hello everyone my name is Ivan and this
is me at age seven and growing up I was
very lonely and kind of disconnected I
was the only Jewish kid in my school and
got bullied for that I also grew up
without video games and TV what kind of
parents would do that to a kid yeah and
so I was always really fascinated by
what it was connection was I didn’t have
a Christmas tree I didn’t know what the
Simpsons were Seinfeld but I wanted to
know how are people relating how were
they talking about what what is pop
culture and so this really inspired what
has now been a lifelong pursuit of this
interest and it actually led me to
advertising because in advertising it
reels a lot with pop culture and in
connection and so that leads me to 2011
so we’re fast-forwarding and I got my
dream job at one of the top ad agencies
in the world in Amsterdam so I moved
from the u.s. to Europe and was really
excited to ride bikes along the canal
and meet new people and yeah just
explore Europe however a lot of my time
ended up being spent at the office
working late nights and weekends staring
more into a screen than actually
interacting with other people and I was
particularly kind of bothered by the
endless torrent of emails that kept
coming through and it just felt ironic
because I was connecting with people
over email but I didn’t feel that way I
felt Hollow or kind of superficial and
so I kind of quickly fell into a dark
depression and then my girlfriend dumped
me and so sort of with with no better
option I made a really radical decision
that was quite difficult and I chose to
quit the job after just five months and
I wasn’t sure exactly what I was going
to do but I knew that I wanted to work
with kind of go back to my passion and
explore connection in a way that was
more tangible and meaningful than email
and so I ended up deciding to work with
a new
technology a new medium you might have
heard of it it’s called snail mail and I
love snail mail it’s amazing if you ever
want to let someone know that you care
about them send them a handwritten
letter it’s amazing and so about a week
after I quit the job I started this new
project and I wanted to to leverage
snail mail to force myself to write more
letters and also to inspire more people
to get acquainted with this lost art and
so about a week later I had inspiration
for this project called snail mail my
email where I invited anyone in the
world to send me an email and a
recipients physical address and I’d
handwrite it and then put it in the mail
and send it anywhere in the world for
free and yeah it existed as a website so
people could just go on and do that and
all was well for the first couple days I
got about 5 to 10 letters per day but
then on the fourth day it got a lot of
press coverage and on that fourth day I
got a thousand over a thousand letter
requests and I didn’t have the time or
resources to fulfill that but I put a
note on the website just asking if
people would be willing to help out and
thankfully people responded and so the
project turned into volunteer letter
artists helping out and really it was a
crowdsource project so I want to share
some of the letters with you Andy
while you’re hard at work I am at home
making blueberry pancakes while naked
and I love thinking about the volunteer
here who doesn’t know Andy doesn’t know
s and it’s just this in-between liaison
that is doing there at creative
interpretation and letters really
spanned all shapes sizes and colors we
also had the letter sent all around the
world mind you so not just in English
here we have a letter that’s in Czech in
French and in Portuguese we have the
letters of acceptance from the Hogwarts
we had knit letters we even had marriage
proposals and it wasn’t just quantity it
was really it was quality as well these
volunteers really went for it and it was
pretty extraordinary and these
volunteers ranged from middle american
moms to even middle school students in
the czech republic that got assigned it
for their art class and at the end of
the day the project existed for a period
of six years with one-week installments
every year and during that time the
project had 2,000 volunteers that sent
out over 29,000 letters and the
volunteers paid for all of the postage
the project turned into a book which was
a cool way for the letters to live on
and what this really taught me is that
in our increasingly divided and digital
world human connection is more important
than ever and these simple yet profound
moments of connection are actually
always available to us and we might not
realize it but they really are so I’d
like to share three projects over the
next 10 minutes that exemplify this so
the passenger project turns airplane
passengers into creative collaborators
and the inspiration for this was I was
at a wedding flying back from a wedding
and I was really struck by the contrast
between how warm the wedding was and
then kind of how sterile and cold the
flight fell and I I just thought there’s
got to be a way of like uniting everyone
aboard this miracle that we’re
experiencing it’s flight and I thought a
and so I created a series of surveys
that I now pass around and it just as a
quick board a survey in a pen so I’ll
