For Part B of my TED Talk mini-assignment, I watched a Talk by women named Ayah Bdeir. Ayah is an engineer and artist, and is the founder and creator of littleBits. Ayah’s Talk is about imagination and design andthe idea of putting the power of engineers into the hands of artists and designers. Ayah opened by describing the significance of the concrete cement block, what was the original building block of our time. She then goes into describing how Lego’s took that idea of the essential building block of the world and created the Automatic Binding Brick. As Lego blocks become very popular and were found in almost every household, they essentially became the building blocks of our imagination. We then goes into describing how at the same time Lego came out with the Automatic Binding Brick, transistor were being developed at Bell Labs that would create a world where everything was interactive. These transistors allowed you to create much bigger and more complex circuits one brick at a time and are considered the building block of our time. The key difference in the transistor building block is that is currently only for experts. That is where her creation of littleBits comes into play. littleBits is an open source system of preassembled, modular circuits that snap together with magnets. They are very user-friendly and have a fun “play” like feel to them while also serving as an educational as well. Ayah’s idea is for littleBits to be a growing library for every interaction in the world. They have brought into elementary schools and to designers to see what they could do with them.
The reason why I really enjoyed watching this TED Talk is because I found the concept of building blocks to be something that I associate with the d.Studio class. Through the course, we used the toolkit provided to us by the class in various different ways from in-class fun activities to project deliverables. These materials were intended to help generate ideas, creativity and fun, which aligns with Ayah’s idea of making the circuit blocks accessible to everyone to encourage a world of creators, inventors, contributors. Having access to these types of materials can radically change the way people interact with each other and the world around us. I think teaching and encouraging design and creativity is extremely important as it is not only the experts who have the great ideas and who can solve the world’s problems, it’s also everyday people who, with a little bit of help, can come up with amazing ideas. It allows people to think in a different frame of mind and exercise both their right and left side of the brain. For the future development of the younger generation, emphasis on prototyping with a combination of a “play” will greatly enhance the quality of ideas and will raise the bar for the type of innovations that will come out of it.