Skilful Minds

Thanks to Putting People First, I found Aria magazine today. Aria is a magazine dedicated to Emotional Geography. The inspiration for the magazine comes from Professor Giuliana Bruno of Harvard, who wrote Atlas of Emotion. Mark Vanderbeeken at Putting People First wonders if Aria magazine is a brand strategy for Nokia, since Nokia is the only advertiser in the magazine. The magazine draws inspiration and trend examples from the qualitative research consultancy Future Concept Lab. Whether Nokia is involved is unknown. However, the approach of an Emotional Geography could prove useful in the branding efforts of companies like Nokia. Giuliana Bruno’s work provides a point of view that asserts the close connection between communication technology and tactile experience, especially the notion of “staying in touch.”

Cinema has laid the foundation upon which the current communication technologies have developed and strengthened: the possibility of reaching places and people without really moving. The term “con-tact” stands for the need of human beings to stay in touch, and it does, indeed, emphasize “tact”‹that tactility favored by the desire for closeness. The new terminology of communication indicates better than anything else how something which at first appears to be aseptic and abstract is, now more than ever, tactile… At first, there is always a moment in which you fear that the medium itself can get the “upper-hand” and overwhelm the human spirit. But it is not so. Time has shown, again and again, that desire does not die. Once you master the medium, that you tangibly do is continue to look for other ways to keep contacts.