TED-Ed
The strange history of the world's most stolen painting | Noah Charney
Throughout six centuries, the Ghent Altarpiece, also called "The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb," has been burned, forged, and raided in three different wars. It is, in fact, the world's most stolen artwork— and is considered one of the...
TED Talks
Beau Lotto: Optical illusions show how we see
Beau Lotto's color games puzzle your vision, but they also spotlight what you can't normally see: how your brain works. This fun, first-hand look at your own versatile sense of sight reveals how evolution tints your perception of what's...
TED Talks
TED: The data behind Hollywood's sexism | Stacy Smith
Where are all the women and girls in film? Social scientist Stacy Smith analyzes how the media underrepresents and portrays women -- and the potentially destructive effects those portrayals have on viewers. She shares hard data behind...
TED Talks
Honor Harger: A history of the universe in sound
Artist-technologist Honor Harger listens to the weird and wonderful noises of stars and planets and pulsars. In her work, she tracks the radio waves emitted by ancient celestial objects and turns them into sound, including "the oldest...
TED Talks
TED: Why all melodies should be free for musicians to use | Damien Riehl
Evoke a familiar tune in a song and get slapped with a lawsuit ... it's a tale almost as old as copyright itself. Lawyer and technologist Damien Riehl digs into why "owning" a melody is a ludicrous legal assertion and composes a radical...
TED Talks
TED: Drawings that show the beauty and fragility of earth | Zaria Forman
Zaria Forman's large-scale compositions of melting glaciers, icebergs floating in glassy water and waves cresting with foam explore moments of transition, turbulence and tranquility. Join her as she discusses the meditative process of...
TED Talks
The web as art - Jonathan Harris
* Viewer discretion advised. This video includes discussion of mature topics and may be inappropriate for some audiences. At the EG conference in December 2007, artist Jonathan Harris discusses his latest projects, which involve...
TED Talks
Nick Veasey: Exposing the invisible
Nick Veasey shows outsized X-ray images that reveal the otherworldly inner workings of familiar objects -- from the geometry of a wildflower to the anatomy of a Boeing 747. Producing these photos is dangerous and painstaking, but the...
TED Talks
TED: A mother and son united by love and art | Deborah Willis and Hank Willis Thomas
An art school professor once told Deborah Willis that she, as a woman, was taking a place from a good man -- but the storied photographer says she instead made a space for a good man, her son Hank Willis Thomas. In this moving talk, the...
TED Talks
TED: Bring on the female superheroes! | Christopher Bell
Why is it so hard to find female superhero merchandise? In this passionate, sparkling talk, media studies scholar (and father of a Star Wars-obsessed daughter) Christopher Bell addresses the alarming lack of female superheroes in the...
TED Talks
TED: The unheard story of the Sistine Chapel | Elizabeth Lev
* Viewer discretion advised. This video includes discussion of mature topics and may be inappropriate for some audiences. The Sistine Chapel is one of the most iconic buildings on earth -- but there's a lot you probably don't know about...
TED Talks
Haas&Hahn: How painting can transform communities
Artists Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn create community art by painting entire neighborhoods, and involving those who live there -- from the favelas of Rio to the streets of North Philadelphia. What's made their projects succeed? In this...
TED Talks
Beau Lotto and Cirque du Soleil: How we experience awe -- and why it matters
Neuroscientist Beau Lotto conducted an ambitious study with Cirque du Soleil on the emotion of awe and its psychological and behavioral benefits. In this talk and live performance, he shares some of their findings -- and stands back as...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Can you guess what's wrong with these paintings? | Noah Charney
Prior to the mid-20th century, art restorers took a heavy-handed approach, often drastically altering paintings in the name of "improving" art. Today, they focus on keeping the original work intact with minimal intervention, and must...
TED Talks
Nathalie Miebach: Art made of storms
Artist Nathalie Miebach takes weather data from massive storms and turns it into complex sculptures that embody the forces of nature and time. These sculptures then become musical scores for a string quartet to play.
TED Talks
Stefan Sagmeister: Happiness by design
Graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister takes the audience on a whimsical journey through moments of his life that made him happy -- and notes how many of these moments have to do with good design.
TED Talks
TED: Why women should tell the stories of humanity | Jude Kelly
For many centuries (and for many reasons) critically acclaimed creative genius has generally come from a male perspective. As theater director Jude Kelly points out in this passionately reasoned talk, that skew affects how we interpret...
TED Talks
TED: New ways to understand life in a pandemic | Aaron Maniam
Poet and policymaker Aaron Maniam describes how the language we use to explain COVID-19 shapes the way we think about it -- whether it's as a "war," a "journey" or, as he suggests, an "ecology." He encourages us to explore a range of...
TED Talks
TED: Intimate photos of a senior love triangle | Isadora Kosofsky
Photographer and TED Fellow Isadora Kosofsky is a chronicler of love, loss and loneliness. In this searching talk, she shares photos from her four years documenting the lives of a senior citizen love triangle -- and reveals what they can...
TED Talks
TED: How Netflix changed entertainment -- and where it's headed | Reed Hastings
Netflix changed the world of entertainment -- first with DVD-by-mail, then with streaming media and then again with sensational original shows like "Orange Is the New Black" and "Stranger Things" -- but not without taking its fair share...
TED Talks
John Maeda: Designing for simplicity
The MIT Media Lab's John Maeda lives at the intersection of technology and art, a place that can get very complicated. Here he talks about paring down to basics.
TED Talks
Naif Al-Mutawa: Superheroes inspired by Islam
In "THE 99," Naif Al-Mutawa's new generation of comic book heroes fight more than crime -- they smash stereotypes and battle extremism. Named after the 99 attributes of Allah, his characters reinforce positive messages of Islam and cross...
TED Talks
TED: An underwater art museum, teeming with life | Jason deCaires Taylor
For sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor, the ocean is more than a muse -- it's an exhibition space and museum. Taylor creates sculptures of human forms and mundane life on land and sinks them to the ocean floor, where they are subsumed by the...
TED Talks
TED: Portraits that transform people into whatever they want to be | uldus Bakhtiozina
With her gorgeous, haunting photographs, artist uldus Bakhtiozina documents dreams, working with daily life as she imagines it could be. She creates everything in her work by hand -- from costumes to stages -- without digital...