Mexi-futurism: The transitorial path between tradition and innovation

This paper presents a dissertation about the development of design in Mexico from the point of view of the approaches that its actors have had over time in the search and definition of a regional and authentic identity. The narrative examines the influence of different contextual variables and focuses its attention on the historical dichotomy still in force, between the vernacular cultural heritage and the valuation and appropriation of foreign elements; between the approach to the value of tradition and the promise of innovation as a goal, platform on which the foundations of advanced design emerge.


INTRODUCTION
To understand the evolution of design in Mexico, it is necessary to consider the complexity of the context in which it they has been developed, since each of the contextual variables that surround it has influenced the definition of its identity. A great protagonist in this scene has been the wealth of cultural and artistic heritage present in the region that, in the hands of social, technological, and economic factors, have delineated and shaped their expressive discourse.
In this sense, this document addresses the issue of the transitory route between tradition and innovation and does so from the perspective of design and its processes. For this, literature is reviewed, case studies are presented and comparative analyzes are made. The purpose of this inquiry is to stimulate reflection on the characterization of Mexican design and how it they has been defined over time in a syncretic process, reconciling different knowledge and practices that encompass an integrated set, the capital of artistic expressions and the search for innovation.

DESIGN FUTURES AND THE ADVANCED DESIGN NOTION IN CONTEMPORARY DESIGN.
The idea of Design is rooted in the idea of future, since it is an activity that connects actual situations with future possibilities, Holt in 1990 described how the orientation to the future Iñiguez Flores, R is one of the three main characteristics that define design processes (the other two are analysis and iteration) and he explained how design is able to create "visionary" processes because it leads with un-defined problems, problems that sometimes are vaguely clear; in order to deal with the undefinition (on uncertainty) design uses methods and processes that produce visions, visions that are installed in the future; design is part of the disciplines that go forward into the possibilities of what still do not exist, and it does this by getting into processes that links the present (actual situations) and the future (possibilities and opportunities).
The visionary processes of Holt are part of multiple ways to describe how design and future are related, historically many authors have approached this relation demonstrating that design is a discipline that creates knowledge about the future, either for their methodological practices of problem solving or because its exploratory capacity to create new narratives; for instance, Norman (2008) mentioned this anticipatory activity of design as a way to produce future solutions.
In design research the idea of future in design has a remarkable presence, that could have a certain parallelism with the future studies disciplines but there has not been a clear link of scientific discussion between both (Formia, 2017); it is a very recent trend the scientific dialogue between design futures and future studies, and that has been happening under the umbrella of the "anticipation" notion, a notion described by Poli (2010) as plural vision of the future disciplines that are oriented to generate the future in the present; in the plural vision of anticipation, many disciplines entwine their knowledges and anticipate the future to come, design is part of this multi-disciplinary understanding. The relation between anticipatory studies and design future practices has been led under the notion of the advanced design cultures, that put light on the dialogue between design futures and future studies proposing that there is a certain body of practices in design that are "advanced" because they emphasize (or highlight) the traditional presence of futures in design.
The notion of design cultures has been used by Heskett (2002) to assume that the design practices are very diverse and its approaches are always evolving, the diversity of design as the design cultures and pointed out this diversity as part of the nature of design, a nature that has historically accompanied the discipline. Some of these cultures are the already mentioned "advanced design cultures", a set of practices that are particularly connected with the anticipatory orientation of design because their processes are oriented to the long term, if design practices are by nature related to the future, advanced design practices are oriented to a broader future, the longer term that could be years, or even decades. Celi (2015) define Iñiguez Flores, R "advanced design as a practice that imagines future perspectives by envisioning future products and processes", on her seminal book of advanced design she also describes how these practices are very consolidated in some industrial sectors, such as the automotive, electronic products and fashion that are very used to develop processes of anticipation, processes that conceptualize new solutions for scenarios that are distant of our actual context.
Companies (and design agencies) more and more embrace advanced design practices because its motivation to not only create products for the actual market, but because the driver to develop innovation portfolios for the following years, in order to develop this portfolios design has been moved to a territory that develop not only solutions but opportunities for innovation, opportunities for the future that can be represented with visions, processes or prototypes (Iñiguez el al, 2014).
In spite of advanced design is now very common in some sectors, and many companies have their own particular advanced design departments dedicated to this activity, and more and more practitioners and agencies are adopting the anticipation as an activity in a regular basis, there is still a lack of documentation of these cultures (Celi, 2015). The work of documentation and research of the advanced design phenomenon (and the design futures practices)during the last decade has been located mainly observing cases from the developed world, practices from countries that have a more mature design culture or "central" as Bonsiepe (1985) defined some decades ago, either because these developed regions own many of the global brands that have adopted the advanced design practices, or because there is a very well established communication apparatus for practices and designers in this "central" territories.
This paper adds to the understanding on how developing countries (or non-central regions) have been approaching and adopting the advanced design processes by studying Mexico, giving light to some of the cases that could be representative and describe how designers, companies and territories appropriate the long term view as part of their innovation practices.

