Theme: Big Questions

We live in in a world where people have more information than that they can take in. The right answers aren’t what we seek anymore. It’s all about asking the right questions. On November 27, TEDxAmsterdam speakers will ask and answer big questions.

Stadsschouwburg
Leidseplein 26
Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, 1017 PT
Netherlands

Dutch National Research Agenda

The Dutch National Research Agenda (Nationale Wetenschapsagenda) has collected more than 11,700 questions from the Dutch public. Some of the questions require years of research, others can be readily answered.

FALT

FALT is een electronic-pop trio. Their live performances find a balance between pop, (deep) house, and minimal disco. Producer Niels Kuiters combines the lyrical pop and techno by front-man Bas van Rijnoever with the characteristic tunes of bass player Gijs Lichthart and wondrous scenes of Udo Thijssen. Sit back and be surprised by these quarter finalists of De Grote Prijs van Nederland.

HRH Princess Margriet

Princess Margriet is a member of the Dutch royal family who volunteers for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent. Here she speaks about importance of an holistic approach to dealing with natural disasters, one that emphasizes prevention as well as relief.

PIPS:lab

A PIPS:lab production always surprises and is totally self-made. The computer is their mixing tool, blending music, theatre, film and a healthy dose of comedy into innovative performances and interactive installations. They produce their own software, hardware, music tracks, stories, and visuals. But no PIPS:lab production is ever complete without the input of the audience.

Stichting Nieuwe Helden

Nieuwe Helden (New Heroes) is a movement of Creators and Heroes that develops art projects and urban actions for the public space, in order to facilitate encounters between people.

TEDxAmsterdam Awards Finalists

Jurre den Haan, Anne-Sophie Schürmann and Shayne Smart battle for the TEDxAmsterdam Award 2015 by pitching their ideas.

Ad Vingerhoets

Why Do Only Humans Weep?

Ad Vingerhoets is a professor in Social and Behavioral Sciences at Tilburg University, with expertise in the areas of stress, emotions, and quality of life. What he’s famous for, though, is crying. A phenomenon unique to humans, weeping – that is to say, tearful, emotional crying – is one of his special interests, as well as the topic for his TEDxAmsterdam talk in November 2015.

Avi Yaron

Was a Brain Tumor the Best Thing that Happened to Me?

In 1993, Israeli Avi Yaron discovered he had a brain tumor. He learned that the instruments needed to remove the tumor completely had not yet been invented. There was nothing available that was small enough to see inside his brain. Yaron decided he needed to invent the instrument himself and set to work developing a scope small enough to see inside the brain. He used insect eyes as the model for how the scope would create a 3D view of the brain. In his miraculous story, he discusses the emotional side of of medical research.

Damiaan Denys

What is the Relationship Between Angst and Freedom?

Damiaan Denys is professor of psychiatry at the University of Amsterdam and department head of psychiatry at the Academic Medical Center (AMC). His work focuses on anxiety and compulsive disorders. Denys is also a philosopher who has created a performance called Wat is Angst (What is Angst?). As a philosopher, he examines how anxiety and angst affects both individuals and societies.

Gaudencio Mondano

How Do You Overcome Disaster?

Captain Gaudencio Mondano worked most of his life in Papua, New Guinea, planting trees for the Japanese paper industry. When he returned to his home village on Lake Mainit in the Philippines, he saw how yearly flooding was ravaging the area. This disaster inspired him to embark on the monumental task of reforestation along the shores to revive the area. By then end of 2014 over one-thousand trees had been planted.

Jacqueline Hamelink

Can We Make Quantum Technology Work?

Jacqueline Hamelink is a cellist who can’t seem to sit still. Originally working in the classical music world, she is always passionate about exploring new musical idioms and a wide range of theatrical forms. Inspired by musical theatre, she moves on the edge of music, dance, theatre and visual art. Since 2011 she is also co-founder and artistic director of Sounding Bodies. An organisation creating theatrical music experiences. Sounding Bodies combines various disciplines into one synergistic form: 1+1=3. One of their performances is called BachTherapy! At TEDxAmsterdam she will treat someone in the audience to the experience of the therapeutic powers of Bach’s Suites.

Khadija Massaoudi

Khadija Massaoudi is theater-maker, TV presenter, writer, and singer. In cooperation with Stichting Nieuwe Helden and the International School of Amsterdam she asked Big Questions to children.

Maite Hontelé

How Does a Dutch Trumpet Player Become Famous in Colombia?

