TED Talks Art

With his art, photographer Platon seeks to strip away assumptions and leave viewers with a window into his subject's character, filling our eyes with wonder and curiosity. Sharing extraordinary stories of what it's like to photograph some of the world's most prominent figures -- from Michelle Obama and Pussy Riot to Vladimir Putin and Muhammad Ali -- Platon captures the disarming power of empathy and human connection.

Famed for enormous black-and-white portraits that are pasted on surfaces ranging from the Louvre to the US-Mexico border wall, multimedia artist JR continues to tackle ambitious projects. In this powerfully moving talk, he shares how he made a giant mural on the courtyard floor of a maximum-security prison -- with the help of guards and prisoners alike -- and ended up with much more than a compelling image.

In a peek into their sprawling metaverse, Particle Ink dazzles with an interdimensional performance combining augmented reality, dance and video projected onto the TED stage.

As digital assets like cryptocurrency and NFTs become more mainstream, design thinker and head of Instagram Adam Mosseri believes that creators are uniquely positioned to benefit. These blockchain-enabled technologies could remove the need for a "middleman" in the form of large social media platforms, allowing creators to more freely distribute their work and connect with their audiences. He explains how this new age of the internet will give way to "the greatest transfer of power from institutions to individuals in all time."

In need of a brief yet illuminating lesson on the obsession with NFTs? Elizabeth Strickler breaks down the acronym and explains the fundamentals of non-fungible tokens, sharing how these digital assets are changing the landscape for artists and content creators looking to cash in on their creations -- in and out of the metaverse.

Pop culture is changing thanks to a different kind of storytelling, says digital strategist Hyeonmi Kim. They're called webtoons: comic-like illustrations published in short segments and meant to be read on a smartphone in five to 10 minutes. Kim breaks down how webtoons have leapt from phones to the big screen (Netflix's "Hellbound," anyone?) and how they're bringing a new, diverse generation of creators into TV and movie scriptwriting.

In some parts of the world, girls are as likely to be married off or trafficked as they are to be educated. Photojournalist and TED Fellow Smita Sharma thoughtfully depicts overlooked girls and young women, while making sure not to disrupt the lives of her subjects in the process. Her work shows what might otherwise remain hidden -- the first step to changing the story.

In an infectiously joyous talk, Milk Bar founder Christina Tosi shares the sugary jolt of her first food memory and behind-the-scenes stories of her bakery's famously inventive cakes, cookies and treats. This talk may make you hungry -- but it'll also leave you a resonant message about how breaking the rules and challenging your assumptions can make for a sweet life.

When Lebanon was rocked by a massive explosion at the port of Beirut, filmmaker Mounia Akl came face-to-face with chaos -- and the power of art to create some sense of order. In this poetic, moving talk, Akl shares the story of how she and her crew finished their film as the city recovered from disaster, discovering the truth that comes out of us in times of crisis and creating a new understanding of home in the process.

Short-sightedness may be the greatest threat to humanity, says conceptual artist Katie Paterson, whose work engages with deep time -- an idea that describes the history of the Earth over a time span of millions of years. In this lively talk, she takes us through her art -- a telephone line connected to a melting glacier, maps of dying stars – and presents her latest project: the Future Library, a forested room holding unread manuscripts from famous authors, not to be published or read until the year 2114.