The fire-breathing dragon-horse sparking wonder in a city near you | Frédette Lampre

0:06You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hu. The most influential puppets in my life are actually Muppets. You know, from Sesame Street or Kermit and Miss Piggy and their whole Jim Henson puppet universe. They evoke all kinds of feelings and nostalgia, childhood. In this talk, artist and designer Fredette Lamp, who is part of the French street theater collective La Machine, reflects on what it means to create and build giant moving machines from fire-breathing sea dragons to slumbering minotaurs and why the kind of puppets she makes go way beyond entertainment.

0:48They can help reshape how people see their cities and one another.

1:00Imagine one day you're out for a walk in a city you live or you visit, and suddenly you came face to face with a giant minotaur. He's half-mouthed, half-bulled. 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.

1:52amazing. As tall as building. The city is a stage for him. And people are immersed in his world. Thirty years ago, my colleague, François de la Rozière, a designer, art performer, founded La Machine Company. His aim, to create large theater experiences in cities. 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. 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.

2:56Two years later, the sea dragon appeared on the beach. He has two giant red rings and a long blue tail. And he started his delightful promenade 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

3:32I could say that he belongs to the city and he's loved by everyone

3:41thank you 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 minotaure, 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 made 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.

4:51Then 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. All operators are connected to him with mics to make a realistic movement.

5:52Long Ma. Long Ma means dragon horse in Chinese. Perhaps it's my favorite machines. Long Ma was commissioned by Beijing. And then, with this machine, we perform 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. 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. Oh my God, they love it! Death's 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.

6:55La 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 Lille. Les Machines de Lille 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 walking every day on the old dock Esplanade, and next to it, the carousel of the sea world, with a living testimony to Jill Verne, who was born and grew up in Nantes. Why does machine are so special?

7:50Les machines are movement. The machines 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 after our show of 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.

8:48Some 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 Harris. 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.

9:51The Guardian of Darkness is both a woman and a scorpion, and she is the alter ego of the minotaur. In La Machine, we don't really use artificial intelligence, but we definitely use artistic intelligence to reimagine humanity. Thank you.

10:18That was Fredette Lamp at TED 2025. If you're curious about TED's curation, find out more at ted.com slash curationguidelines. And that's it for today's show. TED Talks Daily is part of the TED Audio Collective. This episode was produced and edited by our team, Martha Estefanos, Oliver Friedman, Brian Green, Lucy Little, Alejandra Salazar, and Tonsika Sarmanivon. It was mixed by Christopher Faze-Bogan. Additional support from Emma Taubner and Daniela Ballarezzo. I'm Elise Hu. I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for your feed. Thanks for listening.