Dan Phillips has built a dozen housed out of reclaimed and recycled material in Huntsville, Texas. His talk at TED covers how architectural conformity is driven by invented social expectations, and how if we can connect with our real selves, we can break conventions and create unique architecture that has a much lower impact.

While building codes may limit what can actually be done is some places, his concept of stepping outside the box of "the expectations of others" to create is what caught my attention.

This TED video in an interesting perspective on "Behind the Scenes" photography. Taryn Simon spends most of her time trying to get permission, and access to photograph the places that you and I will never see.  In this presentation, she shows and explains the photographs from some of her post 9-11 shoots.

Taryn strikes a emotional and provocative chord whit her images.  What do we really know about the world around us?

Micro Sculptor Willard Wiggan was an undiagnosed dyslexic 5 year old when he started skipping school, and escaping to a miniature fantasy world, where he became an architect for the ants in his garden shed.  His talent has grown into an ability that can only be described as amazing.  Willard creates sculptures on the heads of pins, and in the eyes of needles using his hands, a microscope, and tools he fashions from the likes of the hair of a fly, or an eyelash.  His work, which has been described as “the eighth wonder of the world”, can take up to three month to create, and is sometimes so small it can't be seen by the human eye!  Listen to his talk at TED, and check out his mindboggling art at his website, willard-wigan.com

At TED, Yann Arthus-Bertrand talks about global sustainability accented by some of his amazing aerial photographs.  He also shows off a teaser for his new film HOME which is an aerial extravaganza to show the damage we are doing to the planet, and what we need to do to help the planet rather than hurt it.  All of his work on the film is carbon offset, and the film will be provided to anyone for free without any copyright restrictions for viewing or distribution.  It was released today, and you can watch it online at the "HOME" movie website. 

A while back I discovered the videos that are available on the TED website. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Some of the worlds most inspirational speakers, and forward thinkers talk at the conference, and the TED website makes all of the videos available for anyone to view.

I regularly find inspiration and insight watching a TED talk.  So much so that it has become a regular routine for me to snuggle in bed with my laptop and watch a few TED videos before I turn in.  Be careful, it can be addictive.  Of course, I always love the talks about photography, architecture and design, but there are so many other amazing topics, that I could follow non-stop.  That's why I subscribed to the TED video RSS feed. If you don't have that much time, you can go to the "In Bed With TED" category, or subscribe to the feed for In Bed With TED, and check out my favorites!

I Hope you enjoy!