Please welcome Adobe Chief Marketing Officer Ann Lewnes.

Good morning, everyone! And welcome to day two of MAX.

So yesterday you saw some amazing technology like Share for review, in Photoshop, in Illustrator, you saw the incredible Intertwine feature.

Everybody's talking about Intertwine. Our AI powered Quick actions in Adobe Express and of course, the new stuff in the Substance 3D Collection including Modeler. Today, we're going to hear from some of the extraordinary creators that are across a lot of different creative disciplines. These are people who are sharing their stories and unique perspectives. And they are putting a light on some of the most profound challenges of our time. And in the midst of that through their powerful work, they're also inspiring other people to find their voices. We're going to hear from gifted storyteller Kadir Nelson, whose illustrations of historical and heroic African American subjects are bringing really unseen perspectives into the world, visionary artist and musician Steve Aoki, who I just met, and I'm freaking out. Whose work is breaking down musical and cultural boundaries. Conservation photographer Cristina Mittermeier whose breathtaking work underscores the incredible responsibility we all have to protect our planet. Academy Award winning writer and director Siân Heder, whose film Coda is helping forge a path for powerful inclusive stories to be told, and world-renowned contemporary artists, Jeff Koons, whose work, my God, whose work has made the art world so joyful and accessible.

So at Adobe, we've always believed in the power of creativity to bring about positive change. And we're committed to providing opportunities for all creators to tell their stories. Responding to the crisis in Ukraine, Adobe committed more than a $1 million in funding to support Ukrainian creators.

We're working with the Ocean Agency on the Create Waves campaign to raise awareness about climate change impact on our planet. And to address gender inequality in the film industry, we're supporting the Sundance Female Mentorship program, which helps female story... Yes.

Which helps female storytellers further their craft and create bold work in film and media.

And education, you heard this yesterday, Adobe Express is now available globally to 43 million students and teachers.

This is all good news. You could just keep clapping. And we're expanding our partnership with historically black colleges, as well as Hispanic serving institutions.

And this week we announced the launch of Adobe Express for nonprofits, which gives all nonprofits free access to the premium version of Adobe Express.

For us, creativity for all is not just a rallying cry, it's a mission. And we're committed to making it a reality.

We all understand the power that creativity has at Adobe. We're going to continue to innovate and find more ways to help you get your stories out into the world. Whether you're here in LA, or watching from home or your office, it's so good to have the community back together. So now let's hear from our first guest speaker, Kadir Nelson. His masterful artwork frequently pays tribute to historical figures in popular culture. His paintings are in permanent collections, including the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Nelson's work inspired the visuals for Steven Spielberg's Oscar nominated feature Amistad, and he was commissioned to paint the iconic album cover Nothing Was the Same by the one and only Drake.

So please welcome Kadir Nelson.

Thank you. Good morning. It's truly a pleasure to be here. And I'm so glad to see so many engaged faces.

I'm often asked about how I got started as a painter and whether I consider myself an illustrator or fine artist.

How did I go from making my first marks on the page with crayons to creating large oil paintings that live on postal stamps, magazine and album covers, as well as gallery in museum walls.

Inquiring creative minds want to know.

Allow me to take you through my journey in 20 minutes.

Well, I began as a precocious little boy who loved to draw. I drew everything I was interested in and enjoyed the admiration I received from my family and friends who poured over the artwork I was making from as early as three years old.

One afternoon in the late 1970s My siblings and I were left in the care of my Uncle Mike, who entertained us with drawing lessons while my parents were away.

My uncle, a burgeoning artist himself, noticed that I held the pencil in my hand very purposefully while I mimicked his drawing movements.

When my parents returned that evening, he made it clear to them that I could possibly be a little artists in the making.

Keep an eye on that one he told them. And they made sure to follow his instructions.

My parents supported my talent in any way they could with art supplies, encouraging words, by saving my artwork and framing it and later by sending me to study art with my uncle when I was older.

My uncle was the master - that's me at 16 - and I began I became his apprentice. I spent two summers with him at the ages of 11 and 16, when he provided me with a solid Art Foundation that would propel me forward well ahead many of my peers.

In addition to teaching me how to paint with oils, some of the most valuable lessons I learned from my uncle were, how to think like an artist, how to see and how to work with different media to create images that had a deeper meaning.

I learned that if I approach my art in this way, others might also find meaning in it and be inspired by it in some way.

Those lessons have stayed with me for all these years.

I went on to study illustration at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York.

And I remember one afternoon in my freshman graphic design class when a student shared a piece of artwork with the teacher who was very impressed by the student's digital artwork - we were all learning how to use Quark Express at the time - and the teacher asked the student how he created the image.

The student shared that he did it in Photoshop.

I had never heard of it. Where is the Photoshop I wondered. Is it next door? I soon learned that the Photoshop wasn't a place but a computer program, one that continues to be an instrumental tool in my design process, as before I put paint to Canvas.

At Pratt, I learned how to refine and better compose my work, how to approach each work of art with professionalism, and intention by using all the tools of the trade, lighting, design, composition, color theory, texture, depth, perspective, and body language. After four years of studying under several remarkable instructors, I graduated from Pratt, and began my quest to becoming a working artist.

Two weeks after graduating, I was greeted with two very exciting voice messages on my answering machine which really dates me.

One was an invitation to create a series of paintings for sports illustrated magazine. And the other was an invitation to a meeting at the then brand-new movie studio DreamWorks to interview for a job as a visual development artist for a film they were trying to make called Black Mutiny.

The name was later changed to Amistad. And it was based on a true story about a group of African men, women and children, who were captured from their homes in Sierra Leone, and sold illegally into slavery.

I was hired as part of a team to create artwork with the intention of convincing Steven Spielberg to direct the film, and then later to inspire him to create his own inspiration and vision for the film.

So over the course of six months, we created a treasure trove of paintings that told the story of the Amistad captives.

All of the artwork that we created was assembled into three large portfolios, which told the story in three acts.

The production designer Rick Carter, Debbie Allen, the producer on the film, as well as Sincay Henderson, who is an executive assigned to the film presented Stephen with each portfolio.

After taking his time carefully looking at the artwork, Stephen looked at the production designer Sincay and Miss Allen, and said, I'll do it.

It was a dream job for any artists, let alone for a recent graduate who badly needed work. And seeing my artwork make it from concept to the finished film was quite gratifying.

After working on Amistad, I thought that I was hot stuff.

But I was soon humbled when my phone didn't ring for the next six months. Fortunately, I was able to get a job again working as a visual development artist at DreamWorks, but this time for an animated film called Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.

On Spirit, I drew horses for a year and a half.

For one year, and six months, I drew horses.

For 1095 days, I drew horses.

I was creating artwork that capture the cinematic moments that told the story about a wild mustang who refused to be broken or captured by the two-legged kind.

One of the greatest assets I gained from working in film was learning how to create a narrative with my work.

This skill would prove very useful in the near future.

After DreamWorks, I was able to apply all the tools I learned thus far to my next chapter, which was creating narrative artwork and writing for children's books. The platform that allows artists like myself to blend fine art and illustration into a narrative, creating a collection of artwork reminiscent of an art gallery or a museum of sorts inside the pages of a book.

At that time, I was also creating large oil paintings on my easel that were suitable for gallery in museum walls. And yes, that is another horse.

But it's a good-looking horse though, because I learned how to draw it. So, I once read an article about the very successful commercial artist, Thomas Blackshear where he expressed that he felt that he was a fine artist creating artwork for illustration that his skills as a fine artist drove his illustrated works.

I love this idea and I recognized his philosophy in my own work.

And since then, I began creating paintings with the intention that they would have a life long after they'd been used for illustrative purposes.

Paintings that straddle the line between fine art and illustration.

Creating artwork that can live in both spaces.

It's not an easy task, but with intention and effort, it's become a reality.

Now, when I look at my work, I see a yearning to tell a story, a narrative that often focuses on the hero's journey.

It's a familiar story that's been told for generations through film, literature, great works of art and song.

It's a narrative that follows the rise of the fallen hero from the depths of despair to reigning triumphant in the face of seemingly impossible odds.

It's a story that inspires me to create paintings of people that exude beauty, physical and spiritual strength, resilience, style, ingenuity, grace, humor and humanity, intelligence and excellence, empathy, perseverance, and an inner light that reminds us of the better parts of ourselves, subjects that imbue the qualities that I hope to embody.

I believe it's images like these that blur the line between fine art and illustration that caught the eye of The New Yorker magazine. My relationship with the publication began 25 years ago, in 1997, when a few of my paintings ran in the magazine Interior.

Afterwards, the creative director François Mouly, asked me to submit ideas for the upcoming covers. But when I looked at their previous covers, I noticed that much of the artwork was humorous, or cartoony or satirical, and I didn't feel my work really fit the bill, so I never submitted any art to the magazine.

In 2013, François asked if I could do a cover celebrating the life of Nelson Mandela. Now, this fell right in line with the work that I was already creating. Nelson Mandela was heroic, and empathetic, strong, and imbued all of the qualities that I wanted to share with my work.

I painted the cover and modeled the painting after period propaganda posters from South Africa while Nelson Mandela was still in jail, or in prison. I used bold values, minimal color, to create a strong and a memorable image like Madiba himself.

I loved seeing my artwork on the cover. So, I painted another cover and then another and with the encouragement of my wife and business partner, who suggested I continue submitting ideas for more covers, so began my relationship with the magazine that's lasted a decade.

