I just read on the frogblog an article by Tim Leberecht (based on another article, published in Wallpaper) that hit the nail on the head on a topic that has been the center of our lives during the last ten years. Now I have a term for what I consider ourselves since that moment, back then in 1998, were we left Argentina with a scholarship in the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, Germany. Now It seems to be that we are Global Nomadic Expatriates.
Our nomadic life started – as I mentioned – in 1998 and lead us to live in many places: in different locations around Stuttgart, for a short period in Berlin, for a semester in Halle (Saale), in several places in Buenos Aires (like the tango says, ‘siempre se vuelve al primer amor…’), many months in San Martín de los Andes and two non consecutive semesters (winter-spring ‘06 and ‘07) in Dunedin, New Zealand. Our moves were not only dictated by professional goals as many times we have spent long periods closer to our families, living in Buenos Aires, Gonzáles Chaves, Córdoba and San Martín de los Andes, all places in Argentina. This could be a difference with the people mentioned in the original article (which I haven’t read yet).
During all these years – that look as brief moments to us – we have discovered many different ways of dressing, cooking, behaving, understanding (and misunderstanding), speaking, travelling, enjoying and, basically, living. And blured the borders between working / living spaces, working days / holidays, and so on. Paraphrasing Zygmunt Bauman, living liquid times. Bottom line: the most important thing seems to be to maintain the freedom of movement and avoid collecting many material things (I wrote – in Spanish – about mobility, cyberspace, design and our experience here: Diseño y Ciberespacio) And we’d been only in a few mostly urban / suburban and occidental places!
Going to the point, it seems to be that this concept is emerging: the paper Nomadic way of life – Project policies that will be presented in the conference Changing the Change in Torino, Italy by Lara Leite Barbosa, and now this article from Leberecht.
I will have to read the mentioned book The Global Soul by Pico Iyer.
