🎸✨The Nexialist #0230

ancient amazonian root urns | an open horizon (or) the stillness of a wound | ocean literacy | apocalipse | population projections | turnstile

Jun 19, 2025

welcome to your weekly digital porridge, the nexialist

hey you, i hope this message finds your braincells as above. this weekend, i celebrated my 36th birthday with family, friends and amsterdam’s best weather, so i’m still feeling quite blessed. i always think how i used to celebrate my birthday in são paulo winter and now i get such a rare delightful weather in amsterdam.

this week, again my photo that haunts me (with a perfect mullet and moustache combo) went dutch viral: it landed my face on one of amsterdam’s best meme profiles,

Havermelkelite

(oatmilk elite), putting me as a type of guy that watches twin peaks (lie), is non-monogamous (true), wears short shorts (true), amongst other things. i’ll just have to learn to live with that, i guess.

today and tmrw, i’ll be at the the next web conference, so next week i’ll bring you some content from the real world, get ready. for now, enjoy 🫀✨

—Rodrigo Turra

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⚱️ancient amazonian root urns

Fallen tree reveals burial urns with human bones thousands of years old in the Amazon: Pieces were found under a fallen tree on an artificial island in the Middle Amazon and reveal the burial and eating practices of indigenous peoples in the region.

this is one of the most exciting news i saw this week (to the point i’m questioning if it’s real, as it goes these days): arqueologists finding 7 ceramic urns under a protected tree, fallen in the amazon. i remember seeing a project in these “future of death” reports, capsula mundi, which has an eerily similar solution. the future is ancestral, right?

Capsula Mundi is a cultural and broad-based project, which envisions a different approach to the way we think about death. It's an egg-shaped pod, an ancient and perfect form, made of biodegradable material, where our departed loved ones are placed for burial. Ashes will be held in small egg-shaped biodegradable urns while bodies will be laid down in a fetal position in larger pods. The Capsula will then be buried as a seed in the earth. A tree, chosen in life by the deceased, will be planted on top of it and serve as a memorial for the departed and as a legacy for posterity and the future of our planet. Family and friends will continue to care for the tree as it grows. Cemeteries will acquire a new look and, instead of the cold grey landscape we see today, they will grow into vibrant woodlands.

brainsparks: ancient jungle cities (tn#222), ancestral future (tn#112), el dorado (tn#78), 5000 years of coexistence (tn#170) time for indigenous futurism (tn#65), time rebels (tn#18), climate storytelling toolkit (tn#131), awesome anthropocene goals (tn#76), protopia futures (tn#27), lo-tek: a new mythology of technology (tn#43), permacrisis (tn#94), ideas to postpone the end of the world (tn#19)

🇩🇴an open horizon (or) the stillness of a wound

please, do yourself and favor and watch this. i had seen the work dominican nyc-based artist, firelei báez, at the tate modern in london. i’m usually not the person to remember these things, but i was quite drawn to her work, it was so stunning and surreal, but i didn’t quite understand it back then (also there is so much to see). well, with this video, i got it. turning racist historical maps/illustrations into detailed decolonial art is in the deepest realm of transformation. i’m now a big fan:

In the 18th century, the Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus set out to classify life, creating a system of taxonomy that still endures. But, as Firelei Báez – an artist from the Dominican Republic, based in New York City – explains in this short documentary, his work included hierarchies of humans based on race that were ‘sheer nonsense’, embedding racist ideas into science that echo to this day.

In her work, Báez subverts this legacy by transforming maps, manuals and other documents of colonial classification into canvases, covering them with imagery that reframes what was considered ‘abject’ as beautiful. Among them are her interpretation of ciguapas – elusive women from Dominican folklore, known for their backward feet, cascading hair and seductive ways. By creating vibrant images that defy classification, her art challenges viewers to consider the possibilities that have been left behind in these inherited systems – and what we might grow in these margins.

brainsparks: reindigenisation x decolonisation (tn#140), this is not america (tn#63), encyclopedia — circle of knowledge (tn#177), reality hunger (tn#201),

🌊ocean literacy

recently, i’ve been impacted (in the sense of i’m thinking about it frequently) by the study “the brazil that brazil wants to be” (in portuguese), which is one of the most interesting reports i’ve seen recently. it’s done by inesplorato, mandalah and a great cast of professionals, and it goes deep into this moment brazil is in and how to look forward. brazil might be seen by other countries as that fun friend you party with on the weekends, but not so realiable when it comes to the monday-friday business. that however, seems to be taking a turn as the country positions itself as social-environmental leader. and this is a great example:

Brazil becomes the first country in the world to develop a national school curriculum on Ocean Literacy with UNESCO’s support
Brazil has taken on an international leadership role by signing a Letter of Intent that formally incorporates Ocean Literacy into the national school curriculum.

brainsparks: how the dutch beat the ocean (tn#173), the oceans are one (tn#140), do you speak whale? (tn#20), the bulge we live in (tn#67), zealandia, the 8th continent (tn#39), knowledge curatorship (tn#14)

💣apocalipse

i’ve been mentioning apocalyptic pop for a while, but this is more like apocalyptic-groovy-chic-brazilian-excellence. first, the artists are so consecrated (translated from br-portuguese here, english speakers better start using it). the sound so jazzy and delicious. and the lyrics so clever: before the earth ends, i want to end myself up on it (meaning to indulge yourself on it…) luedji’s new album, antes que a terra acabe (before the earth ends) is worth the listen.

brainsparks: becoming post-tragic (tn#216), (post-)apocalyptic imaginary (tn#97), bom mesmo é estar debaixo d’água (tn#97)

📉population projections

recently, juan showed me a video about the population decline in korea, and what that means in the long term. it has been in my head since then, fertility rates, mortality rates, retirement, i know very few people with kids, also i’m gay, so maybe i’ve not seeing them, etc. it seems people are not exactly following the “be fruitful and increase in numbers” orders from you know who…

then we watched “the assessment” which imagines a future quite different from encouraging more children: people figured out aging (meaning, they suppress it), but have scarce resources, so the least people, the better.

then this infographic appeared on my e-mail and I had to click on it, what are the populations projections to 2100. i’m surprised not to see brazil there, but it’s quite impressive to imagine what this world could look like.

The U.S. is currently the world’s third biggest country, but is expected to fall to sixth place by 2100. Unlike many other developed countries, however, the U.S. should keep growing throughout this century.
Most of this growth will be due to immigration, rather than new births, as fertility rates in the U.S. are already below the replacement level.

brainsparks: how many humans (tn#65), the assessment (tn#228), everybody dies (tn#37)

🎸turnstile

this week something weird happened thanks to

Dimas Henkes

: i saw myself getting chills and emotional listening to hardcore music. perhaps i was living under a rock, because i had never heard about turnstile. but their new album ‘never enough’ touched me somewhere in my past i forgot existed. it reminded me of my 13-15 year old self listening to the the pop-punk-rock bands like blink182, sum41 and offspring, with a sophisticated electronic jamie xx vibe. maybe it’s a new era for me now that i’m closer to my 40s than my 30s?

brainsparks: pan-genre blend (tn#75), the new soft boys (tn#227), post-punk (tn#84), the jester of rock (tn#120)

see you next week, cuties 🫀✨

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