frog's Burning Man at TED 2012

frog Senior Principal Technologist Jared Ficklin isn’t your typical gadget geek (in fact, he was once on the PBS reality show, Texas Ranch, challenged with living the tech-free life of an 1867 cowboy).

When he isn’t designing user experiences and thinking about the future of interaction choreography, you might find him in the bowl of an Austin skatepark (he founded and codirects the Austin Public Skatepark Action Committee) or you might see him creating sound visualizations in unlikely mediums.

Now, the man behind the edgy tech hacks at the annual frog SXSW Interactive Opening Party will be bringing his edgy presentation to a new stage: this year’s TED Conference in Long Beach. design mind caught up with Jared to discuss his journey to TED, what we can expect from a new presentation of fiery sound displays, and a sneak peak at the playful tech behind this frog's SXSW Interactive Opening party this year. 

design mind: You are the first frog to take the TED stage and through a path that is pretty unconventional for TED. How does it feel?

Jared Ficklin: I am both honored and intimidated.  I see that Bill Nye is presenting the night after me.  He is a childhood hero.  So, I really hope I do well and people find it enjoyable.  It is actually very difficult to create something relatable in the short [nine-minute] time frame.  But it has been a long time goal of mine to speak at TED and I am so happy to get the opportunity.

Essentially, my journey to the TED stage started when I submitted a one-minute video in response to a call for auditions I saw via a mention from a buddy on twitter. This was the day before the competition closed, so I conceptualized and filmed in one afternoon and thought that will be the last of that (I actually need to stop doing that).  Next thing I knew, I was on my way to New York City to do a six-minute presentation in what turned out to be a very fun night.  I absolutely knew that night another finalist, Reggie Watts, would be chosen and decided to count it as just another amazing experience.  But then I got an email and was very excited to learn that TED was ready to have more of us from that evening talk.  For me in particular, TED needed to get some logistics into place before accepting me.  I don't travel light and TED can move mountains, but I think I came with some red tape that will become apparent after I present.

dm: Red tape? Sounds like a teaser to me – what kind of antics can we expect from your presentation? 

JF: I would expect middle-school science experiments elevated, taken through lateral thoughts, and a journey from physical to digital.  My hobby for the past eight years and, dating back to exposure in my youth, has been sound visualization.  I am going to present in nine short minutes the highlights of the accumulation of that work. 

dm: Now we’re super curious.

JF: I can’t give too much away, but I will say that I am not certain how many TED talks have needed the co-operation of Long Beach city officials in order to be pulled off…

dm: Whose presentation are you looking forward to seeing?

JF:  Bill Nye’s.  I am a fan.  In fact I think portions of my life have been modeled after the spirit of the Science Guy.  Also Philippe Petit. Guerilla tight rope walking?  So 70's punk rock!  The Jackass Show generation has nothing on this guy.  I loved the documentary film about him, Man on Wire. And of course I am excited to see Reggie Watts, the finalist who blew us away at the Full Spectrum Auditions.

dm: When you aren’t creating new sound visualizations, what are the dream interaction projects you are gunning for?

JF: For frog, I would love if a client commissioned a team of us to do a vision piece of the Man Cave of the future.  In that space, I could address all manner of physical and conversational computing, from media consumption to 3D printing.  It would be like combining bleeding edge interface with the living room, garage and shop! 

Outside of frog, I’d like to take over the Trail of Lights here in Austin, which is a holiday event that would really benefit from some updating, considering the modern applications of interaction and LED lights. 

I’d also love if someone allowed me to work their horse.  I love horsemanship and training a horse is like interaction design.  Actually, it is the ultimate empathic-based interaction design and I have found that horses are actually highly intuitive user interfaces.

dm: What are some of your other passions outside of your day job at frog?

JF: I am currently spending a lot of time teaching my son Ollie, who is 1 ½ years old, how to relate to and boss around robotic vacuum cleaners.  It is a blast!  Sound Visualization is actually a big hobby of mine.  I spend a lot of weekends and evenings toying around with new experiments.  I've also enjoyed advocating for the construction of quality skateparks as the co-director of the Austin Public Skatepark Action Committee.  I am an amateur event planner and a good person to invite to a party.  I shake down all manner of installations at peoples’ Halloween or birthday parties.  I am also really good at watching TV. Better than most people.  My dad worked in Public Television, so I started early with advanced content and I quickly mastered TiVo as an early adopter.

dm: Well, when you aren't watching TV, you are the man behind frog’s SXSW Interactive Opening Party. Last year we were blown away by what could come from a few life-size Microsoft Kinect Hacks. Can you let us in on some secret tech surprises for this year's party?

JF: Oh yes, scale is going to be BIG again this year. Along with an amazing team of frogs, we’re working with the amazing Coding4Fun group from Microsoft to double the number of installations. 

We are trying to convert classically digital interfaces to analog and vice versa.  I foresee stepper motors and have ordered about 5000 feet of wiring.  Also, the Augmented Reality Porta Potties will be back, believe it or not, by popular demand.  We also have a great venue that is covered, so weather is not something I have to worry about this year. An important less technical feature will be our 120 foot long bar, a record size for our party and we’ve doubled the number of entrances to the party to prevent a line going around the block like last year. So, we are potentially working on a crowd velocity meter so we know how we did.

And, lastly, there may be a few robots.  You can't miss this. 

 Image from oyvindnordhagen