First and foremost, an exchange is the act of giving or receiving something in substitution for something else. Nowadays these exchanges can take several forms: economic (work exchanges, exchange of goods, trading across borders), cultural (exchange of ideas, information, education), and movement of people (immigration, student exchanges, gap years). Modern world is changing quickly and seems to be a smaller place due to improvements in technology and communication. Information exchange has become easier thanks to the internet and international trade has enabled us to expand our markets for goods and services that might not have been available to us. These different cultural, economic, sociological and language interactions have transformed and characterised our world, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. To represent the notion Spaces and exchanges I am going to focus on exchanges in real and virtual spaces.
Chinatown in San Francisco
This document is a photography from Chinatown district in San Francisco, the mo st popular Chinese neighborhood in the world. I have chosen this picture to represent the real space in the notion as an ethnic neighborhood. In this kind of places, there is just a culture that dominates. In this case, Chinese culture is priority. This image shows us a place in USA that transports us to another culture. That is why it seems that we are in another continent. In this ethnic neighborhoods most of the people working in them are native people of for example China. They try to represent the way of life of the original countries that they are inspired by. This districts are made to make immigrants feel as they were at home, to be better integrated in their new town. In fact, this kind of places are intended to international migration.
Y0utube video of text messaging
This document is a video that shows a couple having a conversation through whatsapp. This video represents the notion spaces and exchanges, more specifically virtual spaces. Basically, this video is composed by two parts, on the one hand there is text messaging, on the other hand there is the same conversation as before but face to face, so, in a real space. In this video, we can see that even if technologies let us to communicated easily, quickly, and in a long distance, it can get to a misunderstanding.
Why do you think more and more people wear tattoos (regardless of whether they belong to gangs or not)?
Young gang members, with tattoos and smoking
To begin with, I would like to point out that tattoos are supposed to stay forever in your skin, even though nowadays it is possible to remove them with laser surgery. The fact that it is supposed to stay forever in your skin is the first reason why people decide to wear them. Because it represents something unconditional in your life, something that you always want to remember, for instance, a situation that have meant a lot to you or that have marked you, where you came from, and all that you have overcome in your life. It can also be to remember a person, for example, your love, or a family member or someone which has marked you. Also, people do it because it makes you look tough and like a bad guy, I think this kind of reason is usually on gangs, or groups that have the same bases as gangs.
Gang members with tattoos
Why do young people join gangs? There are many reasons why people join gangs. The most usual one is because they need money, and gangs are a source of easy money. Most of the people joining gangs are young persons, and that is what they want: easy money. They join gangs to feel "complete", because they find in gangs a surrogate family, since most of the people joining gangs come from broken families or are excluded from society due to they origins, etc... Most of the people have economic problems and join gangs to solve them by selling drugs, etc.. and to be part of something. They also join gangs to feel adrenaline and to change they way of life: living new experiences, better way of life, new family, etc... What link can you see between both topics and the notion of power? In my opinion, the link between both topics and the notion of power is that they both represent power. Basically, gangs are a clear illustration of power because they catch people and they do with them what they want, they use them the way they want to, to achieve their goals. They make young guys use guns and sell drugs, and when they want to get out of these groups they doesn't let them. So, they have to escape, and even though they arrive to go away, gangs can go and kill you. A tattoo can also represent power, since it is a mark that you put on your skin that represent most of the time a hard situation that you have overcome, in this case, the tattoo represents the power that you have managed to get to overcome something.
that transports us to another culture. That is why it seems that we are in another continent. In this ethnic neighborhoods most of the people working in them are native people of for example China. They try to represent the way of life of the original countries that they are inspired by. This districts are made to make immigrants feel as they were at home, to be better integrated in their new town. In fact, this kind of places are intended to international migration.
