.


 


[PARAPHERNALIA.TIPS]

A CURATED PLATFORM WITH A STRONG DIDACTIC APPROACH
If you wake up in the middle of the nightcompletely sweaty after a nightmare and you can'tsleep again, don't even try. Just stay awake. Thatwas the technique that had been used forcenturies, from prehistoric times till 1700, andsuddenly it vanished because we thought thatresting for eight hours in a horizontal position wasthe thing to do. But paying attention to the pastand to the obtained data, biphasic sleep has beenmore time with us, and perhaps that is the reasonwhy we open our eyes in our bedrooms when it'spitch black. All along our history, it was necessaryto divide the way our ancestors slept in twosegments, two halves that were broken by acouple of hours when people decided to jump outof bed to work, to read, to visit their neighbors, topray, to fornicate. Well, maybe they didn't jump outof their beds to fuck, but they didn't sleep at allThat habit was eradicated when electric lightningwas invented and people could be in the streets atnight without feeling fear. Nighttime didn't belongto criminals anymore, it belonged to everyone andlots of activities were done during those hoursThat was the moment when we thought thatsleeping should be done with no interruptions, acustom which is not so healthy as the biphasicsleep pattern. So don't panic if you wake up whenit's dark at 2 am. It means you are acting as yourforebears did.










According to the beliefs of the Yaohnanen, a son of amountain spirit from the island, descended from apale-skinned deity, traveled to a distant land to marrya rich and powerful woman. The only exotic womanthey knew of in the tribe was the Queen of Englandwhom they saw in photographs shown to them byEnglish colonial officials.

Therefore, if the husband of the powerful woman isthe son of the spirit of the mountain, then PrincePhilip was being talked about. Delighted with this'charge', the Duke of Edinburgh did not want todisplease the Aborigines (a gesture that somecriticize as racist), and so will the God of theYaohnanen be forever.









Language is the mirror of our culture, it explainsour history, tradition, desires and misconceptionsThe expressions we use become independent oftheir origins because their meanings are morepowerful than the story behind them. In Spanishwhen we want to talk about utopian ideas, dreamsor things that we believe are imposible we say"construir castillos en el aire". 

In English we talkabout building castles in the air.In French, the equivalent expression is to"avoirdes châteaux en Espagneor"bâtir des châteauxen Espagne". This chimeric expression is presentin the Ballad of the Rose already in the XIll century.Etienne Pasquier in the XVII century, explains thatcastles in Spain were not built to prevent enemiesfrom invading the territory. This is one of manyexamples that shows how we understand theworld through legends and stories, even used as adefense strategy.










Caligula was an eccentric Roman emperor who didn’t know mercy or common sense. Before being assassinated by a group of senators and praetorians as a result of a conspiracy, something that was quite trendy in the Ancient Rome, he left an indelible mark that pointed him out as a bloodthirsty and pigheaded leader that just felt love for one living being, and that was his horse Incitatus. Incitatus was a racehorse that used to win all the competitions, and Caligula loved it as if it was his own baby. He treated Incitatus with great honors. The horse had a stable made of marble and an ivory manger, it was fed with oat flakes, seafood and chicken and it was dressed with jewelry and purple mantles. A magnificent villa that included lots of servants was built just for Incitatus, and the night before a race, sepulchral silence was decreed all over the city so that the animal could sleep peacefully. Caligula spent those nights with his horse, and death penalties were sentenced if someone made a noise and charioteers were killed if they couldn’t win a race riding Incitatus. Rumors say that Caligula, in order to ridicule his political advisors, wanted to name Incitatus as consul. Let’s have a toast for Incitatus, Consul of Rome, if you don’t want to lose your head.









In 1981, the Reagan administration wanted to reviveinterest in space research programs and, togetherwith NASA, a plan known as the 'Space Shuttle' wasdrawn up. In the plan, for example, the first Americanwoman astronaut. civilians (non-astronauts) or acelebrity would be sent into space.

