Lets try to figure out what it could be done with and what im the son of a math teacher kicked out a foreign art school twice most of architecture lot of people telling me what i want could never be done and its my job to prove theyre wrong so youre right i think mean house and. You know yeah yeah so those i think i think its sort of interesting to make connections between art between design between architecture between technology and making new links in order to activate the world around us i think indeed when i was young when i was 16 my parents always suggest a truce if the jews are to science or i dont want to choose i want to do it all so maybe its more about trying to find the combination or making new connections between all those disciplines and be a hybrid of all i suppose thats the film of our time so you really do anything you want theres no limit to it you know when youre always sort of an amateur trying to become an expert and so youre driven by curiosity rather than definitions and and it was interesting when i was a. Young broken innocence long time ago i worked in a secondhand bookstore not so far from here as a student but sometimes i would work late at night and 2nd hand bookstore and the train would already be so they would allow me to sleep in the bookstore and there was one space with a little bit smaller than this space which exactly fit that the one person mattress and dead space was the russian literature space pushkin goal chicle novel called the city esque so i would fall asleep to being surrounded by the great masters and you know i really feel sort of influenced my dreams at that time but its still there yeah so is there a big dreamers oh yeah exactly its almost there in my brain as well and that was free shes a reader did you know you there are far away just. Like looking. Where wheres my oh here. It was russian that your find it yes no yeah there yeah yeah i like gogol i like the city stories like the crazy ones or the yeah but its sort of the world is brutal but its also poetic and theyre sort of its sort of brutal poetry and they have they have a tough life but they find their own beauty it isnt something that would sort of explain your style into words but quite true at the snow i think with what looks triggered me in the stories d is the notion of the journey and to explore and trying to find your own way in reality and the one and we have these very confusing right now it is very interesting we have rising sea level air pollution traffic jam viruses in china so how can we make sense of the world again how can we add meaning to the world and maybe thats why i create and to to be sane and in order to improve so im going to go through. All you know many of their projects and to give the viewers sure idea what is it that you do exactly so for instance to smoke a tower which is literally like a tower at that sort of takes in air pollution and release the cleaner air yeah i mean its a great thing and from crack of to beijing and theyre like big hit do you think that it could be something that you could put up in every corner in every city of course and why why arent they doing it then well because we live in a world were to pollute this for free. So what is the price of clean air and youre right i think the importance of clean air is getting more and more attention. Kids have asked mind big cities or people live shorter lives allergies elegy yeah yeah and you feel the pressure of the polluted air so i became inspired by small by pollution and i really wanted to show the beauty of clean air and by making these clean air parks which are 20 to 70 percent more clean than the rest of the city you create a sort of an oasis where people can see the future could feel the future and indeed to trigger the question why is it all. Everywhere and thats exactly the meaning of the project so so youre getting the essence of the birds eye exam that is exactly the case if you want to further and youre doing this thing called the smoke free bikes where young put device on the ice cream stare so are they making any difference because thats all i want to know because i want to have kids in the future and im thinking and i want to bring them to you know if you are old where i know they will survive the towers and for public spaces which for everyone and at the same time the bike sharing is becoming very popular in asia so we do develop a sort of device on the Steering Wheel which sucks up polluted air cleans it and releases it so you can cycle and not be polluted. A lot of people d you know want a car because of the pollution but of course more cars more pollution so we want to celebrate the bicycle and we want to promote it and also give it some kind of lifestyle and some kind of coolness and some kind of media thats also as important as the text or you know and then you have conceptual stuff like water leaked and what is that basically that you sort of use lights to flood the public space and youre saying well this is what its going to be like if they see the level of razor and its an amazing idea to sort of like a virtual slot revelation of leds and lenses which shows how high water level would be in the future. We all know climate is changing we all know our world is changing at the same time is very abstract and people are one of the greenies and its a bit confusing the numbers that you see so by making it a very physical and by making a collective experience that we had 5060000 people one night you know look at it you activate people to not be scared of the future but curious so we do suppose. Can we generate energy from the changing in time we build floating cities so i think the role of the art that i make is to x. Of a people and that they are more feeling more connected to the future and being part of the solution instead of being sad or angry or waiting so i guess like every time someone like you tries to. You know sort of raised the awareness that bequest in this do you only attract attention of what you said 15000. 