For most of my career, I focused my work primarily on historical subjects, and I have become very comfortable working within that space.

And hence, in January 2020, I was poised to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Negro Leagues with this painting: Down the line. The depiction of a game winning drive down the first base line by pinch hitter Harry Salmon in 1920 from the Negro Southern baseball leagues. As well as this painting for the National Geographic magazine in connection with the recent discovery of the Clotilda, a sunken slave ship that had recently been found off the coast of Mobile, Alabama.

Now that same January in 2020, I was also even more excited about the recent announcement about my work in the picture book The Undefeated, which takes a deeper dive into black history.

For 23 years, I've won numerous Book Awards and even come close to winning the big one. But until that year, I'd always come up just a bit short. I was beginning to feel a little bit like Susan Lucci.

That is until I got the call on that lovely Monday morning, announcing the news that I had finally won the Caldecott.

Thank you.

I'll say that again, I finally won.

Within the next several weeks, however, the world was brought to an abrupt halt by the emergence of COVID and the global shutdown. Once we were all shuttered in at home to slow the spread of the virus, it seemed that everyone began to look for something to help brighten the very frightening and unpredictable situation we were all faced with.

It's in moments like these that I believe it's critical for artists to utilize their craft to help bring light and carry us through these very marked and turbulent moments in history.

Shortly after the quarantine was imposed, a producer from the television program CBS Sunday Morning contacted us and asked if they could film me creating a painting that would hopefully inspire the millions of viewers around the world who are feeling the heaviness of the moment.

I'd have complete control and freedom to create any image that I was inspired to paint. And my idea was to create an image or a painting that was heroic, diverse comforting and full of light. I called the painting After the storm. And it was a celebration of humanity and coming together in difficult times to weather the storm.

But for me, it was an example of the power of the image. And how art can transform the mood of viewers from feelings of anguish to hope and optimism.

As the pandemic deepened, the world changed and shifted in ways that we had never imagined, as did the focus of my work shift from historical subjects to contemporary subjects, as our living history shot and unfolded before us each day.

And when we all watched in real-time as George Floyd was murdered on camera in social media, we witnessed the world erupt, like a fire cane.

It was in that moment that I felt, as an artist, that I had to say something.

Say their names from the cover of the New Yorker was a moving testament and a visual document that pushed the world to see that moment for what it was and to incite an international dialogue about what African American people, activist and historians understood that moment to be.

What we were feeling and had been experiencing since the first African people were forcibly brought to this country.

The idea for this painting was very clear from the beginning. I knew it would be a silhouetted vignette, a large evocative figure set against a stark white background.

A portrait that within the shadows of the figure would be a memorial of sorts, painted with grace and reverence for Floyd and the many others who had fallen under the sweltering weight of police violence and hate crimes.

I painted this story to a montage of portraits and historical images, accented with blue periwinkle flowers that were once used by African American enslaved people to mark the unmarked graves of their beloveds.

For me, and many, including myself, I felt it was just the right painting at just the right time.

On the heels of say their names, I was asked by Rolling Stone to create a painting about the social upheaval we were experiencing as a result of the Floyd murder and the ongoing police violence.

While helicopters flew overhead, and marches filled the streets, I protested from my easel and painted American uprising. A painting that was fashioned after Eugene Delocroix controversial 19th century painting Liberty Leading the People, which celebrated the French Revolution. In my painting I centered a heroic African American woman and her son, who lead a protest against injustice. She wears a T-shirt, honoring George Floyd and a bandana around her neck for instance with the American flag while raising her fist and placing her foot upon a raised platform.

It's a nod to the African American women who spearheaded the Black Lives Matter movement and an homage to freedom fighters throughout history, who have taken action to affect socio-political change. As the pandemic trailed over the next two years, I continued to paint images that told the story of what we were all experiencing during the tumultuous year of 2020 and beyond. From a little boy, sitting alone, eating an ice-pop during the first summer of social distancing, to the fictional Johnson family from the television sitcom Blackish, sipping their tea while the world grew more bizarre by the day.

With an ongoing pandemic, and a wildly controversial 2020 presidential campaign that ushered in the first African American and a Southeast Asian woman as Vice President of the United States. Notwithstanding the moments, the momentous social upheavals that we were experiencing, for the duration, it was quite a rollercoaster ride.

Speaking for myself, it was a tremendous honor to have created paintings that connected with so many people. And I hope to continue making images that are meaningful and inspiring, artwork that remind us of our inner strength, our integrity, our light and the indwelling hero that exists in all of us.

I challenge you all to find your unique artistic voice and stand ready and willing to employ your gifts for the betterment of all humankind. Own your craft, seek mastery and share your essential voice with the world.

In closing, I began by posing the question to you, Which am I? An illustrator? Or a fine artist? I know the answer, but I'll let you decide.

Thank you, Adobe MAX. A sincere thank you to my parents, my uncle Mike, my wife and partner Dr. Jungmiwha Bullock and all the teachers, friends and family who supported my talent. and thank you for listening.

Two-time Grammy nominated, artist, DJ and producer, three billion music streams, seven studio albums, Steve Aoki is a true musical visionary. He's also a fashion designer, an author and an entrepreneur. I'm thrilled to welcome Steve and Adobe's very own rock star, Heather Combs to the stage.

Performing your music and having that connection that is the ultimate rush and the truest of addictions.

Steve Aoki has been a DJ. [inaudible] there. How did you got Steve Aoki? I was like, How did you guys get Steve Aoki? Downstairs. I'll go downstairs. I'll downstairs.

Steve, we are so excited to have you here with us today to have this conversation but also to have you at the Bash tonight. Something to look forward to. I mean, you are such a prolific musician, producer, designer, artist, entrepreneur, philanthropist, you name it. And so I'd love for us to start the conversation today with you just telling this group of people out here, how would you describe Steve Aoki today? First of all, this is crazy. Just to see you guys, it is weird because when I when I'm DJing I have no problem looking at an audience and I'm not nervous, but then I'm sitting here, I'm going, Oh my god. We could stand and jump.

You're all seated, is weird. Should be like dancing or something.

So who is Steve Aoki? I'm jetlagged. Because I just came from Japan. And it's crazy. I tour so much. I did 200 shows, pre-COVID, every year, for 15 years, straight, never been jetlagged. If I could find a cure of jetlag that would be... I know it's out there.

But yes, I'm highly inquisitive, a very curious person.

I think about music as a means to not just connect with people, but to create some level of a cultural impact. That's what I've realized, I think, to this journey, in the last few decades of being part of culture in some way, I've realized that it's not just about music, I can be a part of a cultural change. And I saw that when I was in college, claiming our voices and doing something special within a small community. But now, especially during COVID, I learned a lot about what different kinds of lanes that can inspire me to do something that can make inroads outside of music that have a cultural impact. And what's exciting now is that the bottleneck is opened up. A lot of those things are finally happening. So there's a lot. I'm just like a chaos, crystal mess. But I'm having fun. The most important thing is I'm having fun, enjoying life and embracing the present and doing things on the fly. I think that's also part of what makes me different than other artists or people in my space. It's that like, I just whoever I meet, wherever I go, I collaborate, I work on different projects, create a business, create an IP, make a song, do a fashion collection. Whatever it is that we could do together, combine minds and do something interesting. Yes, you and I were just talking backstage about what it was like to sort of be born out of the LA music scene and the culture here. And I'd love for the creators out here to hear what it was like for you to come up through the rise of EDM and the LA sort of culture and what that was like, and how that sort of influenced who you are today, and how you even think about paying that forward for other artists that are coming up in other ways. So I came up in LA, pre social media, this is Myspace. So I don't know if that's social media that era, the 2000s. And I don't know, I've really thought about this. If I did the same thing that I was doing, throwing the parties, because that's how it all started for me, I threw parties, and it eventually became this little culture bubble of where the artists would kind of spurt from. I don't know, if I would have the same level of impact. I wouldn't have the success that I have. I'd have a success, but not at this level, to be able to stack to the point at where I am today. And LA is a really interesting place because it is a musical haven. It's a Mecca for musicians and artists. We all need to come here to break. We all need to be seen here and be discovered here. It's different than New York, it's different than London, it's different than Paris, it's different than other really major markets. It's different than Nashville, it's different than Atlanta. And each different genre you need a break in certain markets. LA for me for what I was doing, it had to be there. And it's interesting, because what we were doing was really small.

So when you go back in time, and you go into that room, there were only a few 100 people. But that few 100 people were actually having so much potency of impact.

And it was a really interesting time as well as it were because there's a multitude of genres that were breaking in there from Lady Gaga's first shows, to Skrillex to the rise of LMFAO, Black Eyed Peas, the Kid Cudi, Kanye West, during that period of time, just like hip hop to indie rock, the electronic kind of revolution, Renaissance was happening.

And it was happening at other places, but LA was the most, I think, one of the most iconic places in the world. So I was lucky that I moved there instead of New York City, for example, from college. And backtrack, when I was in college, I used to put on shows in my living room, when I used to be in a band. So taking that same model and being, Okay, we're just going to do this with parties and host these bands and DJs, and artists, singers, vocals, whatever and grow them there.

