Mosaics – Mashing up cultures across space (and time)

Strawberry Frog offers some interesting ideas on the notion of the Global Soul. How we’re influencing one another:

From Mono- to Multi- to Transculturalism.  First, it takes the form of exposure to another culture. Then, a ‘tossed salad.’ From there, multiculturalism evolves. From a Canadian’s perspective who has lived during the melting pot era of politics in that country, the melting pot simply assumes too much.  A mosaic is a better metaphor, but only a snapshot in time, which ultimately led to the Benetton cliché—assimilated transculture.  An ‘active mosaic’ best explains the phenomenon. Existing culture meets emerging culture,  they exchange and mutate characteristics – creating an ever-evolving mosaic of global, organic living culture.  Some examples of this are Remixes and hybrids: design, arts, media, social. Musical genre-blending. Film allusion and homage. TV remakes and exports. Food and drink fusions.

Great thoughts. Take time to read the whole thing. While I think it is the West primarily mashing into smaller weaker cultures, there is a coming shift and mosaic will probably take on more shades of Indian, African, Latin and Asian cultures in the years to come. He seems to be envisioning a mashup across space, but there is also a mashup across time taking place, and a new world is being formed in our midst (but that’s another post for another day).