The art of the maze | Adrian Fisher | TEDxCapeMay

Adrian Fisher is internationally renowned as a leading maze designer who looks to the future of amusements as a social experience, comprised of shared choices and rich content.

Over the past 35 years, Adrian Fisher has created over 600 mazes in more than 30 countries, setting six world records and winning two gold medals for garden design in the process. Adrian's imaginative and innovative designs are visually artistic, entertaining, playful and highly newsworthy. His work can be seen at the world's finest historic buildings and private gardens, including Alnwick Castle, Blenheim Palace, Capel Manor, Longleat House and Speke Hall. He has also created rides and puzzles for iconic visitor attractions across the globe,including Legoland, Tussauds and the London Dungeon.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx.

Americans are compulsive communicators,

obviously, like this conference.

But what strikes me
is you really get personal,

one to one.

I was once staying
in a farmhouse in Maryland,

and I was in the bathroom,
and I was cleaning my teeth,

and I turn and look up.

I find it on the wall,
in the bathroom, communications:

"Choose your partner in life with care.

95% of your happiness or otherwise
will follow from this one decision."

(Laughter)

Well, I have to put my toothbrush in.

And that was just before breakfast.

Now, when my host
invited me to speak here,

he very gallantly asked me
if I would be bringing my bride.

I said, "Sadly not."

But this set me thinking.

My wife Marie and I
have six grandchildren.

Our youngest son is over 16 years old.

In England, the word "bride"
really refers to the day of the wedding.

But I am very honored
that he recognized in Marie

those wonderful bride-like qualities

that bring out so much
happiness every day.

Here she is, you see?

Fortunately, we're all different,

so the one ideal partner for each of us
is someone different,

so there's scope for millions
of bride-quality wives

and hopefully lots
of groom-quality husbands.

So that's 95% of our pursuit of happiness
already taken care of.

(Laughter)

Okay, so, turning to the other 5% -

I happen to be an artist.

My chosen art form is the maze.

This is an example of a design
which is now in the landscape in England.

It's of Alice in Wonderland.

You can see Alice at the top,

and as you rotate, standing
on the middle of the mound,

you can see the Mad Hatter,
the White Rabbit, the Cheshire Cat,

the Red Queen, the Gryphon,
the Mock Turtle and the Dodo.

And it's all happening around a tea party,
so you can see the teapot in the middle.

The marks of the clock, with the staircase
up and down the tower, denote 4:00,

which is, in England, tea time.

And there's a little
Dormouse in the handle

and playing cards at the end.

So before you've even started
looking at this

as a physical puzzle
in the landscape to solve,

it's also got this wonderful,
rich symbolism.

I think I've got
the best job in the world.

Actually, I've met several other people

who also claim to have
the best job in the world - their job.

Which is great.

Fortunately, there's scope
for many people to claim this

since all our jobs
and all of us are different.

And so maybe one way
for mankind to pursue happiness

is to have as many people
as possible seeking,

and for each of them, finding

the best job in the world.

And then there's more happiness.

Anyway, back to mazes again.

Here's a maze in Italy

with a hedge maze in the background
and a tower in the middle

and various people enjoying the maze.

Blenheim Palace -
this is for the Duke of Marlborough.

Very finely clipped yew hedges
in a historic landscape.

In the Czech Republic,

this is laid in the landscape
quite beautiful.

It's a single-thread path -
more like a labyrinth, a path of life.

And this is one I created
in my own garden in England,

which is a turf maze.

It goes back many centuries,

and the children
are following the path of life:

it's the thread of time
from birth to death and resurrection.

This one looks like
it's been there for centuries,

and the stone rings have been neglected,

and saplings have taken root
and crept upwards,

but actually, it only went in
a few years ago,

deliberately leaving the trees
where they were

to make it feel that old,

but the mood is great,

and people do go there for meditation.

500 years old, we had
a dynasty called the Tudors,

and this was the house of that period,

so we created a Tudor Rose maze in 1985
to celebrate that historical event.

I believe your country
was founded sometime later.

(Laughter)

A water maze.

What fun if we have another dimension,
the dimension of time.

The walls rise and fall with time,

so you go into a cell,
your companion goes into the next cell,

the water rises between you.

Her future is different to your future.

You can now go sideways; she can't.

