Mexico | Platypus

Strategies and Tools for Knowledge Generation in Art-Science

 Emmanuel Anguiano-Hernández  September 14, 2026

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To what extent do measurements from an electroencephalography headset provide evidence of the aesthetic contemplation state of the person wearing it? In the 2015 neuroaesthetic research project Action Potential, the art and science Interspecifics collective monitors the brain electrical activity of a group of visitors to an exhibition about Octavio Paz, the famous Mexican poet, and uses these measurements as material for sound composition. What is discovered in this experiment is not exactly a scientific result, since the EEG readings neither validate nor refute any hypothesis about aesthetic experience, but it is also not art in a conventional sense, as it depends entirely on clinical measurement protocols. This ambiguity is the point because by submitting aesthetic encounter to empirical instrumentation, Interspecifics lays bare the assumptions that usually keep the two domains apart with science requiring falsifiable propositions and art resisting reduction to data. What emerges at their contact surface is a productive friction instead of a synthesis, a mode of inquiry that measures and composes without limiting expression, taking us to reconsider what counts as knowledge and what counts as form. (read more...)

Kilitl: Living with a Green Part of the World. Edible Greens, Language, Knowledge, and Territory

 Aldo Federico Palafox Hernández  September 9, 2026

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In Mexico, quelites refers to uncultivated edible plants. The word has a Nahuatl origin derived from kilitl, a term referring to these edible weeds. The earliest dictionaries of colonial Mexico translated kilitl as “vegetable”, an equivalence that obscured the fact that they were collected (not cultivated), and interpreted them as any other green crop. There is an ongoing trend to revaluate quelites as a way to counter their gradual disappearance from national diets. These efforts involve universities, governmental and private institutions, civil associations, and organized communities. (read more...)

Digital Porosity and Value in Suspension: Informal Economies and Video Games

 Iván Flores  July 16, 2026

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When a video game development company creates a skin, a character, or a bundle of digital items, it is not merely producing aesthetics or playable experiences—it is also building an entire economic system: it defines a virtual currency, sets an exchange rate, and organizes a circuit of value. Riot Games, the creator of League of Legends (LoL), does not sell items directly; instead, it offers Riot Points (RP) as an intermediary currency. This move—currency and rate—drives the formal economy. (read more...)

On Menstruation and Feeling Shame

 Rosario Rm  December 19, 2024

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Menstruation as a subject of study is not new. Margaret Mead, Mary Douglas, Chris Bobel, Miren Guillo, and Karina Felitti, among many others, have discussed how menstruation has been related to specific practices, and how taboos present great dynamism and variability as specific cultural constructions frequently linked to systems of bodily control and gender. In this post, I present research that explores how taboos associated with menstruation are reflected in the bodily and emotional trajectory of menstruating women and people through the implementation of a methodology based on the collective construction of emotional corpobiographies (Ramírez, 2024). Although the relationship between taboo and shame around menstruation has been widely documented from various scientific and theoretical perspectives, this research seeks to delve into the moments, key actors, and narratives that make emotions and attitudes become embodied and acquire deep meaning in the menstrual experience. The study focuses on the trajectory of university women in Guadalajara, Mexico, and is a qualitative analysis that builds upon the results of the “Fluye con seguridad” survey, conducted in 2023 in the University of Guadalajara network. (read more...)

The Evolution of the Digital Divide: New Dimensions of Digital Inequality

 Guillermo Echauri  November 19, 2024

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This text explores the evolution of digital inequality, highlighting how emerging phenomena pose new challenges to digital inclusion, particularly with the incorporation of artificial intelligence (AI) into everyday life. (read more...)

Chaotic Oscillation: Understanding the Paradoxical Presence of Video Games in Contemporary Society

 Iván Flores  October 1, 2024

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Common sense tells us that play and work are opposing categories. However, in our society we often encounter situations where the boundaries between these two categories become difficult to distinguish. It’s common that people earn money from hobbies—activities not typically associated with the effort required for any form of work, mostly because they are fun. These include recording oneself dancing on the street, doing product unboxings, or streaming while playing video games. The variety of activities that can now be monetized is vast; almost any activity can become a niche ready to be used by the market to maintain a consumerist dynamic. (read more...)

Challenging Normalized Surveillance: “Birds on the Wire” Surveillance in Mexico

 Mariel Garcia-Montes  August 6, 2024

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In Mexican slang, “hay pájaros en el alambre” (there are birds on the wire), is an expression used to imply that a private conversation is at risk of being intentionally overheard. Birds on the wire can mean anything from one’s auntie overhearing a conversation from the other room, to a phone being wiretapped at long range by a state agency. In everyday parlance, this phrase does a lot of work to signal a broader awareness and cultural acceptance of surveillance. If, in conversation, someone is reminded of the birds on the wire, they are expected to beware—not for the birds to go away. Perhaps the statement produces a chilling effect of sorts, rather than an expectation of privacy. (read more...)

Memorializing Eruption

 Sandra Rozental, Gabriela Zamorano  June 6, 2023

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Perched on a makeshift stage, a trio dressed in wool ponchos sings pirekuas, the region’s most acclaimed and loved musical genre in a mix of Purépecha and Spanish. Despite their upbeat and soft-sounding melodies, the lyrics of the songs describe a time of fear and destruction when, eighty years ago, the Paricutin, the world’s youngest volcano, emerged from a cornfield and devastated the region. Stallkeepers are busy selling quesadillas, chips, sodas, and beers to the expectant crowd, gathering around a bonfire installed inside a miniature volcano. This contrast between apparently joyful festivities and solemn commemoration marks the evening’s atmosphere in Angahuan, Caltzontzin and San Juan Nuevo in Michoacan, Mexico. Several uniformed and heavily-armed municipality police stand nervously watching the horizon. These days, this is fraught territory, as organized crime groups dispute control over the area. This is also the first time that an event like this is staged on-site at the place known locally as las ruinas , a shorthand for the remains of the old San Juan Parangaricutiro church, the only surviving structure of an entire town buried under the thick and rugged lava. (read more...)