Aaron Koblin: Artfully visualizing our humanity (TED 2011)

I am super impressed by Aaron Koblin’s presentation from TED 2011.

The talk began with the quote by Lev Manovich “19th century culture was defined by the novel, 20th century culture by cinema, the culture of the 21st century will be defined by the interface”

All of the projects mentioned in the speech are really interesting, especially:

http://thewildernessdowntown.com/: Personalized music video experience with HTML 5

http://www.thejohnnycashproject.com/: world collaborated animation project for Jonny Cash

The most amazing part of Aaron’s work is his humane touch (as described in the title). Clearly, interfaces are produced by applying technology, but they become meaningful by applying thoughtful design, and interaction with users.

His last words: “The interface is the message.” makes me feel how much thoughts he puts into his work. I live 10 minutes away from Marshall McLuhan’s old office, but didn’t “really” understand his ideas yet. Seems like smart people can really digest his words and apply it to their own projects. I need to work on that.