TED2 Video + Laserdisc

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It’s been 10 years now that I’ve been a hanger-on of Richard Saul Wurman.

We are legion, us hangers-on, and in Newport, Rhode Island, where RSW and his wife lived for 23 years, the place was set up in a way that made it possible for Mr. Wurman to receive guests in a fully-equipped office in what had once been a carriage house.

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RSW’s “outer office” in Newport, RI

On the many occasions I visited with and interviewed RSW in his carriage-house office at the former “Firestone Cottage,” there were times when I was there all alone, while Mr. Wurman was minding something in the main house.

And when that happened, and after I’d done all the close examination of RSW’s enormous copy of the Nolli Map of Rome I could do, I then did what you would have done:

I rifled through some of his stuff.

Not anything on his desk— but I certainly moved some books around, and examined the many piles of physical press clippings and website print-outs etc. that he surrounds himself with. And on several occasions, I admired a laserdisc of content from TED2. There was no laserdisc player, however, so its contents have been a mystery to me other than what the packaging said. Until today, when RSW sent me this:

This is the intro to a 7-hour video documenting the 2nd TED conference published by Voyager. Most notable are some of the earliest clips of people trying VR for the first time. As you'll see, the equipment looks similar to what we have today although the graphic resolution was much lower. Also apropos of right now, there was so much mention of the environment that attendees suggested the E in TED should stand for "environment." Music by Herbie Hancock. [Note: in 1990 TED was a project of Harry Marks and Richard Saul Wurman, not the current owner, Chris Anderson.]

*There was that one time where the Wurmans invited a photographer into their kitchen, to shoot photos for a General Electric advertisement.