@spotlight
Featuring deep conversations with thought leaders, innovators, rule-breakers, and the causal geniuses we discover inside Swell.
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 2:42
The Telelibrary : Phone call from Hell or Great Art?
And in between, you kind of get a chance to hear other voices, exchange ideas and also listen to incredible bits of poetry and prose that he picks in. He kind of weaves into it. I don't want to kind of give it away because I think you probably should try it, and I think I'll put a link to it right here. So, Yannick, welcome to Swell. I guess my first question to you is you don't break character, but you definitely change character
And I think that left a scar, which I just sort of I was on hold not speaking to any person for a long period of time and thinking about all the people who have done me a solid who had done, who were doing me a kindness, who were caring for me
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 2:00
First of all, your timing was impeccable. You ended exactly at five minutes. It's so wonderful to hear your voice. This is your voice. And that that story that Genesis is so interesting. You know, so much such good stuff comes from need. Necessity is the mother of invention. But also, invention comes from a deep sense of creative drive. And it seems like you really are born with that. You have it, and it really informs how you move in the world
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
So I have fit wonders in to the last minute of a call, and many users will tell you have run over by 60 seconds a time or two, and you would think after 900 calls that there would be a kind of comfort or ease or sense that this is working
And there's a vast world living in there of people, of people reaching out to touch people. And I think it's so amazing that literature is, I believe, firmly, the experience of syncing into a place where eventually you find yourself. And if you sink even further into books and texts, you find everyone else and to find the way that people so hungrily needed and wanted to reach out to each other and the way that they've done it with so much compassion and care and kindness
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:52
We have a lot of people talking, but we have a lot of people listening. And I've learned a lot about people's relationship to their voices. And it surprises me. They really people don't like their voices. What have you learned about people's relationship to their own voices and also their own ability to jump in and respond to your prompts? Because that's a big deal
I only suspect that I'm going to fail and be made fun of or look foolish or find fuel for whatever of my thousand anxieties that are feeling dominant today. And so I think it's really key in designing spaces like this to make sure that you position people for success and that you position someone to speak and have not just speak well, but to have whatever they say, be appropriate and be an opening to something, right. Anything that someone shares is the opening to something
But also it's this high fantasy that I think we've been sold of our devices and our technology and the artificial intelligence is that they would sit alongside us and understand or be a place in which we process
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 3:29
When you're with somebody who's about to do something and you're going to respond to that and you have confidence and you know whatever you say is going to be the right thing, because you're in this beautiful, messy magic with us. And I think it's so beautiful. The messy magic. I guess I want to talk about your personal trajectory as an artist. And in the theme of Halloween. Where are you most comfortable? Where is your mask masklessness? Really?
I also think that it's such a relief, like you said to sort of trust it will be okay. I always joke that or not really joke, but to say that if I could, my work would be 60% me and 40% the audience, and I aim for that. And I get to maybe 70, 30 sometimes or maybe 20 sometimes, but really that I'm always trying to throw it open and see what else someone can do
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 2:42
Excuse me, in terms of how you choose what you choose to read, to whom? And do you curate constantly? Are you looking for things constantly? Do you have piles of things? You have books that you just pull out? How do you go about those choices? And I don't want you to ruin the sacredness of your show. So please feel free to not answer this in the way I'm asking
I'm curious about the way words sound, how they draw pictures and provoke unexpected emotional reactions. A single disconnected word or phrase can stop you cold. Give you a new world to live in. I like reading unauthorized excerpts of the minutes of private meetings
But what are all the things that I am expecting of these pieces? And I'll say that broadly, one of the main things is about trying to achieve a kind of breadth, and there's a rule of thumb I use for myself, which is I hope that not just hope
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 3:02
By the way, I just love how you describe this partnership you have with the pieces you choose. They're like characters, and you don't want them to be too predictable, but you want them to be just familiar enough to work inside the constructor you're in. It's really quite amazing. The writers who write these words that are then put into your creation and become sort of your words by proxy. It's such a beautiful. It's just a partnership. It's a partnership
Mr. Gaiman means when he says that I think that we are constantly telling stories to ourselves and stories that are true built around a falsehood and false built around a truth. And I definitely agree that there's a work of excellent lying and excellent falsehood, which is about constructing some kind of narrative in which the truth can be known. But I have a sort of pet argument that I have with other creators is the question of can you do all this work while never telling a lie directly to your audience?
And I'll add as a post script post interruption, that phrase, thanks. I'm learning a lot today, which I've received lovely letters from folks and people have shown me a little where it's written down
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:18
And I hope this interview helps those who love you and have experienced you in that specific role, get a little more insight into who you are and how you approach things, and we'll share that out to the world so people can find you and then hopefully more to come. So thank you so much. And thank you. I've learned a lot today