São Paulo Archives
Rituals That Aren't
Aug 01, 2007
Yesterday's ad-hocing in a favela temporarily enlightened by the discovery of a unique cultural practice: hanging a cow's hoof and bags of corn from the ceiling. A pulse quickens.
Except that its simply a bottle of cachaça disguised as a hoof, this is a bar after all, and the bar owner's husband hanging seeds to dry before planting. "Don't you know anything?"she asked. Apparently not.
A link, any link, to the future perfect? In a world of memes, the potential for the story behind the (manufactured) ritual being more important than the ritual itself. Who would dare to? Who indeed.
Define Headline
Aug 01, 2007
Copacabana residents stop and read the newspaper front page in this Rio de Janeiro street kiosk. How does the purpose and format of newspaper headlines change in a culture where its common to see pedestrians stop for a good 5 minutes to read the whole front page?
And today? A visit to our São Paulo office to talk research and research methods with members of the 4th estate. And a couple of hours in the decently wi-fied Suplicy cafe in Jardins before catching a late flight to join the team in Rio. As if the gods sleep-deprivation weren't happy enough - my now-adjusted-to-the-local-timezone body is forced into a 4am start to the day.
Advertising in 2012
Aug 22, 2006 | 3 Comments
Lines leading up an Akihabara staircase to a maid cafe above, and through a São Paulo station below.
What do the properties of the line tell you about what to expect at the destination? Or whether there is a destination? What if these lines were ethereal? A digital flow made visible by your personal communication device, like having a radio tuned to static, walking into a signal and following. What would the flow communicate to encourage you to seek out its destination?
Relevant, Less Relevant, More Relevant
Aug 15, 2006
Not sure if this São Paulo graffiti refers to this or this?
Digital Gait
Aug 14, 2006 | 4 Comments
Knowing a person by the sound of their footsteps, their gait. What would be unique about your digital gait?
From a series of photos taken in Shibuya Station above and Sé Station below.
Personal Space, Changes In
Aug 14, 2006 | 1 Comment
The human density from the process of queueing and then boarding a train in Sé Station, above. The degree to which personal space is maintained at a pedestrian crossing in Shibuya visually extenuated by the umbrellas, below. Different cultures have different norms as to what constitutes an acceptable amount of personal space. How does this distance differ between contexts? In any given context what are acceptable 'excuses' to breach this space?
How do notions of personal space, privacy change as more about how we define ourselves and how others define us become digital? What are acceptable excuses to breach personal-digital space? How do you breach someone's personal-digital space?
Your Next Job Is Here
Aug 04, 2006 | 4 Comments
To round off today's virtual visit to Brazil - human billboards seated in a row carrying advertisements for jobs. In the photos below - a row of applicants queues and job advertisements displayed on public and ad-hoc infrastructure.
Many of the people queuing will have public access to online job advertising so what is that attracts, and continues to attract job advertisers and job seekers to this physical space? What are the benefits of human over stationary billboards? Are these benefits being fully utilised? What are the cultural characteristics that make human billboards omnipresent in this Sao Paulo street?
How do the human billboards affect the perception of the quality of the job (or other services) on offer?
Mobile Location Based Advertising
Aug 04, 2006
Mobile advertising From Shanghai (above), Sao Paulo, Ho Chi Minh City and Delhi (in sequence, below). If these vehicles and the majority of people are carrying connected high capacity devices what kind of services does this enable? What will be your criteria for judging whether to connect or not?
OK, technically the Delhi photo is announcing a funeral.
The Positioning of People
Aug 04, 2006
Human hoardings in a Sao Paulo street - there were at leat 16 different information hawkers. What would be different if they were selling digitial services or content?
For a Tokyo equivilent see the value of you, is where you are.
Tangible vs Digital
Aug 04, 2006
Locks and MP3s for sale side by side in a Sao Paulo market street. For customers buying digital content from street vendors how to recognize the quality of what is for sale? That it plays? That it contains the correct music? That the metadata is present and accurate? In the way that collectiions are put together?
In the corner of the DVD market stalls below you can (just) spot a portable DVD player - for offering customers previews of movies. For music and in a noisy street environment how can a buyer appreciate what it is they are buying? Currently the quality of music bought in these contexts is largely 'that the CD-ROM or DVD actually plays', rather than the quality of the recording, but like with DVD previews its only a matter of time before some form of value added preview is offered. In some Delhi markets its more likely that the music would be burned just-in-time - its already the case with software purchased through the same channels.
With digital music larger file sizes might imply higher quality recordings. Part of the AllofMP3 business model is to allow the customer to choose the quality and ultimately pay according to the resulting file size - for example MP3s can be encoded at low, high or CD quality (128, 192 or 320 kbps) and the customer can choose which DRM free format to encode into. There is a flip side to all this of course.
How can street sellers raise the perception of quality of their digital wares? How will quality be judged by future, more savvy consumers?
