Slow dance vs. Fast dance

 Miss I have this dance?


Tango
Consists of a variety of styles that developed in different regions and eras of Argentina as well as in other locations around the world. The dance developed in response to many cultural elements, such as the crowding of the venue and even the fashions in clothing. The styles are mostly danced in either open embrace, where lead and follow have space between their bodies, or close embrace, where the lead and follow connect either chest-to-chest (Argentine tango) or in the upper thigh, hip area (American and International tango).

                                         Argentinue Tango - Slow pace in the plot of the bodies                                          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjdG32n2r_0

 

Salsa
Music suitable for dancing ranges from about 150 bpm (beats per minute) to around 250 bpm, although most dancing is done to music somewhere between 160–220 bpm. Every Salsa composition involves complex African percussion based around the Clave Rhythm (which has four types), though there can be moments when the clave is hidden for a while, often when quoting Charanga, Changüí, and Bomba. The key instrument that provides the core groove of a salsa song is the clave. It is often played with two wooden sticks that are hit together. Every instrument in a Salsa band is either playing with the clave (generally: congas, timbales, piano, tres guitar, bongos, claves (instrument), strings) or playing independent of the clave rhythm (generally: bass, maracas, güiro, cowbell). Melodic components of the music and dancers can choose to be in clave or out of clave at any point. However it is taboo to play or dance to the wrong type of clave rhythm (see salsa music). While dancers can mark the clave rhythm directly, it is more common to do so indirectly (with, for example, a shoulder movement). This allows the dancing itself to look very fluent as if the rest of the body is just moving untouched with the legs.

                                                    Latin American dancing - Pressing rhythm                                                  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9lCzQ0PPAc&feature=related

 

QWERTY and T9

Technological ways to speed up writing!

In computing, the keyboard is an input device of the computer application to manual data into computer memory and computer control.

"QWERTY" is the most common scheme for alphanumeric keyboards, used in most computer keyboards but also in the typewriters. The name "QWERTY" is derived from the sequence of the letters of the first six keys on the top row of the keyboard. The QWERTY layout was patented in 1864 by Christopher Sholes.

The scheme also attempts to split the QWERTY keys between the two hands, so that while one hand is placed, the other hand hits the button. This speeds up the writing than the methods previously used.



"QWERTY" keyboard is designed to typewriting faster using both hands alternately.
http://notebookitalia.it/tastiere-dei-notebook-al-microscopio-2218.html
Patent: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7131780.pdf



T9, which stands for Text on 9 keys, is a patented predictive text technology for mobile phones, and it was invented to make easier and a lot faster typing text messages.

It allows words to be entered by a single keypress for each letter, as opposed to the multi-tap approach used in the older generation of mobile phones in which several letters are associated with each key, and selecting one letter often requires multiple keypresses.

As it gains familiarity with the words and phrases the user commonly uses, it speeds up the process by offering the most frequently used words first and then lets the user access other choices with one or more presses .

The T9 system allows to write a text message a lot faster than traditional systems.
http://www.gettyimages.it/Search/Search.aspx?contractUrl=2&language=it&family=creative&p=sms&assetType=image#
Patent: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20070233463.pdf

"I run like the wind blowing!"

Forrest Gump

- Forrest Gump, 1994, Robert Zemeckis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forrest_Gump

Although Forrest has well below average intelligence, his mother is able to get him into a public school. On his first day of school, he meets a girl named Jenny whose life at times is followed in parallel to Forrest's. Having discarded his leg braces, (used to straighten his spine) his ability to run incredibly fast gets him into the University of Alabama on a football scholarship.

Tires for all your needs

So similar, so different

A tire is a ring-shaped covering that fits around a wheel rim to protect it and enable better vehicle performance by providing a flexible cushion that absorbs shock while keeping the wheel in close contact with the ground. The fundamental materials of modern tires are rubber and fabric along with other compound chemicals. Today, the vast majority of tires are pneumatic, comprising a doughnut-shaped body of cords and wires encased in rubber and generally filled with compressed air to form an inflatable cushion. Pneumatic tires are used on many types of vehicles, such as bicycles, motorcycles, cars, trucks, earthmovers, and aircraft.

