Thanks to technology, we now live in a world filled with a full spectrum of communication tools, from PC to iPhone, from Email to Facebook, from QQ to Weibo, but many times we really lose the skills to communicate with each other. We don’t really grow with technology.

On April.1st, 2012, we will launch TEDxFactory798 2012. Our theme for the event is “Communication: Back to Basics”, and we will invite speakers from design, technology, art, science, society, etc.

This forum will include three sessions; please see below for details.

*Registration is required. Non UCCA Members please go to
http://tedxfactory798.org/event-registration
UCCA Members please contact UCCA membership department.
Related Program: 【Culture Program】TEDxChange 2012 Screening (Apr 6)

Session 1: The Analyst
Data is not useful until it becomes information, and that’s because data is hard for human beings to digest. Before there was a data surplus we treated it as precious. Now that there is we can’t understand what is and what isn’t. How do we return to the previous while finding meaning and value of the new?

Speakers:
Nyima: Born blind with no sense of light, Nyima grew up in Lhasa becoming one of the first students of the Tibetan Blind School. Now at age 23 he has become the principle of the school and turned it into one the leading blind academies in China. Traveling to both India and Britian he has taught that being blind does not constitute a codependent life, stressing that blind people the world over should understand how independent they can become.

Wang Xiang is the founder of Penghao Theater. He is a famous dentist, and is the first graduate student in China involved in Artificial dental implant research. In 2008, he personally invested 1.2 million yuan in creating the first ever private theater in China–Peng hao Theater, and for the following 3 years, he invested more than 400,000 yuan from his clinics to get the theater operated. He charges no venue rent for every repertoire, and especially supports the literature focused, psychology focused and social reason focused repertoires. Wang independently produced a series of original plays including “the Seine girl face mold”, “I am a Seagull”, “Cao Cao is coming”, “Luoguxiang story,” “Finding the playwright”.

Session 2: The Engineer
From PC to iPhone, from Email to Facebook, from QQ to Weibo, we have constructed a new spectrum of communication tools. We use social media to engineer a new form of self. What is this new you?

Speakers:
Yu Zhou is the creative director from Dolphin Browser, and is also one of the core founding team. He focused on the product design of mobile internet product, and has 7 years on product planning and designing. He is currently in charge of user experience and product development on Dolphin Browser. Dolphin Browser is a mobile browser specially designed for the smartphone and tablets. It was the first one in the world that introduced support for multi-touch gestures and voice control, thus brings up the brand-new experience for mobile users. Dolphin Browser uses the Webkit engine and the native platform rendering capabilities, and becomes one of the most popular browsers on Android, iPhone and iPad.

Rio Takeshi Kubo has produced music for such artists as the Hey Say Jump! and UNDER Z GROUP. In 2005, as a founding member of SaGa, he made his official debut after signing up with Japan’s largest record company. Saga has become one of the first visual rock bands in Asia, combining both traditional music and dance with the modern aesthetic.

Cao Junwu is the Executive Director of the news department at South Weekend. Since his start in South Weekend in 2004, he has served as reporter, investigation editor, front page editor. He once wrote the well-known System, and also got involved in Wen Chuan Earthquake report. In 2009, he gained The Knight International Journalism Awards. He said he has been lucky to work along with the most talented visionaries in South Weekend, and it’s an honor, as well as a responsibility.

Session 3: The Analyst
Data is not useful until it becomes information, and that's because data is hard for human beings to digest. Before there was a data surplus we treated it as precious. Now that there is we can't understand what is and what isn't. How do we return to the previous while finding meaning and value of the new?

Speakers:
YANG Yi, a young pantomime actor in Chengdu, is also a courage dream explorer. In 2010, he occasionally found that pantomime art is no longer in a boom period, but he firmly thought that pantomime itself is just like a seed to be found and cultivated. Then Yang Yi began to devote himself in pantomime art, founding a drama troupe to run some seminars, workshops, research and talks. He brings pantomime into people’s daily life and a wonderful platform for experiencing art. Yang Yi believes that pantomime, as the most original type of stage arts, can establish the real communication between people.

Renee Reynolds & Oliver Wyart
Wyart’s work is fueled by the desire to explore the poetics of the built environment. Believing that work spans across boundaries and media, Wyart is constantly looking for new collaborations to further define the disciplinary crossover. Over the past years he has teamed up with international design & architecture agencies such as IDEO or AS.architecture-studio.

Reynolds is particularly preoccupied with the crosshatch of economics, society and the transmission of the avant-guard into commercial media. She contributes regularly to LA-based Catalysis Projects, Portland-based Unshod Quills and Shanghai-based HAL Publishing. Moving to Shanghai in 2007 she has worked as a copywriter, editor and web-content creator for an array of business, advertising and fine arts media.

Renee and Olivier collaborated on “History of a Future” (winner of “Shanghai Tunnels project”, an international video poetry contest) and will introduce and screen it at TEDxFactory798.

“History of a Future” is a multi-media poem complied over the course of five years in China by an American expatriate scribbling in the subways of Shanghai. The video animation that accompanies the voice over, ventures to visually straddle the mishmash of East, West, history and future.

Jan Chipchase As the executive creative director of global insights, he oversees frog’s global user research practice. With deep experience in running complex, international design research projects, Jan is widely considered to be the authority on applying human-centered insights to the development process. His extensive research projects have taken him around the world to collect insights into the broader emotional, social, and cultural contexts of the impact of technology. His most recent work took place in Afghanistan, where he studied the country’s nascent mobile banking service. A world-renown thought leader, Jan has delivered keynotes at conferences such as TED, CES, LIFT, and the Economist’s Human Potential Conference. Jan holds 25 patents granted or pending, and his research has been extensively profiled in BusinessWeek, The Economist, New Scientist, and The New York Times Magazine, among others.

TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience, in the spirit of ideas worth spreading, where x=independently organized TED event. “Factory 798″, also known as 798 Art Zone in North-East Beijing, is the largest and most influential art district in China that houses a thriving artist community and hosts world-class international and Chinese exhibits. It is where the event host UCCA is located. However, “Factory 798″ stands far more than a place name. “Factory” being the core originator and catalyst of the modern world stands for growth, innovation and change. The three digit number “798″ symbolizes the country’s cutting edge art movement led by a new generation of change makers. “Factory 798″ has been embracing the most original ideas in the burgeoning country.