Trends In Latin America

How long has it been since you last slow danced? Concerned that slow dancing might be eradicated from all dance floors forever, an anonymous group of Argentines started the crusade “Que Vuelvan los Lentos,” aimed at guaranteeing the proper preservation and reinsertion of this tradition.  A protest/event was organized this past March in order to congregate all those who miss slow dancing as much as the organizers do. Many e-mails and a blog later, 4,000 people got together in front of the Buenos Aires Planetarium and (slowly) danced the night away.

Those who use the subway system in São Paulo, Brazil, will have a new service from July onwards: bicycles will be available at the main stations of the city center.

The passengers will be able to use the bikes free of charge for 30 minutes and will pay a small fee should they keep it for longer. To have access to the bicycles, passengers will have to sign up to receive an integration card with the subway system. The goal is to encourage the use of bicycles, instead of trains, for short distances, therefore reducing the number of people on the trains.

More details regarding this initiative, such as the quantity of bicycles that will be available, the stations that will take part in the program, and the fee that will have to be paid if the bicycle is kept for more than half an hour, will be defined in May.

Schemes like this one are already taking place in cities such as Amsterdam and Paris. It will be interesting to see if it will work in a country such as Brazil, where petty theft is so rampant as a result of the unequal distribution of wealth. Infra-structure will also be an issue: although government statistics show that there are more than 60 million bicycles in the country (a ratio of one for every three inhabitants), the lack of cycling paths shows that bicycles are only used as a mode of transportation less than 3% of the time.

Contributed by PSFK’s Latin America representatives Mandalah.

Internet access is extremely limited in Cuba. Strict regulations make it very difficult for citizens to get online. Unauthorized satellite dishes are routinely torn down and content is heavily filtered. The rare internet cafes are expensive and under the close watch of the government.

Things are changing though. Informal networks have sprung up composed of a rag tag mix of technology. Criticism of the state is circulated through illegal internet connections and by a hand to hand web of flash drives.

There is hope that this movement will gain momentum and instigate real change for the better. It’s predicted that the 10,000 students at the University of Information Sciences will be key in opening channels of censored information.

The New York Times reports:

Last month, students at a prestigious computer science university videotaped an ugly confrontation they had with Ricardo Alarcón, the president of the National Assembly.

Mr. Alarcón seemed flummoxed when students grilled him on why they could not travel abroad, stay at hotels, earn better wages or use search engines like Google. The video spread like wildfire through Havana, passed from person to person, and seriously damaged Mr. Alarcón’s reputation in some circles.

…“This is going to get out of the government’s hands because the technology is moving so rapidly.”

Cyber-Rebels in Cuba Defy State’s Limits - New York Times

Ciudad Cultural Konex is a hidden spot (or at least a well preserved secret) located in the heart of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Build in what used to be an industrial oil fabric, recently remodeled by Clorindo Testa y Asociados (a prestigious local architectural studio), the Konex is nowadays a , strictly committed to cultural activities.

Within it’s walls, the space holds a variety of creative events, with the sole objective of enriching both cultural and artistic aspects of Buenos Aires and it’s community. Ciudad Cultural Konex offers a different and fresh way for people to interact: visitors can perhaps watch one of the several performances offered weekly (very different from what you can usually find in the well known theaters), watch Bollywood movies underneath the stars on a summer evening, or perhaps listen to twelve percussionists improvising new and enchanting sounds on any Monday night.

Perhaps the most interesting fact about Ciudad Cultural Konex is that it has been designed by young people, for young people. It’s creator and director, Andy Ovsejevich, is 27 years old and he works together with a team of approximately fifteen people and none of them are older that 30.

Ciudad Cultural Konex

-Contributed by Luciana Schnitman

DOMA (which literally means to “tame” in Spanish) is the name chosen by Mariano Barbieri, Julian Pablo Manzelli, Matias Vigliano and Orilo Blandini to represent them as the art collective that they are today (and have been since 1998, when they first started working together in the Buenos Aires Street-Art scene).

The DOMA artists specialize mainly in graphics, illustration, art, animation and film; however, they now seem eager to conquer a sixth discipline: toy design. They launched their own line of exclusive creatures a while back, and they have kept their collection growing ever since.

This is not completely unexpected: DOMA has always shown a strong commitment towards innovation and experimentation.

According to their site:

Understanding the world as a big lab helps to detect the reaction to each action. We are living a special moment in history- this scenario calls for action. DOMA tries to interfere in all the information channels available. Working with the same elements as them with a bit of irony…thus sparking change in people’s perception; offering another point of view.

And indeed, a different point of view it is: among their dysfunctional family of toys you can find an “Astronaut Jesus” (who, as the DOMA team explains, is in the middle of his second visit to planet Earth), a family of tiny plastic creatures known as “Acid Sweties”, and a stuffed monster named “Bipo Capsule” who, as it’s name indicates, suffers from Bipolar disorder.

DOMA

-Contributed by Luciana Schnitman

The Independent reports that the luxury car maker BMW is looking at launching a fourth brand alongside the brands it already owns: Mini, Rolls-Royce and BMW. The paper says:

The new brand will spearhead BMW’s attempt to boost growth following criticism that it is too focused on luxury gas-guzzlers. A spokesman said: “We are looking at what a new brand would involve; we are looking at quite different forms of transportation.”

BMW aims to embrace new car styles and technology in a strategic push to address the problems faced by the world’s expanding cities in dealing with emissions and congestion.

Independent

The First Reverse Marathon in history took place at Parque Centenario in the City of Buenos Aires on September 8th. This flashmob was the opening event for the IX Fuga Jurásica Multimedia Experimental Art Festival , that has taken place in the Museum of Natural Sciences Bernardino Rivadavia of the City of Buenos Aires since 1998. The idea is to make a Reverse Marathon that is related to the integral concept of this festival: “Experiencing is good”, which was created and developed by Underground School of Creatives, who are responsible for the integral communication of the event. In order to run in reverse, there were persons who managed to fit improvised rear-view mirrors that consisted of Cds attached to their caps. Talking about mirrors, the numbers on the sweatshirts were printed on the wrong side. Here is the link to the article in La Nación Newspaper.