Caffe Interactions

Scooters weren’t so popular when I left Argentina. So, after arriving in Spain in 2019, I found myself walking in the street and listening to that subtle but high-pitched sound coming from them. I remember thinking “This is what the future sounds like.” With this thought, I wasn’t making any judgment, nor good or bad. It was just that the sound reminded me of The Jetsons, that cartoon TV show I used to watch and love when I was a child. Remember them?

As Teslas and other electric cars become more and more popular in town, covering for example a large part of the cab fleet, different tones of this subtle and sharp sound are added to those who inhabit the street already.

The way we picture the future in our minds with our different senses is arriving less slowly than steadily nowadays. As it happens with every change, they might arouse rejection from certain groups in society, regarding regulation and safety – in the case of scooters -; and alleged energy efficiency and ecology, when it comes to electric car batteries. Despite the reactions, these gradual and progressive changes always make me try to imagine the way cities will look in the near future. I also wonder if I’ll be aware of how different they used to be in the not-so-distant past.
… It’s like with cell phones. They started to grow popular during my last years of high school and, nowadays, most of the population walks in the streets looking down. Not just due to self-esteem issues, but because a big part of life, interactions and that self-confidence, is being built and challenged through the phone and media—like it or not 😟.

Let’s play the game of trying to imagine how cities used to feel like, by using all of our senses.
I would play back time starting from these high-pitched sounds of scooters and electric cars, then going to noisy regular engines and adding more smells of their gasses. I’d move on to the gravel and dirt roads where my mind plays sounds like “tac tac tac” or “trrrrrrrr” coming from all possible directions. At the same time, I start undoing the city’s skeleton, tearing down buildings in the picture I imagine and trying to guess how certain parts would look if they weren’t in the shade. This flat city picture brings with it the kind of feeling you get when arriving in villages or small towns, where no buildings are found. A feeling of <life being just that—something less pretentious>.

Along with this exercise, I always wonder where the garbage used to go, how it was before plastic invaded our daily life and what quantities of waste were being managed in each period. Picturing smells in the mind is a harder exercise with our brains so over-stimulated with images and words, but I try anyway.
Moving forward with this game, the next step further back in time are the horses’ spurs and me trying to flood the streets with their sound. I imagine the day’s light mixed with halos of dust that rise as carts or horses pass by; the scent of rain-soaked earth and shoes speckled with pebbles. The imaginary exploration is infinite… So many details I must be forgetting and many transitions in the cities over time!
Guess more ideas should be welcomed here 😉 .

Another exercise I usually practice is when visiting palaces and historical buildings. There, where so much luxury is flaunted among textiles and architecture. Surprise comes when we contrast it with a culture where personal hygiene and cleanliness were not a priority—proven by countless plagues and poor water path designs, in the past of the Western world. So, in my mind, these places look amazing but smell horrible. 🤔🥴😝 

If I try to do the same imaginary exploration with cities of the future, the challenge is bigger. Wish I could ask someone like Italo Calvino here.
Which aspects of our daily routines can evolve and how?
With this question comes the dilemma of deciding which adjectives or nouns make up the concept of “future” for each of us. Will it be effective? Energy efficiency? Aesthetics? What kind of aesthetics? Organic or geometric lines? More kinds of sharp sounds? Loud or rather quiet?
Effectiveness in terms of shorter duration, that is for sure. If there is something that defines the future in any sense, it is the need for speed or acceleration of processes. (Once again, like it or not 😟…)

Cutting to the chase, when it comes to devices of the future, I’m still waiting for Marty McFly’s skateboard to arrive. 😆 🙌🏼

How do you picture the future? I’d like to read about images but also smells, sounds, and textures. Temperature is a fact already: It’s gonna be hot. 🥵