When pictures started moving and films came up in the 1880s it was only logical to incorporate text to substitute for spoken words — at least as long as films were silent. That kind of text was static and limited in the amount of words displayed. In order to display more text, frames had to be changed over time, or text had to be animated. The simplest form of animated text were rolling end titles. Only in the 1960s text started to be truly animated in film titles. Since then animated text has been widely used in film and television and became part of our visual culture. Continue reading...

The ever increasing speed of change and its totality that we are facing today leaves us in need of explanations — more than ever before. In order to keep pace we have to make sense of it all. We have to understand the own position in relation to the processes of globalization, climate change, and conflicts. It might well be a matter of survival — not only on an individual level and not only for people outside the western industrialized nations. Devdutt Pattanaik explains the basic differences between East and West by telling wonderful stories about mythical figures from both worlds. Continue reading...

About three years ago, in February 2006, Sir Ken Robinson mesmerized the audience at the TED conference with his presentation, Do schools kill creativity? This was a defining moment for TED, making Ken Robinson somewhat of a figurehead for TED Talks. In his latest book, The Element — How finding your passion changes everything, he gives another inspiring insight into the field of human creativity and its limitless opportunities. He urges us to search for our very own Element, the point where natural talent meets personal passion. Continue reading...