Cultural Cartography

The world according to children

I often find that children are the most revealing when it comes to the myths and narratives about the culture we live in. For instance when a child said to me that you could not build a snow woman without a snow baby because women have babies. 

Today I was witness to some more semiotics from children, when the kids where I live now showed me their map of the world made of toy animals and Playmobil people. Not sure what it means, but I did notice that Germany had lots of official cars and animals. Africa has of course exotic animals but also some quite cool cars. 

Germany

And Africa. Note the VW Beetles - cool car for a trip to Africa

Interesting Berlin 09

It might be a bit quiet on my blog in the next couple of months. Or maybe I should say even quieter than it already is, as I am organising Interesting Berlin with some friends. It will be in June, in Berlin (duh) and the whole idea is to just have a really great and interesting evening. And this is a bit more what it is about. 

An evening of interestingness guaranteed to make you think, to make you laugh and to make you go "Mmmm, now I didn't know that." An evening filled with short talks on all sorts of topics. An evening to give you a surprising perspective on subjects you would never normally think about, such as the truth about quicksand, why ping pong is good for the soul and so on. Why are we doing this? Remember when you were little and you got really really excited about something, just because it was fascinating. That's why.

Or as the philosopher Schopenhauer said: 

"Für eine gelungene Rede gebrauche gewöhnliche Worte und sage ungewöhnliche Dinge." 

We have some interesting people lined up to give us an insight into their minds but more are welcome, so get in touch at: 

[email protected] 

check out our blog: http://interestingberlin.blogspot.com/

Official website to follow soon

When things go pear shaped, nostalgia is a great thing

I am in the States at the moment (in Memphis of all places!) and I am really noticing how bad the recession is over here. I can't tell how much it is actually affecting people but it is definitely affecting the atmosphere and mood over here. I even saw an ad for a car share scheme in Boston, saying owning a car is so pre-recession. 

I have a theory which I need to work on a bit more. But I think that all countries have a golden age. This is an age where they were strong, where the world was good and the sun shone every day. This is also the age that gives them their archetypal look and their semiotic DNA so to speak. In the UK this would probably be the Victorian era, in Germany the Weimar Republic (I think) and in the US it definitely is the 50s. What this means, is that if you want to speak to consumers in a way that reassures them and makes them feel good about themselves semiotically speaking, then it is a good idea to use those cues. 

It seems like companies are catching up on this too. PepsiCo are launching a throwback version of Pepsi Cola and Mountain Dew with labels which hark back to the glory days of the US. It uses a version of the 1940s logos. Obviously there is also a POD for these products. They are sweetened with natural sugar. But I am sure there is something more to it than that. In a time when people are worried and unsure about the future, give them something from a past when everything was not just good, but also coated with sunlight.