El hombre es el único animal que se crea necesidades que nada tienen que ver con la subsistencia del individuo y con la reproducción de la especie. No le basta comer para alimentarse, sino que condimenta los alimentos, de modo que añadan placer a la satisfacción de su necesidad. No le basta vestirse para abrigarse, sino que añade, a esta función tan elemental, la exigencia de confeccionar su ropa con determinadas formas y colores. No se contenta con cobijarse, sino que construye edificios con líneas armoniosas y caprichosas que exceden de su necesidad: lo cual no ocurre con la guarida del zorro, la madriguera del conejo o el nido de la cigüeña. ¿Hay algo más inútil que la corbata que lleva usted puesta? ¿De qué le sirve al estómgago una salsa cumberland o un chateaubriand a la Périgord? ¿Qué añade al cobijo del hombre el friso de una escayola o las orlas en forma de signos de interrogación de los hierros que sostienen el pasamanos de una escalera? Pues bien: todo eso que está inútilmente «añadido a la pura necesidad»... ¡ya es arte! La gastronomía, la hoy llamada «alta costura» y la decoración son las primeras artes creadas por nuestra especie, porque representan los excesos inútiles añadidos a las necesidades primarias de comer, abrigarse y guarecerse.

– Torcuato Luca de Tena, Los renglones torcidos de Dios

Letterism - Anytime, anywhere

El mes pasado, Ausias (D.O.C.S) y Dano (Ziontifik) tuvieron la idea de crear un banco de imágenes de lettering callejero. Como yo tenía y tengo también material para parar un tren, les comenté si podía echar un cable y sacar de paseo todas las letras que voy coleccionando por allá donde voy. Desde entonces, participo activamente en esta iniciativa bajo el pseudónimo (y twitter) @AlabamaFountain. Además, se ha generado un gran equipo invisible de personas de muchos puntos del globo, las cuales están ofreciendo y rescatando gran material de calidad de rótulos antiguos (o no tanto), palabras desgastadas y demás curiosidades olvidadas con mucho carácter.

Si quieres aportar tus imágenes a la causa contacta con letterism@gmail.com con 

Pie de foto / (Barrio), Ciudad. País / Twitter o nombre/alias

Last month, Ausias (D.O.C.S) and Dano (Ziontifik) came up with creating an image source of street lettering. As I had loads of footage, I asked them if I could help them out and spread away all the letters I am collecting everywhere I go. Since then, I'm taking an active role on this site under the nickname (and twitter) @AlabamaFountain. Moreover, a great invisible crew from all over the world has been generated, and they are picking up premium material from old (and not so old) labels, worn out words and other forgotten curiosities which are actually full of attitude.

Feel free to submit your images to letterism@gmail.com with
Footer / (Neighbourhood), City. Country / Twitter or nickname

http://letterism.tumblr.com/

Rotterdam connections

Desde hace dos meses mi hogar reside en Noordereiland, una pequeña isla que separa el centro y el sur de Rotterdam. Rodeada de tres puentes principales: Willemsbrug, Erasmusbrug y De Hef (en orden de aparición), es la razón por la que tengo que cruzar de 2-4 veces al día cualquiera de los dos primeros. El último de los mencionados ya no está en uso pero es aún bastante característico e imponente en mi paisaje diario de R'dam.

Mi otra conexión-puente favorita en esta ciudad es el Maastunnel, pero ésta merece un capítulo aparte.

Since two months ago my home lies in Noordereiland, which is a little island between the center and the south of Rotterdam. It is surrounded by three main bridges: Willemsbrug, Erasmusbrug and De Hef (in order of appearance). That's the reason why I have to cross the first two ones like 2-4 times a day. Last one is not working anymore but it is still quite impressive and characteristic in my R'dam daily landscape.


My other favourite connection-bridge of this city is the Maastunnel, but this one deserves another chapter for itself.

Where? / ¿Dónde? / On? / Waar?

"Uno puede traicionar a los padres, al marido, al amor, a la patria,
pero cuando ya no hay ni padres, ni marido, ni amor, ni patria,

¿Qué queda por traicionar?"

–Milan Kundera, La insoportable levedad del ser

London # Essence

London # Numbers

Esto viene a ser una especie de mis primeras impresiones de Londres, a parte de la gran diversidad de lettering e interesantes tipografías que se pueden encontrar en su paisaje urbano. Trataré de repetir este mismo ejercicio en el resto de ciudades que visite a lo largo de este año y veremos qué ocurre.

This could be some sort of my first London's impressions, a part from the huge diversity of lettering and interesting typefaces that you may find across the urban landscape. I will definitely try to do the same exercise in the other cities I will be experiencing this year and see what happens.

"People can see nothing around them that is not their own image; everything speaks to them of themselves. Their very landscape is animated. Obstacles were everywhere. And they were all interrelated, maintaining a unified reign of poverty."