She can go forward to the next cell,

but you can't.

So, an interesting twist
on the dimension of time.

In Liverpool, in 1984, there was
an international garden festival,

and this was the Beatles maze
we created, with a submarine,

and Her Majesty the Queen
came and opened the maze,

which was great fun.

And if you go to Dubai,

this is a maze up the side of a building
that goes up 600 feet,

with 55 floors of balconies and walls.

It's not to be attempted
unless you happen to be Spider Man.

(Laughter)

Indoors, you could have a mirror maze.

This one's in Mexico.

If you have three babies,
you can have the illusion of eighteen.

(Laughter)

Designing a maze is rather like
playing a game of chess with the public.

I have to make all my moves in advance,

and yet in the end, I have to let you win.

And I have to let you win
just before you've had enough.

So here's a locomotive.

This is actually in Pennsylvania,

with the Pennsylvania
Railroad going under,

but it looks like a steam engine.

It's all exciting; a [inaudible] puzzle.

Fascination.

Your maze journey can become an adventure.

The fun of solving the puzzle

is heightened by discovering
its hidden meanings;

its story gradually unfolds
like the film "Pulp Fiction,"

where the story is not told
in strict time order.

So in a maze, you may come across
some things more than once

and miss other things altogether.

This actually is one of the ways
a maze is fascinating,

because every visit is different.

But the true artistic encounter

is what happens
when you engage with a maze -

like you come up to a piece of sculpture,

and you engage with it.

You walk around it, you explore it,

and then as you go away,
you turn your head,

and you can't get it out of your head,

and you start telling your friends
when it's out of sight, and tomorrow.

If that's a work of art,

then I suggest to you
that the maze is an art form.

And then, when you're solving a maze,

what is the world "solve"?

It's the Latin word "solvere," to sail.

As in life, it's the way
you conduct the journey that is crucial,

not how fast you get to the end
and climb in the box.

So, how is it these seemingly simple
three-dimensional puzzles,

which have been around
for more than 4,000 years,

can make people so happy?

These two girls
are in a mirror maze in Spain,

and they are really quite lost.

(Laughter)

This girl's an incredibly loyal friend.

(Laughter)

And they're making choices,
and they are truly lost.

Ah, there, she's finally got it.

That's great.

What we've seen here

are three very powerful instances
of the maze experience.

One is they're doing things together.

And the second is they're making choices.

And, thus, thirdly,

they're exploring the unknown.

So let's look at those three, in turn.

Doing things together.

Individuals are happiest when they
do things that lead to group success.

And groups make
tremendous efforts, socially,

to create and maintain their cohesiveness.

Boundaries are dissolved, equality rules

and people celebrate

with people of totally different
backgrounds and status.

Most of us have felt
something like that in our own lives;

we've played a team sport,

we've sung in a choir,

perhaps we've worked closely with friends
to achieve a noble goal.

We lose ourselves
and forget our petty concerns.

We're filled with energy and purpose.

Such memories often stand out
at peak moments of happiness

when people reflect on their lives.

Seeking experiences of intense joy
by doing things together with others

is a fundamental human need.

In mazes,

often the first thing children do
is rush ahead and disappear out of sight.

The opportunity for the family
to enjoy solving it together

can be over before you've begun.

In America, in 1993, I designed
the world's first corn maze.

This is an example.

Some eight acres, four miles of pathways,

bridges, towers, lookouts -

all based on a fantasy castle,
actually, this one.

Unlike hedge mazes, the corn stalks
grow way above the height of your head,

and no one can be seen.

So we soon began to issue
a flag to each visitor

so you could see hundreds of flags
fluttering around

in what was otherwise just a crop.

One day, I got a call
from our maze in Massachusetts,

and they said the flags were running out;

it was so popular that day.

So I suggested they rationed it
to one flag for each family.

And that evening,
I got a second, very excited call.

"They're behaving completely differently;
families were sticking together.

they've been coming out happier
and feeling better about themselves."

Nowadays, we deliberately
ration flags to one for a family.

The children take it in turns,
in carrying the flag,

and they hand it over
whenever an adult suggests.

So if I had a flag - here's a toothbrush.

Anyway, so you have
little Sophie here, you see?

And she's saying, "Okay, everybody,
I think we ought to go left.

Granddad, what do you think?"

"Um, yeah."