At that time, the Sesame Street character mostloved by children was 'Big Bird'. Those responsiblefor the program were convinced that it would bewise to send it into space together with a group ofprofesional astronauts and, upon arrival, recordsome programs that could be broadcast and seenby a millionaire television audience

.The space shuttle Challenger which, on January 28,1986, disintegrated 73 seconds after being launchedbecoming one of the most remembered tragedies inthe history of the United States, because the launchwas broadcast live by a large number of televisionchannels and was seen by millions of people (a largenumber of young students, since it was connectedfrom most schools in the country). But inside was not Big Bird. Since after the tests he hadto be discarded due to his height (248 centimeters),when the maximum height of the astronauts of thatspace program should be 190 centimeters.











As book lovers, we are always interested in facts that surround the editorial universe. One of the things that I learned by working in the Biblioteca Nacional de España is the effort all teams make to preserve books. We all know common historical enemies of books such as fires or dictatorships, the destruction of the most important media of knowledge is a tragedy.

The silverfish is a dead and silent enemy of the books, it feeds on glue, silicons and celluloid. When a silverfish finishes eating the glue in the spine of the book, it jumps to another one. If it’s unable to jump to somewhere else, it starts eating the paper, first the margins, then the space between the lines creating amazing forms. The moment the silverfish accidentally eats a piece of paper with ink, poetically, it dies.









Believe it or not, culture is a powerful device that can cause plane crashes. Just take a look at Korean Air’s history to notice that tragedy hovered over the company during a lot of years. From 1960 up to 2000, almost twenty accidents occurred with serious damages and victims. It seemed that the airline was cursed by an evil incantation until something happened. The change was produced when David Greenberg, a retired vice president of Delta Air Lines, was hired by Korean Air to guide the company to a different destination. It was pretty soon when Greenberg realized that the problem was not based on engines, turbines or wheels. The problem had something to do with language. The problem had something to do with the miscommunication in the cockpit, where the copilot and pilot almost didn’t talk to each other when something was going wrong. Korean language is ambiguous, and the rigid hierarchy of their culture doesn’t help to communicate even in critic situations. When Greenberg established English as the only language that could be spoken in the cockpit, the accidents disappeared. Culture is a powerful device that can prevent plane crashes. And if you are falling, it’s easy to shout “mayday”. Although the word comes from French.















Despite the advances made in the field of nutrition, food remains a scarce commodity, distributed unequally. In this process, packaging plays a key role, from the moment it affects the conservation of the product, the final cost of the food and even the carbon footprint they generate.

In 1963 the appearance of the Tetra-brik was proclaimed as an effective, revolutionary and beautiful design solution in the form of a pyramid. However, once again, the dream of ending inequalities was not fulfilled. And its innovative and characteristic original volumetric form changed to a simple brick.

















The onomatopoeias try to represent by means of a graphic signifier a sound that has no specific equivalent. But interpretations are richer than language.  And onomatopoeias usually vary according to the region in which they originate or the language spoken. Even in the same language there are different onomatopoeias to represent the same sound!

For example, the onomatopoeia of a dog barking is represented differently in Spanish (Guau-guau), in English (Woof) or in French (Ouaf) However, I am sure that these beautiful and painful onomatopoeias, taken from the 1966 batman series, are perfectly interpretable for everyone.













  The Oblique Strategies are a mysterious deck of cards (about 110) with which “new ideas will appear by themselves and others will become evident”. With them we are encouraged to think laterally, to solve dilemmas, to continue working, to find creative solutions and break our 'straight' way of thinking.

They were designed by Peter Schmidt and Brian Eno between 1970 and 1975. And they were used, for example, for the instrumentation of Bowie's “Heroes” and to get Bowie out of his creative block.

Until 2001 they have been practically an object for artists, collectors and friends of Eno, in which an 'unlimited' edition was launched .















  No, this is not a movie set or a theme park. This anachronistic place has a bigger purpose than entertainment. Town Square is a treatment center that is helping improve the lives of people with Alzheimer's disease and dementia.

  Town Square is made to look like a 1950s town, but it's actually a treatment in Chula Vista, California, for people with Alzheimer's and some form of dementia. The center uses reminiscence therapy to help create memories and provide a comforting environment for patients.



















Corita Kent had two vocations: God and Art.  And she combined both, at least until she left him... The church did not look favorably on this charismatic "communist" nun transmitting subversive messages about love and tolerance to humanity. She was quite an art expert. Her classes were attended by everyone from Hitchcock to Saul Bass and she knew that the art that reached the masses was Pop. Corita Kent was too radical for the Church, too Catholic for the art world.