00 people watching it or do you actually does that whatever it is that you do actually spread them to act well thats the reason why make it art art is an act of faith or sometimes theres sort of a practical solution like small tree thats like a local solution very practical and sometimes its more about you know opening up the minds of the people its about showing the beauty or to wonder i think it really depends on the conversation im having you know the questions im being asked the thing that inspires me at the moment. The weird thing about the future is the future is not to a 5 percent less worse its something you know what we dont know. And so we 1st have to imagine the future in order to get there you know and feel like feature is something rich it you think is like fluid and whatever it is yeah you imagine a lot and we have to create it 1st in our brain and then once you can imagine it you can you know constructed engineer a prototype and make it happen and if i lose it like 100 percent depending on our thought and sort of the usual lazing and realizing there is like a 5050 faith and whatever it is that you do what is it that you have that its a good question i dont know but im for fur for sure i know we 1st have to imagine it otherwise we dont get there so this whole folder flow thing. Isnt b. S. We know its always on working there isnt working anymore its crashing no sort of logs are question regarding Climate Change definitely yeah and we dont have a solution and you know im a professor at universities where students are mad you know because they need to spend so much time and love and energy fixing the plastic in the ocean the air pollution so theyre the kind of creates that can only correct and thats not a good. Age to be in you know a good area to be and so lets talk about 21 technical things more but youre saying yeah ok this whole our deal with Climate Change is not why but how great so what i guess is theyre going to do im so tired of the why we are like why should Everybody Knows the why forget about the why we know we have to be sustainable so there are some people who still disagree but you know theyll figure it out so its about how how do we make it happen and how do we make a world with better for me how do you help the rephrase that question with what it is that you do well i used acknowledge e to Bring Solutions i use arent and these are into showed a beauty of the new world that people accepted more than the and im trying to make that connection which before never existed what do you mean you can well for example the spaceways lap thats a project im working on very tentatively now with. The space agencies theres more than 8100000. 00 cars off space junk floating around our universe. Tell our viewers what it is thats basically what like green these lasers and we started launching satellites rockets from 1903 a sport make apolo chinese russian american lot of countries and they started to collide so you have more than 8100000. 00 q. Of junk floating around the universe and because they have high speed 27. 00 i was getting meters per hour when they hit an existing satellites like ball so its a threat to our day to day communication and nobody really knows how to fix it so we launch spaceways lap. To visualize real time were to space junkies with light green light raids yeah its green labor barking in your hat right in israel i guess right there who is to fix it so we finally have an official mission now to develop a sort of small cube set alight with the nets like it like a fish or capture fish its more complicated what is unlikely because it can fit more than we grab its ok capture it and but then the 2nd phase is ok then once we have a there but what should we do with it that maybe its not a problem but we cant really show where do you get rid of it i mean what you put the earth instead of the atmosphere was there with it. Through exercise so if you have a net you have space junk capture something thats floating or and then you have the earths atmosphere so when in a controlled way with a little you know engine you can it hits the earths atmosphere in a controlled reentry what happens then its. Salut you know what has all this yeah it burns burns ok so and what happens when something burns it gets a question like this late in life ok so thats what were working on now waste is lights so were creating artificial shooting stars ok as a replacement for traditional fireworks. So we think of the universe and we have a new way of fireworks so were going to government do by spending 8200000. 00 u. S. Dollars on fireworks every year now and 7070. 00 millions and they really are a moron where those little dreamer is those are were they were going to the minister ministers and say take that budget that you are already spending and you spend it on this a zeros got a project to clean up the universe and you have a new way forward what do they say the ministers when you they said they didnt say no yet they were really good there yes i think in 3 to 5 years we will have that realized and so am i smarter than a czar naza no because theyre really smart but what i can do as a designer as an artist is to look at it in a different way and say its not waste its a shooting star so i designed the last 2 percent and that changes the project completely and some of the you know there is does need are cities there so you make new connections between space industry and tourism cities etc thats the stuff that were doing here and thats the stuff that we do excites me so what made you all of a sudden sweet to switch from like Climate Change and smog to taking care of the waste and you have a smaller i want to live in a world where were pollution does not exist you know and i think its weird that we accept pollution air pollution Water Pollution space pollution and especially space you know thats our new frontier we should learn from the sort of mistakes that we may complain of and everybody has a right for clean space and you think its should be something that this sort of human in case were to overpopulate so its going to its or you know its unacceptable so i was walking that were now in the studios we have a team of project managers designers engineers architects and i was Walking Around as we were working a lot of a project and i saw this. Huge black image with a lot of white dots and this big delta the middle and i asked whats that you know it looked like the sort of abstract american painting this Jackson Pollock and they said that space junk 8100000. 