With consistency, we were able to build a culture. Well, you're talking a lot about collaboration. And I know that that's just intrinsically part of not only how you do your work, but who you are. And I'd love to hear a little bit more about first of all, why is creative collaboration so important to you? And how do you pick the people you want to collaborate with? Is it Kismet? Do you seek them out? I'm sure they seek you out. Yes, I mean, I definitely I am of the moment. So I remember I was speaking at something like this in New York and I was speaking with Bill Nye, who I love. And we're on the backstage and I was like, Can I record you saying some stuff about the future? He was like, Yeah, sure. So then we started like jazzing about something. And I recorded him, and I'm like, Hey, I want to make a song out of this.

Are you cool with that? And then we made a song. Of course you have to like go through red tape and all that stuff. And then I would jump on his show as a cameo, which is cool just to do something cool with Bill in his world and then bring Bill into my world. I just take these moments that are happening in front of me, and luckily, I have this access to do certain exciting things, and meet all different kinds of interesting people. So when I think about a collaboration, I don't think about in the box like it has to be, like my favorite person I want to collaborate the most with in music is not even a musician. It's Elon Musk. I just want to be in the studio with him. You heard it here. Get him on the phone. I don't care about what kind of melodies are we going to come together. I just want to melt minds and do some weird shit.

And out of that weird shit will come something that's great. I don't care about the streaming success. Or if it goes to radio. I just want to do interesting shit with interesting people, a lot, at scale, as much as possible because...

Great.

...life's short. I mean, the truth of it is I'm 44 years old. And I think to myself, the average life expectancy is 80, sadly. So that's less than 40 years. That's not enough time. I think about that all the time. And I think when my mom was 79, Mom, 130, we got it. We're going to get you to 130, where you're functioning at optimal levels. So, I think about how fast time goes by. And you have to really act on these things that are happening in front of you. And there're plenty of opportunities. And also you have to be realistic about the kind of access you have. As I was growing my career, the love, when I first got into DJing, I was like, not going to be talking to Bill Nye. You had to work up to that. I was talking to [inaudible].

You can just make somebody famous. The point is, you just work with what you got, and have fun. I think that's the most important thing is to enjoy the process. Well, it's interesting. You talked about touring hundreds and hundreds of shows a year, which is just an incredible feat. If you don't know that is unheard of. And I've read these articles and heard so much about you. And you're talking about health here about how just you train for performing and touring like a pro athlete would approach their craft. I would love to know, I've heard all the cold plunges and all the things that are part of sort of the things that you care about. What does a day in the life of Steve look like? What's the agenda? When do we wake up? What do we do? How do we go through the day? Today is definitely a weird one because I had to fly out here like six in the morning. But yesterday, I did, because of jetlag, I was up at like 5:30. I have a sauna. I have three cold tanks, like ice plunge tanks. And then I built this like 20-person cold plunge. It's like 36 degrees or something. It's pretty cold.

I mean, it's crazy. It feel like, I was like, let's build a big one. Because I love the community plunge. It's a game changer, I'm telling you. It's an absolute game changer. I promise you ever come to my house, even if you didn't want to, you will get in ice. And you'll be very happy afterwards. But yes, so I started off with the sauna. And then that's when I do my meditation and then ice bath. And then that's a good way to start for me, and then the rest of it just kind of once you have your mind set down and the shock to the system to wake you up. Then it's game on. So I do a coffee with my cognitive mushroom powder, and all that fun stuff.

Health is important to me. Just making sure, diagnostic checks are important. I think that's the one thing that we need to do more of is bloodwork and checking your brain. I just got my brain scanned just a month ago. It's so fascinating to see the topography, the brain and to know that there is a... I've had concussions when I was a kid. Like I had this inline rollerblading spill, where I land on the back of my head, and had like slight amnesia. But I was like 14, or 12 or something like that.

Yes, exactly.

And there's a valley in the front of my prefrontal cortex, because the brain has sloshed forward So, that was from 30 years ago. It's most likely from that but, I also have spills from snowboarding. But it's really important to do diagnostic checks on your health. Consistently. That way you can always monitor and hack.

And I think if you have the mindset that life is short and you have to create the quality within your days with the people you care about, the people that are fascinating you, that you are inspired by and be active and stop being passive about life, but being very deliberate by your actions, then you need to do the diagnostic checks, so you have the longest life you can have, that's optimal. Yes, I mean, and I love that passion about health, but I also like you talking about hacks, because when you think about it, you never stop. I mean, your documentary was called: I'll sleep when I'm dead, and when we think about it, you've always been on the forefront of what technology is and can be, and we were talking about your shirt, and NFTs backstage, and I'd love to talk a little bit about, why are you so interested in NFTs? What does that mean to you, and how do you think this room full of creators, that aren't here, they are not here, we are not, we are just talking. - There is nothing to be nervous about. - We talked about this before. It's like, Yeah, there'll be like 6,000 people. I was like, man, please just tell me its zero. Can we actually have a normal conversation? Yes, how should they be thinking about NFTs? I think about it's the next technology. So, I'm an optimist of technology in the future already. So, it already goes hand in hand with my kind of thesis on life is using technology to enhance, and do more, and create more, and it's like, I think we are at that same stage that when social media was on the rise in the very beginning or when the internet was happening, and there was all this talk about how, when these things happen. People don't understand it, they don't understand how it's going to... They don't think it's going to actually take over the world in a way that it has. And I feel like Web3, like, NFT is just a phase. It's a symbol of what Web3 is about. So, Web3 is the future. We are living in Web2 now. And the way I explain it to people, is that Web3 is about ownership. So, the best way to explain it, is that Web2, we live in a world where we enter in to social media, to the digital space, and we accept that we don't own the data, and we are okay with that. So, billions of people are okay with that, and we are like, Hey, but that's what we do. We go into Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and they own the data, and that's why they make billions of dollars. And that is totally fine. But Web3, the foundation is that you own the data. Yes. So, it's clear that when this transition changes, because it's a bit clunky and they're still working through this change. It's the start. When that change happens, and it's clear that everyone is going to want to own the data. So, when that change happens, Web2 won't exist. It's like CDs don't exist. Like they still exist, but everyone streams. So, we will eventually be in Web3, where we own the data, where when we play Fortnite and we game, we own the skins, and we could sell the skins. And when we do content, we own the content, we could sell the content, whatever we do, we own. I think that's going to be very normal. And I think, when you say that, people are like, clearly, we all want to own our data. And then the Facebooks and the TikToks, they have no choice, but to be like, Oh yeah, you definitely own the data, we are just taking a little dig on that, because we are a business. But we can't own the data anymore, because that's how the world runs. So, that's how I see NFTs are part of that space. And I know it's going there, it's inevitable. I'm in the wagon going to California already, like I'm there. I've been there with my friends panning for gold, and we're like, Hey, this whole Gold Rush is over now. Like California, trust me, it will be some place people will want to go. So, I'm already parked there. I love the energy coming off of you. I think that you are just someone who I think soaks up being inspired. So, I'm going to ask you, what does it look like when you hit blocks? Are there ever challenges or challenging times thinking about, what it means to create? Oh god, yes, all the time. That's why you just change. I mean, every person or studio is banging their head on a computer, like can't come up with a melody or are stuck on an idea, or building a business and it's just, things aren't working, I mean like, we've all been there, it's just part of how it works. I mean, that's why I got the ice bath.

You have to reset, you have to get out of that space. That's also the reason why I have hundreds of ideas in my computer.

Those were all ideas that were like, oh my god, this is going to be the hit. And then it just gets to the 70%-mark. And then, well, it's stuck here, so it just gets stored here, and then sometimes, when I have time, I go back to that and I'll be like, that's salvageable, you know, then you go back to that, because you don't want to let go of all of these great nuggets inside of that kind of clutter.

Yes so, what ...? I'm going to ask you, I heard you say once that you are the most inclusive listener ever, and that there is no music you don't like. So, what's on your playlist right now? New tracks, old tracks? I've been listening to a lot of James Blake lately, and Odessa, and it's not like I didn't do this before, but that's like the vibe right now.

I'm really feeling that, but I was just in Japan too. So, just understanding, Japanese music is interesting. It's very insular.

You have to listen it with the Japanese people in Japan, and then you will understand it a little bit more. Or in a Japanese setting, like at a festival.

And then you start getting it.

So, that was also something, like that was fascinating me and I wanted to kind of jump into, because I also want to work with my culture more. I've worked with Chinese artists, I've worked with Korean artists and not that many Japanese artists, so I'm making inroads, and figuring out how to do that more. I actually did work with a few Japanese artists in the last few years, making efforts there. And I think that there's potential for some of these artists to actually have a global reach. But yes, so, that's an interesting genre that I'm trying to open up a little more to. I look forward to seeing what you do with that. I cannot believe that time has flown this fast. I just have one more question for you. Yes before, for the nugget of J-pop, that you guys should check out, if interested, check out Kyary Pamyu Pamyu. She's really cool. She dresses crazy, she's in all different kinds of outfits.

I made a remix of one of her songs. She's just an incredible human, just awesome. That's awesome. So, what's next? What's the next big Steve Aoki-thing? The next big Steve Aoki-thing is HiROQUEST. So, yes, it's my new album, I just dropped it. And I'm merging music with TCG. And what's TCG? TCG is the trading card game world, which is like for example Pokémon cards is part of a TCG.

So, during COVID I created, or I co-founded a TCG-company called MetaZoo.

