Practice an act of radical empathy — try to put yourself in the hoofsteps, pawprints and undulations of other creatures and appreciate all the ways of being and doing that exist on this planet.

We are not alone. On Earth, that is. While it may seem laughably obvious to say that, in many ways we humans act like we’re the only inhabitants. After all, our built world overwhelmingly prioritizes our one species above all the others that occupy the planet.

How often do most of us stop and consider how other living beings experience the world?

Almost never, says Alan Hook, a design researcher at Ulster University in Northern Ireland: “We understand the world from a very fixed human-centric point of view … so [we] can’t really understand what it must be like to be a different creature.”

Meet some human designers who are breaking down the barriers. In Ireland, Denis Connolly and Anne Cleary have created a series of meta-perceptual helmets that allowed wearers to view the world through the stereo vision of a hammerhead shark or the separately rotatable eyes of the chameleon. To get as close to being a goat as possible, UK designer Thomas Thwaites (TED talk: How I built a toaster from scratch) built himself a prosthetic goat legs and a prosthetic rumen (goat stomach) and took to the Swiss Alps to graze on grass.

Hook says, “Whenever we think about design, we talk about it as a process of empathy.” Trying to step into the hoofsteps, pawprints, undulations and tracks of other creatures can allow us to consider how the world — including our human world — appears to them.

Hook became interested in this question thanks to a horse that lives near his house. His two children, he says, were “very concerned about whether the horse is too hot or too cold, whether it has enough to eat, and what the experience of the horse is like.” This prompted him to devise what he calls “equine eyes,” a way for his kids to interact with the world from a horse’s point of view, which differs from ours in significant ways.

Hook says, “They have their eyes on the side of their heads … and those large eyes work like fisheye lenses, which means that a horse can actually see 350 degrees around it. So it can see everywhere apart from its back.” Because horses cannot see red, Hook’s prototype eyes used cameras and programming to strip red from the visible spectrum.

Of course, you don’t need a fancy device to see from another perspective. Try this with the animals in your life — crouch down in the living room and assess it from your dog’s or cat’s point-of-view. Or look at the non-human residents who live in your neighborhood — the birds, insects, rodents, lizards and squirrels — and ask, What is life like from their eyes? How might it feel to move like they do? Eat like they do? Follow their routines? How much do they accommodate we humans as they go about their daily business?

It’s a refreshing mental break — and an exercise in empathy. While we can’t yet fully understand what it’s like to live in another body, we can start to notice the infinite ways of being and doing there are in our world.

Watch his TEDxBallybofey talk here:

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mary Halton is Assistant Ideas Editor at TED, and a science journalist based in the Pacific Northwest. This piece was adapted for TED-Ed from this Ideas article.

In honor of our lesson on Anna Komnene —a Byzantine princess, scholar, physician and historian — we asked animator Els Decaluwe a few questions about the process of working on this piece.

What are the challenges of designing a character that you have no photographs of, only other artist’s interpretations?

Before I start designing, I always try to look up some background information about the character. In Anna’s case, I got the feeling that she was really ahead of her time. I really wanted to give my design the same aura without trying to copy other artists’ designs. It’s not about how she looks but about what she represents and who she was! For the hair I looked up several historical references and also got lots of help from educator Leonora Neville. I saw lovely complicated up-dos with jewels and decorations between braids. But I felt Anna was kind of a free spirit so she maybe would have worn her hair in a looser style. Not wearing too much jewelry, as it would get in the way of her writing. As for the clothes, I thought Anna should be ”a badass in a dress.”

What techniques do you use in your process?

I’m a real big fan of classical 2D animation, and if I could, I would still make everything on paper. Because of time constraints, though, I traditionally only do the pre-production. Afterwards I digitally try to copy the feel of my traditionally-drawn images. Textures are my best friends and I spend a lot of time preparing traditional textures, to use in the digital coloring process. For the animation itself, I use a frame by frame animation technique. This means that I redraw every frame, so I make approximately 12 drawings per second of film. This is a time-consuming process that gives extra movement and charm to the animation, and to me it is totally worth it!

Which part of this animation are you most happy about?

