TED Prize winner JR, a photographer and unsanctioned street artist, is getting his wish this week “for you to stand up for what you care about by participating in a global art project, and together we’ll turn the world … INSIDE OUT.” The public is invited to help make his wish come true today and tomorrow at Phantom Galleries LA.
9:40am | As the second of four “days of magic” came to a close yesterday at the TED Conference, downtown Long Beach is electrified, and contagious is the buzz of the cutting-edge, scientific creativity the conference aims to awaken in hundreds of conferencegoers who have flocked here from across the globe.
TEDsters filled the streets of the International City near the Long Beach Terrace Theater, the conference site, last night for a festive TED Prize Block Party.
Earlier in the day, billionaire philanthropist and Microsoft mogul Bill Gates took to the stage as guest moderator for four speakers. Gates’ talk centered on education reform and the state fiscal crises that are chipping away at education funding.
Normally an exclusive TED experience reserved for conference registrants, this year’s TED Prize winner, JR, a photographer who specializes in large-scale, unsanctioned street art projects, will be sharing the launch of his wish at events that are open to the public.
TED Prize yields its winner $100,000 and one wish to change the world. JR’s wish, according to TEDPrize.org, is this: “I wish for you to stand up for what you care about by participating in a global art project, and together we’ll turn the world…INSIDE OUT.”
The goal is to “create a large-scale participatory art project that transforms messages of personal identity into pieces of artistic work. Everyone will be challenged to use black and white photographic portraits to discover, reveal and share the untold stories and images of people around the world,” according to TEDPrize.org.
“These digitally uploaded images will be made into posters and sent back to the participating members of the public for them to exhibit in their own communities. People can participate as an individual or in a group, and the posters can be placed anywhere, from a solitary image in an office window to a wall of portraits on an abandoned building or a full stadium. These exhibitions will be documented, archived and viewable virtually.”
Updates on the status of the wish and photos and video clips of the ongoing project are available on the project’s blog, Insideoutproject.net. The Long Beach Post’s Sander Wolff provides photos and additional, in-depth coverage of JR’s TED Prize wish project event that can be read by clicking here.
Dubbed “JR @ TED,” the wish project will be showcased at Phantom Galleries LA from noon to 7 p.m. today, March 3, and from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday at 170 N. Promenade in downtown Long Beach.
Liza Simone, who founded Phantom Galleries roughly five years ago, said the decision to open JR’s TED Prize wish launch to the public is unusual but falls within the scope and spirit of JR’s work.
Simone said she first hooked up with the folks at TED as a TED Prize partner for James Nachtwey’s 2007 TED Prize wish, XDRTB.org, to raise awareness about an extremely drug-resistant form of tuberculosis.
“For me, TED.com was love at first lecture. Since the first talk, I embarked on a natural weekly migration to the site,” she said in a recent e-mail. “When I read through Nachtwey’s TED Prize wish, I noticed that it had mentioned that TED was looking for exhibition locations and then stated, ‘anyone can help.’
“I identified with the ‘anyone,'” she said. “I reached out and offered what I had, and I was welcomed by the amazing people who help produce the incredible things the TED Prize accomplishes. Phantom Galleries LA hosted screenings for Nachtwey’s TED Prize, bringing the wish to the streets for the public to see all over Los Angeles. It was a simple wish: Spread the story, stop the disease.”
This is the third consecutive year TED has brought to Long Beach its four-day stage program featuring the group’s flagship 18-minute talks, TED University sessions and a multifaceted array of art, music, dancing and video, all of which this year tie into the conference’s “The Rediscovery of Wonder” theme for 2011.
The nonprofit is devoted to the concept of spreading dynamic ideas, and, as in years past, features presenters who collectively comprise a “cast of characters capable of stirring the imagination as never before. Explorers, storytellers, photographers, scientific pioneers, visionaries and provocateurs from all parts of the globe,” as stated on TED.com.
Launched in 1984 as an annual effort to wed the worlds of technology, entertainment and design, TED has evolved into a many-pronged approach at bringing together the most fascinating thinkers and doers and challenging them to give the most powerful talk of their lives — all in just 18 minutes.
Besides the springtime TED Conference in Long Beach, which, prior to 2009, had been held in Monterey and is simulcast in Palm Springs, TEDGlobal each summer in Edinburgh, UK, and a range of TED spinoffs including TEDTalks, the Open Translation and Open TV projects, TED Fellows and TEDx programs and the annual TED Prize.