MEXICAN DESIGN IDENTITY: SYNCRETISM AND THE HISTORIC DIALOGUE BETWEEN INTERNATIONAL MODELS AND LOCAL PRODUCTION.
The historical design framework in Mexico, and throughout Latin America, has been conditioned by the fusion and assimilation of different elements in a cultural process in which traditions, doctrines and practices have intermingled deriving into a cultural product and innovation. totally new and authentic. In that sense, Mexican design they could be identified as a clearly syncretistic style with its own features.
The mixture and co-participation of cultural forms that remain together and in coexistence generating a result are called syncretism, this abstract but real characteristic distinguishes the most representative works of Latin American contemporary art. (Villalobos, 2006 P. 393) This Later in the 80s, technological advances marked the uninterrupted route of communications and the adoption of the know-how in the business sector, that's how it grows from the 90s, the interest of design schools in promoting discipline, with a model that was implemented in parallel in European countries.
As a common factor of the aforementioned events, stands out the paradigm of the contrast of a territory that dialogues between the duality of the value of foreign elements as a reference and the appreciation and recognition of a vernacular cultural heritage with high cultural power. In addition, is that, in a rich in traditions and biodiversity millenary culture, this dichotomy continues to exist today and somehow defines the particular design practices. In this sense, in the presence of overlapping extreme contrasts, there are currently two polarized perspectives in design practices in Mexico: On the one hand, there is tradition, defined as the use of regional cultural values, knowledge of heritage and resources incorporated in the design processes: at first glance, this would encompass the aesthetics; symbolism and rituals of the territory, but it would also include the local industry and the particular way of understanding and managing design practice. On the other hand of an imaginary axis we could find innovation, explained as the new way that some industries and professionals understand design as a catalyst to add value, not only in terms of products but also in terms of territory. (Arias e Iñiguez, 2012 p. 234).
In this regard, it is important to consider in advance that today, when the dynamics of the industrialized world propose to look back at artisanal processes for sustainability issues, there seems to be an area of opportunity for the reinvention and recognition of this self-style in Mexico in a territory where artisan processes abound and remain in force.
This declaration of a cultural syncretism stipulated by the historical dialogue between international models and local production is, in short, Mexican Design Identity distinction, mixing and assimilation that currently determines value, preservation and reinvention in terms of cultural wealth of discipline.

Robokumbia
Speculations between local culture and disruptive technologiesThe Robokumbia project is a series of products that embodied how mexican traditional identity could dialogue with new technologies, raises a way to deal with the global and the local in terms of identity because merges traditional music and instruments with global technologies, but it also present a second tension that is how disruptive technologies are adopted in mexican society with a very high speed since Mexico is a territory that has many high the global companies and a market that very fast adopt technology products, and in the same time is a society where the traditional values are more and more appraised.  The result of this project is a series of five products that produces traditional music that was originally composed in a vernacular way, but in this case is produced and played technologically, triggering how the future aestethic in mexican landscape could be.

Furnituremakers dreams: Local businesses and global agencies collaboration.
Afamjal is currently considered the business institution of the most important furniture sector in the country. This introduction aims to give context to an important organization within the productive sector of Mexico, which for more than 40 years has strengthened a Know How within the panorama of the syncretism determined between the local and the foreign.
As a result, the organization shows its interest working with universities and consulting companies in search of the definition of that future that promises success in the whole of innovation.
Particularly as a training partner, it has participated in several projects at the Tecnológico de Monterrey that range from line design, through strategic design studies and an integrated semester called "Territory, habitat and product: innovation guided by design" Last semester, we worked on three main lines: The Feasible, viable and possible. The designer as a guide to innovation.
From the systemic analysis of the international, national context, the business sector, the company's value chain, the technical possibilities of the company, as well as the trends, utopias, futures and other variables, the students generated a specific diagnosis of the innovation pathways and the necessary projects that will generate value for the company.

