Jason Silva calls himself a media artist, filmmaker and “idea-dj”. Today’s Internet savvy audience calls him a key influencer with new ideas and high concepts. His video “Radical Openness”, supported with a multitude of Shutterstock footage, premiered at the TEDGlobal Conference in 2012 and has since gone viral (vimeo.com/38260970). Together with his other videos, Silva’s inspiring anthems have been seen nearly two million times on his Vimeo channel.
Silva’s passion is for finding creative ways to communicate big ideas related to technology, imagination and the human condition. Inspired by the Radical Openness theme of the 2012 TEDGlobal Conference, Silva calls his video “an ode to the power of ideas to change the world. The video explores the notion of ideas as replicators that leap from brain to brain like organisms.” To portray ideas connecting with other ideas and spawning even more, Silva sought to create eye-popping visuals that could keep up with the concepts his brain generated. To do this, he called on Shutterstock’s wide range of still and video footage. Using this extensive visual resource library, he cut together a series of powerful visuals that supported his voice-over and gave substance to his concepts.
To Silva everything comes together if you are open. His connection to Shutterstock, a leading provider of still and motion footage, at a key time during the development of this video is a perfect example. “We were really excited to see our imagery in action in Jason’s Radical Openness video. We’re proud to have been a part of his creative process,” says Scott Braut, VP of Content at Shutterstock.
“It made the experience of ‘visualizing’ the ideas far superior than it would have been otherwise,” Silva says. “My video is done in the rapid-fire pace in which I deliver my ideas. One of the challenges is to find imagery appropriate to visualize this stream-of-consciousness download. Shutterstock proved invaluable. Using keyword searches, I was able to track down images to illustrate everything I was speaking about.”
Dubbed a “Performance Philosopher” by TED, Silva has spoken at TEDGlobal, Google and keynoted events for Microsoft and IBM. “Radical Openness” which was created entirely by Jason Silva at Therapy Studios and is available on the TED website blog, and has been covered by CBS News, Newsweek/Daily Beast and is a Vimeo Staff Pick. Silva is in production hosting Brain Games on national geographic channel, premiering in the spring. Additionally, Jason is working on a new video exploring Douglas Hofstadter’s theory on the origin of human consciousness, exploring the role of self-referential loops on a mind able to perceive itself. Silva is also currently working on a new video about the “Neuroscience of Flow States”, which he describes as states of deep immersion where maximum creativity takes place. “I’m excited to have access to Shutterstock’s immense library of visual materials to saturate this video with awe-inspiring images,” he adds.
Photo Courtesy of National Geographic Channels/Stewart Volland.
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