27 Days to Germany and Couting Down – Idiom and Communication

The original version of this post, in portuguese, was published on 27 dias para a Alemanha e contando – Idioma e Comunicação, in December 27th, 2007

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“In principio erat Verbum
[...]
Omnia per ipsum facta sunt…”(*)

“The Invention of printing is the greatest event in history. It is the mother of revolutions. It is humanity’s mode of expression totally renewed, human thought discarding one form and putting on another, it is the complete and definitive change of skin of that symbolic serpent which, ever since Adam, has represented intelligence.”
Victor Hugo, Notre-Dame de Paris, 1831

In the post 30 Days to Germany and Couting Down, i did comment about two of my oldest memories about sympathy for Germany: a classic episode from Woody Woodpecker and a Kohlback Motors TV advertise.

I think the very first empatic and sympathetic contact to Germany was exactly the idiom, the basic code which without no communication happens: either by using images, by writing, by speaking, it is needed a code set, a idiom, in order to exist a communication. And if the obvious importance of communicate in a trip to a overseas country is not enough, the german idiom and the Germany importance in the commmunication has always and deeply fascinated myself.

The german language origins are in the several dialects from Central Europe – origins shared by a lot of anglo-saxonic idioms – and some latin. We could say it is a borderline that became a strong independent territory. in Brazil, this process still happening and it is stronger, since our idiom has origins in the convergence point of several languages and cultures: portuguese, all the Tupi family, the africans linguistics groups, and, with less intensity, all the idioms from the groups that migrated here. This cultural and linguistic dinamic makes the countries to have a huge historic influence. And if today Brazil are having more cultural, economic and political influence, as has been stated by many authors, the Germany, it’s culture and idiom had a fundamental role in what could understood as the biggest revolution in the Cristian Era: The Protestant Reformation.

Without zooming in details – you can find more info about that in the Great Divine Oracle or on Wikipedia – the Reformation just became a revolutions with great proportion because of the creation, by Johannes Gutenberg, of the the mobile types press printer, which allowed Martin Luther to dare the Catolic Church spreading manifests on panflets, in german, everywhere. By this time, information was strictly controlled, and all the sacred books, used to regulate everyone lives, were writen in latin, and any book was handmade, in a slow rhythm and very limited production. Few people could read latin and the access to books were hard, few people had ways to questionate the foundations of the order. Gutenbergs invent and Luther courage did open the ways to oppositions, discussions and paved the way to mass education and communication. As consequence, it allowed that ideas were spreaded easier and free from the need of its author be in the same place.

Not fearing to use a cliché, what cames after, is history: Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Marx, Hitler and Goebbels , Saramago, Me, Ulrike and you, reader, could communicate to the world.

“Blame” the Germans!

Schreib mal und lies mal!

Write! Read!

hug’

Celso Bessa

* = In the beginning was the Verb:
[...]
All things were made by him…

(John, Chapter 1, Verses 1 e 3)

30 days to Germany and counting down

The original version of this post, in portuguese, was published on 30 dias para a Alemanha e contando in December 04th, 2007

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“…se não sais de ti, não chegas a saber quem és … é necessário sair da ilha para ver a ilha…”
(José Saramago, O Conto da Ilha Desconhecida)

“…if you do not get out of yourself, you will never know who you are… is necessary to get out of the island to see the island…
(free and rough translation)

If you read my profile, will see that is written Germanophilie. By the way, is written in portuguese, english and… german.

I don’t know why and don’t know when this passion with Germany started.

Maybe it was in that classic Woody Woodpecker Cartoon episde, “Calling Dr. Woodpeckerrr”, maybe was in an old Kohlback Engines advertise (”coloca o língua no céu da boca e diz: kohhllllllllllback” – “put ze the tongue in ze mouth zky and say: Kohlllllllllllllback” in a rough translation), maybe was the german soccer/football national team in 1986 World Cup, the stylish flag with that unfriendly look eagle in the center (now is without the eagle, which is the Coat of Arms now), the Kraftwerk, Beethoven, Bauhaus (the school) and design history, all that buzz about Dr. Josef Mengele in mid 1980’s in Brazil or something like that.

The fact is that i always had a crush for german history and culture, for the idiom or german people psichology. And i wanted to know the country for a long time, and in 30 days, i will be there, making a dream come true.

And people ask: why Germany?

The most true answer is: Ich weiss nicht! (I don’t know!)

I gave a lot of different answers to that question, showing N reasons to like Germany and probably all of them are true. The most common one is that i think that brazilians and germans are so different people, and cross borders and fight differences between people are one of my prefered subjects. But this, by itself, it’s not a strong reason.

Anyway, i’m intended to find out the reasons of this crush from December 26th on, when i will be the Ulrike’s - my german fried from Friesenheim and Honeymood author – official guide in streets of São Paulo, of the idiossincrasies of the “São Paulo Being”, and feijoadas with caipirinhas and cold beer in the biggest brazilian city. And following that, she will be my guide in the Germany ways, german people, and also the german wines and beers. After all, besides the cultural richness, there is something that these two different folk share: the taste for good food and good drink.

And believe me when i say that i will cheer up every discover, wheter gastronomic, etilic, cultural or personal.

Prost! Cheers!

I kill flies using paper magazines, not flash ones.

