Where to go next?
After two months traveling around Europe I could understand that way finding systems are highly influenced by the environment around. In places with a lot of signs and people, visually busy sites are very hard to see clearly. Weāre flooded by information everywhere and it is a struggle to find the information you want. The purpose of signs is to show directions, to do it in an effective way, the sign should be clear, fast to read and for that, the most important, is to use universal language. Thatās why pictograms are used in the entire world. Anyone can understand toilet signs, exit, etc, even when itās not in your language. However, busy places with too many information or signs that are too complex to read it fast, makes people confused. Itās that moment when you leave a train and you donāt know where to head because simply you couldnāt find the exit sign. Signs tent to be useless when people canāt read it. Most of the traffic signs are so simple (a bar, a cross or a triangle) that most of the people (that donāt drive) canāt understand. Even though, a sign without meaning for those who canāt understand it can have a new meaning, it could be seen as a piece of art, could it be abstract and also modified. And again, changing the sign will give a new meaning to it, could transform it into art and again and again. It is a circle of layers of meaning and intervention. Thereās a japanese philosophy called wabi sabi that, in a generic rude way, itās about the imperfect, impermanent and the incomplete. The beautiful thing about this philosophy is more invisible to our eyes. Itās not only about physical matter, but looking in the physical way itās easier to understand what is about. Everything around us is continuously changing, everything we do leaves a mark behind. You could see a scar as something aesthetically undesirable or you can see as a mark that remembers some history in your life. You can see beauty on a mark left by a cup of tea. Saying so, every intervention on the streets leaves a message, leaves a mark and some story to tell. Pictograms are just too boring and meaningless to me. They are generic representations of humans and objects, symbols without personality or identity. Pictograms are generic because they should fit for anyone, they have to represent a quite large kind of people. Although, that also means that it doesnāt represent anyone because a pictogram is far away from a person or a human because itās not humanised. In my travels Iāve seen a lot of repeated things: churches, museums, signs, pictograms. They are alike everywhere, of course with some tiny difference. But after a while it is tiresome to see the same things. The incredible part of traveling are the experiences you have, the people you meet, the new things you see. Nevertheless, most of the experiences are delivered by humans. Getting in contact with different cultures and people. In my experience, getting lost make you see much more new things than following the common way. Trying new paths also open your mind to new things. Getting lost and being able to keep calm shows you new settings of places and people. You donāt need to know where you are to have good experiences. You donāt need to know your physical location to know who you are and where you want to go. Make an intervention in your life: donāt follow otherās path, make your own, even if it means that youāll get lost a few times.