just share a couple with you this
invites passengers decorate one empty
space and I’ll pass it around it’s blank
and then look what it comes back as and
so each of these represents a different
passenger this is going from LA to New
York this one going from San Francisco
to Denver and I like to really examine
how different people are influenced by
the different spaces and so we’re just
going to pinpoint here to two rivals
sports fans one saying go cards and one
same go Giants this one invites people
to mark an X where their home is and
mark an X where their dream vacation
would be and so I’m flying from Seattle
and yet people’s dream vacations are all
around the world and if you notice on
the left
even outer space which I thought was a
creative interpretation this one invites
people to answer the prompt my
hopelessly ambitious dream is to dot dot
dot B the reason two enemies become
friends be a princess and live in a
castle and teach a parrot to say help
I’ve been turned into a parrot and this
projects a lot of fun and it’s really
taught me that everything’s a medium you
know look around and everything’s a
medium for human connection it also
involves some degree of rejection not
everyone wants to participate and I’m
okay with that I think that any sort of
attempt for connection inherently
involves risk and so I invite you if
you’re interested in taking a small risk
you’re able to you’re welcome to
participate the next time you fly you
can download a free pdf at the passenger
project com next project I’ve to share
is the last photo project and it invites
strangers to share intimate moments from
their phone and I’m really interested in
the fact that so many of us have
smartphones now and when we’re out in
public on our phone were generally
connecting with people that remotely but
in doing so we’re hindering our ability
to connect with those around us and so I
decided to just walk up to people and
ask them what they were doing on their
phone is a way of breaking that barrier
and I specifically asked people what’s
the last photo on your phone and so I
want to share I made it a series of that
I want to share a quick clip from the
last photo New York edition
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
last photo I got was a collage that my
wife made up a couple of gifts that I
got it last week a couple of pair of
shoes bracelet my cord so I’m just
showing it that I love and appreciate it
to the extent that gifts won’t come for
Christmas at Christmas is salt water
salt this morning I just took a picture
of my cat she because I was joking with
my friends
she sent me picture of all my cats
so I sent her the see it’s a picture of
I don’t remember much of the backstory
right here man that’s me chilling out on
the spot at the spa
you don’t say with my girl at the spa
you come a warning all of that I’m
saying you know you gotta you gotta live
life on the read games I mean you gotta
live you gotta live your life on the
weekends you know I’m saying
steak and shrimp on the weekend
I have an album of about 200 photographs
of clouds the inspiration behind it is
just from the city and so this project
has really taught me that the ordinary
is truly extraordinary I’ve done this
project in nine different cities and
I’ll spend generally three full days per
city and so I really get to interact
with hundreds of people on the street
and it’s totally transformed how I carry
myself in public and its really taught
me a lot about the value of just being
open in a holding space for people the
series has been viewed over a million
times and I got to talk about it on
national TV with the news anchor crystal
ball on the bottom left and what’s
what’s been great about that is that
exposure has expired film as inspired
filmmakers from around the world to
conduct their own last photo editions in
their respective cities so all the black
dots here are where I’ve done my series
and then the blue dots where other
people have done theirs from Sylvania to
Brazil and Korea and I love the idea
that just through me talking to
strangers has inspired other people to
talk to strangers around the world
the last photo I’d like to last project
I’d like to share with you is called
selfless portraits it was co-created
with artist Jeff Greenspan and it
strangers across the world drawing each
other’s facebook profile pics and the
insight is that on social media it
oftentimes is breadth over depth so it’s
easy to talk to a lot of people quickly
but it’s hard to have like a deep
intimate moment with people and so that
was the challenge we set out for
ourselves and the way it worked was in
order to have your portrait drawn you
first had to draw a stranger and it was
quite amazing to see what kind of
mediums people use from collage to
hand-cut linoleum stamps some people
spent an absurd amount of time on their
portrait and for anyone that’s drawn a
portrait you know that it’s a really
intimate process of looking into
someone’s eyes and studying them and
some were just fun this is me when I
and it was great to see how innovative
people were and what they decided to
change in their portrait of their
subject I appreciate that you can create
a portrait of someone using household
