A firework ladder to the sky — and the magic of explosive art | Cai Guo-Qiang (re-release)
TED Talks Daily
TED
4.1 • 11.9K Ratings
🗓️ 4 July 2025
⏱️ 18 minutes
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Summary
From a boy setting off small explosions in his living room to the creator of world-famous pyrotechnic events, multidisciplinary artist Cai Guo-Qiang has always been drawn to gunpowder. He gives a stunning tour of his work — including his fireworks spectacle at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, his "sky ladder" of fire reaching to the clouds and new work created with AI — and shows how his art probes the line between destruction and construction, control and freedom, violence and beauty. (This talk was delivered in Mandarin and translated live into English. The translation was put through a custom AI model of Cai Guo-Qiang's voice, powered by technology from Metaphysic. You'll hear how Cai would sound if he were speaking English.)
This episode originally aired July 30, 2024.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity |
| 0:11.7 | every day. I'm your host, Elise Hu. From a boy setting off small explosions in his living room |
| 0:18.2 | to the creator of world-famous pyrotechnic events, |
| 0:22.2 | multidisciplinary artist Tsai Guo Chang has always been drawn to gunpowder. |
| 0:27.5 | In this archive talk, he gives a stunning tour of his work, including his fireworks spectacle |
| 0:32.6 | at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, his sky ladder of fire reaching to the clouds and new work created with |
| 0:40.1 | AI. He shares why he believes art is one of the best mediums to explore the great tensions of our |
| 0:45.7 | world, violence and beauty, control and freedom, destruction and construction. Please note this talk was |
| 0:52.2 | delivered in Mandarin Chinese and translated live into English. |
| 0:56.2 | The translation was put through a custom AI model |
| 0:58.7 | of Tai Guo Chang's voice, |
| 1:00.8 | powered by technology from metaphysics. |
| 1:03.2 | In this episode, you'll hear how Cai would sound |
| 1:06.1 | if he were speaking English. |
| 1:19.1 | Hey, it's Adam Grant from Worklife, a podcast from TED. |
| 1:21.8 | This episode is brought to you by FreshWorks. |
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| 1:52.6 | Hi, we're Jesse and Lenny from our podcast Table Manners, and we're currently sponsored by Netflix. |
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