The Old in the New
For the love of nostalgia
Vintage is the modern way. It gives people a sense of identity and makes them turn to the past.
Stefanie Pullin, a 22-year-old art student, explains:“ For me, vintage is related to what is old. The first thing that comes to my mind are clothes and photography.”
Does turning to the past reveal a current creativity crisis?
Mariana Bastos, a design student in IADE University in Lisbon, disagrees arguing that it is a creative process:“ Design follows what is fashionable at the present moment. Right now, the trend is revivalism, which means that we are returning to vintage.”
Carolina Fulcher, who works in fashion sales says:“ Nowadays, we use the word vintage for everything that has an old look. The problem is that iconic is very powerful and people tend to have a superficial relation to it, it’ s an adaptation. What does it mean to be a Punk? It isn’ t just wearing pins on your jeans or having your hair dyed. People look at it that way because there are stores like Zara that trivialize fashion. A vintage piece is supposed to be unique.”
Analogue cameras are in fashion and so is lomography, a style which gives photos a vintage effect through oversaturated colour and blurring.
Maria Roquette, a 23-year-old Portuguese student, always carries her analogue fish eye camera with her:“ I prefer analogue because it always reminds me of the essence of photography: waiting for the right moment to take a picture.”
The Impossible Project avoided Polaroid extinction by reintroducing Polaroid cameras to the market. This project introduced a different approach to photography. The fact that people still buy these cameras shows that we try to preserve the present by turning to the past and reverting to a sense of nostalgia.
// Matilde Sousa
laura secorun aaron alexander
ESPERANTO:
The quest for a global language
Language lost
Esperanto 101
Hello / Saluton Welcome / Bonevon How are you? / Kiel vi fartas? Fine / Bone Thank you / Dankon I am thirsty / Mi soifas Damn it! / Diable! Yes / Jes No / Ne
The world is shrinking thanks to an increasing number of airflights, the spread of multinational corporations and the development of the Internet. Amid this globalisation, there is a powerful incentive to develop a universal language.
The introduction of a global dialect has been attempted before in the form of Esperanto. First articulated by author L. L Zamenhof in 1887, Esperanto was a language created to transcend nationality and encourage international understanding. But it failed and has few fluent speakers today.
Professor Marc van Oostendorp, who specialises in Esperanto, believes that the biggest obstacle for the language to gain in popularity is a perceived lack of use.
“ The problem with Esperanto was always that attracting followers is a vicious circle. In order to invest the time and energy to learn a language, you need to feel that you can do something with it, but you only have that feeling if there are enough other people who speak the language.”
Globalisation is a powerful motivation
for a universal language. In the realm of the internet, there is a need for a common tongue for communication. Randall Craig, author of Online PR and Social Media, says:
“ Every language has a nuance, and is couched in the culture of the people who are using it. English is a great example: British English, Indian English, and American English have the same base but have important differences. Social media is a global connector, but it is sometimes too easy to miss the nuance intended by the person who is posting.”
According to Professor van Oostendorp:“ English obviously still has a large community of first language speakers but a designed language, like Esperanto, can be designed so that it is easiest to learn for second language learners. A global language is primarily a language for people who learn it as a second language, not as a first language.”
Now, 130 years after it was first articulated, it could be time to welcome Esperanto. Indeed Esperanto,“ vi estas bonvena!”
// Rasmus Arvidsson
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