ABOUT // THE PIGMY DEER NETWORK had since a long time ago,
aims to  publish the best (mexican) online projects
we find day by day, to feed your creative appetite.
Let´s define the term
“best (mexican) online projects”
1. Orginality.
2. Well structured concept.
3. Is an inspiration to others.
4. Has a clear objective and an
interesting statement
5. Its creators are Mexicans
( but it can be based abroad)
Most of the sites
We´ll include do not get the credit they deserve,
and even if it´s a popular one,
deserve even more attention.

The compile obviously, will be an archive in no particular order.
This will be the beginning of a New Era,
The Mexican Talent Stock / Websites Chapter
Curated by The Pigmy Deer Network (based in Mexico & Spain)
and Las Bellas Artes.Org an international
art-based business platform
based in New York.

SUBMISSIONS // artstock@thepigmydeer.net
SUBJECT: THE BOOKMARK PROJECT:100 SITES / A YEAR .

NOTES // The Catalogue will be published online (as a website),
in December 2010, and presented for the first time in Barcelona,Spain and Paris,France.
(For further Details, stay tunned !! ) At the end, maybe dozens
more could have been added to this “yearbook”
(so, perhaps there will be a sequel to it).

Evangelina Guerra Luján
……………………………………………
Art+Culture+Critique Online Magazine /Editor in Chief
Las Bellas Artes Team Network / Creative Director Associate
The Pigmy Deer Network / Founder & Coordinator
………………………………………………
Twitter:@lasbellasartes2

Excess of time, resources and idleness lead to inventions, that it’s not a secret, think about couture, fine arts and sports, they are products of a relatively secure community with enough money and resources. Take for example Stark’s “juicy salif” lemon squeezer, do you think this beautiful object but completely useless product could have been designed and manufactured in a marginal and poor community? I don’t think so, however this product is completely logical to picture it in the hands of a French designer and an Italian manufacturer.

If we understand security as the loss of preoccupation of a certain thing or matter, we can picture that there are different levels of security, it’s different to be afraid of finding where to pass the night than to be afraid of loosing an appointment with the manicurist. Sure that ironically both could cause the same amount of stress on certain people, but they sure have different consequences.

It is not a surprise that we live on societies with many, exaggerated or not, threats and fears; terrorism, global warming, natural catastrophes, crime, feeding, H1N1, global crisis… you name it, sure there is place for it.

However creation is everywhere, under stressful situations where only a limited amount of resources are available there is also a unique power for inventiveness and innovation, from simple hacks to revolutionary products and systems… We can find one recent popular example in the story of William Kamkwamba a young Malawian boy who found the way to design and build a windmill that generated electrical power for his house, William managed to write and publish his story in the book “The boy who harnessed the windmill”, now he is very popular and supported by all kinds of organizations (as you could imagine).

But this is not extraordinary, is a an everyday thing on many places in the world, one simple look at a Mexican village could give you a huge lesson on how to solve many problems with simple, yet extraordinary inventions.

Now that we are starting to feel the anguish and fear from the much commented war against the drug trafficking in Mexico and other, not less important, problems in our country such as lack of employment and a pretty mediocre education, we as creative people have to analyze where is our opportunity in all of these, where we can find a shifting point in order to change our environment.

Fear, lack of opportunities, violence, ignorance are also stimulants, let’s deal with i

Miguel Melgarejo

I am a mac user, and I am very happy with my product, but I am sick of hearing in design conferences praises for the iPod and other apple stuff, I mean, its enough, we have to look beyond and start seeing the real revolution that this might ignite.

On the iPad presentation it was also presented a new Apple software, called iBooks (I think we also have had enough of the i thing, but lets leave that for another occasion) as we could infer from its name, this software its all about buying, reading, sharing and comment ebooks, much like the iTunes for books, which its not a new thing in the market, but is definitely new in the universe of coolness that Apple has starring in the last years.

So here is the thing that can cause a real revolution, honestly, reading books its not regarded, at least in Mexican youth, as a cool thing to do, reading books is a nerdy thing, as a matter of a fact Mexicans have a real low reading habits with only 2.8 books per year as a publication Letras Libres of 2007 acclaim. So now that reading will be related to the Apple coolness factor, how will this change? And I mean not only in our reading habits but also in our writing willingness and skills.

