I used to play this game
I don’t know its name because I came up
with it myself but the purpose of it is
to look at someone and then try to
imagine what it would be like to be him
so when I was studying to become a
lawyer I would look at my professor and
I would think what would it be like to
be him and I would visualize him with
his girlfriend sitting on the couch but
then I would look at him again and I
would see their hair sticking out of his
ear and I would think maybe he doesn’t
have a girlfriend and when I was
thinking about this I also thought what
would be like to be him and then to
actually teach us he would be standing
in front of some interested students
some bored one some curious ones but I
didn’t live myself to this one day I
would try to think what it would be like
to be the girl sitting right next to me
in class and then another day we would
discuss a law a murder case and instead
of thinking about the legal subjects I
would try to think what it would be like
to be that murderer in my game this is
what it was all about trying to stretch
your empathy as big as it can be trying
to put yourself in someone else’s shoes
my story is about this trying to put
yourself in someone else’s shoes
it’s about empathy empathy is the
starting point for many things for me
it’s the starting point for ideas and
imagination and I wanted to turn those
ideas into tangibles so instead of
becoming a lawyer I graduated at the
Royal Academy of Art and today I run a
concept video where we work on all
different kind of projects but I will
tell you two recent projects that we’ve
made two experiences where empathy
getting yourself in the mind of someone
else was the starting point my
first story starts in Japan a couple of
years I got the opportunity to work and
live in Japan and as you can imagine
it’s super interesting to be in a
country where you have never been
because everything is new so you’re
looking around and discovering all these
new things and I was doing that but then
one day I stepped into the subway and I
set myself opposite to this man and of
course I knew the stories about Japanese
businessmen making very long working
hours but when I looked at him I also
saw something different I saw someone
that was commuting the exact same way
every day in and I think if you are
making the exact same journey day-in
day-out you kind of stop looking around
because there’s no reason to discover
anything new you’ve all seen it so you
kind of stop looking outside and I think
we can all relate to that so I thought
about this can I actually do something
about that can I change the way that we
look can I make something that is very
boring into something worthwhile looking
again so I came up with a very small
idea it only exists out of two stickers
two stickers that change the way we
commute and the day I came up with that
idea was the birth of the man-eater
[Music]
[Music]
thank you in collaboration with the
public transport operator we got these
stickers in every single tram in
Amsterdam and it was amazing to see how
people reacted to it it was really cool
to see how something that small could
actually change the way that they were
commuting but the only thing was that
there was one single group that didn’t
participate in this fund and I started
looking at this and I thought this is
actually a group I’ve also seen just as
much in Japan as I’ve seen it in
Amsterdam and it’s the group of the
people that are actually on their phone
and I think when you’re watching on your
phone and you have your head bowed down
you kind of stop looking around and
every possibility to look outside and to
discover something new is gone and so
you might be surprised that the next
project I’m going to talk about is
actually an application we are right now
working on that is for on your phone but
it all started with this one single
night where a friend of mine invited me
to make a little tour on his boat on
this lake and it was a beautiful evening
and we were in the middle of that Lake
and I said to my friend I wish we could
have a photo of this I wish we could
actually capture this particular moment
but then I said like we could try to
make itself but that would Nev never
capture what it’s actually like and
right when when I said that I saw a man
standing on the shore and he was
actually taking photos of us and I said
to my friend I wish I could have that
photo that he just made I wish I could
see what he actually saw and how he saw
us in the boat on the lake but of course
there’s no way to do that I mean you can
try to shout your phone number but it
will never work and then I thought this
is interesting so when I came back to my
studio I talked about this with my team
and I said maybe we can replicate this
because I’m curious what does it look
like when you get to see how someone
else is you so one day we started this
experiment and my project assistant
would go on the corner of the street
while I was sitting and drinking a
coffee on the terrace and she would ask
people to participate in this experiment
and when they did she would hand them a
photo of me with my phone number
and she would ask them can you have a
look at this guy and when you walk
around and you walk back to your
wherever you go to wherever you’re going
to then please look around and see if
you can find him and when you actually
see him then take a photo of him and
then send it over straight to his phone
so while I was enjoying my drink I
sometimes hear the giggle but all these
photos started pouring in and it was
really weird to witness how suddenly so
many people were actually participating
in this and I was sitting there and I
was just drinking my coffee but after a
while I saw a man sitting right next to
me and he had kind of a weird expression
on his face and they said to me should I
know you and I didn’t get it so I asked
like what what do you mean and he said
well I’ve been sitting here a while and
I’ve seen all these people taking photos
of you so you must be famous and right
there and then it struck me because I
thought if now suddenly because people
are taking pictures of me I am famous
then they must be the paparazzi and I
thought what can we do with this can we
make this into something because in my
daily life I often see beautiful moments
in the lives of other people and I think
it would be really cool if I could
actually capture such a moment and then
get it sent straight to that person
that’s actually in the photo even though
it’s a complete stranger straight to
their phone and right now this is what
we’re working on it’s a project called
shoot me and in shoot me you receive
photos of yourself made by complete
strangers we are now testing this on a
local school and it’s amazing to see how
hundred students were suddenly all
interacting so the device that often
keeps you actually from looking around
and to discover someone else and to
interact turned into something where
people start to interact even with
people that have never met I’ll leave
you with this I’m not here to teach you
a lesson but I hope I gave you a little
bit of an insight of what it’s
like to be in my mind I really like to
step in the shoes of someone else and
then try to look around and see what’s
there to come up then with projects like
shoot me and the man-eater and I try to
spark the curiosity through looking
around or the simple act of looking
around and then rediscovering what’s
already there thank you
[Applause]
