TED2008
Kaki King: Playing "Pink Noise" on guitar
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Kaki King, the first female on Rolling Stone's "guitar god" list, rocks out to a full live set at TED2008, including her breakout single, "Playing with Pink Noise." Jaw-dropping virtuosity meets a guitar technique that truly stands out.
Kaki King - Guitarist
Kaki King combines jaw-dropping guitar work with dreamy, searching songwriting. Full bio
Kaki King combines jaw-dropping guitar work with dreamy, searching songwriting. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
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I was thinking about my place in the universe,
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and about my first thought about what infinity might mean,
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when I was a child.
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And I thought that if time could reach
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forwards and backwards infinitely,
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doesn't that mean that
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every point in time is really infinitely small,
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and therefore somewhat meaningless.
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So we don't really have a place in the universe,
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as far as on a time line.
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But nothing else does either.
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Therefore every moment really is the most important moment
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that's ever happened, including this moment right now.
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And so therefore this music you're about to hear
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is maybe the most important music
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you'll ever hear in your life.
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00:59
(Laughter)
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01:00
(Applause)
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04:10
(Applause)
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04:13
Thank you.
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04:15
(Applause)
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08:27
(Applause)
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08:56
For those of you who I'll be fortunate enough to meet afterwards,
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09:00
you could please refrain from saying,
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09:02
"Oh my god, you're so much shorter in real life."
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09:06
(Laughter)
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09:09
Because it's like the stage is an optical illusion,
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for some reason.
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(Laughter)
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Somewhat like the curving of the universe.
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I don't know what it is. I get asked in interviews a lot,
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"My god, you're guitars are so gigantic!"
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(Laughter)
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"You must get them custom made -- special, humongous guitars."
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09:30
(Laughter)
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(Applause)
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Thank you very much.
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(Applause)
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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Kaki King - GuitaristKaki King combines jaw-dropping guitar work with dreamy, searching songwriting.
Why you should listen
Kaki King's percussive technique (guitar geeks compare it to Preston Reed's; everyone else compares it to Eddie Van Halen's) drives her songs forward, while layers of overdubs and her own soft vocals create a shimmering cloud of sound.
King's work on the soundtrack for 2007's Into the Wild was nominated for a Golden Globe, along with contributors Michael Brook and Eddie Vedder. Her groundbreaking multimedia work The Neck Is a Bridge to the Body uses projection mapping to present the guitar as an ontological tabula rasa in a creation myth unlike any other.
Kaki King | Speaker | TED.com