# The Fire-Breathing Dragon-Horse Sparking Wonder in a City near You | Frédette Lampre | TED ## Метаданные - **Канал:** TED - **YouTube:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Xbm2F64_c0 - **Дата:** 17.07.2025 - **Длительность:** 11:41 - **Просмотры:** 19,728 ## Описание How does a city change when its art doesn’t hang on museum walls but instead roams the streets? Artist Frédette Lampre of the production company La Machine shares how their towering, handcrafted mechanical creations transform urban spaces into living theaters, creating unforgettable experiences that reconnect people with their cities and each other. (Recorded at TED2025 on April 11, 2025) Join us in person at a TED conference: https://tedtalks.social/events Become a TED Member to support our mission: https://ted.com/membership Subscribe to a TED newsletter: https://ted.com/newsletters Follow TED! 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For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request at https://media-requests.ted.com #TED #TEDTalks #culture ## Содержание ### [0:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Xbm2F64_c0) Segment 1 (00:00 - 05:00) Imagine one day you are out for a walk in a city you live or you visit, and suddenly you [come] face-to-face with a giant minotaur. It's half man, half bull. His skin is made of wood. He is walking, galloping, rearing up. He opens and closes his blue eyes. He breathes, he cries, he growls. His arms can fend off traffic lights. And now he’s asleep in front of the city hall, and people on their way to work hear the creature snoring. (Imitates snoring) Amazing. As tall as a building, the city is a stage for him, and people are immersed in his world. Thirty years ago, my colleague François Delarozière, a designer, art performer, founded La Machine company. His aim to create large theater experiences in cities. How? With huge animated machines. Since then, François' extraordinary machines appeared in streets, boulevards, avenues all over the world. These machines have no practical function at all. (Laughter) They tell stories for cities and their citizens, and they bring all communities together to create perhaps a new common ground. In 2016, the French port of Calais commissioned us a permanent art project. Two years later, the sea dragon appeared on the beach. He has two giant red wings and a long blue tail. And he started his delightful promenades around the historic streets of Calais. Spitting fire, smoke coming out of his body. The sea dragon is now the new image of the city. (Music) I could say that he belongs to the city and is loved by everyone. Thank you. (Applause) La Machine is based in Nantes, a French city on the Atlantic coast of France. And our workshop is in a former shipyard where we now build the great elephant, the giant spider, the dragon horse, the Minotaur, the sea dragon, and others. It's a permanent beehive with over 100 different trades and crafts involved. In our staff we have welders, musicians, mechanics, comedians, sculptors, engineers, roboticists and so on. Perhaps you would like to know how we make it. First a drawing, then a model. The model is scanned to generate a digital wireframe. Then we [make] wooden shells for the skin of the animal, a metal structure for the skeleton, including hydraulic and electrical systems to bring the machine to life. Then the construction can begin. The carpenters lead the way, and other trades follow on. It takes around two years from the design to the completion. And then we are ready to operate a machine. An average of 18 operators "drive" the machine with joystick and exoskeletons. One person per arm and per legs. One operator for the head. Another one for the neck, one person for the wings, one person for special effects, one person for the tail, one pilot for the truck, one guide and a director of operation. He is the soul of the machine. He gives technical but also emotional indications. ### [5:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Xbm2F64_c0&t=300s) Segment 2 (05:00 - 10:00) All operators are connected to him with mics to make a realistic movement. Long Ma. Long Ma means dragon-horse in Chinese. Perhaps it's my favorite machine. Long Ma was commissioned by Beijing. And then, with this machine, we performed in several cities in the world. In Ottawa, Long Ma was joined by a giant spider that we settled on the roof of the cathedral. (Laughs) Big deal with the church. (Laughter) Ottawa, the administrative capital of Canada, had a slogan at that time: "Ottawa is not boring. " Of course not. 700,000 people came to see Long Ma and discovered the giant spider. And my God, they loved it. These shows are free. No tickets, no fences. It makes the city creative and inclusive. For people experiencing a giant moving machine in their neighborhood, it can change the way they see their own city. La Machine is not only about street performances. We also develop large-scale spaces for ongoing moving exhibitions. In Nantes, our home city, we created Les Machines de l’Île. Les Machines de l’Île is a cultural facility to support the urban regeneration program of the city, to make Nantes more attractive, both for inhabitants and visitors. The cultural facility includes the great elephant, who is working every day on the old dock esplanade, and next to it, the Carousel of the Sea World, with a living testimony to Jules Verne, who was born and grew up in Nantes. Why are these machines so special? La Machine are movement. La Machine are not just art, not just entertainment. They tell stories, but also they bring motion and emotions together in every person from spaces and times. Our machines are poetic figures, and poetry has no business plan. But even if our shows are free, they generate great benefits for shops, cafes, restaurants and huge free media coverage for cities. In Liverpool, one day, a giant spider appeared magically on a building in front of the main train station. Hundreds of thousands of people discovered the new face of Liverpool, and this image went around the world. Some cities with the machine wish to improve their image, like Ottawa, Calais or Liverpool. Others choose urban planning issues. Like Nantes or Toulouse. Toulouse is in the south of France, and we presented to the mayor of Toulouse in 2013 the Minotaur. Toulouse is the home of Airbus, like Seattle is the home for Boeing. And we presented to the leader of aeronautics in Europe an old and antique figure. Crazy. Toulouse is an ancient city where myths and stories of bulls are central, and this city is like a labyrinth. The Minotaur makes the link between the past and the future. Last October, we created a new character, the Guardian of Darkness, for the second part of the gigantic street opera. The Guardian of Darkness is both a woman and a scorpion, and she is the alter ego of the Minotaur. (Music) ### [10:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Xbm2F64_c0&t=600s) Segment 3 (10:00 - 11:00) (Music ends) 1. 2 million people over three days, so proud of their city. Last night, I had a thought -- Thank you. (Applause) Last night I had a thought. In La Machine, we don't really use artificial intelligence, but we definitely use artistic intelligence to reimagine humanity. Thank you. (Applause) --- *Источник: https://ekstraktznaniy.ru/video/1028*