Museums and Justice

Museums and Justice

Sunday 29 December 2019

LAST POST OF THE YEAR: VIEWMASTERING THE FUTURE, FAREWELLING THE PAST DECADE.




In image above: Suda Kenji, (born 1954),Toho no Hinode (Eastern Sunrise), 2015. Chest of drawers with inlay decoration made by Sycamore wood, private collection. From the exhibition "Decorative arts in Meiji and Heisei: Crafting Beauty and Technique across 150 years", in Museum of Greek Modern Culture, Athens, Greece, until 12/1/2020. 

The myth tells that in Pandora’s box the last remaining thing after the release of all vices – was Hope.  In case where all the vices were set to escape Hope would stay at the side of humanity as a faithful companion intrusting that things could always change for the Best. Is there any hope for the Design of the future?  How this last one will shape the rising decade? 

The major transition from Liberalism to Freedom Values and from the Industrial Revolution to the Digital Technologies, re-defines the set of known Tools as Apps and those Apps as the new Tools that will serve us in the future, on an everyday basis. The Cashless transition from bank notes and coins (very expensive and climate-affective in production) to non-material Currencies is a certainty and a “problem” tantalizing the traditional banking establishment. Sustainability becoming an almost (vague) trend and an expression of concern regarding climate change, gives room to non-stop Recyclability (not just one stage process stage but a continuous non-stop and on-going cycle of the materials’ life). Old crafts and hand-made work will merge into New Crafts, where manual work will be done and finished differently through upcoming hybrids of technique and digitization. 
In communication design, "The Medium is the Message" of the 70’s is replaced already by "The message is the Message": the notion of Medium is collapsing under the existence of one common server with un-curated content, accessed by all possible devices (i.e the YouTube platform). Documentation in AI and intelligent digital environments pushes away Museology as instructed in the past, the same way corporate environments switch to online/cloud/blockchain services. 
The educational model is about to change in developed countries, where higher education is becoming a social exercise: schools are social clubs, universities are cultural foundations and public libraries work as lifelong learning and public administration poles. The interest in knowledge is nourished through a re-designed homeschooling experience.
  
The irresponsible and unorthodox exploitation of natural resources, together with the abuse of durable, multi-purpose materials such as plastic, resulted in the disastrous consequences of climate change and irreversible ecological distress. We need to leave the planet alone for at least 100 years, in order to recover and Fashion is one of the sectors about to change dramatically towards that principle. The way we design and produce clothes inside the supply chain cycle, is about to change focusing on pre-owned garments, thrifting, smart fabrics design, wearables and textiles' engineering both in couture and high street houses – so we can have a life guarantee for the future. New clothes will represent the 25% of global production the next decades, while the 75% in fashion will represent jobs in the industries above. 
The abolition of fossil fuels and livestock/plant industrialization  and the rise of renewable energy, hydroponics and short-term supply chain, are a staple in the design agenda. The pharmaceutical industry will invest on restorative, naturopathic solutions for cure and on the scientifically proven benefits of painkilling meditative devices/apps.
  
From Cities to Places, from Credit to Trust 

The physiognomy of the city of the Future, provided the multiple challenges of our times, will have to change: architecturally, socially, intellectually. Cities gradually lost their Soul, so did the Psyche of each nation and eventually they became unsuitable and unbearable to live in. The urban manipulation in the design of a town the last decades alienated it from every notion of becoming a good Place, but contributed to the image of a city just deteriorating, on finally becoming decadent.  The “Darius Syndrome” of architects and politicians just watching the “slaughter from up on a hill”, observing the big cities’ downfall outside the actual urban systemic infrastructure, from the rather comfortable distance of the “specialist” – failed to design a place for civilians to resist Time. Instead they designed a congregation of ambitious buildings and uncomfortable surroundings, with total luck of prediction nor compassion for the nature and the people. The next decade is about to convert the activity of “arrogant” metropolises and its many entanglements, so to advance to a more person-friendly, “therapeutic” model.  

The countdown has started. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2020! 
A4D-D4A💙💚💓  

Tuesday 17 December 2019

DECEMBER 2019: HIGHLIGHTS, IDEAS, PEOPLE, PLACES AND MORE...




The Design Ghost of Christmas Present sprinkled much of his blessing flavor before many doors, establishments and events – or not.  

After Moscow and Shanghai, the Salone del Mobile.Milano brand has touched down in the USA with the talk Italian Design Today, which will see Michele De Lucchi, Francesca Lanzavecchia, Angela Missoni and Piero Lissoni discuss the new expressions of national design.

Is Italian design still in a position to dictate trends? What influence does Milan have on the international creative furnishing and interior architecture scene? What are the prospects for young designers in a world in which cultural cross-pollination has rendered national borders fluid?