The roots of blues and jazz go back to the terrible years of the slave trade between Africa and America back in the 18th century. All those people were not allowed to take anything with them, but they carried the music on their heads and on the boats one or two instruments were loaded like this drum (the oldest African -American object in the British Museum).











The Red and Blue Armchair is one of a handful of seating designs that is universally recognizable. With no direct precedents. Rietveld was only twenty-nine when he created this seminal piece and began his search for furniture design that translated the two dimensional painting system, Neoplasticism. In the firts model the oak remained unpainted.












In late 1778 Captain Cook and his crew landed in Hawaii in search of new sea routes. They were the first outsiders to those islands for more than 500 years. Cook received magnificent gifts, rare and precious objects. But a few weeks later he died at the hands of the same people in another ominous misunderstanding of the contact of Europeans with the various peoples of the planet.










The relationship with Calder is unknown beyond this photograph taken by the painter Hans Hartung. However, personally it is one of the most significant and recurring images in my life.
















In 1962, a French speleologist named Michel Siffre spent two months living in total isolation in a subterranean cave, without access to clock, calendar, or sun. Sleeping and eating only when his body told him to, his goal was to discover how the natural rhythms of human life would be affected by living “beyond time.”











During the May 1968 student revolt in Paris, an effective means of disseminating ideas was the city walls. Power was frightened by the revolution that did not prosper but but was the most influential protest in the following decades.











“They Live" has gone on to claim a cult following and earned a reputation for its political satire, social commentary, philosophical and technological forecasting, and visual aesthetics. Areas in which the film has both inspired and exerted its distinct influences such as Jenny's Holzer or Barbara Kruger.














Martino Gamper  reconfigured the design of 100 seats which were retrieved over a period of two years through his adventures of rummaging through garbage, picking up rejected and deserted chairs. The result is a collage of design history. A good reference for quarantined time.












Perfect Paul is one of the three voices that projectaba the Speech Plus CallText 5010 human speech synthesizer produced in 1988. This synthesizer had three voices: a female, called "Beautiful Betty", another child ("Kit the Kid") and a male ("Perfect Paul"). But above all, Perfect Pau is known to be the voice of Stephen Hawking.

In spite of the improvements in the software and hardware of the interface, Hawking never stopped using this voice of primitive technological aspect. The reason has to do with personality traits: changing your voice would be like changing your face. Simply, Hawking identified with his old Calltext, and moving to a different style of voice would make him feel a stranger. Although there may be other reasons; He was once asked why he did not use a voice with a British accent, more typical of an Oxford native like him. Hawking replied: "With the American accent, I have much more success with women."
















Miquel Barceló and the choreographer Josef Nad build a clay wall on the stage, "a material similar to meat" according to Barceló, which sometimes molds him with punches and then destroys them with wood and iron tools. Both appear on stage with a sober black suit and white shirt, and are smeared with that material Barceló has pointed out that Paso Doble is a show that is "very linked" to his work in the cathedral of Palma and that its origin "is ecclesiastical, was created in a desacralized church in Avignon (France) and" is a kind of pagan ritual and every rite is a form of invocation. " Recommendation, watch the documentary by Isaki Lacuesta “El cuaderno de barro”. A documentary, avaible on vimeo  shows the work process of Miquel Barceló in Africa and where this fantastical performance is represented.














«Sublime spirit! Deep and deep genius! Divine person! Accept the homage of my weak talent ... Ah, Newton! " With these words, the French architect and designer Étienne-Louis Boullée dedicated his design of an imaginary cenotaph (empty tomb) in honor of the English physicist Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727). Like many intellectuals of his time, Boullée was fascinated with Newtonian physics. Its design perfectly illustrates the general characteristics of its work and that of the architecture of the late eighteenth century: large simple masses, free of any superfluous decoration, and buildings whose forms express their purpo







Rwandans have always cherished and loved their culture and hair has always played a large role in their culture. Rwandans used to wear the amasunzu style in more than 30 different ways. Amasunzu is a traditionally Rwandan hairstyle that was once worn by men, as well as by unmarried women in order to indicate to potential suitors that they were single and of marriageable age. A man was identified as powerful, noble and brave if they had the hairstyle. It also showed prestige, especially among men.



