Random Talks

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-pleasur… Humans are creatures of rhythm and repetition. From our breath to our gait: rhythm is c

Bruce Huebner’s shakuhachi sound is unbounded by musical convention, flowing from freeform to jazz to Japanese traditional music to Celtic to Western

In 2008, lacquer artist and Living National Treasure Kazumi Murose began to focus on preserving intangibly important Japanese culture and heritage thr

Katsumi Sakakura expresses his art through a combination of elements characteristic of traditional Japanese culture—movement, rhythm and spirit.

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-brass-i… What gives the trumpet its clarion ring and the tuba its gut shaking oompah-pah? And wh

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/why-shakesp… Shakespeare sometimes gets a bad rap in high schools for his complex plots and antiquat

Renée Byer has the rare inner lens needed to produce photos with profound emotional resonance and sensitivity. That talent has brought her countless h

At some point in history, the Japanese stopped writing vertically. Nowadays, it may be rare to find people who write by hand at all. Aoi Yamaguchi is

At the age of 60, Masako Wakamiya (also known as Ma-chan) decided that she would teach herself how to use a computer so that she could stay connected

Ken Okuyama has spent a lifetime fashioning exotic yet practical things of surpassing beauty. The prizewinning car designer has shaped models for Gene

An early advocate of mobile video and established expert in the field of digital media, Sandeep Casi worked for large corporations for the best part o

If Edison is an inventor, Yoichi Ochiai is a wizard. He integrates science and art, combining digital and analog media such as electronic circuits and

Leslie Kee was born in Singapore. After graduating from photography school in Tokyo, Kee spent five years working in New York City before returning to

Even standing in place, a juggler requires a preternatural sense of timing, touch, balance and position. Add acrobatics, mime and dance to the equatio

Legions of photographers are grateful that Bruce Livingstone left his punk-rock band, The Bittermen, in 1996. That’s because the Canadian entrepreneur

In the entertainment realm, you’d call Masa Inakage a supreme hyphenate, as in “producer-director-creator-artist-storyteller.” And he actu