Museums and Justice

Museums and Justice

Sunday 27 December 2015

A Christmas holiday with wishes for a prosperous New Year 2016- and a promise…?-))



“….We are ready to embark on this landmark 55th edition. It shows clear signs of being interesting and robust, in terms of both the wide-ranging commercial offering from a phalanx of the foremost companies on the national and international market, and in terms of the balance achieved between tradition and innovation in the name of quality and refinement. The ever-increasing interest show by operators, journalists and members of the public is testament to the variety and quality of the event: the Salone del Mobile, along with the city of Milan, manages to capture the attention of more than 300,000 visitors, from 165 different countries,….” said President Roberto Snaidero.
  
The  Salone del Mobile 2016 edition this April 2016 (from 12.4.2016 until 17.4.2016 in Milan, Italy), re-sets again the game board of the industry with many noted initiatives, projects and parallel exhibitions- events.  Interior design and architecture seem to kick off early this year as THE fundamental discipline to observe -preoccupying the creative neurons of the distinguished designers who contribute to the Salone 2016 (check  A4D-D4A related posts in  January’s  2016 Residences et al feature, for more exciting info?-))


To begin with, the Rooms. New Domestic Landscapes exhibition, curated by Beppe Finessi, showcases interior architecture as interpreted by 11 leading designers, at the XXI Trienalle di Milano spot “Curve” ( from 2.4.2016 until 12.9.2016): Umberto Riva, Alessandro Mendini, Manolo De Giorgi, Lazzarini and Pickering, MaraLaudani and Marco Romanelli, Andrea Anastasio, Fabio Novembre, Duilio Forte,Elisabetta Terragni, Carlo Ratti and Francesco Librizzi.

The exhibition: 21st Century. Design after Design appears to be the capital sociological and historical trigger-point of the Trienalle, destined  to abridge the glamorous and perplex industrial past with the intense challenges-questions of the future, meant to tantalize the design world from now on, (“….How does the figure of the designer change in this context? How can we highlight the complex ecosystem resulting from the confrontation between typical mass production logic and the new forms of post- Fordist organisation? How can we describe the profile of a designer given the increasingly powerful link with forms of social innovation involving communities, regions and local culture? What things, what cities, what communities do we want to hand down to our successors?....”). 

Furhermore, Before Design: Classic  exhibition, presents a different concept of the classical, resting not simply on the past but impacting powerfully on the present, laying the foundations for a new vision of the future …Also: let’s not forget- since it happens every two years…Alongside  with the Salone del Mobile.Milano, the biennial  EuroCucina and International Bathroom Exhibition will be back in their 21st and 6th editions respectively, from 12th to17th April 2016. Innovation, evolution, state of the art technology, massive exhibiting power, business-ready, with gallons of style and ideas. A territory to explore for the public- visitors from apparently more than 170 countries- expected again this year. The tip of Salone philosophy, dedicated to the “youth push” idea- the 19th edition of SaloneSatellite will be back, in Pavilions 13 and 15, along with EuroCucina, (with free entry from Cargo 4). Its corollary, the SaloneSatellite Award – now into its 7thedition – is devoted to young designers under 35, with prizes for the three best prototypes on show conforming to the product categories at the exhibition.  


It is fascinating how many sectors, services and agencies of public and private administration in the city of Milan, work in admirable coordination to bring together the core events of the exhibition, its preludes ,its parallel projects, its publicity through all possible media channels- organizing  an essential design “force majeure”, targeting at EVERY visitor’s need: either a tourist, student, journalist, designer, entrepreneur or/end academic. 

A4D-D4A will try to bypass every adversity in order to deliver again this year, an article in detail, about the key elements of this epic design congregation. The Salone fuels ambition and boosts intercultural exchange- together with  documenting the progress of the design vocation/profession world-wide.  


Please find all the information regarding the fair , on the
www.salonemilano.it website. 

Seasons Greetings - Happy New Year 2016
A4D-D4A?-))

Monday 14 December 2015

FOOD FOR THOUGHT/ RE-DESIGN THE LIBRARIES OF THE FUTURE...


 Picture above from : www.slideshare.net/KnudSchulz ….a drone plane operated by an assigned drone pilot -flying into the premises at the Main Library of the city of Aarhus in Danemark. (photo from the seminar and workshop: Designing the Future: the public library as an innovation space -public center*, animated and presented by Knud Schulz, Librarian- Manager of the Main Library in Aarhus, DK- at Eugenides Foundation, Athens, Greece, on the 30th of November  2015)

“The medium is the message” , the famous quote by Marshall McLuhan in his book, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man , published in 1964- defined the first phase of the digital mass- information era, creating the relationship upon which the medium affects the entire body of the its hosted information , mainly through its perception by  the viewer-user. In contemporary times the dogma switches dramatically, because of the interventional role of the user as an information generator , introduced to the common server (TV-smart phone- PC-radio)  of owned portable digital media devices, in order to integrate  his/her own data engine AND express his/her personal information channel. People are the message today, through the blogosphere, the social media, the on-line public apps, the free internet access and so on.

In the beginning the public libraries conformed to the first rule, as a massive stock of written data, archived to be accessed by the researcher/citizen, as a resource to obtain information, inaccessible otherwise. That was the situation up to this point. The libraries of the future reserve the role of an innovation space , than of solely an information space: a place for knowledge, networking, meeting people, participating and creating- a life-long learning center beyond the academia and a performative  space: a  Media lab and a socio-cultural institution.  This process involves public consultations of all kinds, co-creating and cooperating with the local municipality administration and services, the inter-disciplinary contribution of start-ups along with the engagement of  established companies and financial partners-players.  Tradition leads its way to transcendence and eventually to real democracy: an all-inclusive flexible library center, adoptable to change and faster to evolve, to the service of all citizens.


Diagram above extracted from the seminar and workshop: Designing the Future: the public library as an innovation space -public center*, animated and presented by Knud Schulz, Librarian- Manager of the Main Library in Aarhus, DK- at Eugenides Foundation, Athens, Greece, on the 30th of November  2015)

The new model of a the future library has been introduced in Aarhus, Oslo, Helsinki, Birmingham and soon in Athens –in the SNFCC complex . The future is now and it is ahead us, with its many challenges. Lets embrace it , starting from our libraries.


* The workshop took place within the works of the 11th International Congress of the Libraries Support Organizational Committee, under the title: " Let's talk about Libraries. It's worth it!", held at the Eugenides Foundation, on November 2015 -with the support of the Nordic Library at Athens.

More information, ideas and action plans on : 

www.designthinkingforlibraries.com, www.norlib.grksc@aarhus.dk
http://www.eugenfound.edu.gr

Joyful wishes and Warm regards
A4D-D4A;-))