May

OIC’s Greatest Hits: Different Eyes on the World

by Your friends at OIC on May 3, 2021

5 Everyday Ways That Cultures Show Their Differences

People in every culture celebrate, greet each other, share stories and good food together, fall in love, honor their ancestors, play music and sports, name babies, and more. But the customs—the do’s and taboos—surrounding these universal activities are a remarkable reveal into how varied and ingenious different cultures can be.

Culture reveals itself even in mundane ways from what communities show on their road signs to how people cook their onions or describe a downpour. At OIC, we say no one way is the “correct” way. And here, in our latest collection of “Greatest Hits,” our bloggers prove it with their observations and insights on everyday cultural differences. May they inspire you to look at the world with new eyes.

1. Oh Deer! Road Signs in Different Cultures

Sheron Long contends that warning signs along the world’s roads show more about different cultures and geographies than you might think!

2. Do You Know Your Onions?

Today, most world cuisines are built on a base of onions. Joyce McGreevy examines how onions have rooted themselves across so many different cultures, sometimes in surprising ways. Find insight and a free recipe download, too.

3. Same Animal + Different Cultures = Surprise!

Just how many lives does a cat have? It depends on the culture, 9 in the USA but 7 in Mexico. Bruce Goldstone has more enlightenment on how animal symbols and sayings vary across cultures.

4. Grand Openings

Joyce McGreevy leads a cross-cultural tour of doors and windows around the world, revealing their differences and unlocking their stories ready for the telling.

5. Culture Smart: Is the Rain in Spain the Same?

The same rain may fall on different cultures in the world, but people describe it in different and colorful ways. One thing, however, remains the same—it’s always wet!

Want to explore more about different cultures? Check out our Blog Topics & Archive section for all our enriching and inspiring culture posts.

Photo credits: faces, Gerd Altman/Pixabay; deer sign, Simon Gurney/iStock; onions, Joyce McGreevy; falling cat, Deshy/iStock; round door, Joyce McGreevy; umbrellas, Gregor Kervina/Hemera.

Your friends at OIC Comments

Cultural Diversity/Cultural Do's & Taboos/Cultural Heritage & Traditions/Cultural Symbols

Mar

In the (School) Zone of Different Cultures

by Sheron Long on March 9, 2021

This round cardboard school zone sign from The Gambia with arrow pointing in one direction and 3 kids going in the opposite direction is part of a series of school zone signs from different cultures. Image © Kirszen/iStock

The beeline—Did this school sign from The Gambia presage 2020 education
or where kids wanted to go?
© Kirszen

School Zone Signs of the Times

All over the world in 2020 school traffic stopped and not just in the crosswalks. Now buses are creeping back to school, kids are in the crosswalks again, and our minds at OIC have moved from online education to the lines on school zone signs in different cultures.

Sign designers have the challenge of a small canvas driven by the need for clarity and by endless government guidelines on color, shape, and messaging. Road sign specs in the US government manual alone amount to 862 pages, and most other countries also make the effort to standardize. Still, while school zone signs and other road signs are a labor of uniformity and full of constraints, they show more about different cultures than you might think.

Fashion Statements?

In the USA, the yellow-green fluorescent background of the school zone sign sets off the beauty of basic black outfits. And the accessory—is it a stylish clutch? A book? Or the homework that the dog didn’t eat? No matter, with something in hand as a visual cue, we know the kids are surely on their way to school.

This yellow-green fluorescent school zone sign and arrow from the USA with a female and male student holding a book is part of a series of school zone signs from different cultures. Image © Garrett Aitken/iStock.

Wait! Without shoes, this fashion statement isn’t in step with the times!
© Garrett Aitken

In such a small space, it’s the visual cue that distinguishes the school zone crossing from other pedestrian signage. In Japan, for example, one cue on school zone signs is the monochromatic equivalent of the brightly-colored caps school children wear to avoid traffic accidents.

While times have changed in Japan and more casual dress is allowed in elementary schools, the traditional uniform of short pants for young boys and pleated skirts for young girls still make the school statement— if not for fashion, at least for clarity.

This school zone sign in Japan features two students wearing caps, one a boy in short pants and the other a girl in a pleated skirt, both part of the traditional uniforms for elementary students, and is part of a series of school zone signs from different cultures. <br>Image courtesy of Nesnad, CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Most primary students in Japan wear
a hat or cap selected by the school with two styles shown on this sign.
Courtesy of Nesnad, CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

School sign fashion is slow to change. Who would want to rewrite all those regulations to keep up with the trends? Or replace and recycle the millions of school signs around the world? But why must all the girls on school signs wear skirts? Clearly NOT a sign of the times, and neither are the bows.