If iBooks with all the merchandise and values of the Apple brand manage to get reading to be seen as a cool thing, then we will be seeing a real revolution, imagine going to Starbucks, instead of finding your iTunes coupon for a free song, you will be finding an iBooks coupon for a free book, imagine also walking on a public park and see a young girl leaning against a bench with its iPad reading a book, I definitely think that this kind of things will change our reading habits.

We would also have to consider the sharing part of the software, I don really know, but I guess that you will be able to see what books had your friends acquired and comments about them, I also guess that buying will be really easy, just dragging a book with your finger in the screen will be enough for you to start reading, you wont have to go through the traffic find a parking lot for your car, wonder through the bookstore, make a line and buy a book, everything will be much more easier and immediate.

Don’t get me wrong, going in a bookstore it’s a whole experience, we will still have to see how this will be managed in the software, my point is that things will go much more faster.

I now this is not a new thing, but forgive me Amazon, Kindle and Barns & noble, et al, you are not as cool as Apple, hope to see also how will they manage this competition, because its really a good opportunity, if the now how to handle it.

Ok, so I just guess we will have to wait and see how this goes on, personally I will not buy an iPad, and will still go to a bookstore and buy a physical book, I just like how they smell.

Miguel Melgarejo for The Pigmy Deer Online Magazine

Resonance from Continuum on Vimeo.

If you are looking for more resources about design research and strategy I recommend you the design mind blog from the guys of Frog, intelligent and constructive posts about this and other design related topics, check out the What Good is Design Research? post to see what I am talking about.

Miguel Melgarejo

However in the future this might be very different since the mobile phones, tablets and other things grow in technology and complexity, even more specifically with the development of the augmented reality technology, which will allow agencies, designers and artists to create content that will only truly be seen by the people interested in it.

A lot of situations might change, imagine you are walking by in the street, you see a girl or boy you like, instead of starting the old style flirting activities, you might take out your mobile phone, point it at the face of your prospect and visualize with the TAT augmented ID (video below) information, photos and social media networks that this person decides to show, and suddenly, without any words or gestures used, you might meet the love of your life.

From digital marketing to graffiti this new technologies might change them all, since thanks to the information contained in your social media networks, advertisements will be more specific for your interests and activities. With this is possible to imagine a future where billboards disappear and augmented reality spots appear.

In the mist of an even higher dependency to technology and social networks to meet people and socialize, we might start seeing clearer streets from billboards but filled of hidden animations and projections, where new dimensions will exist with its different demons and rules, so, my question here is, what will you creative individual will do with this?

Miguel Melgarejo for Las Bellas Artes México

COGITO: CO=junto / together GITO=agitar / shake

COGITO ERGO SUM: agito las cosas, luego existo  /  I shake things up-therefore I am

Visto en / As seen on:
Jeames Geary, metaphorically speaking – TED Talk

Es pequeño, pero suficiente para poder tener tu propia mini fábrica de productos, en el sitio web del proyecto vienen los instructivos completos para poder fabricarla, todo protegido por  creative commons.

Y esto es solo el comienzo, seguramente estamos viendo el inicio de un gran cambio en la forma en la que consumimos y fabricamos nuestros productos… Me quedan muchos pensamientos acerca de si esto tendría un impacto positivo o negativo en el medio ambiente, ¿qué opinan?

39CHZE56UZRP

.

Desde el pasado lunes 1 de noviembre de 2009 se aplica en la ciudad de Monterrey una limpia de policías de tránsito corruptos, se están aplicando diferentes exámenes a mas de 1400 elementos, aquellos que no los aprueben serán liquidados de esta organización.

Hace pocos días el video que les muestro aquí debajo de Dan Ariely, investigador especializado en economías del comportamiento, en el cual habla acerca de un experimento que realizó referente a lo susceptibles que podemos ser a la deshonestidad y los elementos que pueden iniciarla y propagarla.

Pareciera importante que en esta limpieza (y en las que vienen) se tomaran en cuenta estos principios, sobre todo para disminuir la susceptibilidad que puedan tener los elementos sobrevivientes y los nuevos a la corrupción.

Es en este aspecto en donde veo un área de oportunidad para el diseño, en medida en que podamos comprobar la relevancia que tienen elementos en apariencia poco importantes como la ropa, los lentes o libreta de multas en el desempeño y comportamiento de los policías, existirá la oportunidad de diseñar productos de este tipo que no solo funcionen mejor sino que transmitan seguridad y compromiso de una manera significante.

Quién sabe, igual diseñar una buena pluma para policías puede ser el inicio de la transformación que tanto necesitamos en nuestras instituciones y comportamiento.

