Diseño reflexivo de problemas, Monografía Monografía de grado ESUMER | Page 114

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human interpretative mediation.
Cultural Identity is the symbolic concretion of the culture and the set of sign and
symbols created, adapted and redesigned by each human group, that permits its
identification and projection towards inner and outer spaces.
The separation of the material and symbolic culture has no sense. Objects are
considered like texts where a cognitive action (symbolic) is manifested. Objects at
the same time, expresses diverse interpretations, elections and decisions that are
fundamentals to comprehend processes of adaptation, selection, pertainance and
cultural exclusions; processes with which the net [N–M–C–O] is braided.
Objects are cultural products. The way a cultural identity appropriates a given
object depends on the cultural background of that identity, depends on the
collective imageries. Products influence culture through the creation of new
imageries and, at the same time, respond to the identity being an expression of
culture. Culture is then, a creator of objects and objects are cultural identity
shapers.
Due the increase of international commerce during the last decades, the need of a
profound cross–cultural consumer understanding has grown rapidly. This
phenomenon makes imperative that we must know not only the meanings a certain
group gives to products, objects, brands, etc., but also which meanings are
transportable to other cultural groups, or at least, how to create new meanings, in
order to make them appear more harmonious with our target’s cultural identity
(objective market).
The contribution of this work is a reading of the existing relations among Nature–
Man–Culture–Objects in a chronotopos, with the intention to understand how
cultural identities are conformed, how products (objects) influence such identity
and how, from the planning of design process is possible to predict the impact of