finally a permanent connection this is
amarildo from Sao Paulo Brazil and Joey
from California on the right they don’t
know each other they’d never spoken and
yet they’re forever connected through
this project so this project will a
stood for two and a half years and
during that time we had over 50,000
portraits drawn from 153 countries and
we’re really happy with that response
and we actually pitched it to to
Facebook and a couple of brands and
everyone ended up turning it down and
they liked the idea but they felt it was
too risky and like what if people don’t
participate and for me it was really
validating to do this project and to
really trust connection and so I just
like to share a couple of lessons I’ve
learned through these projects the first
is that people are capable of so much
more than share like and tweet they just
need to be empowered and it’s really
easy to look at metrics and data and
numbers as the only metric to gauge
success I think when we do that though
we kind of we missed the mark and we’re
not actually allowing people to do as
much as they’re capable of doing next we
as humans yearn to be seen heard felt
and connected with and a my work as an
artist filmmaker and creative director
I’ve really firsthand seen this to be
true I think that we all have this
whether we realize it or not this innate
desire for connection and for
understanding and I think it actually
motivates all of our actions if offered
a compelling human experience we will do
just about anything to be a part of it
and then lastly it’s easy to think about
a stranger as like other or separate but
I think it’s pretty radical to think
about a stranger is actually someone
that we just haven’t connected with yet
and that that subtle reframe has really
shifted how I operate and carry myself
in public that said we’re living in a
time
like we unprecedented division and
distraction and disconnection right
technology keeps rising the New York
Times just released a study that 40% of
Americans identify as lonely and so it
might feel kind of hopeless but I see
opportunity I think that connection is
actually it’s not even a choice it’s
kind of all we have left is to find the
unity to find the connection and that
could be as simple as a smile to someone
or eye contact it could be a random
compliment it could be paying for the
person behind you at the tolls whatever
that is find what feels good for you but
I really invite you to explore that and
so I want to leave you with a prompt
that you’re welcome to take and that is
how can you facilitate human connection
today thank you [Applause]
is me at age seven and growing up I was
very lonely and kind of disconnected I
was the only Jewish kid in my school and
got bullied for that I also grew up
without video games and TV what kind of
parents would do that to a kid yeah and
so I was always really fascinated by
what it was connection was I didn’t have
a Christmas tree I didn’t know what the
Simpsons were Seinfeld but I wanted to
know how are people relating how were
they talking about what what is pop
culture and so this really inspired what
has now been a lifelong pursuit of this
interest and it actually led me to
advertising because in advertising it
reels a lot with pop culture and in
connection and so that leads me to 2011
so we’re fast-forwarding and I got my
dream job at one of the top ad agencies
in the world in Amsterdam so I moved
from the u.s. to Europe and was really
excited to ride bikes along the canal
and meet new people and yeah just
explore Europe however a lot of my time
ended up being spent at the office
working late nights and weekends staring
more into a screen than actually
interacting with other people and I was
particularly kind of bothered by the
endless torrent of emails that kept
coming through and it just felt ironic
because I was connecting with people
over email but I didn’t feel that way I
felt Hollow or kind of superficial and
so I kind of quickly fell into a dark
depression and then my girlfriend dumped
me and so sort of with with no better
option I made a really radical decision
that was quite difficult and I chose to
quit the job after just five months and
I wasn’t sure exactly what I was going
to do but I knew that I wanted to work
with kind of go back to my passion and
explore connection in a way that was
more tangible and meaningful than email
and so I ended up deciding to work with
a new
technology a new medium you might have
heard of it it’s called snail mail and I
love snail mail it’s amazing if you ever
want to let someone know that you care
about them send them a handwritten
letter it’s amazing and so about a week
after I quit the job I started this new
project and I wanted to to leverage
snail mail to force myself to write more
letters and also to inspire more people
to get acquainted with this lost art and
so about a week later I had inspiration
for this project called snail mail my
email where I invited anyone in the
world to send me an email and a
recipients physical address and I’d
handwrite it and then put it in the mail
and send it anywhere in the world for
free and yeah it existed as a website so
people could just go on and do that and
all was well for the first couple days I