I don’t know its name because I came up
with it myself but the purpose of it is
to look at someone and then try to
imagine what it would be like to be him
so when I was studying to become a
lawyer I would look at my professor and
I would think what would it be like to
be him and I would visualize him with
his girlfriend sitting on the couch but
then I would look at him again and I
would see their hair sticking out of his
ear and I would think maybe he doesn’t
have a girlfriend and when I was
thinking about this I also thought what
would be like to be him and then to
actually teach us he would be standing
in front of some interested students
some bored one some curious ones but I
didn’t live myself to this one day I
would try to think what it would be like
to be the girl sitting right next to me
in class and then another day we would
discuss a law a murder case and instead
of thinking about the legal subjects I
would try to think what it would be like
to be that murderer in my game this is
what it was all about trying to stretch
your empathy as big as it can be trying
to put yourself in someone else’s shoes
my story is about this trying to put
yourself in someone else’s shoes
it’s about empathy empathy is the
starting point for many things for me
it’s the starting point for ideas and
imagination and I wanted to turn those
ideas into tangibles so instead of
becoming a lawyer I graduated at the
Royal Academy of Art and today I run a
concept video where we work on all
different kind of projects but I will
tell you two recent projects that we’ve
made two experiences where empathy
getting yourself in the mind of someone
else was the starting point my
first story starts in Japan a couple of
years I got the opportunity to work and
live in Japan and as you can imagine
it’s super interesting to be in a
country where you have never been
because everything is new so you’re
looking around and discovering all these
new things and I was doing that but then
one day I stepped into the subway and I
set myself opposite to this man and of
course I knew the stories about Japanese
businessmen making very long working
hours but when I looked at him I also
saw something different I saw someone
that was commuting the exact same way
every day in and I think if you are
making the exact same journey day-in
day-out you kind of stop looking around
because there’s no reason to discover
anything new you’ve all seen it so you
kind of stop looking outside and I think
we can all relate to that so I thought
about this can I actually do something
about that can I change the way that we
look can I make something that is very
boring into something worthwhile looking
again so I came up with a very small
idea it only exists out of two stickers
two stickers that change the way we
commute and the day I came up with that
idea was the birth of the man-eater
[Music]
[Music]
thank you in collaboration with the
public transport operator we got these
stickers in every single tram in
Amsterdam and it was amazing to see how
people reacted to it it was really cool
to see how something that small could
actually change the way that they were
commuting but the only thing was that
there was one single group that didn’t
participate in this fund and I started
looking at this and I thought this is
actually a group I’ve also seen just as
much in Japan as I’ve seen it in
Amsterdam and it’s the group of the
people that are actually on their phone
and I think when you’re watching on your
phone and you have your head bowed down
you kind of stop looking around and
every possibility to look outside and to
discover something new is gone and so
you might be surprised that the next
project I’m going to talk about is
actually an application we are right now
working on that is for on your phone but
it all started with this one single
night where a friend of mine invited me
to make a little tour on his boat on
this lake and it was a beautiful evening
and we were in the middle of that Lake
and I said to my friend I wish we could
have a photo of this I wish we could
actually capture this particular moment
but then I said like we could try to
make itself but that would Nev never
capture what it’s actually like and
right when when I said that I saw a man
standing on the shore and he was
actually taking photos of us and I said
to my friend I wish I could have that
photo that he just made I wish I could
see what he actually saw and how he saw
us in the boat on the lake but of course
there’s no way to do that I mean you can
try to shout your phone number but it
will never work and then I thought this
is interesting so when I came back to my
studio I talked about this with my team
and I said maybe we can replicate this
because I’m curious what does it look
like when you get to see how someone
else is you so one day we started this
experiment and my project assistant
would go on the corner of the street
while I was sitting and drinking a
coffee on the terrace and she would ask
people to participate in this experiment
and when they did she would hand them a
photo of me with my phone number
and she would ask them can you have a
look at this guy and when you walk
around and you walk back to your
wherever you go to wherever you’re going
to then please look around and see if
you can find him and when you actually
see him then take a photo of him and
then send it over straight to his phone
so while I was enjoying my drink I
sometimes hear the giggle but all these
photos started pouring in and it was
really weird to witness how suddenly so
many people were actually participating
in this and I was sitting there and I
was just drinking my coffee but after a
while I saw a man sitting right next to
me and he had kind of a weird expression
on his face and they said to me should I
know you and I didn’t get it so I asked
like what what do you mean and he said
well I’ve been sitting here a while and
I’ve seen all these people taking photos
of you so you must be famous and right
there and then it struck me because I
thought if now suddenly because people
are taking pictures of me I am famous
then they must be the paparazzi and I
thought what can we do with this can we
make this into something because in my
daily life I often see beautiful moments
in the lives of other people and I think
it would be really cool if I could
actually capture such a moment and then
get it sent straight to that person
that’s actually in the photo even though
it’s a complete stranger straight to
their phone and right now this is what
we’re working on it’s a project called
shoot me and in shoot me you receive
photos of yourself made by complete
strangers we are now testing this on a
local school and it’s amazing to see how
hundred students were suddenly all
interacting so the device that often
keeps you actually from looking around
and to discover someone else and to
interact turned into something where
people start to interact even with
people that have never met I’ll leave
you with this I’m not here to teach you
a lesson but I hope I gave you a little
bit of an insight of what it’s
like to be in my mind I really like to
step in the shoes of someone else and
then try to look around and see what’s
there to come up then with projects like
shoot me and the man-eater and I try to
spark the curiosity through looking
around or the simple act of looking
around and then rediscovering what’s
already there thank you
[Applause]
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