This school zone crosswalk features a girl with a bow in her pigtail guiding a boy with book in hand and is part of a series of school zone signs from different cultures. <br>Image © vikif/iStock.

The school crosswalk–always a path of increased assistance
© vikif

At least in Valencia, Spain, there’s a nod to a more modern accoutrement (and the weight of textbooks) via the much more practical backpack.

Seen in Spain—The classic yellow and black of well-dressed street signs
signals the way to school.
© jansmartino

Look, Ma! No Hands!

Yes, school zone signs have style from the realistic to the graphically simplistic. On the realistic side—In New Zealand, the school children have discernible hands and feet. Also in Zimbabwe and in Ecuador, where even the heels on the shoes show.

This school zone sign adopts a more realistic style, showing a girl and boy with hands and feet on their way to school, and is part of a series of school zone signs from different cultures. Image © Powerofforever/iStock .

New Zealanders must know it’s easier to read and write with hands.
© Powerofforeveer

Two school zone signs from Zimbabwe (L) and Ecuador (R) show a more realistic style, each with a girl and a boy who have hands and feet and with even the suggestion of heels on the shoes on the Ecuador sign, and are part of a series of school zone signs from different cultures. Image © Ben185 (Zimbabwe) and ANPerryman (Ecuador)/iStock .

These school signs in Zimbabwe (L) and Ecuador (R) illustrate how the degree of detail extends
beyond hands and feet to hairstyles, clothing, colors, shapes, borders, and even attribution.
© Ben185 (Zimbabwe) and © ANPerryman (Ecuador)

Denmark, however, believes in no frills: no hands, no feet, no discernible clothes, no coifs. Just get attention with a bright red border and get the point across. Still, with the no-hands approach, don’t you wonder why those ever-present books aren’t falling to the ground?

From Denmark, this triangular school zone sign with a thick red border and stylistically simple figures with no hands, feet, or clothing, shows a girl and a boy on their way to school and is part of a series of school zone signs from different cultures. Image © Carsten Medom Madsen/iStock .

Well labeled and simple, this triangular school zone sign in Denmark
gets right to the point, all three of them.
© Carsten Medom Madsen

Like Denmark, Italy and Spain rely on the same red-and-white attention grabbers. The figures, though, exude enthusiasm—kids running to class with no feet and swinging books with no hands. So eager to learn! But—yikes!—what about the two who lost their heads?

Similar signs from Italy and Spain, each with a thick red border and stylistically simple figures of a boy and a girl with no hands, feet, or clothing, who are running enthusiastically to school and are part of a series of school zone signs from different cultures. Image © Matthew71(Italian sign) and peeterv (Spanish sign)/iStock.

Dents, scratches, chips, a little graffiti. It’s all part of being a schoolyard sign.
© Matthew71 (Italian sign) and © peeterv (Spanish sign)

Who Leads?

Take a look back at the signs so far. Almost all show two figures. A designer in each country had to decide which one would lead. And, despite the female stereotypes of dress that seem to grace school signs around the world, it’s often the girl who leads. Sometimes out front, sometimes from behind, and sometimes with real intention and confidence. Is this sign a sign of the times before the times had come or a sign that the times took time to notice that girls are leaders, too?

This triangular school zone sign from Germany shows a girl confidently leading a boy to school and is part of a series of school zone signs from different cultures. Image © prill/iStock.

Take my hand and follow me!
© prill

On some school zone signs, a parent shows up, taking the lead. This sign from Greece offers a bit of a father-and-daughter dance, maybe even a tug to get a reluctant kid going.

This blue circular school zone sign from Greece shows a father pulling his daughter along on her way to school and is part of a series of school zone signs from different cultures. Image © NeilLang/iStock.

Greece is the sunniest country in Europe! With about 250 days of sunshine in Greece,
it’s hard to want to go to school.
© Neil Lang

And sometimes, the signs show just kids all on their own and in a rush to get to school. No reluctance for this guy in India!

This square blue-bordered school zone sign from India shows a boy running to school and is part of a series of school zone signs from different cultures. Image © yogesh_more/iStock.

Late for school or can’t wait to get there? Either way, this guy’s on a mission.
© yogesh_more

Right now, there’s little reluctance in family homes around the world after many COVID months at home. The enthusiastic “running to school” signs, may not be part of the culture where you live, but they capture our current feelings completely.

And when it comes to who leads, it doesn’t matter if it’s the girl or the boy on the school zone sign. But it does matter that leaders around the world and in every community get “in the zone,” that they show up to sense the strength of our feelings and pave the way for a safe return to school.

Just like the school zone signs in different cultures, the details and the student portrayals will vary, but every culture will find its way back to school, leaving its unique mark. And that’s a good sign.