What is important in the "Fast/Slow" context is that during years have developed a variety of different tires depending on which vehicles may be assembled, and consequently have different purposes and performance; for example, a tractor tire must be huge and partculary shaped in order to grasp on disconnected grounds, and so is designed for very slow speed:

A tractor tire is not designed to go fast, but to grasp on different grounds.
http://www.rotagri.com/

We can clearly see the differences with a racing tire, which is designed for reduce friction with the ground and so make the car run as fast as possible, with its slick shaped:

A racing tire is designed to go reduce the friction with the ground and as consequence to go fast.
http://www.slotbazar.com/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=26&products_id=819

Design in a fast-changing society

Sandbag lounge | Antenna Design

Flexibility. Design in a fast-changing society -Torino 2008 World Design Capital

Domestic sandbags by antenna design new york (masamichi udagawa & sigi moeslinger). http://www.cribcandy.com/ideas/dfb089f3368538e15476411540ffac6b&pageoffset=0

The installation spectre is inspired by a ubiquitous improvisational building block: the sandbag. The sandbag is a pervasive object used in various situations of emergency and temporary set-up, such as battlefields, floods, earthquakes and other disaster scenes. we are giving the sandbag a new skin and context, which transforms the way it is perceived allowing it to enter a different realm of existence.

http://www.designerblog.it/post/3172/flexibility-design-in-a-fast-changing-society-per-torino-2008-world-design-capital

Slow Design

What is slow design? Where did the idea come from? What does it consist of?

Theory

Slow design manifests itself in existing objects and spaces, in products and buildings, in real and virtual environments, and in socio-cultural experiences. Analysis of such manifestations suggests eight distinguishable themes although cross-over and hybridisation between these themes is also observed. These eight themes - ‘tradition’, ‘ritual’, ‘experiential’, ‘evolved’, ‘slowness’, ‘eco-efficiency’, ‘open source knowledge’ and ‘technology’ - contribute towards understanding the potential benefits of slow design towards individual, socio-cutural and environmental well-being. This framework provides a platform for further debate while offering a pluralistic, secular canvas for designers to encourage individual and socio-cultural change towards slowing metabolisms for a more sustainable future.

Some examples

Recycled materials, conservation and innovation of traditional knowledge, encourages recycling and auto design, socio-cultural memory, enhancement of the book lady, identity, humor, joy and colors in everyday life. 
http://blog.bientotdemain.com/index.php/tag/piece-unique

London-based design firm Raw Nerve's Slow Design sofa: "Above all it emphasizes slowness in the creation and consumption of products as a corrective to the frenetic pace of 21st-century life."
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/green-ideas/slow-design-nyt-house-home-roundup-13108-041690
 

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/green-ideas/slow-design-nyt-house-home-roundup-13108-041690

Aerodynamics

How to exploit air flow

Aerodynamics is a branch of dynamics concerned with studying the motion of air, particularly when it interacts with a moving object. Understanding the motion of air (often called a flow field) around an object enables the calculation of forces and moments acting on the object. A typical propertie calculated for a flow field is speed.

Aerodynamic studies are applied in various disciplines, especially to design vehicles that have to be very fast, such as airplanes, rockets, racing cars but also "ordinary" cars: since aerodynamic, a car reduces the resistance of air and, as a consequence, consumes less fuel.

Air flow around three objects: spherical bodies are subject to an average resistance, the shape of an airplane wing minimizes the air resistance, and the resistance is high for bodies with large surfaces perpendicular to the flow.
http://dida.fauser.edu/aero/terza/alainfin/resisten.htm

In racing cars aerodynamics plays a very important role; mechanicians study very carefully how to design the perfect shape to let the driver go faster.
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/wallpapers/pictures-of-f1-cars/bar-005-2003-f1-car-pictures/bar_cfd_2003_2/

The fastest gun in the west

Speed can save your life!

In many western film there are duels between cowboys, based on their speed with the gun; usually they place themselves facing one to the other at a given distance, and at a signal they shoot each other. Of course, fastness is essential to stay alive.

