufort,
– that is when the wind rustles the leaves –
not on a dry day, a rainy day, or a wet day
and not in the vicinity of tall objects…
such as those in the Netherlands… trees and houses
so… if you should succeed
on a semi-dry, semi-wet,
“when-the-wind-doesn’t-rustle-the-leaves” kind of day,
at that rare place in the Netherlands, approximately 3,4 kilometers
south of Bekkum Poepershoek, east of Zwolle, in Overijssel
then still…
Denys maakt nog even duidelijk zijn punt. Ooit waren we bank voor technology, nu voor terrorisme.
Het programma
Ad Vingerhoets – Why Do Only Humans Weep?
Ad Vingerhoets is a professor in Social and Behavioral Sciences at Tilburg University, with expertise in the areas of stress, emotions, and quality of life. What he’s famous for, though, is crying. A phenomenon unique to humans, weeping – that is to say, tearful, emotional crying – is one of his special interests, as well as the topic for his TEDxAmsterdam talk in November 2015.
Interview: The Uniqueness of Human Crying – An Interview with Ad Vingerhoets
Avi Yaron – My Brain Tumor: A Curse or a Blessing?
In 1993, Israeli Avi Yaron discovered he had a brain tumor. He learned that the instruments needed to remove the tumor completely had not yet been invented. There was nothing available that was small enough to see inside his brain. Yaron decided he needed to invent the instrument himself and set to work developing a scope small enough to see inside the brain. He used insect eyes as the model for how the scope would create a 3D view of the brain. In his miraculous story, he discusses the emotional side of of medical research.
Interview: Can Disease be a Blessing? – Interview with Avi Yaron
Damiaan Denys – What is the Relationship Between Angst and Freedom?
Damiaan Denys is professor of psychiatry at the University of Amsterdamand department head of psychiatry at the Academic Medical Center (AMC). His work focuses on anxiety and compulsive disorders. Denys is also a philosopher who has created a performance called Wat is Angst (What is Angst?). As a philosopher, he examines how anxiety and angst affects both individuals and societies.
Interview: To Fear or Not to Fear? – An Interview with Damiaan Denys
Dutch National Research Agenda – What Do Scientists Know?
The Dutch National Research Agenda (Nationale Wetenschapsagenda) has collected more than 11,700 questions from the Dutch public. Some of the questions require years of research, others can be readily answered. A number of scientists will be on hand at the event to respond to some of the questions for the TEDxAmsterdam audience.
Gaudencio Mondano – How Do You Overcome Disaster?
Captain Gaudencio Mondano worked most of his life in Papua, New Guinea, planting trees for the Japanese paper industry. When he returned to his home village on Lake Mainit in the Philippines, he saw how yearly flooding was ravaging the area. This disaster inspired him to embark on the monumental task of reforestation along the shores to revive the area. By then end of 2014 over one-thousand trees had been planted.
Leo Kouwenhoven – Can We Make Quantum Technology Work?
Leo Kouwenhoven, professor in Applied Physics specializing in the field of Quantum Nano science, is a world leader in the area of electronic properties of nano structures. He’s interested in the question: what are things made of?
In 2012, Kouwenhoven succeeded in detecting Majorana particles in a laboratory setting, sparking off excitement among physicists around the world. The discovery of the only particle that has its own anti-particle forms the basis for the quantum computer: a computer that promises to surpass the power of existing computers. Microsoft has recognized the potential of this find and has invested a million euros in the project.
Interview: Can we make Quantum Technology work? – An interview with Leo Kouwenhoven
Maite Hontelé – How Does a Dutch Trumpet Player Become Famous in Colombia?
Maite Hontelé was born in Haaften, the Netherlands where she held a trumpet for the first time as a nine year old girl. Since studying the instrument she traveled the world with her music and felt most at home in Medellín, Colombia. Performing with Latin stars like Rubén Blades from Panama, Oscar d’León from Venezuela and Pio Leyva – one of the members of the Buena Vista Social Club – and a Latin Grammy Award nomination for best salsa album she is no less than a world star. But maybe the best compliment: she is told to be Dutch by birth, but Colombian by heart.
Interview: Dutch trumpeter world famous in Colombia – An interview with Maite Hontelé
Mark Dingemanse – The Power of ‘Huh?’
Mark Dingemanse is a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics who is interested in how people use language in everyday life — from sharing information to building social relations. In September 2015 he and his colleagues won an Ig Nobel Prize for his work which shows that ‘Huh?’may well be a universal word used when people miss what someone has just said.
