Tashkent Archives
Rent-a-Dance/Snog/Feel (Video)
Nov 23, 2009How do you hide illicit earnings? And indeed what makes your earnings illicit? These were two of the questions that we explored during a recent study into money and transactions and which is a roundabout lead into explaining why some of the team spent an evening trying to track down a specific Xi'an KTV (karaoke and hostess bar). Hostesses often hide their employment from family members and/or boyfriends, and because it pays relatively well compared to, say a teacher's position or shop worker it creates the illicit earnings dilemma.
The video above isn't from the KTV joint - that movie would have included short skirts, overpriced tequila, medium to bad warbling, a few solid research/human behavioural insights and a backroom gurney freshly wiped down from the exertions of the previous occupants. No, this movie is something far more subtle, delightful.
This video clip starts with what you might assume to be a regular ballroom/dance hall - off to the right are a gaggle of girls standing waiting for the guys to make the first move whilst the guys are mostly seated at tables around the dance floor trying to pluck up enough courage for the same. Except that in this venue most of the men pay the women 10RMB (1 Euro) for a dance and that for most of the time the entire venue is pitch black - not artistically lit, but rather where-the-phuck-am-I hands-in-front-of-face dark. It's an environment that provides the privacy desired for the slowest of slow dances, an actual ~snog or whatever both parties consent to, or equally the perceptions of the same should you need to report back to your possie. For the other customers in the venue it's a matter of sitting in the dark watching people's faces light up from the glow of cigarettes in the corners of the room and fervent use of imagination.
As any decent business-owner knows a consistent customer experience and a predictable profit margin come from standardising portion sizes - something that is equally applicable to what's served on a plate in a restaurnt to song lengths in a lap dancing club. (The latter learned from a long night of interviews in a Uzbekistan pole dancing joint), and as here time on the floor is tailored.
In the Chinese context this venue and the practices within sit somewhere between a regular slightly awkward high-school disco and a KTV joint offering paid sex services. Culturally a real find, and certainly not a million miles away from the paid for taxi dance halls found in 1920s and 30s era America or modern day dark rooms.
Pre-Delivery
Apr 20, 2009
I can't rightly remember the restaurant's name - but it's just around the corner from the stern-as-phuck bouncers, head-to-toe three-striped Russians out on the piss and a tag-team of hookers. Tashkent isn't the prettiest of cities in winter, but in the steel-myself for a nights' clubbing the spread on the table in front of me was a delight: a dozen small dishes including, if my Korean menu skills are up to snuff - pa kimchiil and musaengchae. Which was all good and well, apart from the fact that I hadn't ordered any of it, didn't plan to eat any of it, and sure as hell wasn't going to pay for any of it.
For the entire the meal we sat in stony silence - me drilling my way into the epicenter of a bibimbap, them laid out on the table without a care in the world goading me to touch, to eat, to pay. The methodology was crude but perhaps, just perhaps this restaurant's business model is a harbinger of things to come: serve up something you think they'll want and charge them if they bite.
Treading gingerly into a future perfect world where understanding of consumer behaviour is refined and informed by three entire generations worth of real consumption, advertising-response rates, DNA profiling, peer-group mapping and meme-tracking. It's a world where the Amazon's of the future are so confident in your ability to act like you (at least most of the time) that they'll ship you stuff before you realise you need it.
Spurred on by business models where the initial consumption is merely a social/legal contract to consume (and eventually pay for) more, ever smaller micro-markets and a growth in hyper local delivery services - with a healthy dose of autonomous mobility.
Super-distribution and pre-caching (caching a lot more of your digital stuff in anticipation that it might actually be needed) works well in the almost infinite cupboard space that is online, but your apartment only has so much room. In the offline world, the rights to predict your consumption patterns, and assign someone to fulfill a need will be more valuable than the act of making, shipping, delivering that value.
Related: implied consent through everyday interactions such as stepping in elevators in Handan, or grabbing onto a hand strap on a Xiamen commuter ferry. And where it starts to come undone.
Positioning & Time Keeping
Dec 21, 2007
There is but one time in China - 8am is, well, 8am from Beijing to Urumqi and beyond. despite spanning the geographic equivalent of several time zones. The net result in a city such as Urumqi lives to form of dual time keeping - state-run organisations such as train stations, airports, and post offices run on the official time, whilst retail outlets, restaurants and pretty much everything else is in tune to local daylight hours.
For interface designers: whether and how to support official and unofficial times?