Security Concerned
Aug 02, 2006
A metro-using Paulista shields his back pack by wearing a coat.
Given all the security and theft stories both prior to and on arrival in Brazil this kind of most-obviously concerned-with-theft wearing style was rare. From our various studies on where people carry stuff (not that we did any formal research in Brazil, but drawing on data from 8 other cultures) people concerned with theft tend to carry bags and objects of value e.g. mobile phones or wallets hidden, within easy reach of hands, in lines of sight and/or in tactile contact to the body. Given that a back pack worn normally is mostly out of sight and out of reach the number spotted being worn on the Sao Paulo metro was surprising.
For every context a series of trade-offs.
Under the Flyover
Jul 27, 2006
The Garrido Boxing gym taken during a São Paulo how the-city-wakes-up session, which eventually morphed into trying to figure out how-people-utilise-the-space-under-flyovers.
Related photos here.
Smaller. Happier?
Jul 26, 2006
Re-sellers catering for highly price sensitive customers whether its cigarettes sold individually (Sao Paulo, above), shampoo & soap powder and tobacco (Delhi, below) or small units of call time in the Philippines. To what extent can what elements of goods and services be broken down into smaller parts? If manufacturers are unable or unwilling to directly cater to this market themselves what design elements support secondary markets? What are the limits of this approach?
Why does the Sao Paulo shop not offer a service to pair up customers who cannot afford to buy the sole consumption rights to a cigarette? Why is there not an aftermarket for second or even third hand smoke & nicoteen? What are the limits indeed.
Density & Flow & Use of Spaces
Jul 23, 2006
An hour spent people watching at Sé Metro station. What if anything, is unique about the São Paulo context?
Limited undertaking of activities such as reading, text messaging, and listening to music whilst waiting for or riding transport; the density of people at 16:00 on a friday; that the train pictured is pulling out of the station with many passengers still on the platform; separate platforms to enter and leave the train; that in culture with a high perceived risk of theft a number of bags are carried on people's backs - essentially out of sight.
Engaging in tasks such as listening to music or reading send a signal to others that your senses are othewise engaged. What can be undertaken without drawing attention to the fact that a task is being carried out? What strategies do people use to avoid detection? How do these strategies change according to the context?
Sad to leave São Paulo, but good to be heading home to enjoy the Tokyo summer.
Placement
Jul 23, 2006 | 2 Comments
Why are the stickers advertising the services of Mika, Karla, Pati, Juliana, Kakau and Sheilinha (and/or their pimp) placed on the phone body and handset and not in the infrastructurre of the booth itself? Why stickers and not cards that are popular in places like London or Berlin?
There's a Hugler Sao Paulo phone model in there somewhere.
The Speed of Subcultures
Jul 23, 2006
A saturday night of Sao Paulo subcultures.
A Paulista uses his mobile phone to video the smoking, oh all right then - smokin' wheelspin from a muscle car in a downtown backstreet (above); climbers abseil down from the Sumare bridge onto the motorway traffic island; and bathroom covered with S&M club flyers in a Consolacao dive bar (below).
The first activity starts out legal but can drift into a grey legal territory. Whilst the abseiling is being clamped down by the new mayor it's not as if it's not obvious to passing traffic and the police did not intervene whilst I was there.
Thought for today? The blurring of legal, non-legal and illegal activities depending on context. The change in the legal status as laws play catch-up with what's happening on the ground. And on a slightly different tack - the speed at which sub-cultures are disseminated, absorbed and re-appropriated for local contexts.
Icons, Rituals
Jul 23, 2006
The role of faith, religious icons, rituals in everyday life, from Sao Paulo above, and Old Delhi below.
For everything I believe in there are more people who believe in something else. The same goes for the rest of you.
Lateral Thinking Required
Jul 23, 2006
Inverse Textures
Jul 23, 2006
Context & Understanding
Jul 22, 2006 | 14 Comments
Sao Paulo is very much a city of flyovers and underpasses, that latter being the focus of yesterday's street research.
This refrigerator has been converted to a novel use. What is it currently used for?
Photos contain some clues but I don't reckon any of you will get it.
Update: The following photo shows its recycled use - as equipment in an under-the-flyover gym.
Touching Bases
Jul 21, 2006
A few days in the Sao Paulo to wrap up this trip to Brazil. In a world of dense urban spaces it doesn't get much more dense-urban than this.
The city is going through a heat-wave of sorts - the violence between Police and local gangs has escalated with police stations and government buildings being attacked. I'm tempted to say that it there is an Escape from New York edge to the city, but for the locals its business as usual.
Tonight's driver has promised a Paulista's view of the city, lets see if he delivers.
So New It's...
Jul 11, 2006
Still covered signs at the check-in counter of TAM Airlines - the moment between delivery, installation and use.
Varig appears to be cancelling a lot of flights out of Sao Paulo.
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