Language is our most powerful expressive tool — it helps us do things together, share information, and understand each other. All of that in a smooth and seamless way. Scratch that: actually, we ask each other to back up and clarify once every 90 seconds on average, and we correct ourselves even more often. So understanding each other takes hard work. But language wouldn’t be language if it didn’t have solutions for that. It turns out that not only do misunderstandings crop up frequently, we also have a universal set of tools for fixing them. These tools, from humble words like “huh?” to sophisticated understanding checks, tell a story about what makes us human. They show how we work selflessly to understand each other, and showcase one of the most impressive features of human language: its deeply cooperative nature.
Interview: Getting into trouble every 90 seconds – An interview with Mark Dingemanse
Matt Stopera – Where’s my phone?
At one time or another, almost everyone has asked the question:where’s my phone? Stopera, the deputy editorial director of Buzzfeed, stopped to ponder this question when he saw images of an unknown Asian man appear in his photostream. Though Stopera’s phone had been stolen more than a year before in a New York bar, it was still logged into his iCloud account. Stopera decided to investigate. In the following months he followed his stolen iPhone across the world, became a celebrity in China, and found a friend for life.
Interview: “Why are these pictures showing up on my phone?!” – An interview with Matt Stopera
Maurice Mikkers – How Do Tears Turn into Art?
Dutch photographer Maurice Mikkers is fascinated with tears. His photos reveal the structure of tears at a molecular level. In his images we see the crystallized tears, each one different, reminding us of the uniqueness of snowflakes.
See more: http://mauricemikkers.nl/#/imaginarium-of-tears
Interview: Beautiful Tears – An Interview with Maurice Mikkers
Michel Abdel Malek – What will you do?
The refugee crisis happening at the borders of the European Union has become a full-blown humanitarian crisis. The aid given by volunteers and NGOs has been indispensable in keeping the situation manageable and is absolutely necessary for the coming months. Michel Abdel Malek shares his experiences as medical doctor for the Dutch Boat Refugee Foundation on the island of Lesbos and has a call to action for everyone.<
Michel Abdel Malek (29) is of Coptic-Egyptian descent and began studying medicine in 2004 at the University of Amsterdam. Having broad medical interest, he conducted stem cell research at the University of Tokyo for a year. After having conducted cancer research at AIMM Therapeutics in Amsterdam, he decided to volunteer for the Boat Refugee Foundation as a medical doctor on Lesbos.
Follow him on Instagram: @Lesbosrefugees
Siyanda Mohutsiwa – Is Africa’s Future Online?
Siyanda Mohutsiwa is a writer and satirist from Botswana. Mohutsiwa, also known as Siyanda-Panda, wondered how Africans would behave in a bar, so she started the hashtag #IfAfricaWasABar. The idea was for Africans to speak to one another in a “lighthearted, non-hateful sort of way.” The hashtag went viral, with continued demands for Mohutsiwa leading the way with her own tweet:
#ifafricawasabar South Africa would be drinking all kinds of alcohol and begging them to get along in its stomach…
— Siyanda-Panda (@SiyandaWrites) July 27, 2015
Interview: Satire fest in Africa brought on by #IfAfricaWasABar hashtag – An interview with Siyanda Moutsiwa
Tika Stardust – Does Love Know Borders?
Tika Stardust is a sexual caregiver who works with people with emotional and physical disabilities. For years, Tika worked in the more traditional healthcare industry. It was this work that made her aware of how sexual needs are both ignored and remain taboo. Her work is documented in the book Een stukje liefde (Facebook page).
Interview: People with disabilities like having sex too – An interview with Tika Stardust
Zelda La Grange – Is it natural to hate?
Zelda La Grange was born in Pretoria, South Africa. As a white Afrikaner, she grew up in a conservative family that fully supported the apartheid. However, just before Nelson Mandela was appointed the first black president of South- Africa, he chose Zelda La Grange to be his personal assistant. She devoted the next twenty years to serving one of the world’s most beloved politicians. How did she change, and how did South African people change?
Interview: How Do You Overcome Racism? An interview with Zelda la Grange
Opvallende quotes
Opvallende quotes die langs zijn gekomen op TEDxAmsterdam zijn:
- “Let’s solve the problem of surviving”
- “Never judge a man by his selfie!”
- “
#BigQuestions what would Mendela say about the current situation in the world?@ZeldalaGrangeSA“ - “Do not stress out diseases, but start listening to your body!”
- “The Human 2.0 network!”
Mystiek
TEDxAmsterdam lijkt spiritueler dan normaal. Veel muzikale mystieke optredens – zoals Robin Coops -, maar ook veel persoonlijke levensbeschouwingen en levensreizen. Opbouwend kritisch zouden we dan alleen een kanttekening kunnen zetten bij de #bigquestion hoe deze inspirerende – maar toch vooral zeer persoonlijke – verhalen nu echt kunnen bijdragen aan een human 2.0, een beter wereld en verandering.