The whole idea of MetaZoo is, it takes the entire world of cryptids and puts it into one IP. So what's a cryptid? Cryptid is Bigfoot, Santa Claus, Chupacabra, Mothman. Anything of lore that exists, public domain through the human civilization. The UFO, like all these things are public domain. So, you can make a UFO-t-shirt, and you can't get sued by it, but we can make our own version of Bigfoot and create a community around that. And they are no longer in silos. Like there is the Bigfoot community, and then there is like the Loch Ness Monster community, and they don't have out with each other. No, why would they? They just don't, they don't like each other. I don't know why, anyways. We, talking about inclusivity, we're like, we're going to create a whole world where they all exist, and there're thousands of IPs that we can build upon, and to share this incredible community world is already exciting, but the business is insane. In the last 16 months, we've already grossed over 50 million dollars in revenue on trading cards. So it's like, the business, the idea. I remember when I reached out to the person that thought this whole thing up and built this whole vision. And I was like, Oh my god, this is a goldmine IP. I can't believe no one's doing this. This is an IP that is taking something of human lore and creating a brand to it and a world to it and a story. There's so much more you can do outside of just trading cards, we can build TV shows, animation, it's really interesting things we can do with it. And we took it from very humble beginning, a kickstarter project to selling $2 million in skateboards in 14 minutes, crazy, crazy numbers I've never heard of in my life. And then the next step was building music, my music world with a whole new IP I created called HiROQUEST that lives in the MetaZoo universe. This gets complicated, I'm sorry.

Regardless, it's like you have Marvel Universe with Spider-Man, Avengers. So now we have the MetaZoo universe. And HiROQUEST lives under there with a whole new character set. And we sold 30,000 CDs. People don't buy CDs. We sold 30,000 CDs in five hours. Because it came with one HiROQUEST card that you have to open a pack of. So you could tell that the community is really excited about this new IP and card set. And like kind of introducing and inviting them into my world of music and introducing the music world into the storytelling and the world building of these characters and what we're going to do with this IP. So this is just a start. We're really excited to see where HiROQUEST goes. I'm really excited to continue growing MetaZoo, the company and the IP. Steve Aoki. Oh my goodness, what a pleasure it was to speak with you. Make sure you check him out tonight at the MAX Bash. Thank you so much for your time and the conversation.

Yes, make sure you come because Steve is spinning tonight and that is going to be nothing short of thrilling. Next step. Cristina Mittermeier is one of the most influential biologists and conservation photographers in the world. In 2014, she co-founded SeaLegacy, which is a nonprofit dedicated to promoting the protection of the world's oceans. Cristina's powerful, visual storytelling helps us see the earth as not only a beautiful masterpiece, but also a precious commodity that we all need to protect. Please join me in welcoming Cristina.

It is such an incredible joy and honor to be in a room full of fellow creators and storytellers. And I'm coming here with an important message. So, rather than spending a lot of time telling you what I'm going to talk about, I'm just going to dive right in. But before I tell you why I do what I do, I want to show you how I do it.

Thank you.

I've been doing this for such a long time. And people think it's very glamorous, but trust me, it's not. I don't have an ice bath, Steve. I just get to go in the ice water.

Humans, we are emotional beings. And especially our heart is a sea of emotion. And just like the ocean needs to bump onto the shore, our emotions need to bump against something. That's my photography. What I wanted for it to do is to bump against empathy. And I want all my images to be bridges of empathy, so that we can better understand and be more compassionate towards the First Nations of our planet and towards the wild creatures of our planet. So for me, it started growing up as a child in Mexico City. I'm from a big Catholic, Mexican family. My parents were mid-level professionals, so we never had money to go to the beach. But I was one of those little girls that dreamed about swimming with dolphins or with whales. And I read all these books. And my mom, who is the best mom in the world, used to take me to Lake Xochimilco, which is like the most polluted lake in Mexico City. And that's as close as I ever got. But growing up in Mexico really gave me an interesting lens from which to see the struggle of indigenous people, which is one of the reasons that I went into photographing indigenous people. And I was really lucky because my mom is a psychologist and she shared with me a concept when I was really young that has become my North Star. And many of you probably have already heard of this. It's called ikigai. It's a Japanese word, and it means the purpose of your life. And in order to find the purpose of your life, your ikigai, you need to find the confluence of four things, which are the thing that you're good at, the thing that you love, which is also the thing that you're very at it's the thing that gets you paid, quite importantly. And more important than anything, and this is where a lot of people fall short, it's the thing that the world needs. And when you find the confluence of those four things, and they come together for you, then every day you're not getting up to go to work. You're getting up to fulfill the purpose of your life. And that makes a big difference in how you live your life. Now, for me, the thing that I love is animals. And I wanted to be a wildlife photographer for no other reason than for the selfish appetite to be alone in nature with the wild creatures that populate our planet. I've always thought about animals as fellow passengers on spaceship Earth. And I'm intensely curious about their lives, about their struggles. And, as a photographer, there's no greater pleasure than to gain the trust of animals so that they allow you to get closer and closer. Or even better, that they become curious about you, and they just come up to you and investigate you. And there's so much that we don't know about the wild creatures that share the planet with us. Take for example, this loggerhead sea turtle. I photographed it off the coast of Portugal and the water was freezing. I was wearing a 10-millimeter wetsuit when I jumped in the water with this turtle, and I photographed its fin tag as well. This animal was born in West Palm Beach, Florida, 4,000 miles away from where I found it. And when it was a baby, it probably took a ride on the Gulf Stream, and spent 30 years just floating around, eating jellyfish until I found it there in the Azores.

One day, when she's ready, that turtle will make a U-turn. and will swim 4,000 miles back to the beach where it was born to lay her eggs.

This animal is going to follow a map that only she sees in her own mind, and we don't know how or why it happens. Anyway, I wanted to be a wildlife photographer, but early on in my career, I realized that animals are not that easy to photograph.

Oh, don't, I don't want ... I'm your friend. I don't want to hurt you. No, no.

I think we're done.

And you know, I always try to honor the creatures that I photographed.

And I know there's a lot of photographers in the crowd, and those of you who were paying attention are probably wondering why I was running around with an underwater fisheye lens. Well, let me show you.

Can't take yourself too seriously.

Anyway. Because I was a young mother and I had two children back at home, I really didn't have the luxury of going on these extravagant safaris to photograph wildlife. So, I decided instead to go into a rabbit hole of photographing indigenous people. And one of the greatest pleasures of my job has been to spend time and live and work among people who still remember the old ways on our planet. There's about 400 million indigenous people living on planet Earth today. And they belong to about 5,000 tribes. So whether it's a Quechua girl in the highlands of Peru, or an Inuit hunter in the ice-flowing Greenland, this is the largest minority on the planet. They live in about 90 countries. And how many of you were born from 1970 until now? Some of us we're in the 1960's, but we'll count us anyway.

When we were born, there were about 6,000 languages spoken on planet Earth. And a language is not just a collection of grammatical rules or vocabulary. A language is a glimpse into the human spirit. Take, for example, the Inuit people. They have over 100 words to say snow. Here's (unv.) in Qaanaaq which is the northernmost settlement on the planet. And he is enjoying the qannik which is the first snow of the spring. And the problem that we have is that most of those languages, over half of them are not being whispered into the ears of young children anymore, so they're being forgotten. And for young people like (unv.) my friend, she's from the northern tip of Vancouver Island. She wants to know more about the ebb and flow of the seasons on her island. She just doesn't have the language for it anymore. So, indigenous people occupy about 20% of the land surface of the planet, but they are stewards of over 80% of the biodiversity left on Earth. And I don't know if you guys were paying attention in preparation for the COP15 that's happening in Egypt next month. A new study came out. Since 1970, we have also lost 69% of all species on Earth. We are in serious trouble. So, not so long ago, most of us were sitting around campfires, praying to the powers of nature and to the mystical presence of the stars in the sky, just trying to get along with each other, trying to survive. But indigenous people are struggling today. Many of them have survived the brutality and the horrors of colonization, reservations, residential schools, the prohibition of their language and traditions, and they're still trying to find a place on Earth. This is my friend Will George, And you can follow him on Instagram, he's willgeorge36. He just built a paddling canoe. And he's taking a journey to ask the government of Canada to stop a pipeline from being built across his ancestral homeland.

I too, am an artist. And a lot of my work is printed as fine art and I donate the proceeds of my art to support these indigenous causes. And there is something really, extremely interesting to me about indigenous people. And that is that despite all the struggle, because when you visit indigenous communities today, you find a lot of drug and alcohol abuse and a suicide epidemic. I mean, these people are really in need of our empathy and understanding. But they still find joy and fulfillment in ways that we can only barely understand. And I think it's because they have this deeper sense of connection to each other. And the ones that are still speaking their language, there's a lot of pride and joy in that. And so I started thinking about this idea of why they feel such a sense of being and having enough. And I call that enoughness. And the more I think about enoughness, I think it's one of the ways that we all can start thinking about a new way of assembling our economic reality for a future. Now, I know that there're amazing designers in this room, and I'm not one of you. So, I was in the airplane yesterday And I just wanted to come up with a little graphic to show you what I was thinking.