For example, this is a scene from "A fistful of dollars", a 1964 Italian-Spanish spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Leone; in this particular film, in addition to the duel, we can observe the rhythm of it: it is indeed a very slow scene, that changes suddenly to fast at the moment of shoot, this to create suspence and climax. Also the movements of the cowboys are very slow before the shoot.

"Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!"

Alice's adventures in Wonderland

In Lewis Carroll's book Alice's Advetures in Wonderland, there are several passages that underline speed aspects:

"...Alice think it so very much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, ‘Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!’  [...] but when the Rabbit actually took a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket, and looked at it, and then hurried on..."

(Chapter 1: down the rabbit-hole)





Also when dancing the "Caucus race" on the beach, the rhythm increases and it becomes faster:

"First it marked out a race-course, in a sort of circle, and then all the party were placed along the course, here and there. There was no ‘One, two, three, and away,’ but they began running when they liked, and left off when they liked, so that it was not easy to know when the race was over. However, when they had been running half an hour or so, and were quite dry again, the Dodo suddenly called out ‘The race is over!’ and they all crowded round it, panting, and asking, ‘But who has won?’"

(Chapter 3: a Caucus-race and a long tale)

The pneumatic tube

In postal service

Pneumatic post or pneumatic mail is a system to deliver letters through pressurized air tubes. It was invented by the Scottish engineer William Murdoch in the 19th century and was later developed by the London Pneumatic Dispatch Company. Pneumatic post systems were used in several large cities starting in the second half of the 19th century (including an 1866 London system powerful and large enough to transport humans during trial runs - though not intended for the purpose), but were largely abandoned during the 20th century.



Pneumatic tubes in use at a drive-through bank.
Patent: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6474912.pdf



Pneumatic post stations usually connected post offices, stock exchanges, banks and ministries. Italy was the only country to issue postage stamps (between 1913 and 1966) specifically for pneumatic post. Austria, France, and Germany issued postal stationery for pneumatic use.

Spirit of Saint Louis US airmail stamp of 1927.

In the American animated science fiction sitcom Futurama this system is usually used to deliver letters:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumatic_tube

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postage_stamp
http://www.activesocialplastic.com/2009/01/pneumatic_post_in_paris.html 

Stamps!

A way to communicate and commemorate

On special occasions or to commemorate some event are issued special stamps, and some concern things, events, people or animals around the "Fast and Slow" theme:



Greek Stamp of the tortoise and the hare story of Aesop
http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Texts/Aesop/THE_HARE_AND_THE_TORTOISE.html



The snail, symbol of slowness
http://animalonstamps.wordpress.com/2009/12/05/

A sloth, another slow animal
http://www.zazzle.co.uk/sloth_stamp_postage-172443744754406431

 

The panthera pardus, a very fast animal
http://www.stampsbook.org/theme/2-Mammal-40.html



Historical stamps concernigs some fast Ferreari cars
http://www.coolstamps.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?type=search&search=minor&minor=nascar+-+formula+1&shop=stamp-search&amount=10&num=4



"I Promessi Paperi" and other masterpieces of world literature

Objects in comics

Pippo e i Cavalieri della Tavola Rotonda | Walt Disney
 

The table, a static object, it becomes a quick way to escape from enemies.

Paperin Furioso | Walt Disney

The witch's broom, is fast in flight, and when it touches the ground it slows down and back upright.

La leggenda di Paperin Hood | Walt Disney
 

The fan, first off, is switched on by Donald; the blades turn faster, and help Donald to dodge the arrows shot by the enemy.

