#enthnography

Coco Fusco and Guillermo Gómez Peña, The Year of the White Bear, 1992. Two Amerindians on display for three days at Columbus Plaza, Madrid, Spain, 1992.

. . . the boundary between ethnography and pornography. This endemic dual perception of the Other, as either noble savage or cannibal, has existed at the core of European and American relations since the very first encounters. We try to play very much with these dualities. When we appear in the cage I am the cannibal, I am the warrior, this threatening masculine Other who causes fear to the viewer. Coco performs the noble savage, you know the quiet, subdued innocent. The response people have towards her is either one of compassion or one of sexual aggression.

Just back from completing my 3rd Florence Marathon (Firenze Marathon or Maratona di Firenze if you prefer). A great run around a fantastic city. I really enjoyed it and my finish time wasn’t too bad for my little legs.

While in Florence I noticed some great, localized Asics billboards for the event and they reminded me of how personal technology drives the adoption of what might seem to be “curious rituals” of behaviour and digital interaction , be it at work or at play. 

Asics “Want It More” Florence Marathon billboard in the Piazza del Duomo, Florence

The starting line poise for runners in races would now appear to be one ready to go with fingers hovering over the “Start” buttons of their running watches. 

Close-up detail of that starting line position shown on the billboard

The widespread adoption of this stance is also indicative of another user experience trend from the digital world of fitness and sport. 

Although popular races record participants’ running time using race-specific electronic chips from a timing service given to registered runners or by using re-usable barcodes freely available to the participants (the model used by the very popular Parkrun), most runners also record and analyze their own individual performances using personal devices and also like to share the recorded details of their run with others on social media. Pretty much everyone I see running now has a running watch or activity tracker of some sort on their wrist.

Example from the Curious Rituals eBook: A must read for anyone who wants to understand why we interact the way we do with technology.

This life ring represents a lot of typologies. At first I thought fortress because t is locked up behind metal and glass. Then I thought global because it is a global symbol for water safety. But I came to the conclusion that this photo represents Baltimore as a contested city because in the backdrop behind the life ring is a trash collector for the bay. This machine makes the life ring an almost completely obsolete object because no one is going to want to swim or even thing about getting close to the loud and fume omitting trash collecting boat. Everyone walking by tourist and natives and workers seemed unperturbed even though his loud machine was completely changing the atmosphere of what was supposed to be he calm and peaceful bay. A couple of tourists were even taking a picture with it in the background. This trash machine challenges the romanticized iconic Baltimore bay.

This photo makes me thing of a modernist fortress. The backdrop of the lighthouse with Lord Baltimore’s flag on top looks very traditional and resembles the end piece to a castle fortress. But in the foreground you can see the bright yellow sign with big bold black letters EXPRESSWAY ENDS. Warning travelers old and new that out must abruptly slow down and follow the structure of the city. The endless sea of cars that were most likely produced on an assembly line all stop and create a barrier of traffic .

  This picture represents Baltimore as a global city. The black and yellow checkered road way is the start and finish line to the annual race that Baltimore holds where thousands of racers come from all over to compete. This photo also represents a contested city as a gas guzzling truck sits on the start line compared to the trees and small green space the city planners tried to incorporate. In that sense is is a global representation of the constant friction between technology and the environment that all nations and especially cities struggle with.

This empty carousel with all of its lights on in the day and the brick building of the Science museum to the right makes me imagine myself riding around in circles watching he history of Baltimore change through a process of induced amnesia be re-defining the purpose of buildings and space while this carousel stands the test of time as a global and traditional symbol of fun and excitement. Normally carousels are part of a traveling circus or fair or out in a suburban park setting. This colorful and bright traditional carousel stands alone with no other rides or games against all of the cities brick and glass buildings as a distraction and placed strategically next to the science building where kids are most likely to walk by and beg their parents to ride it. But even on this beautiful summer day this tradition of fun and excitement goes unused as tourist walk by without the slightest glimpse.

  This literally made me stop in my tracks. I had never seen such a concept as to but a garden or just mostly grass on the side of a building. This is a representation of Baltimore are a post-modern city. The unique yet clever idea to design a logo out of grass on the side of a building makes sense. There is more advertising and a more aesthetically pleasing building while also adding some green space to the city. The grass would be watered by natural rain and require only little maintenance by cutting and watering through droughts.

This reminds me of a fortress and sacred city. The wall below has been repurposed by adding a chain barbed-wire black fence to feel people out of the grave yard. The graveyard is now a more sacred place and does not allow for the everyday person to walk through. This also creates a sense of division that even in death there are those who are given more privilege and rank than other. Even though there was no sidewalk on that side of the street there was still an assumed need to add a barbed wire fence to the existing stone wall to keep loitering teenagers or grave robbers out of the graveyard. This graveyard resembles a prison but instead of keeping people inside (because the dead aren’t going anywhere) it is designed to keep people out. Most likely this graveyard has a lot of important and historical people buried in it because of its location in the middle of a busy neighborhood.