Other ways that people tweak time? The relatively common practice of trying to 'buy time' by setting one’s watch or alarm clock a few minutes ahead of the actual time; inter-city drivers trying to talk up the time it takes to travel between two points to talk up an all inclusive fare; setting meeting’s ahead of time to account for late arriver's.
It will be interested to see how the widespread availability of personal positioning data will affect the future perfect of time keeping - you’ll know it takes 12 hours to travel by taxi from Ashgabat and Bukhara because you draw on the last ten years of automatically logged data against current local weather and road conditions supplied by the driver and negotiate accordingly. In a world of published accurate positioning we’re all bit players of a giant time and motion study. Opportunities, opportunities. But for whom?
Tashkent today, Seoul tomorrow, then home. The stuff that makes us tick, eh?
Photos of the ever changing Urumqi skyline, above
Moments of Truth
Dec 21, 2007
Feedback form, Tashkent Palace Hotel.
Eau de Toilette Naming Conventions
Dec 21, 2007
What’s in a name?
These Uzbekistan Eau de Toilette names drawn from popular male mythology Mafia Don, Super Cosa Nostra; Big Boss; Super King; Secret Service; the Matrix; status objects Mercedes; Pure Cigar; Euro (but no US Dollar - how the mighty have fallen); and eclectic 2Bone that I’m pretty sure is pronounced two be one rather than to bone, although you never know; and the delightfully named Walking Barry.
Of note: apart from a token nod to the French with Parfum D’or, Marquis all names are English. Nothing in Uzbek/Russian/Tajik.
Simple Pleasures
Dec 15, 2007
Walking the final few meters towards the Uzbekistan side of the border I was pulled aside by a weathered Tajikistan criminal detective and questioned. His gentle English lilt was friendly but if, like me you have a love/hate relationship with fractured border crossings it was a conversation I’d preferred to avoid. After ten minutes of reiterating itineraries he nodded past his countries border. Elation. So much emotion tied into such a simple gesture: the nod.
That moment when you walk into or out of a space when you scan the room identify a person in it and, eyes remaining on the recipient momentarily lift your head. You probably take it for granted but in that split second you’ve reaffirmed their existence, carefully negotiated your right to be in that space, and created a ready platform for further communication if required.
When it’s done right, a positive response to the nod is one of life’s reassuring comforts. You nod. I am.
There are numerous variants to the nod. Whilst seldom taken as derogative, if your presence implies effort on behalf of the recipient the response is likely to be a slower, more drawn out weary nod. If your presence is unexpected a surprised recipient may respond with a reflex nod an action that can leave both parties feeling a bit dirty - like walking in on someone in a restaurant bathroom just as they are rising from the toilet seat (sorry whomever you are, use the lock next time). The directional nod is both an acknowledgment of presence and, depending what the head and eyes do next, provides clues as what to do or where to go next. The art of nodding is obviously something they teach at dive-bar school, since it's the favoured non-verbal communication of dive-bartenders the world over. In fact given high standard of nodding encountered on my travels its surprising that nodding classes are not formally taught the world over. You do need to remain aware of cultural differences, for example the Japanese enjoy a variant of the nod that is part nod part bow. But yes, a nod can cut through the sound of busy Tashkent night club, and create a bond with the other person queuing for a discounted XBox on Oxford Street.
As with most important things in life, timing is everything. Nod too early and the recipient won’t have time take in your presence leading to the aforementioned reflex response, nod too late and people will assume you have the social skills of a horny rhino. Nod when you arrive, when new people arrive, consider it for when you leave.
Related: the practice amongst younger males of sizing someone up by their footwear choices.
Airport Sushi
Dec 07, 2007
Slice of baguette, margarine and ikura served up in the domestic departure lounge. Breakfast by any other name.
Fairground Chair Railing Colour Norms
Dec 06, 2007
Uzbekistan seems to have a distinct colour palette. That, and an omnipresence of fairgrounds.
Particularly Fibered Glass
Dec 06, 2007
Textures of a Taxi
Dec 05, 2007
Hand sewn flooring, and not a carpet in sight.
Recycling Detail, Value
Dec 05, 2007
Knowing exactly what can be recycled and its value - different types of bottles hung on the shutters of a recycling shop.
Biggest Mistakes
Dec 04, 2007
Make it through immigration with communication reduced to a nod of the head and a surly smile. The first words directed at me after disembarking are from a customs officer staring intently at two properly-hopefully completed declarations forms “you just made the biggest mistake of your life”.
Followed by a smile. A typo corrected. Welcome to Uzbekistan.
Long haul, customs and humour don't mix well.
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