With appreciation to iStock for all school zone photos, except the sign in Japan.

Please comment on the post below.

Sheron Long Comments

Cultural Diversity/Worldwide Sites

Dec

Can Art Change the World? Artivist JR Has the Answer

by Meredith Mullins on December 1, 2020

Portrait of artivist JR Artist, showing cultural diversity, social awareness, and answering the question can art change the world. (Image © JR.)

French artivist JR (artist/activist)
© JR

JR’s Monumental Portraits Spark Social Awareness

There are hundreds of motivational quotes about how one person can make a difference . . . or shake the world. One person can be a revolution.

We know it’s true. There are people throughout past and recent history who changed the world—sometimes for worse . . . but mostly for better.

French artivist (artist/activist) JR is one of those people with an instinct for the positive side of change—a street revolutionary, a shaker of the world—with a simple goal of better understanding what makes us human.

His photographic projects and documentaries spark connections in a diverse world and heighten social awareness—all with his driving force of respecting differences, seeking the best of humanness, and valuing unity.

Can art change the world? JR is living proof.

Wrinkles of the City in Shanghai by Artivist JR Artist, showing social awareness and answering the question can art save the world. (Image © JR.)

JR’s Wrinkles of the City project honored senior citizens in Shanghai, Cartegena,
Havana, Berlin, Istanbul, and Los Angeles.
© JR

For People To “See” and “To Be Seen”

Although JR prefers to remain relatively anonymous (JR stands for Jean-René . . . no last name), his work has been recognizable from the start.

He is unique—from the tag he used as a defiant teenage graffiti artist (Face 3) in the early 2000’s to his first “exhibitions” pasted on the public walls of Paris and the banlieue with spray painted frames, to the now famous world-sized “pastings” of black-and-white photos on buildings, rooftops, bridges, cargo containers, trucks, and trains.

A train in Kenya with the work of Artivist JR Artist, showing cultural diversity, social awareness, and answering the question can art change the world. (Image © JR.)

A train travels through the Kenya countryside, with the all-seeing eyes of local women—
a vision toward the future.
© JR

The work is not about him. It is about giving people their moment to be seen . . . to be better understood, especially when they have often been overlooked or marginalized. Women. Prisoners. Elders. War Victims. Immigrants. And just ordinary people who feel invisible.

JR started as a graffiti artist, making his presence known on illegal concrete and metal canvases (walls, buildings, and metro cars) throughout the city. His life changed one day when he found a camera left behind on the metro.

He then became what he called a photograffeur (photographer and graffiti artist), traveling with his street artist friends and capturing their fleeting adventures in the Paris area underground, alleys, and rooftops. He showed us what it was like to surreptitiously paint and run.

Artivist JR's Graffiti artist painting on a metro car, showing cultural diversity, social awareness, and answering the question can art change the world. (Image © JR.)

The acrobatic adventures of a street artist
© JR

His first “exhibitions” of this work included photocopies of the images, with spray painted frames on walls and buildings so that people would be confronted by the images in this outdoor (albeit illegal) gallery—free for everyone.

A gallery on a wall in Paris by artivist JR artist, showing social awareness and answering the question can art change the world. (Image © JR.)

Mon expo à moi (My own exhibit)
JR’s outdoor gallery, free for everyone
© JR

His initial documentary work came with the 2005 riots in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois. He photographed the participants who were protesting what they believed to be police harassment/brutality in the poorer housing estates and made huge photos to be pasted around Paris and the suburb cities—so that passers-by would be forced to look into the faces of these disenfranchised youth.

If video does not display, watch it here.

Face 2 Face (Israel to Palestine)

JR’s next illegal project (2007) was an international one in collaboration with Marco Berrebi, where he photographed Israeli and Palestinian people in the same professions with a 28 mm lens.

This close-up approach meant that the taxi drivers, hairdressers, students, sportspeople, actors, musicians, sculptors, and police looked comically distorted. It also meant they were engaged with the photographer. They talked . . . and listened. They connected.

JR then pasted the huge black-and-white photographs in unavoidable places in eight cities in both Israel and Palestine (including on the dividing wall).

The intent and the result was that most people could not tell if the subjects were Israeli or Palestinian. The viewers no doubt smiled at the fun expressions, recognized certain similarities, and engaged in conversation about the project. More importantly, they perhaps focused on the possibility of living together as humans in peace.

Face 2 Face, the work of artivist JR artist, in the West Bank of Palestine, showing social awareness and answering the question can art change the world. (Image © JR.)

Woman Are Heroes

The “Women Are Heroes” project began in 2007 and stretched from Kenya to Brazil, Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Sudan, Cambodia, India, Paris, and Le Havre.