If all of humanity has to live on planet Earth with very limited resources. and we have to share this planet with all of the wildlife that are our fellow companions on this journey, we are all limited by two boundaries. The bottom boundary is what I call our social foundation. And so many people have fallen below the social foundation, because we don't have enough housing, enough water, we don't have enough food, we don't have enough health. And so we're clearly failing on that front. On the upper boundary, We are also overshooting the ecological ceiling of what planet Earth is able to give us. And that is why we now have climate change and pollution, and ocean acidification and deforestation, and you name it. So, if we're going to get back to being able to live within the ecological boundaries of our planet, we better start thinking about this idea of enoughness. And the good news is that we are experiencing a tremendous transition right now, from economies that are exploitative to economies that are regenerative. And companies like Adobe are doing such an amazing job at being pioneers and leaders in sustainability. And doing more than just what's sustainable but donating to organizations that are doing the hard work of keeping climate and biodiversity alive in our minds. Now, enoughness, I've learned, can really be divided into a two-part journey. The first part of the journey is deeply personal, and it's one that each and every one of us has to take alone. And I invite you, the next time that there's a starry night or you find a trail, or if you can go out into the desert, and just say it out loud, I am not separate from this planet. I am part of this global ecosystem and I have to do my part.

Once you have made that statement out loud to yourself, then you can start reorienting everything about you, you know, the rest of your ikigai, your professional life and your personal life, to become an advocate for our planet and for the nature that supports us.

I think it's important to remember that for indigenous people, it doesn't matter where they come from in the world, and you know, there's so many of them. They all live by a very simple rule that we all can remember: Take only what you need and use everything you take. And for indigenous people, the wealthiest person in the community is not the one that has the most stuff, but the one that gives back more to the community.

So, when indigenous people tell us that they want to reinstate an economic system that is founded in sustainable values, they're not asking us to become communist. They're simply asking us to think about, the wealth of a nation should be measured by the health of our air, and our soil, and our water. Success should be measured by the depth and the quality of our relationships and how much time we spend nurturing those relationships. And the strength of our economy should be measured by how much we all thrive, and not just by how a few thrive. This is my friend, Sundance chief Ruben George of the Tsleil­Waututh Nation, Vancouver Island. He once said to me, You know, in our sacred ecology, everything is made of the same matter, the mountain, the river, the fish, the crow, the bear, all made of the same material as our ancestors. And as a scientist, when I started thinking about that, I realized that he's absolutely right. Everything that's alive today on planet Earth, or that has ever lived on planet Earth, is made of carbon. And we have a carbon problem. And this brings me to the second part of my presentation, and the reason why I'm so passionate about ocean conservation. My friend, Ralph Chami, who's an economist for the International Monetary Fund, told me, if you imagine our carbon problem as the carbon contained in a big tub, we really have two problems to solve. The first one is we need to turn the tap off. And 90% of the conversation is about emissions and how we turn emissions off. But we also have to drain the tub. And that is where the ocean comes in.

My partner, photographer Paul Nicklen and I, and I included a photo of Paul, in a little while just to share with you who he is, we used to be National Geographic photographers. And we were out there in the frontlines of conservation, watching what's happening to our ocean. And we decided to leave NatGeo to start our own organization because we wanted to bring the power of communications to all the other organizations, who do not have the budgets to hire photographers, or filmmakers, or designers to bring their issues to life. So, SeaLegacy is a storytelling organization and here's a little video.

Thank you.

This is Paul. And he's an amazing photographer and filmmaker. And when we started SeaLegacy in 2014, we recognize that there were two problems that we needed to solve. The first one is, most people are not thinking about the ocean as part of the solution to climate change. For a matter of fact, they're not even thinking about the ocean period. So we wanted to bring our storytelling and our influence as NatGeo photographers, so that more people would understand why. Because I'm not going to lie to you, our ocean is in a lot of trouble. In 2017, we publish this photograph and a video of a starving polar bear, and it went viral. And it caused a lot of controversy. But the bottom line of it is, it was a moment when the world stopped to think about the effects of climate change and the horrors that await not just wildlife, but people as well. And here's a reason why.

The ocean is the largest and the most important ecosystem on our planet. If a spaceship from another planet arrived on planet Earth, today, they would look down on Earth, and they would say, Oh, this is an ocean planet. And of course, you're all ocean creatures. We don't know it. About 3.5 billion people depend on the ocean for their sustenance every day. And these are some of the poorest people on coastal communities around the planet. Between 60 and 80% of the biodiversity on planet Earth lives in the ocean. And we don't even know what's there. We're just beginning to understanding. And the most important thing about the ocean is that over 1/3 of carbon emissions are being sequestered and absorbed by ocean ecosystems through sea grasses, and mangroves. And they can only do that if they're alive. But the other way that the ocean sequesters carbon dioxide is through phytoplankton. When you go to the beach, and you get rolled over by a big wave, you take a big gulp of water, it's not just sea water, it's millions of microorganisms that are doing the job every day of sequestering carbon from the atmosphere. And we're just beginning to learn that animals like whales are like gardeners in the ocean. They dive down, three, four miles to feed rich mineral nutrient, rich ecosystems down there, who knows. When they come back to the surface, they poop. and that poop loaded with minerals is like fertilizer for the phytoplankton community. And even animals that are not popular, like sharks are really important to maintain the balance and ecology of the ocean. And creatures like this, this is known as the shipwreck shark, it used to be the most abundant predator on our planet, ocean or land, but today, we only have 10% left.

The ocean just like land is also experiencing heat waves. And in Pacific Northwest where I live, we're seeing temperatures that are between 5 and 7 degrees warmer. With these higher temperatures, ocean acidification, the ocean cannot perform the vital role of keeping our planet alive. So the second issue that we were trying to solve was funding SDG 14, the Sustainable Development Goal for the ocean is the most underfunded. So just as an example, Americans who are the most philanthropic people in the world, we donate about $480 billion a year to charity, collectively. But where that money goes is really important. 32% goes to religion, and then some to education, health art, I mean all of these things are very important. Only 1.8% goes to the environment. That is all of biodiversity, all of the rainforest, all of the forest fires, all of the climate change, all the whales, all of it, plus dogs, cats and horses and only a tiny fraction of that goes to the ocean. So if we want to keep surviving on planet Earth, can we better flip this pyramid around. And I welcome the help of all the designers here to make my little things better.

Help is needed. Anyway, I'm going to close by saying that in my 30 years of doing this work, I realized that the biggest mistake that we make is to think that somebody else is solving this problem. And so I've been living in Canada for the last 10 years and I came up with this acronym, it's called S.E.L.F.I.E. It stands for Somebody Else's Likely Fixing It Ey.

To remind us that nobody else is fixing it. This is really going to be incumbent upon each and every one of us. So let's start by calibrating our own sense of enoughness and then bringing that mindset and orienting into everything that we do. Thank you so much for being here, and I really appreciate it. Thank you so much.

Next step, I'm going to have a chat #with screenwriter and director Siân Heder. Siân is no stranger to the screen. She's known for her work in TV as a writer on Orange is the New Black and Little America. And in 2022 Siân's film, CODA, which she both wrote and directed, won the Oscar for Best Picture.

What happened? You didn't come to work. We're done fishing They suspended my license.

Who? Coasties. The observer saw we were deaf and tipped them off. Well, they can't do that. We were just working, and they came to board us. We didn't know I told you. You need a hearing deckhand.

Yeah, that's you! You were that person! I can't always be that person! She's right. We need another guy. We can't afford it!

If you'd told me, you weren't coming. I'd have figured something out. But you didn't. You're seriously blaming me? Your father was counting on you.

No. Don't put this on me.

It's not my fault.

So happy to have you here. I am so happy to be here. So I want to start at the very beginning.

You grew up in a family of artists and that must have been... there must be a lot of stories, and I know there are, so can you tell us a little bit what it was like to grow up in such a creative home? Yes.

My parents are both artists, they're public artists. My mom... Now they work together. But when I was a kid, my mom was a sculptor, and she did large scale site specific public art.

And I was a part of a lot of that. I spent a lot of time as a kid in her studio watching her work.

When I was six years old, she painted me red and put me on the subway as a part of this group, not just me, there were other adults with me, performers.

But we were painted red, all of these like archetypal commuter characters. And we did this performance piece on the red line in Boston, and during rush hour. And I remember being a kid and that rush of watching people encounter art where they didn't expect it and engaging with that, and their own experience, and reflecting on their own lives in a way. And so I think she just had a very big influence on me. And her work is very much about storytelling. It's about finding a place and researching that place, and understanding the story behind it, and then creating a work that forces people to engage with that place in a deeper way.

And I think it's sort of my own process as well. Like when I look back on my work as a filmmaker, I think research is very important to me. And that discovery, both personal and out in the world. And I think that was just art as storytelling was kind of something that my family instilled in me and continues to. So were you always passionate about film? How did you decide on film? So I was a theater kid and I loved...

I was an actor, and I ended up going to Carnegie Mellon for theater. But I was always a writer and that was my personal outlet. I think that was kind of the thing that I did for me. And thinking back, I think both acting and writing were tapping into the same part of me, which was wanting to live someone else's experience, wanting to put myself into somebody else's life, and see the world through their eyes. And so it makes a lot of sense. I also used to throw these insane birthday parties when I was a kid, where I would... For yourself? For myself. But I would write, everybody would get a character description who was coming. This is when I was like nine, ten. And you would get a bio, and it would be your relationship with everyone else at the party, and you would come in character and have to stay in character. So I was clearly a director from a very early age. Really bossing my friends around.

So I think that was always in me. And then I lived in New York. And when I moved out to LA, I applied to the directing workshop for women at AFI, which was a program to support other women in other areas of the industry who wanted to get into directing. So I made my first short film through that program.

And it was called Mother, and it was based on experiences that I'd had working as a nanny at four-star hotels in LA. Do tell us about that one story, it's a good one. Oh, it was, really. So my short which ended up becoming my first feature, Tallulah, was just an experience I had as a babysitter in a hotel. Encountering this very wealthy woman who'd come to the hotel to have an affair. And she'd never been alone with her child before. And it was just this very surreal experience. But I think it made me think about wealth as an insulator for a kind of neglect. And also about whether being a mother is a part of every woman or whether that's something that we have to learn. And so that birthed the short film.