The scene transitions were really important to me. Though it is a historical realistic subject, I wanted to add some magic to them. That’s why I chose to use transformations in my animations. Anna turning into the year 1083 and than baby Anna coming out of the 0 was my greatest challenge. Animating transformations is like performing a magic trick: when they work well, it really puts a smile on peoples’ faces! I also love the scene where Anna was reading at night. As I am also a children’s book illustrator, I like putting in the extra time to really design a picture book-like illustration with lots of details and textures.

Spending so much time working on the depiction of one character, do you develop any sort of relationship to that character? Do you have any good anecdotes about getting to know Anna Komnene as a character in order to design her and bring her to life?

It was lovely learning more about this heroine. What really struck me was the information I found about people questioning the fact that The Alexiad, her account of her father’s reign, could have been written by a woman. I realised how important it was for me to represent her correctly. That’s also why I chose to mirror Anna and her father in the first and last scene. I wanted to show how many women also have an important role in history. And you can make a difference without using a sword! While animating Anna and Alexios, I used a mirror and acted out their movements and facial expressions. I had a ruler which I used as a sword and hopped around in the office. My co-workers even caught me making funny/crazy facial expressions while animating! That’s why I think there’s also a bit of me in the animation of Anna.

Let’s go behind the scenes of one recent TED-Ed Lesson, How do schools of fish swim in harmony?, which examines the concept of emergence. In this TED-Ed Lesson, the animated style just so happens to have been largely influenced by the pointillist paintings of George Seurat and his contemporaries.

Emergence refers to the spontaneous creation of sophisticated behaviors and functions from large groups of simple elements, and can be used to explain the movements of ants, fish, and birds — as well as how the tiny cells in your brain give rise to the complex thoughts, memories, and consciousness that are you.

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, George Seurat (1884–86)

It’s kind of like a pointillist painting. When you zoom in real close, it’s just a collection of chaotic brush strokes. But take a few steps back, and you’ll see that all of those brush strokes are working together to illustrate a complex and detailed scene.

Pointillism stems from Impressionism, and depending on the artist’s technique, the size of the brush strokes vary, but are always visible. For example, Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night uses larger brush strokes in the night sky. In the above and below concept designs, you can see that the animator of the emergence lesson tested how different brushstrokes interact to create depth within a scene. She decided that the swirling waters would make sense as large brushstrokes, which also offered contrast to allow the small fish to stand out.

George Seurat also employed a technique called ‘divisionism’, sometimes known as ‘chromoluminarism’, in which colors were separated into individual dots or patches that interacted optically. So, rather than relying on mixing colors, painters like Seurat and Paul Signac juxtaposed contrasting colors to allow for optical mixing — which in theory would produce more vibrant and pure colors than the traditional process of mixing pigments.

Circus Sideshow (Parade de Cirque), George Seurat (1887–88)

While designing this TED-Ed Lesson, George Seurat and Paul Signac’s paintings provided inspiration not just for the brushstroke technique, but also for the color palette.

This GIF of neural connections in the brain draws many of its colors from Seurat’s circus series palette.

Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde (La Bonne-Mère), Marseilles, Paul Signac (1905-06)

Other, brighter GIFs in this post draw from the more vibrant colors commonly used by Paul Signac, as in the painting above.

Animating this lesson was an opportunity to renew a sense of wonder in our ever complex universe, whether studying it up close or from afar. We hope that watching it might do the same for you!

From the TED-Ed Lesson How do schools of fish swim in harmony? – Nathan S. Jacobs

Animation by TED-Ed // Lisa LaBracio

Who invented the popsicle? Why is ketchup so hard to pour? Is binge watching bad for you? Now is the perfect time to explore the questions that spark your creativity. Here are 5 more ways to stay inspired:

1. Design your own learning adventure. ”What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything,” wrote Pedro Arrupe. “It will decide what gets you out of bed in the mornings, what you do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you.” What do you love to do? What experiences do you want to have? How much time and energy are you willing to commit to practicing a new skill? These are your primary creative constraints. To find a way to learn more about what you love, check out the nerd’s guide to learning everything online.

2. Schedule fun, weekly field trips to follow your curiosity. Julia Cameron calls this practice “the artist date” — and describes it as “a once-weekly, festive, solo expedition to explore something that interests you.” For example, you might visit a museum, art gallery, or science center; go for a long walk outside in a city, campus, or park; or seek out live music and performance. The specifics are up to you!