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english translation

Since the last 1st of November in Monterrey, Mexico there has been a corrupt transit police cleanup, trust exams are being applied to more than 1400 elements, those who don’t approve it will be fired from this department.

A couple of days ago I saw a video that the behavioral economics investigator Dan Ariely posted in his blog, in which he explains an experiment that he did about the susceptibility that people have towards dishonesty and the elements that can trigger it.

It would seem to be very important that in this cleanup (and in the ones to come) this kind of concepts were taken on account, above all to diminish the susceptibility that the survivor elements and the new ones could have towards corruption.

In this aspect is where I see a great opportunity for design, if we are able to prove the relevance that elements such as clothing, accessories and work tools have in the performance of the cops, we will have the opportunity of designing products of this kind that not only work better but transmit security and compromise in a significant way.

Who knows, maybe designing a good police pen can be a good beginning for the very needed transformation of Mexican institutions.

Calaveras de azúcar, grabados, poesía y dibujos, son algunos de los medios que el mexicano utiliza para burlarse de la muerte, elementos con los que muchos crecemos y convivimos, así le decimos a la muerte que no nos importa y que la esperamos, que venga, nos invite un trago y nos saque a bailar.

Ya decía Octavio Paz que la indiferencia que el mexicano tiene hacia la muerte se nutre directamente de la indiferencia que le tiene a la vida, siendo esto verdadero o no y tomando en cuenta que la visión contemporánea que el mexicano tiene de la muerte es muy diferente, es interesante notar ciertos patrones en el uso de estos elementos en productos a nivel mundial.

Desde hace unos años me parece haber notado un incremento en la utilización de calaveras y otros símbolos de la muerte en varios artículos comerciales, ejemplos rápidos serían prendas de ropa de marcas comerciales como Zara y Ed Hardy, las cuales han ofrecido u ofrecen t-shirts para jóvenes y adultos gráficas que de cierta manera asemejan a las calaveras mexicanas, mostrando a la muerte, encausándola en canales comerciales, haciéndola moda y por tanto dándole la posibilidad de ser vista con indiferencia, matando así a la muerte.

La relevancia que pueda tener este fenómeno como reflejo de una indiferencia postmoderna mundial hacia la vida es algo que me parece interesante, sobre todo porque, podríamos suponer que lo que necesitamos en estos momentos en cuestiones de sustentabilidad es precisamente lo contrario, abrazar a la vida y verla como algo importante.

Sin duda se requeriría un estudio mucho mas profundo para poder llegar a conclusiones relevantes que nos ayuden a explotar positiva y sutilmente este diálogo vida-muerte en los productos y servicios que utilizamos diariamente. Creo que es un tema que cada ves cobrará mas importancia en el diseño y la generación de valor.

Quizás ser mexicano en estas cuestiones pueda ser una ventaja.

Feliz día de los muertos.

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Sugar skulls, engravings, poetry and paintings are some of the media that Mexicans use to me fun of the death, elements with which a lot of us grow and coexist, that is the way we say to the death that we don’t care so much about her and that we are waiting for her to come, buy us a drink and take us to dance.

Octavio Paz said that the indifference that the Mexicans have for the death nurtures directly from the indifference that we have for the life; being this truth or not, and taking into account that the contemporary vision that Mexicans have for the death is very different, its still very interesting to notice certain patterns in the use of this kind of elements in world level products.

In recent years it seems to have been an increasing use of death elements in different commercial graphics and products, a quick example of this might be clothing brands such as Zara and Ed Hardy, which have been increasingly offering t-shirts and other garments with death elements, turning death into a fashion element and giving it the opportunity to be seen with indifference, killing death by this in a sort of way.

The relevance that this phenomenon might have as a reflection of the postmodern indifference towards life is something that for me is very interesting, mainly because, it might sound logic that what we would need right now in a world full of sustainability issues would be precisely the opposite, which is to embrace life and seeing it as something relevant that needs a lot of care.

Without a doubt we would need a much deeper study to reach relevant conclusions that help us to use in a positive and subtly way this dialogue between life and death in products and services of daily usage. I think it is a subject that will be increasingly important for design and value generation in our world.

Perhaps being Mexican in this particular issue might be an advantage.

Happy day of the death.

"700 gallons of water are used to make one nike cotton t-shirt"

Lorrie Vogel designer at Nike at PopTech 2009

What is the cost we are willing to pay?