And I made that through AFI. And then it went on to go to Cannes and win an award at Cannes, it was like it did very well. And it became the basis for my first feature, Tallulah, which then took me nine years to make. So I tell filmmakers, I'm like, Yes, yes, make a short and turn it into a feature, but it might take you a decade in between. But in that time, I was writing for television. So I started working on Orange is the new Black and was a part of that show for many seasons at the beginning, and really honed my skills as a filmmaker and storyteller in that time. And so in a way, the amount of time that it took that film to get made really helped me find my legs as a storyteller and a filmmaker. So how did you find CODA and what spoke to you about CODA? So CODA was based on a French film called La Famille Belier. And it came to me, I had been at Sundance with my first feature, Tallulah, and I was looking for my next movie, and Lionsgate had the rights to do a remake of the film. And so I went in and was very moved by the story at the center of the film. And the character in particular, the idea of this CODA, who is a child of deaf adults, who was sort of part of both the hearing world and the deaf world, but kind of part of neither, and trying to navigate her own identity within that.

And it really, the original film had so much heart. There were also some missed opportunities. I think there were hearing actors playing deaf roles, and it struck me that I had never seen a deaf family just sit around a dinner table in a movie before. And when I started to do my research and go back, and go, What film history is there that portrays deaf characters? I was going back 35 years to Children of a lesser God. And there was such little representation. And that alone felt like a reason to make the film. So I think the spark for me initially was the uniqueness of this culture and community. But then also, I just saw a lot of myself in Ruby.

I grew up in this family, like I mentioned, this artist family, which was both my parents were also immigrants. So I think my dad was a refugee, and if it were up to him, he would have had us all in the same room at all times, in a pile like a bunch of puppies.

And so I think that I had a lot... finding myself as an artist within that, what was my own voice, how was I going to express my art that was different from my parents, but also just individuating in general. My identity was so wrapped up in my family and who they were, and it felt hard to pull away and strain those boundaries and go out in the world and find out who you were. So I really connected in a way to Ruby.

And then I also am a parent. So I saw it from the other side as well. I think, as a parent, there's always this fear that something will prevent you from connecting with your child, or there will be some barrier there that will keep you from being fully a part of who they are and what they love.

And so as a parent, I really related to that fear. So I kind of had multiple ways into the story.

And then the more that I worked on the script, it became more and more personal. I set it in Gloucester, Massachusetts, which was a town I really knew and loved. The quarries that they go cliff jumping off in the movie are quarries I jumped off when I was 16.

So the place became very specific. And then the family really became my own family. So, their humor, the fact that the parents talked way too much about their sex life. Sorry, mom and dad, this is true.

But I think, all of these things just started to find their way into the stor, and it became, all of the humor, the way that they related to each other, I think the emotional pulls within this family, it's messiness and dysfunction.

And the interesting thing was that the more specific the story became, I found the more people were finding a way into it.

And so, then suddenly people were looking at this family and going, Oh my god, that feels like my family, or my dad is super weird like that, or my mom is kind of a narcissist in that way, where she makes everything about herself. And, by the way, that was not my mom, just to clarify.

But I think it was a great lesson in how specificity can lead to universality.

And that my process in getting into the movie really created this incredibly specific thing. That people were finding a way into, and while I didn't set out to educate anybody about deaf culture, it was a way that people could see themselves in the story. And then relate to this community that they had ignored, or maybe not thought.

And it was challenging, I think. I was coming in as an outsider to the community.

It was very important to me that the movie be made in a way that would honor the community and honor the experience.

I did a ton of research, I really surrounded myself with deaf collaborators. I started to learn ASL, I really did a lot of outreach, discovered Troy Kotsur at Deaf West Theatre, which is this incredible theatre company. And when I saw him on stage for the first time, I felt like I was seeing Marlon Brando at the Actors Studio, I was like, Oh my god, why does nobody know about this guy.

And then what's interesting is that all of those things, that I became so invested in, you know, casting deaf actors to play these roles, using ASL onscreen in a very cinematic way, the use of subtitles, the use of sound versus silence in the film. All of these things became impediments for the studio. Yes, talk about that.

So, it was a studio movie and as I was saying, as I was digging into the story, I knew how it needed to be told.

And I was insisting on these things, and I had made one film as a filmmaker and this was my big studio job, and I was alone in standing up for these things, I mean, not completely. Once Marlee Matlin was on board, we could go to the studio and go, there's no other option, we're using deaf actors in these roles. But it became clear that the financing models, that they were used to, where you fill the movie with movie stars and that's how you justify the budget.

Those things didn't work in that model, and I started to realize that being uncompromising probably meant that the movie was not going to get made.

And it's true, so they killed it at the studio. And it was dead, and it was heartbreaking.

But it was also okay because I think, I knew how the film should exist in the world, and I knew that this other version of the movie should not exist, and so while I had poured myself into this script and this family was my family and I believed in this story and these characters, I was okay with that heartbreak of letting it go.

And so, it was stuck there, it was sat at the studio, dead, for many, many months, I would say like, I want to say it was like a year, it might have been six months.

But I was, sort of mourned the loss, and then the head of Lionsgate at the time who was Patrick Wachsberger, who had always been a fan of the movie. He left the studio, and he got it with him, he took it with him as part of his exit package and teamed up with Vendôme in (inaudible), who were French financiers. And so, we made it as this little indie movie for a lot less money, we made it in Gloucester, we shot in 30 days, I was directing the movie, but I was also shoveling fish on the boat with my own hands.

And it's amazing that as the movie went out into the world, all of the things that were those fights were the very things that the movie was embraced and celebrated for.

And it was very validating as an artist and a filmmaker to go, Oh right, my gut was right, the thing that said, Don't make this in this other way, make it like this. When I did get to make the film, I got to make it with a kind of integrity and authenticity that I think is the reason it was successful. Yes, we talked backstage, and we could talk all day, but they are going to yank us eventually, but we talked backstage about the importance of talking about topics and people that may not necessarily get represented in film and you made a great comment about, I don't want to be that person, but I do want to be that person. Can you talk a little bit about that? I think that I am very drawn personally to voices that have been marginalized, I think.

Mostly because I think, selfishly I grow a lot of as a human from opening myself up and coming from a place of empathy and learning.

And being willing to be educated, I think, movies are empathy-making machines, like, there's nothing like sitting in a theatre, taking a ride with the character, crying with them, laughing with them, feeling what it is to be them, to open us up to this other reality, and there's almost this misconception that telling diverse stories is a way to go learn about people who are different from us. In fact, I think those stories give a lot of insight into ourselves in the way that the specificity of Coda, I had a lot of first-generation kids who came up to me after seeing the movie and said, Oh my gosh, I came to see this story about a deaf family, and I didn't realize I was going to see my own story.

I used to translate for my parents at the doctor's office or with my teachers, and nobody's told that story about me before, and these were children of immigrants who saw that in this movie. And so, in a way, as the world hopefully is opening up, and as we are including other voices, we are learning our commonalities as humans because I think we all know what it is to have a dysfunctional family. We all know what it is to have strains between the way your parents see you and who you want to be in the world or fears about your kid leaving home to go to college and I think when you see a story that centers someone, who seems other at first, and yet you recognize all of those human emotions that guide your own life.

It's a way that we all start to feel more connected in our own humanity, in our own lived experience and I think it is exciting as an artist to be a part of that, to be a part of not just engaging personally with audience members who get to see themselves in your story, but then to watch cultural see change start to happen, because of that very intimate story. Like I wasn't trying to tell a story about a deaf family. I told a story about a family.

And the fact that they happened to be deaf and the fact that people were witnessing an ASL fight on screen, maybe for the first time or, suddenly I think opens people up. And you didn't feel that way, it was just a family. And there was so much fear, there is so much silence in the movie. And as the film goes on, I think towards the end of the movie there is seven scenes that are all in ASL and so, you are in silence for that whole time and I remember early conversations that were like, Will the hearing audience be patient for this? And I think people really appreciate being put in that space and watching in a different way and discovering the delight of this language and this culture.

Because it's beautiful and it's very human and connected, and I think we could all use more of that.

And as a human being, like my experience making the movie and even communicating with my actors in sign or exploring other ways for me to work as an artist, where some of my tools were taken away.

You know, the way I normally give a note to an actor, like having to use my body to communicate really opened me up to different ways to work, and that was very exciting, when you engage in ASL, you have to look at the person.

It's not a way of communicating, when you are on your phone, and casually having this conversation where you're disconnected from your words and so in a way, even working in that way and bringing that to our set created a very inclusive exciting space that I think opened everybody up.

Well, it's a huge accomplishment and I know we all look forward to your next work. So, I just want to also point out, which I didn't, that Siân is only the third female director to have a best picture win at the Oscars.

It's huge. It's huge. And I know there will be many more, and if you haven't seen it, you guys, you have to go see it, or rent it immediately. It's on Apple, I'm not giving them a plug, but go ahead. Don't plug them but go see the movie.

Find it somehow, it's on a streaming service that shall remain nameless. So, I always end an interview with a word association. We are going to have a total change in tenor here Is this a game? Yes, so, I am going to give you a word. Are you unprepared for this? Yes. So, I usually tell people, but... - No, thanks for surprising me. - It will be very impromptu. So I'm going to give you a word and then you are going to do your best to give me a word back. This sounds super dangerous, you guys. That's good, that's the intent. Oscar.

