Cultural Cartography

Going Barefoot

Whilst we were in India, we visited lots of temples. In Hindu temples you have to take your shoes off when you enter the main temple area. Depending on how big the temple is and how long you spend there, this can mean that you walk around for about 2 or 3 hours without shoes on. In one case, the Rock Temple in Trichy, the temple started at the bottom of a huge rock and extended up about 300 stairs to the top of the rock.

At first I have to admit you feel a bit exposed but after a while you remember what it feels like to walk barefoot, to feel contact between yourself and the world and to feel connected to the people around you. It is an unmediated experience. And it feels good.

I know that shoes are necessary in a lot of cases and they can be helpful. But I do feel that we have forgotten the benefits of going barefoot.

What does all of this have to do with planning? Well, it feels to me like shoes and brand positionings share some inherent similarities. In some cases they are necessary but they should only ever be seen as a tool. The most important thing you can do to help understand a brand is to experience it without shoes, in an unmediated natural way, and to feel how you are connected to this brand (or not).

I guess I am pleading for that old conker. Get out there, out from behind your desks and get back to experiencing life. That is where you understand things and believe me, it feels good.

on Automatic

skill1
Originally uploaded by wayne_f14

I realised something this morning on the way to work and I want to see if this also happens to other people. I was cycling along perfectly fine enjoying the sun in Berlin. Then I came to a crossing and crossed over the road. So far perfectly fine. Then I thought as I was crossing the road, funny how it doesn't seem to be a problem to cycle on the right side of the road, that you automatically know what is the right side of the road.

Instantly my brain started spinning around and I started to ask myself what is the right side of the road (remember I am in Germany but grew up in the UK and have lived in the States) and then I was in trouble. I no longer knew which was the right side of the road.

As soon was what was automatic became conscious, I started to question my automatic actions.

This also happens to me when I am speaking - distubingly not only in German but also in English. I say something and don't think whether it is right or wrong, seconds later for some reason I start to consider and all of a sudden I am convinced I have made a mistake or I can't reconstruct why I said what I said.

It sounds like I am a complete nut but it reminds me of Blink. I have become an "expert" at certain things and so can do them automatically, but ask me to reconstruct why and I struggle. Admittedly I am not sure if that last bit is in Blink or not.

Does this happen to anyone else who travels around a lot? Or in fact to anyone else?