The original version of this post, in portuguese, was published on Eu mato mosca com revista impressa, não em flash, in June 06th, 2006

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The ciberspace is cool.

We make distances shorter, we speak to old friends and make new ones, we hear cool music that we would not know in the common commercial radios, we can know and teach about a lot of things, visit museus and much more.

We also can know the car of our dreams. (and for me, it is still only in dreams!)

And our beloved hipertext? We can jump from a subject to another one like a real conversation in a bar table, we can read newspapers and wonderful magazines from any place in the world, in real time.

But i must be honest and said that, besides being a geek, there are some things that can’t be replaced  and i do prefer in the offline version.

As a example, think in the real-time interactive 3D hipermidiatic experience that we have when we are having a conversation with our friends, live, in a bar table. Most of time with a good beer and mortal side dishes.

Or remember that although the Mercedez-Benz website mentioned above are a fantastic experience, but it would be much better to test-drive it in real speed and smelling the leather smell.

Get a card, wraped in handcrafted ecologic paper envelope, with a handwriting letter are charming and super cool, cuz shows care. Same thing to a well layouted and printed catalog: stimulating and showing the care to the consumer.

Bottom line is, remember that we can “turn pages” of an electronic magazine, but it will have not paper texture, paper smell and, even being possible to read newspaper in a Palm, Notebook or Kindle almost everywhere, i won’t use a flash site to kill that annoying fly bothering me in the office, right now.

Enjoy the offline world pleasures.

When the invisible monsters and angels appear

The original version of this post, in portuguese, was published on Os monstros e anjos invisíveis, quando aparecem. in February 13th, 2007

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Today, i finally felt like commenting the last violence case in the media, and the reactions to them.

I think we did hit the bottom line long ago, but we went on digging and diggind and most of people noticed only when the problems knocked at their doors.

Now, every persona has a solution, a opinion. Some says we need harder penalties and death sentence while others says we need more education as a solution. Some points they are saints, some sinners… some play angels, some monsters.

I have no solution to offer anyone, but something i’m sure is that we need start to SEE again. See the person by our side, that is in the car, that is across the street, in the other table, the other building, neighbourhood or in the other side of Bankside Avenue. To see that – as Manuel Bandeira had wrote – “the creature, Dear Lord, was a man.”

To look, to see and to understand is the best to happen, but if we only begin to see, would be a good start.
If people driving in Riverside Avenue, going to Vila Olímpia, come to see the slum near Jaguaré bridge, would be a good begin, if people in the train from Osasco come to see the slum by the side of trainline, would be good too.

In fact, with some lucky like mine yesterday – the train had some problems and was really slow – will see the slum in a travelling movement like Kurosawa used to do and high detailed: there are people in there like in Jardins Manors or in the corporative building in Vila Olímpia, there are workers and bums, there are people trying to build a decent houses, there are children playing in that filthy bankside, risking to contract leptospirosys. Will see that there are a kid with a tired look in the eye, a teenager with a expensive Nike standing in front a suspect place and trying not to draw attention, a boy a his sister waving goodbye to people on the train (as i used to do in São Paulo inner country), a woman washing clothes for five other people. Will see people, angels and monsters too.

The important thing is too see.

You can say: “They need to see look upon us, to see us, to understand us“. And i will answer that i agree, most of it.

We do really need to see and understand each other, but they are seeing you for some time, already: inside you car, in the movies, in the TV advertises, in magazine pages showing a life of a sucess. They already did saw us and waved for a long time e we did no effort at all in trying to say “hello”. We did pretend we didn’t saw them.

But as they were not seen, now they scream. And we can’t ignore no more.

“When the monster comes straight, threathing your home:
‘freeze righ’ there. If you run, i shoot!’
Uproar! Come running, the uproar started.
Come here and see, come and see.
Inside the uproar could you be.”

(Tumulto[Uproar], O Rappa. In 1995)

“Quando o monstro vem chegando e ameaçando o seu lar:
‘ parado aí no mesmo lugar. Se não, se correr, eu atiro!’
Tumulto, corra que o tumulto está formado.
Vem cá, vem ver. Vem cá, vem ver.
Que dentro do tumulto pode estar você.”

(Tumulto, O Rappa. De 1995)

The original version of this post, in portuguese, can be read in Os monstros e anjos invisíveis, quando aparecem..

Collective Inteligence and Interaction Articles

While i still translating two articles that i wrote and published in Google Knol, Outrolado, Jornal dos Debates, CyberTV and my Post-Its Blog, i’m puttin in here the links to the portuguese and automatically translated version of both. One of them was writing to CyberTV – Ciberculture and TV studies groups, the other one i wrote as the first statement of my art and sociology project Mobile Photos.

Considerations about the television future: interaction and collective intelligence
(Considerações para o futuro da televisão: interação e a inteligência coletiva)

• Automated Translation: Considerations about the television future: interaction and collective intelligence, by Google Language Tools;
• Portuguese: Considerações para o futuro da televisão: interação e a inteligência coletiva in Google Knol and CyberTV.

Digital Photos on mobile phones, Pierre Levy and democracy
(Fotos digitais no celular, de bolso, Pierre Lévy e democracia)

• Automated Translation: Digital Photos on mobile phones, Pierre Levy and democracy, by Google Language Tools;
• Portuguese: Fotos digitais no celular, de bolso, Pierre Lévy e democracia and CyberTV.