If you wake up in the middle of the nightcompletely sweaty after a nightmare and you can'tsleep again, don't even try. Just stay awake. Thatwas the technique that had been used forcenturies, from prehistoric times till 1700, andsuddenly it vanished because we thought thatresting for eight hours in a horizontal position wasthe thing to do. But paying attention to the pastand to the obtained data, biphasic sleep has beenmore time with us, and perhaps that is the reasonwhy we open our eyes in our bedrooms when it'spitch black. All along our history, it was necessaryto divide the way our ancestors slept in twosegments, two halves that were broken by acouple of hours when people decided to jump outof bed to work, to read, to visit their neighbors, topray, to fornicate. Well, maybe they didn't jump outof their beds to fuck, but they didn't sleep at allThat habit was eradicated when electric lightningwas invented and people could be in the streets atnight without feeling fear. Nighttime didn't belongto criminals anymore, it belonged to everyone andlots of activities were done during those hoursThat was the moment when we thought thatsleeping should be done with no interruptions, acustom which is not so healthy as the biphasicsleep pattern. So don't panic if you wake up whenit's dark at 2 am. It means you are acting as yourforebears did.







According to the beliefs of the Yaohnanen, a son of amountain spirit from the island, descended from apale-skinned deity, traveled to a distant land to marrya rich and powerful woman. The only exotic womanthey knew of in the tribe was the Queen of Englandwhom they saw in photographs shown to them byEnglish colonial officials.

Therefore, if the husband of the powerful woman isthe son of the spirit of the mountain, then PrincePhilip was being talked about. Delighted with this'charge', the Duke of Edinburgh did not want todisplease the Aborigines (a gesture that somecriticize as racist), and so will the God of theYaohnanen be forever.









Language is the mirror of our culture, it explainsour history, tradition, desires and misconceptionsThe expressions we use become independent oftheir origins because their meanings are morepowerful than the story behind them. In Spanishwhen we want to talk about utopian ideas, dreamsor things that we believe are imposible we say"construir castillos en el aire".in English we talkabout building castles in the air.

In French, the equivalent expression is to"avoirdes châteaux en Espagneor"bâtir des châteauxen Espagne". This chimeric expression is presentin the Ballad of the Rose already in the XIll century.Etienne Pasquier in the XVII century, explains thatcastles in Spain were not built to prevent enemiesfrom invading the territory. This is one of manyexamples that shows how we understand theworld through legends and stories, even used as adefense strategy.









Caligula was an eccentric Roman emperor who didn’t know mercy or common sense. Before being assassinated by a group of senators and praetorians as a result of a conspiracy, something that was quite trendy in the Ancient Rome, he left an indelible mark that pointed him out as a bloodthirsty and pigheaded leader that just felt love for one living being, and that was his horse Incitatus. Incitatus was a racehorse that used to win all the competitions, and Caligula loved it as if it was his own baby. He treated Incitatus with great honors. The horse had a stable made of marble and an ivory manger, it was fed with oat flakes, seafood and chicken and it was dressed with jewelry and purple mantles. A magnificent villa that included lots of servants was built just for Incitatus, and the night before a race, sepulchral silence was decreed all over the city so that the animal could sleep peacefully. Caligula spent those nights with his horse, and death penalties were sentenced if someone made a noise and charioteers were killed if they couldn’t win a race riding Incitatus. Rumors say that Caligula, in order to ridicule his political advisors, wanted to name Incitatus as consul. Let’s have a toast for Incitatus, Consul of Rome, if you don’t want to lose your head.







In 1981, the Reagan administration wanted to reviveinterest in space research programs and, togetherwith NASA, a plan known as the 'Space Shuttle' wasdrawn up. In the plan, for example, the first Americanwoman astronaut. civilians (non-astronauts) or acelebrity would be sent into space.