3. Keep an idea notebook. If ideas are butterflies, notebooks are nets. Whether you carry a pocket-sized sketchbook, a bunch of index cards with a rubber band around them, or a digital notepad, the important thing is to capture the ideas, dialogue, or patterns that draw your attention, because that’s how you start to find wonderful ideas.

4. Try a 10-day creative challenge. The idea is simple: for 10 days, spend 20 minutes a day in active creativity. Document your progress. Not sure where to start? Try these creative writing prompts.

5. Get a library card and read, read, read. Every great book is a portal — to adventure, to knowledge, or to new perspectives. Libraries make it easy for you to follow your curiosity and stay creative. If you don’t yet have a library card, now’s the time to get one. Not sure what to read? Try something from the world’s required reading list.

Laura McClure is the TED-Ed Editor. To learn something new every week, sign up for the TED-Ed Newsletter here >>

Art credit: TED-Ed

In honor of Henri Rousseau’s birthday, we wanted to share how his work influenced the animation of our TED-Ed Lesson on biodiversity. Below are three paintings that inspired us — and why:

The Dream, by Henri Rousseau (1910) 

When designing the rainforest scenes in our lesson on Biodiversity, we couldn’t help but think of Henri Rousseau’s The Dream.

Our color palette was inspired by the richness and depth of greens in his forest scenes. And we love the way the blue & ivory flowers pop out against the many shades of green.

Three Apes in The Orange Grove, by Henri Rousseau (1907)

Rousseau’s color choice for the Sun in many of his paintings is fairly difficult to replicate digitally.

It took a lot of layers of brushstrokes and color washes to try to mimic his skies — which offer a perfectly soft contrast to the detailed leaves and fronds in the foreground foliage.

The Repast of the Lion, by Henri Rousseau (1907)

We love the placement of wildlife in Rousseau’s paintings — as if the leaves parted momentarily to allow us to peer in on the secret lives of the lions and monkeys going about their business.

While designing the Biodiversity lesson, we wanted to similarly highlight the variety of species in the rainforest, while also allowing the audience to imagine that much, much more lurks behind the leaves.

Watch the TED-Ed Lesson: Why is biodiversity so important?:

Animation by TED-Ed

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Pablo Picasso, Self portrait, 1907

1. Pablo Picasso was born in Malaga, Spain on October 25, 1881. His father was an artist and art teacher in the classic European style.

Pablo Picasso, The old fisherman, 1895

2. As a teenager, Picasso studied at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid. There he learned how to paint realistic images of people and landscapes, just like his father had before him.

3. At school, Picasso began to question the conventional art wisdom in Europe. For example, why should a portrait strive to duplicate reality from a single viewpoint, when the recent invention of photography made it possible for anyone with the right equipment to accurately portray a person’s face?

Pablo Picasso, The old blind guitarist, 1903 // Pablo Picasso, A boy with pipe, 1905

4. In his early 20s, Picasso began to experiment with new ways to create meaning through unconventional brushwork styles and color palettes of blue and rose. His first exhibit was not a financial success.

5. Picasso moved to Paris and became friends with a group of painters and writers who were also pushing the boundaries of what was considered to be “acceptable” art in Europe. One of these avant-garde painters was the French post-Impressionist artist Paul Gaugin. Another was Henri Matisse.

Self Portraits: Paul Gaugin // Pablo Picasso // Henri Matisse

6. Gaugin and Matisse introduced Picasso to a variety of non-European art forms, viewpoints and ideas.

7. Picasso found one non-European art form particularly enchanting: African masks, traditionally used in ritual storytelling.

8. Inspired by the African art he’d seen, Picasso created the painting Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.

Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907

9. While most of Picasso’s friends disliked the multifaceted style of Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, he found a kindred spirit in George Braque. Together, they invented a new art form that embraced many angles and viewpoints. Matisse called this “Cubism.”

10. Picasso is known for Cubism — but he created much more than that. Throughout his life, Picasso kept learning and experimenting with new art forms and types of media, and he continued to paint, sculpt and draw in a variety of styles. Today he is considered to be one of the most influential European artists of the 20th century. Learn more about Picasso’s life.

For a deeper dive into modern art, watch the TED-Ed Lesson: How ancient art influenced modern art:

Image credits: Paintings by Pablo Picasso, Paul Gauguin and Henri Matisse. Animation by TED-Ed.

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