Oscar, he is like my friend now. He sits on my desk and sometimes he is in my bedroom. - So, he is now like... - You put it in your bedroom? He was in my bed, I don't know where to put him. He keeps moving around my house, but my kids are attached to him, so now Oscar's our little friend. - Awesome. - In our house. That's such a weird association, but that's, yes. That's more than one word.

I told you guys this was a dangerous game. Massachusetts.

Home. Mother.

This is a really difficult game. The first word that comes to mind? We work really hard at this. Yes, first word. Mother, me.

Coda.

Love. Siân Heder. Oh, come on, that's not a word. It's two words.

I can't do that. Of course you can, just one. One word.

Ownership. - There you go. - Yes. Thank you for being with us. Siân Heder.

Jeff Koons. Jeff Koons rose to prominence in the mid-1980s as part of a generation of artists who explored the meaning of art in a media saturated world. Jeff's fusion of pop representation with surrealist and abstract overtones is a visual amalgamation of fun and fantasy. His work delivers on the intention to communicate with the masses. Its striking, accessible, joyful, and truly at the center of popular culture. Please welcome Jeff Koons.

Hello. You know, it's really wonderful to be here at Adobe MAX, and to be a part of the different presentations, but it's a real honor. What I'd like to do is to speak about my journey within art, and to relay some of the events that have taken place in my understanding. But I'd like to start with Philadelphia, and the great city of Philadelphia. But I was born in York, Pennsylvania that was close by. And I had an aunt that lived in Philadelphia. And my aunt Erna took me to City Hall one day, and we went up the elevator - it's almost like a Jules Verne novel, with all the bolts and the brick work inside, the steel beams - to go up to the top of City Hall. At the top of the steeple type area, is a large 40-foot bronze sculpture of William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania. The sculpture was made by Alexander Milne Calder. And it's really a powerful experience. You stand on the observation deck, and you look up and you see this large figure of William Penn, it's colossal in size, and you feel it emotionally, it's like, Wow! It's kind of an all-wonder type moment. But at the same time, you feel that excitement of the self, of experience. And at the same time as a young child of five, six, and then I look out over the city of Philadelphia, and you could see over there is Independence Hall and Betsy Ross did the flag over there. And Benjamin Franklin did some experiments over in this area. So that sense of having these feelings, these sensations, this excitement, in contact with something physically, but at the same time, something greater than the self and that's the community. And I really felt that and understood that. And that, for me is really at the basis of art that, yes, you do this for yourself. It's exciting and you transcend you become. But there is a higher calling, which is that being able to be made this act of generosity for the community.

I was born in a middle-class situation in Pennsylvania. I'm really very, very lucky. I know that not everybody is born into the same type of situations. My parents were working, my father was an interior decorator, I really learned aesthetics from my father. My mother worked to help support me through college, she sold dresses in a dress store. But my parents were really generous with the means that they had. And they would always take my sister and I on trips, we would go to Florida. And we would see things like in the image above me of dolphins at Marine land jumping out of the water and doing flips, or maybe we'd see different events of going to quarries, but they always made life interesting for my sister and I. And I've always loved the philosopher John Dewey, the American educator, philosopher. And John Dewey really speaks about what life is. And he'll say that, if you just think about in the most simple terms of a one cell organism and the one cell organism being affected by its environment and being changed by its environment. But then that one cell organism that's been changed, now also has an effect back on the environment. And that that's life. And that's really the basis of being human, of being a human being and developing as a human being and be open to experience. The more open we are, the more we can transcend. So, I'm really grateful to my family trying to make life exciting. And we do have these opportunities every day, to try to make life more exciting for ourselves and the people around us.

The gazing balls over on the right side of the image, growing up in Pennsylvania, I loved how our neighbors would have gazing balls in their yard, these lawn ornaments, or maybe they would have bird baths. But this act of generosity, I mean, it's there for you. And I say, you the viewer, the person walking by is the person that that neighbor has it for. And so that type of generosity and joy, and especially a gazing ball caught my imagination as a child, because it reflects everything it can, almost in 360-degrees. It's telling you everything it can about where you are in the universe at that moment. And I believe it was probably about six years ago that a couple won the Nobel Prize for also discovering that the brain and the body are always working together and rewarding each other, being notified where you are in the universe at that moment. And I think this is one of the things that pulls me to the gazing ball, just how generous it is.

So as a young child, I remember my parents one time coming up behind me, I was probably about four years old, and it was like, Oh, this is pretty good. I was making a drawing. And it really gave me a sense of self because I have one sibling, my sister Karen, and Karen's three years older than I am, and she could always do everything better. She could jump higher. She could count further. She could pronounce words better. But finally, when my parents gave me this tap on my back, it gave me a sense of self. So, that was something that stuck with me. So, I had the opportunity. My parents let me have lessons on weekends and I was always drawing, and I could draw a perfect vase and an ellipse around the top of the glass. And art was really kind of about structure and rules. I was always in art class at school. But finally, I went to art college and in art school I realized that I really didn't know anything about art. I didn't know other artists. And I had an art history lesson. And when I had my first art history lesson, I became aware that art so effortlessly connects all the human disciplines. And that I could be involved in philosophy and psychology, and physics and all the different human disciplines.

The images behind me, the tanks, that one-ball tank, the two-ball tank, the three-ball tank, the one balls in equilibrium. And so it's totally weightless. It's just kind of floating there, it's too heavy to go to the top and it's too light to go to the bottom. The tank in the center, the two-ball tank's a 50/50 tank, exactly half the balls are submerged below the water, and half the ball as on top of the water. And the three-ball tank, three-balls are in equilibrium just floating. But eventually due to vibration, or the way the light is affecting the ions, eventually it's going to create energy that the balls are going to be moving around to the left and right. And I always thought that that was like the beginning of a thought pattern.

I started working with ready-mades. And the reason I chose working with ready-mades was its valid acceptance. And when I was in art school, and I mentioned I didn't know anything about art, I went to the Baltimore Museum one time on a class trip, and to see the Cone sister's collection. And I realized I didn't know who Brock was, I didn't know who Cézanne was. I knew who Picasso was, but that was about it. I survived that moment. But the terrible thing is most of us don't survive that moment. We think that we have to bring to art, all of this information, all of this knowledge that, Oh, but know about this movement of abstract art and we know all about Cubism and Minimalism and the Renaissance. And you don't have to bring anything to art. The only thing that you can bring is who you are all your experiences that have happened to you up to this moment. And it's really about the essence of your own potential. That's the only thing that's relevant. Art is just an exciter, it's a stimulator. And it really can't do anything other than that. And when I realized that I learned really how to accept my own cultural history. And when I grew up there, there were different objects that I would see in my homes or in my grandparents' home, I'm going to show an image a little later, of an ashtray. But my cultural history, I can't represent another person's, I only have my own history. And by embracing the self, learning to trust in the self, and embracing the self, then you're able to open yourself up to the world. But it's really about the removal of judgment and being able to practice acceptance. And I started to clarify that, with my Banality work. And the one piece with the pig behind me, ushering in banality, that's carved out of wood that's part of my Banality show and I carved it in wood because I wanted to have an aspect of a spiritual quality. Wood is a living material. So, the churches used it very often for a lot of its sculptures. I worked with craftsmen in Northern Italy that normally are carving for the church. And Michael Jackson and Bubbles was made out of porcelain. And I worked with porcelain because I wanted to work with the material that has become democratized. When I mentioned about objects growing up around this little ashtray was an object that my grandparents had in their home. And as a young child, I was so fascinated by it, I would go up and I'd moved the legs back and forth, I would move the fan. And that type of excitement, that there cannot be another object that can really perform at a higher level. I mean, you could look at Michelangelo's slaves at the Louvre. But even though that many more people could appreciate them for different reasons, it's about the stimulation and the excitement, and just the appreciation that the individual has, they're equal, one is not better than the other. One is in performing at a higher level. It's about what it does, how it stimulates the viewer. When I was making my Banality work, I worked in porcelain because it's a democratized material. We can all own porcelain at one time, it came from the king's kitchen or the Emperor's kitchen. But I was also referencing Marcel Duchamp's urinal, and also having a dialogue about guilt and shame. Because people learn about their bodies, they discover their bodies in the bathroom. And everything in life is about removing guilt and shame. It's really about accepting of the self. And once we accept ourselves, we're able to do as John Dewey was mentioning. Again, opening ourselves up to the world, where absolutely, everything's in play. There's completely no segregation, there's no judgment, everything's in play, everything's there to empower you. As soon as you start to make judgments, This is this isn't good, this is too dark, this color's too saturated, that object is too heavy, it's too round, or any type of thing, as soon as you segregate, you're disempowering yourself, because now that vocabulary is not so accessible to you. When instead, if you accept everything, that it's perfect in its own being. Our past can't be anything other than what it was, everything's about this moment forward. And there are different times when some things can have more significance to us than at other times. But that doesn't mean that everything is imperfect in its own being. I believe, that's how we walk out of Plato's cave, that that is the transcendence, that's what removes anxiety from our life, that lets us come into contact with what our potential is, as a human being to open ourselves up to the world that we can have this aspect of a level of consciousness that can be at the highest level. The image that we're looking at, now as a puppy. And I've always loved just, green, the grass, just the smell of the grass or blue for the sky, just things in the most simple manner for what they are. So, I always liked flowers. And I decided one time to make a large sculpture out of 60,000 live growing plants. And what I think people respond to puppy, what they respond to in a sculpture is that it's about beauty. And it's also at the same time, there is some aspect of violence that certain plants are going to try to dominate in one area, they're going to try to move over to this side and shoot out further than this other plant did some will grow out to 100 centimeters, some will be more confined. But the dialogue really taking place is whether you want to control or if you can give up control. And whether you can love, or you just want to be loved. Or whether you want to serve or be served. It's like the dog like a puppy, you come home, and you say, Hey, how are you doing? And you rub the belly of your dog. Or do you come home, Where's my paper? Why didn't you bring me my paper? But in life it's the journey. This is what I think we all mature into, that, yes life's exciting and transcending and becoming. But at a certain point, we realize that to share information, to be able to be generous to the community is the highest calling.

