Tomás Saraceno: Would you live in a floating city in the sky?
Tomás Saraceno: Vivriez-vous dans une bulle flottant dans le ciel ?
Tomás Saraceno invites us to consider the impossible, like spiders that play music or cities in the sky. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
couche d'eau,
in a thin layer of water,
as if you're floating among the clouds.
se sentir flotter
où l'horizon disparaît ;
when the horizon disappears;
I woke up from a dream,
were also reflected on the water.
se refléter aussi sur l'eau.
among the stars.
si on pouvait marcher sur les étoiles.
the stars reverberated under my feet.
elles se sont réverbérées sous mes pieds.
among clouds of galaxies.
are not just clouds of galaxies
ne sont pas que des nuages de galaxies
we're leaving on the planet.
qu'on laisse sur la planète.
is making a global impact
les écosystèmes terrestres.
de nuages toxiques, polluants,
of toxic clouds that float in the air,
from carbon dioxide emissions
de dioxyde de carbone,
oil, carbon, gas --
le pétrole, le charbon et le gaz,
among the clouds.
entre les nuages.
d'autres types de nuages,
other types of clouds,
nous pourrions vivre.
about that photo, I'll explain:
vous vous dites sûrement :
or photomontage -- something weird.
une chose étrange.
What is reality?
c'est quoi la réalité ?
interested in reality.
ne sont pas intéressés à la réalité,
of the human essence.
to any form of reality.
avec toute forme de réalité ;
from their desires."
to float among the clouds?
à flotter dans les nuages ?
building a flying museum.
With plastic bags?
avec des sacs plastiques ?
all over the world,
du monde entier,
des sacs de plastique usagés,
"The Aero-Solar Museum."
d'une nouvelle façon,
in a radically new way,
between the interior and the exterior
or helium or hydrogen;
ni hélium, ni hydrogène.
clean and accessible to the whole world
propre et accessible à tous
with 120 engineers.
quand j'étais à la NASA
when you go up in a plane,
fonctionnent les avions :
with the plastic bags, saying,
à le comprendre.
understanding the concept.
une nouvelle ère
the violence of the Anthropocene
de l'Anthropocène
live together in the air,
l'atmosphère et la planète Terre.
this backpack today.
that we also refer to as a sculpture.
we can go out and fly --
in Vancouver isn't --
you have to feel it,
percevoir et ensuite nous pouvons mesurer.
of the atmosphere,
all over the world
dans le monde entier
the temperature and the environment,
à la température et à l'environnement,
species in the air;
espèces dans l'air,
vers l'atmosphère,
towards the atmosphere,
de l'Allemagne à Pologne,
from Germany to Poland,
than what we imagined;
l'on peut s'imaginer.
et militarisé
the heat of the sun
avec la chaleur du soleil
will be getting the permits
de demander des permis.
of each of the different countries
la COP 21, à Paris,
all over the world.
partout dans le monde.
to arrive at our destination?
avec le vent,
un programme
the wind highways.
nous pouvons emprunter.
to Berlin from Vancouver,
de Vancouver à Berlin,
is choose an altitude.
il y a différentes directions
there are different directions
l'orange, hier, et ainsi de suite.
and the orange, the day after tomorrow.
pour aller à Berlin
to fly back to Berlin --
qu'en fonction des vents,
from the center of Berlin
du centre de Berlin
that we drew with the wind
dessine avec le vent pourraient
"Independence from Fossil Fuels Day."
combustibles fossiles.
are experiencing the air
à sentir l'air
la Journée de l'Air :
the sculptures are,
sculptures sont grandes,
that's been heated by the sun.
l'air ambiant
to build gardens in the air.
construire des jardins dans le ciel.
the size of the earth?
aussi grand que la Terre ?
floating among the clouds?
flottant dans les nuages ?
isn't just a technological challenge;
the freedom of movement between countries,
social, cultural and military restrictions
sociales, culturelles, militaires
d'aucune souveraineté.
qui nous permet
that allows us to create these places.
of Art in New York.
spaces be like?
ces espaces transnationaux.
we need to learn how to move within them,
everyone else's movements;
des autres ;
between people
agissent sur l'espace
72 feet in the air.
de haut.
get too close together,
se rapprochent de trop près
les plus éloignées,
that we build nets that connect us.
des filets
when we have to face the void,
about this exhibit
nouvelles « aérographies ».
du Nouveau Mexique,
for the first time.
d'une bombe atomique.
un nuage de particules radioactives,
disseminated all over the earth,
of the Anthropocene era.
using only the sun,
juste avec le soleil,
se levait dans le ciel,
avait été inversée,
toward the center of the earth,
vers le centre de la Terre,
when he walked on the moon,
sur la lune dit :
but radically different;
full of air and wishes,
avec une bulle remplie d'air
to independence from fossil fuels
des combustibles fossiles
sur d'autres planètes
on other planets
in the atmosphere of this one.
le faire ensemble.
much further than the moon,
with our feet on the ground.
avec les pieds sur Terre.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Tomás Saraceno - ArtistTomás Saraceno invites us to consider the impossible, like spiders that play music or cities in the sky.
Why you should listen
Tomás Saraceno’s oeuvre could be seen as an ongoing research informed by the worlds of art, architecture, natural sciences, astrophysics and engineering. His floating sculptures, community projects and interactive installations propose and explore new, sustainable ways of inhabiting and sensing the environment.
Aerocene, an open-source community project for artistic and scientific exploration initiated from Saraceno's vision, becomes buoyant only by the heat of the sun and infrared radiation from the surface of earth. In 2015, Saraceno achieved the world record for the first and longest certified fully-solar manned flight. During the past decade, he has initiated collaborations with renowned scientific institutions including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Max Planck Institute, the Nanyang Technological University of Singapore, and institutions of the Exhibition Road Cultural Group, among them Imperial College and the Natural History Museum London.
Saraceno lectures in institutions worldwide and directed the Institute of Architecture-related Art (IAK) at Braunschweig University of Technology, Germany (2014–2016). He was the first person to scan, reconstruct and re-imagine spiders' weaved spatial habitats, and he possesses the only three-dimensional spider web collection to existence. He has held residencies at Centre National d’Études Spatiales (2014–2015), MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology (2012–ongoing) and Atelier Calder (2010), among others. In 2009, Saraceno attended the International Space Studies Program at NASA Ames. The same year he presented a major installation at the 53rd Venice Biennale, and was later awarded the prestigious Calder Prize. Saraceno's work is included in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; SFMOMA, San Francisco; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin; among others.
Tomás Saraceno | Speaker | TED.com