got about 5 to 10 letters per day but
then on the fourth day it got a lot of
press coverage and on that fourth day I
got a thousand over a thousand letter
requests and I didn’t have the time or
resources to fulfill that but I put a
note on the website just asking if
people would be willing to help out and
thankfully people responded and so the
project turned into volunteer letter
artists helping out and really it was a
crowdsource project so I want to share
some of the letters with you Andy
while you’re hard at work I am at home
making blueberry pancakes while naked
and I love thinking about the volunteer
here who doesn’t know Andy doesn’t know
s and it’s just this in-between liaison
that is doing there at creative
interpretation and letters really
spanned all shapes sizes and colors we
also had the letter sent all around the
world mind you so not just in English
here we have a letter that’s in Czech in
French and in Portuguese we have the
letters of acceptance from the Hogwarts
we had knit letters we even had marriage
proposals and it wasn’t just quantity it
was really it was quality as well these
volunteers really went for it and it was
pretty extraordinary and these
volunteers ranged from middle american
moms to even middle school students in
the czech republic that got assigned it
for their art class and at the end of
the day the project existed for a period
of six years with one-week installments
every year and during that time the
project had 2,000 volunteers that sent
out over 29,000 letters and the
volunteers paid for all of the postage
the project turned into a book which was
a cool way for the letters to live on
and what this really taught me is that
in our increasingly divided and digital
world human connection is more important
than ever and these simple yet profound
moments of connection are actually
always available to us and we might not
realize it but they really are so I’d
like to share three projects over the
next 10 minutes that exemplify this so
the passenger project turns airplane
passengers into creative collaborators
and the inspiration for this was I was
at a wedding flying back from a wedding
and I was really struck by the contrast
between how warm the wedding was and
then kind of how sterile and cold the
flight fell and I I just thought there’s
got to be a way of like uniting everyone
aboard this miracle that we’re
experiencing it’s flight and I thought a
and so I created a series of surveys
that I now pass around and it just as a
quick board a survey in a pen so I’ll
just share a couple with you this
invites passengers decorate one empty
space and I’ll pass it around it’s blank
and then look what it comes back as and
so each of these represents a different
passenger this is going from LA to New
York this one going from San Francisco
to Denver and I like to really examine
how different people are influenced by
the different spaces and so we’re just
going to pinpoint here to two rivals
sports fans one saying go cards and one
same go Giants this one invites people
to mark an X where their home is and
mark an X where their dream vacation
would be and so I’m flying from Seattle
and yet people’s dream vacations are all
around the world and if you notice on
the left
even outer space which I thought was a
creative interpretation this one invites
people to answer the prompt my
hopelessly ambitious dream is to dot dot
dot B the reason two enemies become
friends be a princess and live in a
castle and teach a parrot to say help
I’ve been turned into a parrot and this
projects a lot of fun and it’s really
taught me that everything’s a medium you
know look around and everything’s a
medium for human connection it also
involves some degree of rejection not
everyone wants to participate and I’m
okay with that I think that any sort of
attempt for connection inherently
involves risk and so I invite you if
you’re interested in taking a small risk
you’re able to you’re welcome to
participate the next time you fly you
can download a free pdf at the passenger
project com next project I’ve to share
is the last photo project and it invites
strangers to share intimate moments from
their phone and I’m really interested in
the fact that so many of us have
smartphones now and when we’re out in
public on our phone were generally
connecting with people that remotely but
in doing so we’re hindering our ability
to connect with those around us and so I
decided to just walk up to people and
ask them what they were doing on their
phone is a way of breaking that barrier
and I specifically asked people what’s
the last photo on your phone and so I
want to share I made it a series of that
I want to share a quick clip from the
last photo New York edition
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
last photo I got was a collage that my
wife made up a couple of gifts that I
got it last week a couple of pair of
shoes bracelet my cord so I’m just
showing it that I love and appreciate it
to the extent that gifts won’t come for
Christmas at Christmas is salt water
salt this morning I just took a picture
of my cat she because I was joking with
my friends
she sent me picture of all my cats
so I sent her the see it’s a picture of
