㊗️✨The Nexialist #0088
Design Threads | Stendhal Syndrome | Kids at Nudist Beaches | MRI Lego | Traffic: Conflict or Dance? | Brazil’s Elections | Jew’s Harp
Welcome to another fresh batch of digital artifacts for your brain, The Nexialist
Hi, everyone! Another week of work abundance, along with autumnal equinox, lots of rain and a boyfriend going to Argentina for an important family wedding (congrats Majo and Fini!) I’ll leave you then to this week’s Quicky (aka when the time I have for The Nexialist is not as much as usual). Grab your favorite cozy beverage and enjoy! 🫀
1 year ago » ⚙️✨The Nexialist #0040 : Lollygag | A Measure of Sacrifice | Solarpunk and the End of Capitalism | Dark Solarpunk | Antiwork
🪡Design Threads
I am so excited to share this with you. My friends André and Lucas from float, a strategy and cultural analysis hub that I’m absolutely obsessed with, launched a new report on the state of design: Design Threads (ft. Porto Rocha and Wix playground). They usually produce excellent content in Portuguese, so I’m so proud to share this material in English. It all works super well: the format is interactive, the visual language and their tone is clear, imaginative and fun. Read it! I’ll tease you with the intro and the chapters:
The state of design is impossible to define, and this report doesn’t come close. Instead, this project brings together a series of threads—interwoven questions, themes, provocations, and shared feelings—that emerged from conversations and research with and for the design community. Some are expected, others unpredictable, all evocative of what it means to be a designer today.
What is good design? Who gets to decide? How are designers feeling right now? Are we tasked with too much? Are we doing enough? How is our role changing? Where does design go from here?
Design Threads isn’t the answer to these questions, but an invitation to start unraveling them together — pull out a thread, see where it takes you, and leave one of your own.
Tyranny of Taste
Excesss of Everything
Posture Check
Truth of Consequence
Democratization Dilemma
🤩Stendhal Syndrome
Stendhal syndrome, Stendhal's syndrome or Florence syndrome is a psychosomatic condition involving rapid heartbeat, fainting, confusion and even hallucinations, allegedly occurring when individuals become exposed to objects, artworks, or phenomena of great beauty and antiquity.
Some definitions even include the beauty of nature as a trigger. Apparently, it’s nothing new, and there is even a movie, a book and songs inspired by this syndrome, but I was mindblown to learn about it.
Read: Stendhal syndrome: The travel syndrome that causes panic | BBC Travel
🍑Kids at Nudist Beaches
I love everything nudity, so when I saw the title I Raised My Kids On A Nude Beach — And I'd Do It Again In A Heartbeat I was sold. Nadine Robinson shared the beautiful story of her life bringing her 4 girls to the nudist beach every year. I think she covers all questions people might have when reading with very sweet words.
"At the naked beach, my children saw elderly bodies, overweight bodies, and bodies of people who have disabilities, all of which are good and valuable bodies, despite being rarely represented in our culture."
After that first visit, we spent every summer on a magical island on the west coast of Canada visiting the naked beach. My children are now grown. Each of my girls has had their own relationship with nudity over the years. Sometimes they went completely naked, other times they stayed clothed, honoring their personal comfort as they moved through life stages like puberty, pregnancy and postpartum.
When I shared with them that I was going to write this article, they were so supportive. They were excited to share with others that you can have a weird midwife mama and spend your childhood roaming on a naked beach and grow up to be wildly in love with your body.
Read: I Raised My Kids On A Nude Beach — And I'd Do It Again In A Heartbeat by Nadine Robinson, The Huffington Post
🧑🚀MRI Lego
I just saw this Lego MRI Scan Model this week and it really made me smile, so I could not not bring it to The Nexialist.
Anyone who’s ever had an MRI scan knows they’re not much fun. And for young children, they can be downright scary. How do you encourage a child to lie perfectly still in a noisy tunnel for long chunks of time? Hospitals often resort to anaesthesia. But what if they didn’t have to?
🚲Traffic: Conflict or Dance?
Thomas Klaffke from Creative Destruction brought this in his newsletter, and I was smiling and agreeing while watching it. Coming from São Paulo to Amsterdam, I was impressed at how commuting by bike completely changes your life. People are not in metal boxes, you can look at each other and signal with your body. It’s a much more personal, playful, and dynamic means of transport. I love how he frames these interactions around conflict solving and diversity because it is true.
🔴Brazil’s Elections
Thank you, Juan, for sending this. This Sunday, Brazil is having general elections to choose president, governor, senator and other positions. of course, that makes me feel anxious. John Oliver manages to make me giggle while feeling deeply ashamed of having Bolsonaro in this position.
🎶Jew’s Harp
Just to end on a positive note… Recently a video appeared with a guy teaching how to play a strange instrument I had never seen. When he started playing, I immediately recognized the sound from a Brazilian song that gives me goosebumps (and has been sampled quite a lot). I was just impressed at how global the instrument is, yet I had never seen anyone playing it.
The Jew's harp, also known as jaw harp, vargan, mouth harp, gewgaw, guimbard, khomus, Ozark harp, Berimbau de boca, murchunga or mungiga, is a lamellophone instrument, consisting of a flexible metal or bamboo tongue or reed attached to a frame. Contrary to the name, the harp originated in China and has no relation to the Jewish people.
Have a great weekend! 🫀
🫀If anything made your brain tingle, click like, and please share it with your friends. It helps The Nexialist to reach more curious minds.
🥰If someone amazing sent it to you, tell them you love them, and you can subscribe at thenexialist.substack.com.
❓If you want to know what a Nexialist is, click here.
💌I want to know what you think/who you are! Your feedback is highly appreciated, you can e-mail me or fill in this short survey. Thank you! 🙏🏻
🔌Let’s Collab?
I truly believe innovation comes from bringing improbable areas together, and that’s why I called this project The Nexialist. Some sectors are known to be self-referencing and hermetic. Sometimes teams are on autopilot mode, focused on the daily grind, which hinders innovation. As a Nexialist, I like to burst these bubbles, bringing references from different areas, and maintaining teams inspired and connected to the Zeitgeist.
I offer inspiration sessions, called Brainsparks, creative desk research (Zeitgeist Boost), Plug’n’Play deals for workshops and sprints, and other Bespoke formats. If you want to know more about this, send me an e-mail with your challenge(s) and we can figure something out together. Check out my website and some work I’ve done below:
so honored to be featured here, my dear. thanks again for such kind words. :)