Under Stan Rucker supervision, Samia Pedraça and I visited the Institute of Design (IIT-ID) in Chicago for one week to assist in research projects. I developed the first iteration of our Tangible Workflows prototype experimenting with the recently acquired 55” multitouch…
Occupy: legitimacy to be on the public space
Since 2011 a series of protests against the schizophrenic logic of capitalism has been occurring around the world. The even has they own brand name: Occupy. The main idea is to occupy public places, mainly squares and plazas, in order…
Skyscraper
441 meters. 110 stories. Willis Tower is not the tallest building in the world but is the highest in the western continent. I went up to the 103 floor, where they have the Skydeck. You can see the entire city from there.
Native Village
I definitely need to update my knowledge about native people. The other day I was told to draw a native village on a piece of paper. Here is the result: I made a mix of Brazilian Indians and native American people.…
Digital Heterotopia
What do we supposed to do when we are waiting in public transportation stop? Stare the subway tracks? Count the number of cars passing on the street? Interact with other people? For a few minutes we indubitably, and unconscious, start…
Um cafezinho, por favor (a coffee, please)
“Cafes are at the heart of urban myths, they are celebrated as physical places and as somehow intangible sacred halls where works of art have been produced, revolutions plotted, lives made and hearts broken” (Grafe and Bollery, 2007).
Despite what Grafe and Bollery statement, I do not feel part of this much-celebrated cafe culture. I collect many references to cafe culture through movies, books, and art. The expensive cafes of Paris, with its fancy tiny tables; the delightful view of San Marco Plaza through a cafe window; the spectacular variety of tea in a London cafe; the strange smell of the Amsterdam’s coffee shop; the cheap hot chocolate in one of the many corner’s coffee shops in North America.