A firework ladder to the sky — and the magic of explosive art | Cai Guo-Qiang (re-release)

From a boy setting off small explosions in his living room to the creator of world-famous pyrotechnic events, multidisciplinary artist Cai Guo-Qiang has always been drawn to gunpowder. He gives a stunning tour of his work — including his fireworks spectacle at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, his "sky ladder" of fire reaching to the clouds and new work created with AI — and shows how his art probes the line between destruction and construction, control and freedom, violence and beauty. (This talk was delivered in Mandarin and translated live into English. The translation was put through a custom AI model of Cai Guo-Qiang's voice, powered by technology from Metaphysic. You'll hear how Cai would sound if he were speaking English.)

This episode originally aired July 30, 2024.

Want to help shape TED’s shows going forward? Fill out our survey!

Learn more about TED Next at ted.com/futureyou

For the Idea Search application, go to ted.com/ideasearch

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.