These are just some of the topics that were discussed on Wednesday 4th December, by Michele De Lucchi, Francesca Lanzavecchia, Angela Missoni and Piero Lissoni at the Wolfsonian-FIU Museum in Miami, as part of the event A Dreamscape of Italian Design, organised in partnership with the Consulate General of Italy, the Italian Trade Agency ICE and the Salone del Mobile.Milano as part of Art Basel Miami.
In pictures bellow some of the unique Wolfsonian publications to go through:



Following the success of the Master Classes held during the Salone del Mobile in Moscow and Shanghai (with over 3,000 attendees), it was now the turn of the United States, a country that has always kept a very close eye on the evolution of Italian design and the quality of Made in Italy furnishing.  Terence Riley, former curator of Architecture and Design at MoMA in New York, quized the speakers on subjects that will also be relevant at the next Salone del Mobile.Milano, from 21st to 26th April 2020.

Exciting news! Helsinki has been selected as Beijing Design Week’s Guest City in 2020. Helsinki will organise diverse events in Beijing over three weeks to present Helsinki as a design city and as a pioneer in the utilisation of design expertise.
Beijing Design Week 2020, held from 22 September–7 October 2020, is the largest and most notable design festival in Asia.The festival attracts more than five million visitors each year.The designation Guest City has been conferred to nine cities before, most recently to Mexico City as this year’s Guest City.

Helsinki Deputy Mayor Pia Pakarinen accepted Helsinki’s designation as Guest City 2020 at the closing event of Beijing Design Week 2019.
“Design is a significant factor that distinguishes Helsinki internationally, and we’re known for product and service design that supports good life in Helsinki,” Pakarinen says.
Parts of the programme and some of the discussions will be organised in digital environments. In addition, satellite events will be held in different parts of Beijing. The goal is to build an event concept that can be reproduced at other design weeks in China in the future.

Helsinki plans to tell its design story through three main themes at Beijing Design Week. Innovations in (1) wellbeing, (2) urban development and (3) education will be used to present how Helsinki uses design to create a better everyday life for citizens.

The City of Helsinki has utilised design for many years in the development of services and the built environment. Design has also been incorporated into strategy work and organisational development in recent years.

“Helsinki has been a pioneer in the use of design in the public sector, but information on the scope of the City’s design activities and on the contents and impact of those activities has not been gathered systematically,” says Helsinki’s City Design Manager Päivi Hietanen.

According to the analysis produced by Aalto University researchers, Helsinki has utilised design extensively and without hesitation for a variety of purposes. Design has been used to make customers’ voices heard, to increase the understanding of customer needs, and to improve services and internal operating models. The researchers also see it as a strength that design and customer orientation have been incorporated into the City Strategy.
The City of Helsinki and Aalto University collaboration produced a city design map (in photo bellow: Visualisation of city design map. By Bin Shamsul Amri Daud, Nader Sayún Michel, Zheng Zheng, Menegolli Alessia). The map divides Helsinki design activities into six categories. The city design map can be used to categorize various design projects and to evaluate their properties and impact. The map helps users to store information on projects and to communicate about the City’s design activities.



Speaking again about sustainability and design, Everlane launch of ReNew collection comes with a promise: eliminate virgin plastic from their supply chain by 2021. The engagement of the company for no more New Plastic in their production cycle holds tight, whereas big houses still struggle with the idea; a rather difficult task in the supply chain of luxury industry, (fashion being an important part of it). 


The sustainability issue does not fail to become a trend in international fairs like IMM in Cologne, Germany. In a rather belated attempt for a more ecological approach, partners Colornetwork propose a new shade of brown as the earthly and healthy interiors choice, surely trying to follow last spring’s tendency for anything clay-like in fashion and soft furnishings. Inside the “Future Interiors-Made in Germany” part of the exhibition, alongside with the “solution” of solid, local wood furniture and related products, lays also the question/challenge of chopped-up newly planted forestation in Europe, among other hot topics.  

The Bauhaus Centenary celebrations are about to exhale but still many manifestations are happening all around the continent i.e. the exhibition REFLEX BAUHAUS. 40 OBJECTS – 5 CONVERSATIONin the Neue Sammlung Design Museum in Munich, Germany.
The lecture on Design and Politics by Professor Dr.Friedrich von Borries, author of the must-read manifesto Weltenwerfen:Eine Politische Designtheorie, (:in top and bottom pictures bellow) took place in Athens, Greece in view of the Bauhaus school as a political and social landmark, an activist movement seriously provoking the (educational) totalitarian establishment - not only re-constituting design as beneficial to humans, but expanding it to every other discipline as well, throughout the last century.

                             


Wit is something Karl Lagerfeld was well acquainted to. The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come would definitely disguise in the image of the last Maître, coming back to haunt us, so he could liaise the archives of Chanel famous house to a different theme: aviation. This is the image of the Aviatress we are longing for, the Spring-Summer 2020: a fun, elegant, ethereal, yet dynamic lady Pilot, but with her intellect heedfully connected to her active presence. Amen.   



NEXT AND LAST POST OF 2019: VIEWMASTERING THE FUTURE, FAREWELLING THE PAST YEAR/DECADE. 

Season greetings 💓💃
A4D-D4A💙💚