"Okay, listen everyone.

Granddad and I have decided
we're going left. Follow me."

You see little three-year-old,
precocious Sophie

leads her whole team forwards,

and a bit later, her brother
gets to take the flag,

and he makes other choices.

So the whole family's completely committed
to this random set of choices

that these little ones are making.

Keeping close to the person
behind the flag

is an unremarked, but a very notable
long-standing American tradition,

as can be seen on this painting
of the arrival of Christopher Columbus

to the New World.

He's the chap holding the flag.

(Laughter)

And not a maze cornstalk in sight.

The next thing we noticed
with our girls in the mirror maze

was making choices.

We understand that the more
there's choice, the happier we are.

But having too many choices
can be a bad thing.

So, there's a classic experiment
by Professor Sheena Iyengar,

and she presented shoppers
with a gourmet choice of 24 jams.

And she found that
the more jams she put on,

the more people were drawn to her display,

but very few people
actually bought anything.

She then set up another stand
with only three or six.

Fewer people came there,

but nearly, well, a good third of them,
or more, actually bought.

So how does this work
with designing mazes?

Well, actually, it helps quite a bit.

If you have a hedge maze -
this one's in Scotland;

you can see it's sort of tartan weave
of green and copper hedges and things -

you can't really have
more than two or three junctions

at any little part of the maze.

So, actually, it works quite well.

So luck would have it, really,

I've been designing mazes
with two and three choices

for many, many years,

but I've only recently discovered
why I was doing it.

So, that's the theory.

(Laughter)

Now, exploring the unknown.

The compulsion is to see
what lies behind that ridge or that ocean;

it's part of our identity.

What is this sort of human madness
to just keep exploring?

The genome DRD4 is used
to control dopamine,

the chemical brain messenger.

And researchers have found that DRD4-7R

involves increased
curiosity and restlessness,

and studies have shown
that people are more likely to take risks,

explore new places,
ideas, food and friendships,

and in generally, embrace
movement, change and adventure.

So, with this in mind,

I love ancient medieval cities
and their wonderful twisting streets,

places like Jerusalem
or, in this case, Marrakesh,

and I suppose one
of my favorites is Venice,

where the alleys and footbridges
cross over each other

above the network of canals.

We're always wanting to know
what's out of sight and forbidden.

By her insatiable curiosity
in the Garden of Eden,

Eve definitely showed signs of having 7R.

(Laughter)

By the action of eating
the forbidden fruit,

Eve and Adam brought mortality
down on all mankind

and got banished from a really nice place.

Mazes can have consequences.

Despite this cautionary Biblical tale,

we cannot escape the fact
that we are genetically wired

to exploration with pleasure.

Little children recognize this
as soon as they can walk.

For them, play is their life's work.

Unfortunately, as we get older,
we lose that early playfulness.

So I guess my single-handed task
as a maze designer

is to revive and awaken this primal urge,
to liberate more happiness.

So these are three principles

I've been applying for 35 years
as a maze designer.

And each of them

is also a fundamental element
in the pursuit of happiness.

But do these work
outside the world of mazes?

In August, we went on holiday in Wales
with my six grandchildren,

our daughters, our sons-in-law
and Figaro, the dog.

The premise is very simple
on family holidays:

whatever keeps the grandchildren happy
keeps the parents happy,

and whatever keeps the grandchildren happy
keeps the grandparents happy,

and the dog's happy anyway.

Now, my eldest grandson -
this is Tom, here with that green hat -

is absolutely nuts about railways.

(Laughter)

And so we ended up riding
the highest funicular railway in Britain,

another funicular railway
and a narrow-gauge railway,

and it was very simple.

The choice was,

Do you take narrow-gauge
or do you take funicular?

And the whole became two choices -
very easy, fantastic holiday.

So we made choices.

We did this all together -

here's the whole family
in the narrow-gauge carriage -

and we discovered things
we never expected.

At one station, we drew into the platform,

here was a complete brass band
of Welshmen playing on the platform.

Magnificent.

So we discovered something together
we weren't expecting at all.

So, we have discovered three things:

making choices, doing things together
and discovering things.

And we've found that they work for mazes.

These principles also
apply for steam railways,

and perhaps other ways will occur to you
next time you are brushing your teeth.

(Laughter)

(Applause)