Right now we're looking at some of the balloon animals, the balloon dogs, the first image, there's the swan and the monkey and the balloon rabbit. But for me these pieces even though at first glance, you can look at them and you think: Oh, it's like a birthday party. And it's a nice kind of innocent image. But at the same time it's mythic, it's a colossal, it's a little bit like a Trojan horse in a way. Because the inside of these balloons are a little different than normal, like a normal life. If we think about the inside of something, we relate immediately to our own biology. And inside we're filled with blood and tissue and organs. There's density inside and the outside of our membrane it's kind of vacuous. But in these balloon animals, it's different inside you look at them, Oh, it's empty, it's a balloon. All of a sudden, it gives the world, the space around the piece, more density and then actually lets the viewer feel a little more secure about themselves.

I think one of the power that these animals can have, like a balloon dog, is that it's ritualistic. And as I mentioned before about William Penn in the sense of the community, I can imagine 35,000 years ago, 40,000 years ago, a community would have looked and they saw that their kill, that the intestines are starting to swell, the gases are building up or the stomach. And they would think, I can make something out of that. And they'd make some type of ritualistic object that a community would rally behind.

I'm here with Adobe, and I'm really happy to share an image like this. This is a painting called Antiquity 3. And of course, in today's world, for an artist, it's hard to start anything without kind of incorporating, being able to use Adobe, to use Photoshop, and to get an idea down. And I always think of Magritte and Dali the techniques that they've used, really, Photoshop has helped give everybody in the world these techniques of gradations, and cutting, and to being able to incorporate into their work. This painting I tried to incorporate a lot of different layers of history.

Salvador Dali's last work is called a Swallow's Tail. And it's a cloth. And if you look at it, he would say, Oh, it's about Rene Thom's theory within physics. But actually realize that the cloth was from Raphaelle Peale's painting, Venus Rising From the Sea of Deception. So I took that cloth, and I made it transparent, and I put it over three Greek and Roman sculptures, Gretchen Mol was there riding a dolphin like Aphrodite, there's a found object painting in the background, and just these different layers of imagery. Also, Muhammad Ali and I did a project one time together. And he would make drawings for me when I'd open up a boxes when he would send some sheets that we had designed. So the line drawing on the front is kind of a reference to some of Muhammad Ali's drawings. But this is kind of an idea the type of paintings that I make. And I love this connectivity, because just as our genes in our DNA have this double helix, and that are interconnected, and we have biological memory, and we can be tied to our past of really what it means to be a living organism, what it means to be human. But our cultural lives are tied in the exterior world, in a very similar manner, almost like this double helix. Everything is about connectivity and connections.

I want to show an image of the things that we experience, these are our influences, this is what we have. As an artist, as a creative person, I thought a lot about, How can you make something? The only thing we have are our life experiences, we have our interests. And what could be more fun than to follow our interests? You can't really follow the person next to you, their interests, but you can follow your own interests. And if we just follow our own interests and we focus on those interests, and no matter what profession we're in, whether we're artists, writers, physicians, physicists, whatever it is, if we focus on our interests and really indepthly, it always connects us to that universal vocabulary, where time and space bend. And all of us in this room, we know we've experienced it, when we've given up, really, to our joy and not followed our interest, and really focused on it, we've all had those experiences. And that's how we're able to connect to something greater than the self.

Every type of image we've been looking at, every object, really comes from ready-mades, as I mentioned. The reason I work with the ready-made is always to communicate that everything's already here, everything's already perfect in its own being. And it's to use things for this act of acceptance. So by working with this ballerina, this little, small ceramic piece, and then transcending it into a large stainless-steel sculpture, and working with the gradations, I'm making and I'm playing with the metaphysics of the piece of time as depicted through gradations. So looking at this piece, you can have this sense of time. But the dialogue is really about self-acceptance and that the act of constantly just accepting things because they're metaphor for people. And of course, kind of subjective art is accepting the self. You can think of Dada, surrealism, all this inwardness of looking at the world. But once you do learn how to trust in yourself, the last place you really want to be is just within yourself. You want to go out into the world. The Mona Lisa Gazing Ball is there. I made this series of work, Gazing Ball paintings, where I put a gazing ball in the front of these reproductions that I created. Paying homage to these artists. And they function like a rabbit hole because you can go into the painting and you can see who Leonardo's giving it up to, how Leonardo is giving it up to Verrocchio, and to Fra' Filippo Lippi, and all of the people that he's loved. And that's how he was able to transcend into Leonardo. On the left side, we have The Battle of Anghiari. And this is a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci, And Ruben's loved the drawing and made the painting, The Tiger Hunt. Making reference to Leonardo, giving it up to Leonardo, this type of DNA, this linkage that I was talking about, the double helix going back through time, people referencing each other, and giving it up, showing homage, communal homage to each other.

This is a large work called Tulips. I made a piece as a gift between the people of the United States to the people of France. In our support to them for the terrible terrorist attacks that took place in 2015 and '16. And this work is, again, making reference to colossal pieces like the Colossus of Rhodes or the Statue of Liberty, but it's offering and it's offering these balloon tulips. But those balloon tulips, again, are making reference to something being offered from a profound place from within. And like coming from our own intestine, our own organs, this type of offering, this type of a membrane of a profound offering. Beside the Tulips, I have a large public sculpture that is called Train. And this is a piece that I haven't been able to build yet, but I would like to build, and hopefully someday will be built. But it's back to the Philadelphia and it's back to being on top of City Hall and looking out and trying to experience this all-in wonder minute. At the same time, this communal aspect. The train is a live working train, it would perform, it's on a bell curve. So it would go faster and quicker than a normal train. And it would start off, ding ding, and then start, Chu-chu. Chu-chu. Chu-chu, chu-chu, chu-chu. Keep going faster, and faster, and faster till it reaches full speed, 80 miles an hour. Whoo-whoo, whoo-whoo, whoo-whoo. Kind of this orgasmic plateau. And then it would go right back down on this bell curve to the last puff of smoke coming out. Of course, it's all metaphor, it's breathing.

It's part of the Philadelphia story.

This is a new artwork that I just want to share a little bit with. And this is a work that will go to the moon. It's being said that it's supposed to be the first authorized work to go to the moon. But it's planned that in March on the Nova-C lander, through intuitive machines, that I'll be sending 125 artworks. And those 125 artworks are represented in the cube on the left-hand side. Each artwork is about an inch in diameter and each one is a moon phase. And that's just the illuminated and non-illuminated parts of a moon through the shadow. Somewhere the moon viewed from space and some from an Earth view. And each one is associated with the name of a person that has made a great contribution in human history. Everyone that's within the cube is deceased, but they are people like Cleopatra, Louise Bourgeois, Harriet Tubman, Muhammad Ali, Sojourner Truth, Safro, Buddha, Immanuel Kant, a list of people that have made great contributions to human society. And there is a component that is an NFT. When the lander lands on the moon's surface, immediately it will photograph the cube of 125 artworks. That photo will be embedded into an NFT along with an individual image of that individual NFT work. In this case, we're looking at Leonardo, which is showing its moon phase, and it's rotating. Once I know where the lander exactly has landed, we know what we think the coordinates will be, but not until it actually lands, I'll put a precious stone in that area. If it's in the non-illuminated part, if it's an Earth view, it'll be a blue sapphire. If it's an illuminated part, a white diamond. If it's a view from space view, it would be in illuminated part, a yellow diamond, or a green sapphire. I know that I really have gone over. But the whole idea of this work is about aspiration. And beside the NFT part, there's a kind of an earth component that's like a trophy case. And it has a stainless-steel, a moon inside, it's made out of stainless steel, and transparent paints are on top, and shows the exact colors of the moon, but it's really referencing a trophy. And it's about aspiring to become, and about human history, about trying to achieve, and have a different perspective by this work being on the moon. And then of course, going out further to space.

Again, the journey for me is about aspiring. And it goes from satisfaction, really, of the self, of feelings, and sensations, and ideas to wanting to share that with others. And so I really want to thank everyone for letting me be part of the Adobe MAX. And thank you for your time.

Thank you, everyone. And the last thing she does is fall on the stage. Let's have a final round of applause for all these amazing speakers. And thank you for hanging in there. I know a lot of you have classes, so I really appreciate it. So you all have to be back here at 5:30 because we're going to have Sneaks with Kevin Hart and Bria Alexander from Adobe. And then we're going to go on to the Bash. You'll hear Steve Aoki, who's going to be spinning. And then we'll also have 21 Pilots. So have a wonderful day, and thanks again for coming. -