JR met and photographed women who live in the midst of conflict or in challenging climate or economic conditions and who are often targets during war and victims of violence. And yet, they play a pivotal role in family and society.

As in all his projects, he then pasted the large photographs in highly visible places in the cities and villages, so that the women were “seen” and shown with dignity.

One of the most dramatic pastings was in the Morro da Providência favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In this dangerous slum, the faces of the women inside the homes were shown on the outside walls, filling the hillside with haunting eyes and poignant faces. And for one brief moment, the favela was known for something other than drugs and violence.

Women are Heroes photos by artivist JR pasted on houses in the Favela Morro da Providência, Brazil, showing social awareness and answering the question can art change the world. (Image © JR.)

For the Kenya project, the photos that were placed on the women’s roofs were made of water resistant vinyl so that they would last longer and could protect the fragile houses during the rainy season.

Because many of the women photographed for this project asked that their stories be shared with the world, the photos were pasted on trains and trucks that traveled throughout the countries.

The ultimate journey was when JR pasted a Kenyan women’s eyes on cargo containers that were on a ship leaving Le Havre, France, bound for Malaysia. These eyes went off to see the world . . . and to be seen by the world.

Women Are Heroes photo by artivist JR in Sierra Leone, showing social awareness and answering the question can art change the world. (Image © JR.)

This Land Is Your Land, This Land Is My Land

Immigration and “the wall” between the U.S. and Mexico were in the news in 2017 when JR created a project highlighting the border fence near Tecate, Mexico.

He created a giant billboard-like installation of a Mexican child innocently peeking over the fence into the United States. What does this promised land hold . . . or bar? What do we see from this Mexican border town where most everyone passing through tries to be invisible?

Artivist JR's pasting of a child looking over the USA Mexico border near Tecate Mexico, showing cultural diversity and social awareness and answering the question can art change the world. (Image © JR.)

To celebrate the day when the installation had to be removed, JR organized a picnic on both sides of the fence, with a table that was half in the U.S. and half in Mexico and a “tablecloth” that presented the eyes of a DACA dreamer.

Everyone brought food to share. Music wafted through the fence, with half the band in the U.S. and half in Mexico.

JR thought the border patrol would stop the celebration, but the party was allowed to continue. Everyone was reveling in a rare moment of unity.

Artivist JR organizes a picnic on both sides of the border fence near Tecate Mexico, showing cultural diversity and social awareness and answering the question can art change the world. (Image © JR.)

Giving Voice to Prisoners

From the disenfranchised youth of JR’s home in the suburbs of Paris to the California Tehachapi maximum-security prison, JR focuses on making us see those we have made invisible.

For his 2019 project at the prison, he photographed prisoners, guards, and former prisoners—one by one— from above, so that when they were combined into one mural on the concrete floor of the yard, they would appear to be looking outward. Each man was also videotaped telling his story. There was no judgement. JR just wanted to listen . . . and for others to listen.

Artivist JR's pasting at the Tehachapi Prison, showing social awareness and answering the question can art change the world. (Image © JR.)

Prisoners, former prisoners, and guards at the Tehachapi Prison come together
in JR’s mural pasting and look out toward . . .
© JR

The prisoners were part of the team that pasted the photos to the yard—one team building something together. The mural was ephemeral, like many of JR’s works. The pasting disappeared in three days with the normal activity of the prisoners in the yard.

If video does not display, watch it here.

As an epilogue to this project, JR returned in 2020 and pasted photographs of the Tehachapi mountains on the prison wall, making the wall disappear and morph into a mirage of freedom.

Artivist JR pastes a mural at the Tehachapi prison yard and wall, showing social awareness and answering the question can art change the world. (Image © JR.)

Oh, I See: Turning the World Inside Out

JR, the artivist, is prolific. His projects are too numerous to mention in one story. He has turned the Louvre pyramid into 3D time travel (2019) and has honored the elderly of the world in a project called “Wrinkles of the City” (2008-2015).

Artivist JR's installation at the Louvre in Paris in 2019, showing social awareness and answering the question can art change the world. (Image © JR.)

He continues to expand our social awareness and invent creative ways to shine a light on those who need to be more visible in the name of fairness and equality.

Can art change the world? JR’s foundation of that name hopes so.

One thing is certain. JR believes that art can change the way we see the world and the amazing humans that inhabit this planet. He will continue to open our eyes so that we can see and be seen. Onward . . .

See also JR’s 2017 film with Agnes Varda entitled Visages/Villages (Faces/Places) and his organization Can Art Change The World.

Thank you to JR and Agence VU.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Meredith Mullins 4 Comments

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