At that time, the Sesame Street character mostloved by children was 'Big Bird'. Those responsiblefor the program were convinced that it would bewise to send it into space together with a group ofprofesional astronauts and, upon arrival, recordsome programs that could be broadcast and seenby a millionaire television audience

.The space shuttle Challenger which, on January 28,1986, disintegrated 73 seconds after being launchedbecoming one of the most remembered tragedies inthe history of the United States, because the launchwas broadcast live by a large number of televisionchannels and was seen by millions of people (a largenumber of young students, since it was connectedfrom most schools in the country). But inside was not Big Bird. Since after the tests he hadto be discarded due to his height (248 centimeters),when the maximum height of the astronauts of thatspace program should be 190 centimeters.







As book lovers, we are always interested in facts that surround the editorial universe. One of the things that I learned by working in the Biblioteca Nacional de España is the effort all teams make to preserve books. We all know common historical enemies of books such as fires or dictatorships, the destruction of the most important media of knowledge is a tragedy.

The silverfish is a dead and silent enemy of the books, it feeds on glue, silicons and celluloid. When a silverfish finishes eating the glue in the spine of the book, it jumps to another one. If it’s unable to jump to somewhere else, it starts eating the paper, first the margins, then the space between the lines creating amazing forms. The moment the silverfish accidentally eats a piece of paper with ink, poetically, it dies.










Believe it or not, culture is a powerful device that can cause plane crashes. Just take a look at Korean Air’s history to notice that tragedy hovered over the company during a lot of years. From 1960 up to 2000, almost twenty accidents occurred with serious damages and victims. It seemed that the airline was cursed by an evil incantation until something happened. The change was produced when David Greenberg, a retired vice president of Delta Air Lines, was hired by Korean Air to guide the company to a different destination. It was pretty soon when Greenberg realized that the problem was not based on engines, turbines or wheels. The problem had something to do with language. The problem had something to do with the miscommunication in the cockpit, where the copilot and pilot almost didn’t talk to each other when something was going wrong. Korean language is ambiguous, and the rigid hierarchy of their culture doesn’t help to communicate even in critic situations. When Greenberg established English as the only language that could be spoken in the cockpit, the accidents disappeared. Culture is a powerful device that can prevent plane crashes. And if you are falling, it’s easy to shout “mayday”. Although the word comes from French.






Despite the advances made in the field of nutrition, food remains a scarce commodity, distributed unequally. In this process, packaging plays a key role, from the moment it affects the conservation of the product, the final cost of the food and even the carbon footprint they generate.

In 1963 the appearance of the Tetra-brik was proclaimed as an effective, revolutionary and beautiful design solution in the form of a pyramid. However, once again, the dream of ending inequalities was not fulfilled. And its innovative and characteristic original volumetric form changed to a simple brick.











The onomatopoeias try to represent by means of a graphic signifier a sound that has no specific equivalent. But interpretations are richer than language.  And onomatopoeias usually vary according to the region in which they originate or the language spoken. Even in the same language there are different onomatopoeias to represent the same sound!

For example, the onomatopoeia of a dog barking is represented differently in Spanish (Guau-guau), in English (Woof) or in French (Ouaf) However, I am sure that these beautiful and painful onomatopoeias, taken from the 1966 batman series, are perfectly interpretable for everyone.








The Oblique Strategies are a mysterious deck of cards (about 110) with which “new ideas will appear by themselves and others will become evident”. With them we are encouraged to think laterally, to solve dilemmas, to continue working, to find creative solutions and break our 'straight' way of thinking.

They were designed by Peter Schmidt and Brian Eno between 1970 and 1975. And they were used, for example, for the instrumentation of Bowie's “Heroes” and to get Bowie out of his creative block.

Until 2001 they have been practically an object for artists, collectors and friends of Eno, in which an 'unlimited' edition was launched .










No, this is not a movie set or a theme park. This anachronistic place has a bigger purpose than entertainment. Town Square is a treatment center that is helping improve the lives of people with Alzheimer's disease and dementia.

  Town Square is made to look like a 1950s town, but it's actually a treatment in Chula Vista, California, for people with Alzheimer's and some form of dementia. The center uses reminiscence therapy to help create memories and provide a comforting environment for patients.









Corita Kent had two vocations: God and Art.  And she combined both, at least until she left him... The church did not look favorably on this charismatic "communist" nun transmitting subversive messages about love and tolerance to humanity. She was quite an art expert. Her classes were attended by everyone from Hitchcock to Saul Bass and she knew that the art that reached the masses was Pop. Corita Kent was too radical for the Church, too Catholic for the art world.