I don’t remember much of the backstory
right here man that’s me chilling out on
the spot at the spa
you don’t say with my girl at the spa
you come a warning all of that I’m
saying you know you gotta you gotta live
life on the read games I mean you gotta
live you gotta live your life on the
weekends you know I’m saying
steak and shrimp on the weekend
I have an album of about 200 photographs
of clouds the inspiration behind it is
just from the city and so this project
has really taught me that the ordinary
is truly extraordinary I’ve done this
project in nine different cities and
I’ll spend generally three full days per
city and so I really get to interact
with hundreds of people on the street
and it’s totally transformed how I carry
myself in public and its really taught
me a lot about the value of just being
open in a holding space for people the
series has been viewed over a million
times and I got to talk about it on
national TV with the news anchor crystal
ball on the bottom left and what’s
what’s been great about that is that
exposure has expired film as inspired
filmmakers from around the world to
conduct their own last photo editions in
their respective cities so all the black
dots here are where I’ve done my series
and then the blue dots where other
people have done theirs from Sylvania to
Brazil and Korea and I love the idea
that just through me talking to
strangers has inspired other people to
talk to strangers around the world
the last photo I’d like to last project
I’d like to share with you is called
selfless portraits it was co-created
with artist Jeff Greenspan and it
strangers across the world drawing each
other’s facebook profile pics and the
insight is that on social media it
oftentimes is breadth over depth so it’s
easy to talk to a lot of people quickly
but it’s hard to have like a deep
intimate moment with people and so that
was the challenge we set out for
ourselves and the way it worked was in
order to have your portrait drawn you
first had to draw a stranger and it was
quite amazing to see what kind of
mediums people use from collage to
hand-cut linoleum stamps some people
spent an absurd amount of time on their
portrait and for anyone that’s drawn a
portrait you know that it’s a really
intimate process of looking into
someone’s eyes and studying them and
some were just fun this is me when I
and it was great to see how innovative
people were and what they decided to
change in their portrait of their
subject I appreciate that you can create
a portrait of someone using household
finally a permanent connection this is
amarildo from Sao Paulo Brazil and Joey
from California on the right they don’t
know each other they’d never spoken and
yet they’re forever connected through
this project so this project will a
stood for two and a half years and
during that time we had over 50,000
portraits drawn from 153 countries and
we’re really happy with that response
and we actually pitched it to to
Facebook and a couple of brands and
everyone ended up turning it down and
they liked the idea but they felt it was
too risky and like what if people don’t
participate and for me it was really
validating to do this project and to
really trust connection and so I just
like to share a couple of lessons I’ve
learned through these projects the first
is that people are capable of so much
more than share like and tweet they just
need to be empowered and it’s really
easy to look at metrics and data and
numbers as the only metric to gauge
success I think when we do that though
we kind of we missed the mark and we’re
not actually allowing people to do as
much as they’re capable of doing next we
as humans yearn to be seen heard felt
and connected with and a my work as an
artist filmmaker and creative director
I’ve really firsthand seen this to be
true I think that we all have this
whether we realize it or not this innate
desire for connection and for
understanding and I think it actually
motivates all of our actions if offered
a compelling human experience we will do
just about anything to be a part of it
and then lastly it’s easy to think about
a stranger as like other or separate but
I think it’s pretty radical to think
about a stranger is actually someone
that we just haven’t connected with yet
and that that subtle reframe has really
shifted how I operate and carry myself
in public that said we’re living in a
time
like we unprecedented division and
distraction and disconnection right
technology keeps rising the New York
Times just released a study that 40% of
Americans identify as lonely and so it
might feel kind of hopeless but I see
opportunity I think that connection is
actually it’s not even a choice it’s
kind of all we have left is to find the
unity to find the connection and that
could be as simple as a smile to someone
or eye contact it could be a random
compliment it could be paying for the
person behind you at the tolls whatever
that is find what feels good for you but
I really invite you to explore that and
so I want to leave you with a prompt
that you’re welcome to take and that is
how can you facilitate human connection
today thank you [Applause]
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