Maite Hontelé was born in Haaften, the Netherlands where she held a trumpet for the first time as a nine year old girl. Since studying the instrument she traveled the world with her music and felt most at home in Medellín, Colombia. Performing with Latin stars like Rubén Blades from Panama, Oscar d’León from Venezuela and Pio Leyva – one of the members of the Buena Vista Social Club – and a Latin Grammy Award nomination for best salsa album she is no less than a world star. But maybe the best compliment: she is told to be Dutch by birth, but Colombian by heart.

Mark Dingemanse

The Power of ‘Huh?’

Mark Dingemanse is a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics who is interested in how people use language in everyday life — from sharing information to building social relations. In September 2015 he and his colleagues won an Ig Nobel Prize for his work which shows that ‘Huh?’may well be a universal word used when people miss what someone has just said.

Matt Stopera

Where’s my phone?

At one time or another, almost everyone has asked the question: where’s my phone? Stopera, the deputy editorial director of Buzzfeed, stopped to ponder this question when he saw images of an unknown Asian man appear in his photostream. Though Stopera’s phone had been stolen more than a year before in a New York bar, it was still logged into his iCloud account. Stopera decided to investigate. In the following months he followed his stolen iPhone across the world, became a celebrity in China, and found a friend for life.

Maurice Mikkers

How Do Tears Turn into Art?

Dutch photographer Maurice Mikkers is fascinated with tears. His photos reveal the structure of tears at a molecular level. In his images we see the crystallized tears, each one different, reminding us of the uniqueness of snowflakes.

Michel Abdel Malek

What will you do?

The refugee crisis happening at the borders of the European Union has become a full-blown humanitarian crisis. The aid given by volunteers and NGOs has been indispensable in keeping the situation manageable and is absolutely necessary for the coming months. Michel Abdel Malek shares his experiences as medical doctor for the Dutch Boat Refugee Foundation on the island of Lesbos and has a call to action for everyone.

Ntjam Rosie

At the age of nine, Ntjam Rosie arrived in The Netherlands from a small village in Cameroon. As a singer/songwriter now she still gets inspired by her homeland. She is now based in Rotterdam and has been turning heads in her adopted home country. That is because of her exciting, very personal Afro-European blend of soul, jazz, folk, gospel and world music. Ntjam Rosie’s talent reached the North Sea Jazz festival and she will now perform at TEDxAmsterdam. Listening to her you can’t resist saying that the future is bright. The future is Rosie.

Robin Coops

Robin Coops is a composer and director. With his foundation ‘M31’ he makes interdisciplinary operas and films in which he searches for the boundaries of each discipline. His work has a detailed focus on the evolution of language, space, sound, and the body movements of the performers.

Romano Haynes

Up and coming talent Romano Haynes will graduate from the Maastricht Theatre Academy this year.

Siyanda Mohutsiwa

Is Africa’s Future Online?

Siyanda Mohutsiwa is a writer and satirist from Botswana. Mohutsiwa, also known as Siyanda-Panda, wondered how Africans would behave in a bar, so she started the hashtag #IfAfricaWasABar. The idea was for Africans to speak to one another in a “lighthearted, non-hateful sort of way.” The hashtag went viral, with continued demands for Mohutsiwa leading the way with her own tweet:

Tika Stardust

Does Love Know Borders?

Tika Stardust is a sexual caregiver who works with people with emotional and physical disabilities. For years, Tika worked in the more traditional healthcare industry. It was this work that made her aware of how sexual needs are both ignored and remain taboo. Her work is documented in the book Een stukje liefde

Victoria Roosenrot

Victoria Roosenrot came across a lot of different dance styles in her life but never really found herself completely comfortable in a style, until she really found her passion: corde lisse. Corde lisse moves are normally a combination of held postures and drops using a rope that hangs from the ceiling. It requires great skill, strength, and trust to prevent a fall, as there is no safety net. At TEDxAmsterdam Victoria will perform Hiraeth, an act that is part of the program “Under the TENT” by TENT circus theatre productions.

Zelda La Grange

How Do People Change?

Zelda La Grange was born in Pretoria, South Africa. As a white Afrikaner, she grew up in a conservative family that fully supported the apartheid. However, just before Nelson Mandela was appointed the first black president of South- Africa, he chose Zelda La Grange to be his personal assistant. She devoted the next twenty years to serving one of the world’s most beloved politicians. How did she change, and how did South African people change?