New ways of living. The designer as a transformer of meanings in complex scenarios.
This challenge was intended to study new forms and emerging lifestyles that shape the habitat, imply new needs and condition the constitutive elements of living space. For this, the students make an user, documentary and field research in the context of using the furniture New products for emerging users. The designer as project and business manager.
In this challenge, the students developed a new product in its entirety, considering all aspects of the value chain and its commercialization and contribution to the furniture sector, an important sector of the region's economy.
As a result of this alliance, a report of guidelines to establish a strategic innovation plan based on design processes was delivered in each case. In this regard, some of the general conclusions were the following: 1. It is important to use the know-how of companies as strength.
2. It is substantial to establish research practices linked to design.
3. It is necessary to create an anticipatory practice by monitoring and recording changes and trends in Mexican lifestyles.
4. The detection of new needs will lead to new typologies.
5. It is essential to use technological advances to make production more efficient.
6. It is essential to establish a plan for companies to enter the landscape of sustainable development objectives, particularly in response to objective 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production modalities.
Consumption and sustainable production consist of promoting the efficient use of resources and energy, the construction of infrastructures that will not harm the environment, the improvement of access to basic services and the creation of ecological jobs, fairly paid and with good Labor conditions. All this translates into a better quality of life for all and, in addition, helps to achieve general development plans that reduce economic, environmental and social costs, increase competitiveness and reduce poverty.
The most important conclusion of this process was the incorporation of the designer into the organization beyond its problem-solving functions towards a design culture in the company in which it participates as a problem finding.Likewise, the organization hires researches to understand what the main opportunities are for its manufacturing partners, as well as to identify existing risks from other furniture manufacturers in the rest of the world.There are worth mentioning two studies presented publicly in which some following lines of action are suggested: • Focus on expanding its business abroad, its augmented reality technological capabilities and its multipurpose furniture offerings.
• Address the macro market trends.
• Establish a route of technological transition or resource optimization.
• Address market changes.
• Opening to new international markets.
As can be seen in all of AFAMJAL's initiatives, there is a remarkable interest in seeking the paths to innovation and preparing for the future by detecting risks and areas of opportunity.
In the first study conducted by the students of Tecnológico de Monterrey, strategic design and advanced design practices stand out. A look from the discipline to understand systemically and from the culture of design, all the elements that affect the development of the organization to find innovation portfolios.
On the other hand, from the perspective of the consultants, the focus is on trends and shortand medium-term strategies. It is a meaningful vision with business data that can be undertaken on the basis of market and technology movements, proposals from Local businesses led by global collaboration agencies that do not incorporate design as an important element in the anticipatory formula.

Anticipatory Governance for CDMX: Artificial Intelligence: Government leading multidisciplinary practices for Territorial Development.
Anticipatory Governance for CMDX is a project that created a strategic path that could allow Mexico City take advantage of the opportunities and mitigate the risks of the public use of learning algorithms for the city (Laboratorio para la Ciudad, 2019).
This project was on the territory of anticipation since it included the idea of the long term by developing future scenarios on how artificial intelligence and machine learning could be part of the tools for future governance, and not just the tools, it also developed new ideas on how this technologies could be part of the public issues.
Laboratorio para la Ciudad exist from 2013 to 2018 and was part of the Mexico City government, it was an experimental laboratory that put togheter citizens, academia, civil society and government in dialogue for the reflection and projects of creative territorial Iñiguez Flores, R Using collaborative processes, the project went thru two components: • Exploratory session with the Artificial Intelligence ecosystem in Mexico City, regards the expectatives, opportunities and riks of the AI in democracy.
• Co-creative session of future visions for the artificial intelligence in Mexico City (Laboratorio para la Ciudad, 2019).
At the end of the processes the product is series of reflections and proposals that includes a strategic path for the introduction and assimilation of the mentioned technologies into the day by day governance of the city. The path includes following milestones: • 2018: Training and strengthening: first steps, strengthening of the artificial intelligence ecosystem, collaborative processes for the AI discussion and the principles of the Mexico City Constitution.

CONCLUSIONS
The long term is more and more a territory of practice in Design, the so called Advanced Design Cultures are getting assimilated in different sectors, such as the three cases that are presented, where studios and academia, companies and government (among other actors) are integrating processes where the idea of design regards the solving problem applied to an actual issue, is moved to an opportunity finding activity that problematize not the present but future scenarios for social and technological wellbeing.
Developing countries are living the assimilation of advanced design cultures also, but with their own transitorial condition and trajectories of adoption, in the case of Mexico, is characterized for the velocity of assimilation, as a developing country it has been developing an entrepreneurial motivation, there are more and more innovation actors trying to be in the state of the art of practices (and anticipation is one of that practices). The trajjetories of adoption pass from different tensions that the case studies presented exemplify: • Between the local and the global: Mexico as a territory that is located (even geographically) at the border of the cross cultural dialogues in the Latin culture, during the past decade many of the economical strategies has been to allocate global companies in the territory, these conditions create a platform for cultural dialogues (and design culture) and design practices in academia and organizations are including that condition. The case studies presented exemplify how, in the case of Robokumbia, future speculation literally deals with traditional values (culture and aesthetics) with global trends such as Artificial Intelligence, Furnituremakers Dreams and Anticipatory Governance for CDMX both integrate global and local experts with the aim of exploring processes of anticipation that can be effective for the local.
• Between the short term and the long term: in the case studies presented, the design processes are a continuum that links the "traditional" design practices that are oriented to act and produce on the present to the practices that create proposals for the future; this is not always the case in other territories where the practices can be very defined (even organizationally) on which are the temporal horizon of the projects. The case of Robokumbia is and speculation regards the future, but its products are a synthesis that can be contextualized in the present, Furnituremakers Dreams connects the analysis of the present design actions with strategic long term opportunities, and in the case of Anticipatory Governance for CDMX, the all project went thru steps from the present (2018) to the future scenarios (2050).