The roots of blues and jazz go back to the terrible years of the slave trade between Africa and America back in the 18th century. All those people were not allowed to take anything with them, but they carried the music on their heads and on the boats one or two instruments were loaded like this drum (the oldest African -American object in the British Museum).









The Red and Blue Armchair is one of a handful of seating designs that is universally recognizable. With no direct precedents. Rietveld was only twenty-nine when he created this seminal piece and began his search for furniture design that translated the two dimensional painting system, Neoplasticism. In the firts model the oak remained unpainted.











In late 1778 Captain Cook and his crew landed in Hawaii in search of new sea routes. They were the first outsiders to those islands for more than 500 years. Cook received magnificent gifts, rare and precious objects. But a few weeks later he died at the hands of the same people in another ominous misunderstanding of the contact of Europeans with the various peoples of the planet.











The relationship with Calder is unknown beyond this photograph taken by the painter Hans Hartung. However, personally it is one of the most significant and recurring images in my life.










In 1962, a French speleologist named Michel Siffre spent two months living in total isolation in a subterranean cave, without access to clock, calendar, or sun. Sleeping and eating only when his body told him to, his goal was to discover how the natural rhythms of human life would be affected by living “beyond time.”









During the May 1968 student revolt in Paris, an effective means of disseminating ideas was the city walls. Power was frightened by the revolution that did not prosper but but was the most influential protest in the following decades.









“They Live" has gone on to claim a cult following and earned a reputation for its political satire, social commentary, philosophical and technological forecasting, and visual aesthetics. Areas in which the film has both inspired and exerted its distinct influences such as Jenny's Holzer or Barbara Kruger.











Martino Gamper  reconfigured the design of 100 seats which were retrieved over a period of two years through his adventures of rummaging through garbage, picking up rejected and deserted chairs. The result is a collage of design history. A good reference for quarantined times








Perfect Paul is one of the three voices that projectaba the Speech Plus CallText 5010 human speech synthesizer produced in 1988. This synthesizer had three voices: a female, called "Beautiful Betty", another child ("Kit the Kid") and a male ("Perfect Paul"). But above all, Perfect Pau is known to be the voice of Stephen Hawking.

In spite of the improvements in the software and hardware of the interface, Hawking never stopped using this voice of primitive technological aspect. The reason has to do with personality traits: changing your voice would be like changing your face. Simply, Hawking identified with his old Calltext, and moving to a different style of voice would make him feel a stranger. Although there may be other reasons; He was once asked why he did not use a voice with a British accent, more typical of an Oxford native like him. Hawking replied: "With the American accent, I have much more success with women."









Miquel Barceló and the choreographer Josef Nad build a clay wall on the stage, "a material similar to meat" according to Barceló, which sometimes molds him with punches and then destroys them with wood and iron tools. Both appear on stage with a sober black suit and white shirt, and are smeared with that material Barceló has pointed out that Paso Doble is a show that is "very linked" to his work in the cathedral of Palma and that its origin "is ecclesiastical, was created in a desacralized church in Avignon (France) and" is a kind of pagan ritual and every rite is a form of invocation. " Recommendation, watch the documentary by Isaki Lacuesta “El cuaderno de barro”. A documentary, avaible on vimeo  shows the work process of Miquel Barceló in Africa and where this fantastical performance is represented.








«Sublime spirit! Deep and deep genius! Divine person! Accept the homage of my weak talent ... Ah, Newton! " With these words, the French architect and designer Étienne-Louis Boullée dedicated his design of an imaginary cenotaph (empty tomb) in honor of the English physicist Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727). Like many intellectuals of his time, Boullée was fascinated with Newtonian physics. Its design perfectly illustrates the general characteristics of its work and that of the architecture of the late eighteenth century: large simple masses, free of any superfluous decoration, and buildings whose forms express their purpose.







Rwandans have always cherished and loved their culture and hair has always played a large role in their culture. Rwandans used to wear the amasunzu style in more than 30 different ways. Amasunzu is a traditionally Rwandan hairstyle that was once worn by men, as well as by unmarried women in order to indicate to potential suitors that they were single and of marriageable age. A man was identified as powerful, noble and brave if they had the hairstyle. It also showed prestige, especially among men.