Source: comics book

The Divine Comedy | Canto III | Inferno

"[...] vidi una 'nsegna che girando correva tanto ratta [...]" Dante Alighieri 

 Canto III

E io ch’avea d’error la testa cinta, dissi: "Maestro, che è quel ch’i’ odo? e che gent’è che par nel duol sì vinta?". 33 Ed elli a me: "Questo misero modo tegnon l’anime triste di coloro che visser sanza ’nfamia e sanza lodo. 36 Mischiate sono a quel cattivo coro de li angeli che non furon ribelli né fur fedeli a Dio, ma per sé fuoro. 39 Caccianli i ciel per non esser men belli, né lo profondo inferno li riceve, ch’alcuna gloria i rei avrebber d’elli". 42 E io: "Maestro, che è tanto greve a lor che lamentar li fa sì forte?". Rispuose: "Dicerolti molto breve. 45 Questi non hanno speranza di morte, e la lor cieca vita è tanto bassa, che ’nvidïosi son d’ogne altra sorte. 48 Fama di loro il mondo esser non lassa; misericordia e giustizia li sdegna: non ragioniam di lor, ma guarda e passa". 51 E io, che riguardai, vidi una ’nsegna che girando correva tanto ratta, che d’ogne posa mi parea indegna; 54 e dietro le venìa sì lunga tratta di gente, ch’i’ non averei creduto che morte tanta n’avesse disfatta. 57

In Antinferno are miserably punished the sad souls who lived without infamy and without praise. They are the so-called sloth, souls who didn't work good or bad in life, for the cowardice of their choice.

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferno_-_Canto_terzo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1r4Vs7FiwI 

Chromo-suggestions

Behind the colors

Usually we don't care about them too much, but colors have a great influence on our psyche.

In advertisement, places, business and many others fields, colors are used to send subliminal messages, acting on people's psyche and manipulate their behaviours in an indirect way.

For example, we can see that in fast food reastaurants there are very bright colors, most of all RED; this color is very important because, according to chromotherapy, it vehiculates messages of excitement, passion, vitality and fastness; here the hidden purpose is that of accelerate the movements of the customer to make room for another.

A McDonald's interior, full of red to make the customer consume faster.
http://blog.catapulta.it/tag/lavoro-mc-donald

From the other side, we can see that in places where you need to be calm and relaxed (hospitals, waiting rooms...), the main colors used are BLUE and GREEN; these are colors of nature, relax and slowness.

In hospitals and waiting rooms the main colors are blue and green, in order to calm down the patients.
http://www.ambulatorioveterinariobelgrano.org/galleria/index.html

Concepts

Concepts, that revolve around fast and slow, grouped by themes and interacting.

Things of Material Culture

Material culture in Fast & Slow - Click on!

This link gives you, blog visitors, the possibility to access photo album on things related to adjectives "Fast and Slow". 

Speed and symbolism

When architecture moves

Tatlin’s Tower or The Monument to the Third International is a grand monumental building envisioned by the Russian artist and architect Vladimir Tatlin, but never built.

It was planned to be erected in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, as the headquarters and monument of the Comintern (the third international).

A model of Tatlin's tower, that shuold have been high 400m (more than Tour Eiffel)
http://purplemotes.net/2007/07/01/cob-12-the-art-of-bureaucracy/

The tower's main form was a twin helix which spiraled up to 400 m in height; the main framework would contain four large suspended geometric structures.

These structures would rotate at different rates of speed.

At the base of the structure was a cube which was designed as a venue for lectures, conferences and legislative meetings, and this would complete a rotation in the span of one year (the slowest of the three structures). Above the cube would be a smaller pyramid housing executive activities and completing a rotation once a month. Further up would be a cylinder, which was to house an information centre, issuing news bulletins and manifestos via telegraph, radio and loudspeaker, and would complete a rotation once a day (the fastest of the three structures).

The rallenty effect

Let's watch it again in slow motion!

The instant replay is the replaying of video footage of an event or incident very soon after it has occurred.

In television broadcasting of sports events, instant replay is often used during live broadcast, to show a passage of play which was important or remarkable, or which was unclear on first sight. Replays are typically shown during a break.

The replay may be in slow motion, or from multiple camera angles. More advanced technology has allowed for more complex replays, such as freeze frame, frame-by-frame review, and overlaying of virtual graphics. Sports commentators analyze the replay footage when it is being played, rather than describing the concurrent live action.

In Italy the istant replay is often used during and after football matches, and it is often reason of quarrels.