00 people like what thats crazy and so thats typically a project we initiated i spend my own money and time on it and now the clients are coming in investing so its going to be fascinating bit crazy but get down were going to take a short break right now when were back well continue talking. About the future. Of american men and women choose to serve in the countrys military and the decision lotos sheltered lives every thing came to a complete. The day that i was right and. You know oldish kill me and i see how would destroy. Any screamed at me and he made me come in and he grabbed my arm and he write me. If you take into account that women dont report because of the extreme retaliation and its probably somewhere near about half a 1000000 women have now been sexually assaulted in the us military rape is a very very traumatizing tat happen but ive never seen trauma like ive seen women who are veterans who have suffered military sexual trauma reporting rape is more likely to get the victim punished them the offender and almost 10 year career or chose very invested in and i give a sex offender who was not even put to justice or put on the registry this is simply an hour in violence male sexual predators for the large part of charge of whoever is there to prey upon whether thats a man or woman. And were back with innovative thinker artist designer harder here in his studio don what do you say to all those like skeptics that are like you know there is no Climate Change you know its always been there this is a cycle you guys just dont remember yeah this is all b. S. And this is to scare people off ok. Then i dont know how to weather is on their planet because all my planet its very concrete you know people are scared of change and thats very normal and people have to get used to do ideas thats also very normal but i think we shouldnt hide or be scared who should be curious. And invest in new ideas to survive the end its about that and its not just that its necessary its also fun and. Theres sort of a joy in making radical ideas happen and theyre sort of for joy in having people look at reality in a different way and open up their mind and it can be via a book or a movie but it can also be about public art and design so design is not just a chair or a lamp or a table but these ideas about improving life and its and its really fun to work on that as well but i feel like youre so different from every out there modern art artists or insta later that i met because theyre so much about selfexpression and the commentary these are that if i am the syringes yeah because you know like i was now lanny in my teddy bear. I had a teddy bear yeah yeah i cried when i was a great no im not so interested so it is definitely about me in my mind my feelings of course what i want to talk as much about the week the world as about to me my personal relationship with that i think there i mean you know when you do something that gives Something Back to the people to society it somehow is way more rewarding. Than if i just do it for myself i just i dont think its that and i dont think im that interesting that you didnt know everything that is that youre doing right now which is like really looking forward. Into the future and shaping up for the best rate is it something that happened with the past like 5 slash 10 years when we started talking about Climate Change ok yeah i think its definitely something of these 80 like maybe 20 years ago you would be about me and my teddy bear and you know you would die homer and would be really cool i dont know as brave you guys but if you buy all their armors are equal and i have been very harmer no love there right so yes there is a very interesting are these are our notion of what is beauty or what is luxury or what is what is what is normal has changed and sustainability is in that not just that word but its about that we are aware that you we are us we are connected and if i do something stupid to you in a way it will influence me as well as the more you understand the relationship we are in where we like it or not but its you know were all crew and passengers are not specified or were all part of it whether we like it or not and the more your aware of the relationship the more you can interact and play i think thats a thats thats thats thats life thats thats it i think internet that all of that right because i was talking to this great lady shes very huge an Artificial Intelligence and were saying that everything thats going on right now especially with the i. A. E. A. And internet it really reminds us of when they invented the atomic bomb only you know when it blew out the it only blew up in a certain place but yes something were to blow up now its everywhere we dont understand is that its going to go bad everywhere yes or we have or we read relationship with technology i think right now today you mean all of us we become sort of robot food were feeding our hopes our dreams our desires our money to computer screens and what do we get back you know like thats thats a bad deal so when this technology jumping out of the street when its technology helping me to keep me healthier to keep me informed or to keep me you know feeling connected. And i missed it so we will live in an area the post screen area where d we will look less at all the screens and it will be more in harmony or it will help us more but there is no youve got them here but im really tired of you know feeding machines yeah im just robot food because like everyone i speak to right now theyre pretty much convinced that this is an irreversible thing where were going to become house robots and then eventually going to be no robots and then Artificial Intelligence is the future i mean i dont really believe in the whole scary krauss single laramie period thing but i do feel like there is something that is beyond my control in terms of what will happen to me as a human being and isnt sure whether its a good comment so i think. Theres a George Orwell scenario were dominated but theres also a layer of doesnt she scenario where we used to fly and i was thinking about it this morning i was at t. W. A. Terminal in new york. Airport this is beautiful all terminal built in 197172 and it was build in the time when people were curious about the future you know we would go to the mood we had to jet since the concorde or people were curious about the future you can feel that in that building and as we are today that somehow were sort of scared of the future of the robots take over our jobs or will dominate us like you just said or to chinese come and buy everything or and i think our hope and i think that the project that we do here that i do help people to become curious against towards the future not to care as well because no one and they are part of it you know its not just like oh its the robots and that is that the world we want to live in no so yes what youre saying is absolutely scenario but its just one of the scenarios and we are going to be a part of that we are part of that conversation but. You know is this something that worries me so much like you know i suppose like curiosities or something that is going away from us right now and youre trying to sort of in your own way reinstall