Hi! I’m ALVARO MARTINEZ, a Berlin-based anthropologist, designer and illustrator. My main area of work lies at the intersection of social sciences and visual art, the visualization and digitalization of scientific research being one of my strengths. I have worked on projects for the Max Planck Institut, the Tempelhof/Schöneberg libraries, the Freie Universität Berlin and the Maxim Gorki Theater among others. In my work I use tools such as illustration, infographics, web and editorial design, exhibition design, animation, toy design, stop motion, photography and filming.As an artist I publish under the pseudonym Abashi and I have been selected by the Pictoplasma Academy in Berlin where I graduated in Contemporary Character Design and Art. My art has been exhibited at the Urban Spree gallery, as well as at the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés.
Together with Prof. Thomas Stodulka (University of Münster), I worked on a graphic adaptation — using comics and illustration — of one of his ethnographic research articles.
How can anthropological research be translated into visual formats? In this post, I share my experience using comics, illustrations, infographics, and web design to communicate the theme of ageing and mobility in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute.
Here’s a personal example: my note-taking process for later developing visualizations of anthropological research.
Client: Tempelhof Stadtbibliothek Schöneberg, Mauerpark Institut e.V., Freie Universität Berlin Website: www.encounter-blog.com Art direction
The EncounterBegegnung magazine is a project aimed at the encounter between German communities and
The EncounterBegegnung magazine is a project aimed at the encounter between German communities and
Design, layout, color selection, retouching of images, image curation, illustrations The EncounterBegegnung magazine is
Illustrations for the Book of which I’m also a co-author.
Client: Tempelhof Stadtbibliothek Schöneberg, Mauerpark Institut e.V., Freie Universität Berlin Workshop convenor. A workshop
In the winter of 2022, I collaborated with artist and biologist Joanna Mitchell to explore new ways of communicating science. Through Thinkflowgraphics, we turned academic papers into engaging infographics that make scientific knowledge more accessible to a wider audience.
Mundo rokooko. “Mundo rokooko” is a much-loved project that we created together with my
In 2014, I had the privilege of studying and graduating as a Character Designer
Client: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sozial -und Kulturanthropologie, Freie Universität Berlin Website: www.publicanthropology.de Web design,
Client: Tempelhof Stadtbibliothek Schöneberg YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTW2ztPRTUNFXGsIa0k394TmwMnkEmLPK Creative director of the concerts in the
Symbol in rituality in the healing process of soul diseases in La Paz, Bolivia
In my thesis I researched a healing technique through rituality and use of symbols developed by the inhabitants in the surroundings of La Paz-Bolivia. Ritual and medical specialists in this region have an understanding of the human being in a holistic and complementary manner. The human, the non-visible beings (spirits) and their ecosystem are perceived as one entity where the balance has to be preserved through reciprocal relations. The violations of normative including this reciprocal norm will conduct very often to a state of sickness or weakness.
Medical and Ritual Specialists are the people in charge of maintaining the balance between the different spheres of the universe. They read the coca leaves, the cards, or the drawings made by their patients to discover the causes of the unbalance. When this is discovered, then a healing technique has to be applied. This techniques are varied but among all of them the koa is the one in which this research is focused on. The koa consists in an offering of a mesa (a preparation of a dish full of symbols and, among others, a death llama fetus) to the spirits at a sacred place.
From the deep case study of one of these specialists, Don Gonzalo Ávila, and the analysis and study of many other specialists and related practices, this research examines the use of symbols as a technique of healing through the koa, the reading of coca, cards and drawings, and the use of talismans and miniatures.