– Guy Debord, quoting Karl Marx

"Empezamos preocupándonos de que no somos lo suficientemente buenos, suficientemente listos o con suficiente talento para obtener lo que queremos; entonces vivimos voluntariamente en este lapsus mental en vez de afrontarlo. Sólo la posibilidad de fallar se vuelve en una profecía llena de responsabilidad y auto-satisfacción. Empezamos a creer que estas restricciones personales son, de hecho, limitaciones estrictas del mundo. Continuamos viviendo nuestras vidas, mientras pensamos que podemos cambiar y cómo podemos cambiarlo, y calculamos y re-calculamos cuándo estaremos listos para realizar todo aquello que queremos realizar. Y soñamos. Ojalá. Ojalá. Un día. Algún día.

A veces, (a menudo cuando menos lo esperamos) encontramos alguien con más coraje. alguien que escogió luchar por aquello que parecía (a nuestro ver) irrealísticamente inalcanzable, incluso ilocalizable. Y nos maravillamos. Nos desvanecemos. Nos quedamos boquiabiertos. A menudo, sobrecogidos. Yo creo que vemos a estas personas como afortunadas, cuando de hecho la suerte no tiene nada que ver con eso. Es realmente toda la fuerza de su imaginación; sobre cómo han construido las posibilidades de su vida. En resumen, al contrario que yo, no determinaron lo que era imposible antes de que aún fuera posible."

"We begin by worrying we aren't good enough, smart enough, or talented enough to get what we want; then voluntarily live in this paralyzing mental framework rather than face it. Just the possibility of failing turns into a dutiful self-fulfilling prophecy. We begin to believe that these personal restrictions are, in fact, the fixed limitations of the world. We go on to live our lives, all the while wondering what we can change and how we can change it, and we calculate and re-calculate when we will be ready to do the things we really want to do. And we dream. If only. If only. One day. Some day.


Every once and a while, (often when we least expect it) we encounter someone more courageous, someone who chose to strive for that which seemed (to us) unrealistically unattainable, even elusive. And we marvel. We swoon. We gape. Often, we are in awe. I think we look at these people as lucky, when in fact luck has nothing to do with it. It is really all about the strength of their imagination; it is about how they constructed the possibilities for their life. In short, unlike me, they didn't determine what was impossible before it was even possible."

– Fail Safe, Design Disasters, Great Designs Fabulous Failures & Lessons Learned Debbie Millman

The incredible montage from Parallex View (1974) Alan J. Pakula

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNMi8fXi5Os

Geography is about relationships

"One of the issues I have with some previous versions of the New York subway as an integral part of their lives in the city. There is a disconnection between many of the decisions they made and the reality of the subway. As a part of my design process, I rode the lines and exited the stations at every major intersection with wich I was unfamiliar. There is a strong relationship in New York between the aboveground and the belowground and since the subway riders don't cease to exist when they leave the subway, it's important for the map to express this relationship as clearly as possible. Otherwise, the result is an uncomfortable feeling of disorientation."


– Beautiful visualization, Looking at data through the eyes of experts, Eddie Jabbour as told to Julie Steele

"The ideal place for me is the one in which

 it is most natural to live as a foreigner."

– Italo Calvino

"No matter the year,

no matter the place,

no matter the time."

– Talib Kweli

D'amore si vive

D'amore si vive [1982] Silvano Agosti


Una ricerca sulla tenerezza, la sensualità e l'amore. La tenerezza senza sessualità e l'amore produce ipocrisia. La sessualità senza tenerezza e amore produce pornografia. L'amore senza tenerezza e sessualità produce misticismo.

A research for sensuality, tenderness and love. Tenderness without sensuality and love creates hipocrisy. Sensuality without tenderness and love creates pornography. Love without tenderness and sensuality creates misticism.

-

A little naughty kid or a little skilled and smart human? Franck, a 9 year-old boy from a marginal neighbourhood from Parma (Italy) explains us his early experience with love and what is his perception of the actual meaning of life and human relationships.

Many people is still wondering who is Franck and how the things have been going to him during the last 30 years. What we know for sure is that he had definitely found and experienced his actual meaning of happiness.

Priceless, by the way

Spanish subtitles: http://vimeo.com/26851385

English subtitles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjoXKnoiFr0

Where my heart is at?

My heart is not broken, it is just splitted up in too many pieces

-
I've been living in Rotterdam (The Netherlands) as an exchange student for almost 6 months that made a before an after in my life. I've been collaborating with ambitious people from all over the world and taking part in some of the craziest and amaziest projects ever, keeping on working and achieving unexpected great results. My knowledge has definitely grown up in every field of my learning process; a level up in my skills on visual communication and a step forward to my experience with human relationships.

Therefore, I've realized that I totally lost my sense of being part of only a territory. Surely, I know where my passport says I am: Barcelona, a place where I've been living 21 years of my life, a place that I will never ever regret but now it's time to figure out what can I give, share and achieve with the rest of the world (where I am also from).

Let's keep on walking