it people but also have. If you like to hope in the future because youre absolutely right before people were like no matter how bad things were like its going to be better tomorrow and now youre a little we dont know whats going to happen so were looking at future like do i want to be there i mean i dont know how do you bring back that sense of agency not only curiosity but that that the sense that you are in control well 1st of all you have to decide that youre not as the consumer of your maker so you make decisions you make things you make choices and in that way you ensue is the world around you so you need to take ownership and you need to accept that youre part of it. And the 2nd is and thats the beauty of making things making project theres such a beauty in putting an idea realize it and put it out there where we place the 1st smokefree tower in beijing and make these cleaner parts people who do you do they really get your. Sugar from iraq in the river you create a ripples and you start surfing on them and by doing that we just made a statement and we showed that clean air locally could be possible so we set a new standard and indeed weve got questions why isnt there everywhere whats the price of clean air we have Chinese People capturing the wind in both old School Offices and they would sell it. Now all these so you activated this question and if you approach reality in that way and showed a beauty of clean air clean water and clean energy you you feel more part of it and you are part of it and thats very rewarding but its really the human nature that i question or because somehow no matter what kind of genius things we humans invent like from dynamite to facebook we managed to make everything catastrophic and no matter like whether you have iphone 1035 in your hand or not we still keep killing each other for a piece of land and to suppress them and we can do good things we can do bad things its to. Do you question here this is heres it heres an idea for you know years. Here for your new project or installation tell me my new. How to do is synchronized to technological evolution with a Human Evolution exactly so you need technological innovation and you also need social innovation thats absolutely right so you need to create a farm where what you do as not a negative effect on the other and that is a sort of awareness thats a fuzzy topic and a fuzzy word imo how you are aware of that. We Just Launched our new holocaust project the Holocaust Memorial absolutely beautiful 104000 people were arrested and deported and murdered here and then opens and 75 years ago day it was the liberation of the death camps and the dutch government commissioned us can you make a monument for forward those people for that important moment in time and what was interesting is that this was not about function well this was about. The memory and remembering them but it was also about the future and showing the importance of freedom to our generation we didnt really experience war in that way anyway so we we took actually the notion of the rock so as in the jewish tradition and agree if you dont place flowers but you place a rock and that was really interesting so we started to absorb the rocks with fluorescent pigments light emitting things which alert very special lights become light emitting and on the 4000 victims on the 4000 rocks which sort of glow with light as they sort of brief and what im trying to say is it created the place you know i seen Holocaust Survivors come there with their grandchildren sharing stories and. Its like goosebumps and after that the artwork all these rocks spread to all the 170 municipalities in the netherlands where these people were deported so its been from very National Bake to super local and to see old ceremonies that people organized and reading the names and the traditions and the stories and i went to them incognito they didnt go to every single of them no no no it was too much but some of them and it was so humbling to make something and that people take ownership and they start to wonder history future whats my role in it so i think there was a beautiful example how art and design can exit fate and help people to remember that theyre part of the world its not just waiting for government or being mad you know you tackle so many ideas in the studio that are born and then you make them come to life but then when i started and i finish it then every 3 years of course large large groups of people i really wonder which ideas get born in this office that even for you know like you know way too far out there that have they cant or. Havent come to life oh man theres a whole archive of history what. Do you engineering where to control what do you engineering so in a way Climate Change for me is a notional bad design you and i we have created it for pollution so while a airplane is better engineering will know when or the way the weather is behaving or the climate story the climate is behaving is is for me bad design because the very good for us and a lot of animals and plants so can we design wetter and we design Climate Change can we actively participate weve designed it unconsciously and weve heard pollutions perfect 3 can we turn it around the problem is we dont know real the impact of that yet and you can be really rivals or really wrong so its a big ethical discussion like should you do that i think thats an incredibly fascinating topic that i havent made up my mind yet about im going to come back for another interview just on that topic yeah yeah and actually the russian and middle east are very active in these kind of things i mean going to moscow. On a stick with this on the way going into that interview when you come to yeah yeah you want to do that at school yeah its me so when i talk also about the dress that you designed that becomes transparent once diners turning on their lists yeah yeah i mean i was thinking why didnt he design like a t. Shirt or a suit for someone of the opposite sex to see the way hes a very honest. Evaluation as we did we did we didnt really very known project but we yes we made a garment for ladies which how much you like somebody the more transparent you become and indeed then the guys really what about what about those who are about me so we made a suit for men but then only becomes transparent when they lie oh absolutely horrible i mean there. Ways they were the old it was like there was there was there was a bad there was a good bad project all right thank you so much. Good luck with everything. Yes to all this is all the good. Because. The e. U. Accusing