full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Catalina Lotero: A futuristic vision for Latin America, rooted in ancient design

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So I decided to turn to design to correct this. And I asked: What would Latin America look like if its pre-Columbian civilizations had evolved without colonial interruption? And the quset for the answer of this question is something that I like to call pre-Columbian futurism. Pre-Columbian futurism is a speculative design project that seeks to dig the hidden stories and messages of our polcnrioeal communities and bring them into today through design.

So I started with the eeilnqauvt of the Latin American tatami room, which is where it all started. truns out, I lnraeed, that pre-Columbian civilizations do a lot of rituals around the coca leaf, just as the Japanese have their own tea ritual. And the coca leaf is very imrnptaot. Not only was it important before, but it's still tadoy for a lot of indigenous cieotumnmis. So I identified common fetuaers that the sepacs ddciteead to the coca leaf have, and for example, they were all rounded, they had a central fire, they had floor seating, they had metallic jars where you could spit in. And I took those, and I brought them to today. So usually they were drecateod with altars dedicated to gods. Gods of corn, gods of the moon, the sun, or Chía and Sué, as they call them in the Chibcha dialect.

Open Cloze


So I decided to turn to design to correct this. And I asked: What would Latin America look like if its pre-Columbian civilizations had evolved without colonial interruption? And the _____ for the answer of this question is something that I like to call pre-Columbian futurism. Pre-Columbian futurism is a speculative design project that seeks to dig the hidden stories and messages of our ___________ communities and bring them into today through design.

So I started with the __________ of the Latin American tatami room, which is where it all started. _____ out, I _______, that pre-Columbian civilizations do a lot of rituals around the coca leaf, just as the Japanese have their own tea ritual. And the coca leaf is very _________. Not only was it important before, but it's still _____ for a lot of indigenous ___________. So I identified common ________ that the ______ _________ to the coca leaf have, and for example, they were all rounded, they had a central fire, they had floor seating, they had metallic jars where you could spit in. And I took those, and I brought them to today. So usually they were _________ with altars dedicated to gods. Gods of corn, gods of the moon, the sun, or Chía and Sué, as they call them in the Chibcha dialect.

Solution


  1. dedicated
  2. precolonial
  3. spaces
  4. important
  5. today
  6. features
  7. communities
  8. turns
  9. equivalent
  10. decorated
  11. learned
  12. quest

Original Text


So I decided to turn to design to correct this. And I asked: What would Latin America look like if its pre-Columbian civilizations had evolved without colonial interruption? And the quest for the answer of this question is something that I like to call pre-Columbian futurism. Pre-Columbian futurism is a speculative design project that seeks to dig the hidden stories and messages of our precolonial communities and bring them into today through design.

So I started with the equivalent of the Latin American tatami room, which is where it all started. Turns out, I learned, that pre-Columbian civilizations do a lot of rituals around the coca leaf, just as the Japanese have their own tea ritual. And the coca leaf is very important. Not only was it important before, but it's still today for a lot of indigenous communities. So I identified common features that the spaces dedicated to the coca leaf have, and for example, they were all rounded, they had a central fire, they had floor seating, they had metallic jars where you could spit in. And I took those, and I brought them to today. So usually they were decorated with altars dedicated to gods. Gods of corn, gods of the moon, the sun, or Chía and Sué, as they call them in the Chibcha dialect.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
tatami room 7
latin america 3
favorite part 3
jaguar skin 3
latin american 2
coca leaf 2
identified common 2


Important Words


  1. altars
  2. america
  3. american
  4. answer
  5. bring
  6. brought
  7. call
  8. central
  9. chibcha
  10. chía
  11. civilizations
  12. coca
  13. colonial
  14. common
  15. communities
  16. corn
  17. correct
  18. decided
  19. decorated
  20. dedicated
  21. design
  22. dialect
  23. dig
  24. equivalent
  25. evolved
  26. features
  27. fire
  28. floor
  29. futurism
  30. gods
  31. hidden
  32. identified
  33. important
  34. indigenous
  35. interruption
  36. japanese
  37. jars
  38. latin
  39. leaf
  40. learned
  41. lot
  42. messages
  43. metallic
  44. moon
  45. precolonial
  46. project
  47. quest
  48. question
  49. ritual
  50. rituals
  51. room
  52. rounded
  53. seating
  54. seeks
  55. spaces
  56. speculative
  57. spit
  58. started
  59. stories
  60. sun
  61. sué
  62. tatami
  63. tea
  64. today
  65. turn
  66. turns