Leaden skies usually hang over Lille, yet last week British designer Ross Lovegrove imagined a future in which the dull grey curtain wrapping this lovely town in France may be suddenly ripped by the lights of futuristic flying vehicles.
The designer unveiled during Lille3000's Fantastic 2012 (until January 13th 2013), an innovative means of transport, a U.F.O. The vehicle, currently suspended from the ceiling of Lille's Flandres railway station, was made using terrestrial materials, but retains a futuristic shape and is capable (in Lovegrove's imagination...) to transport human beings from Lille to Paris in as little as 30 seconds.
The vehicle was inspired by Lovegrove's studies about identity, as the artists stated about his project: "Blurry photos and obscure film footage is all we have, along with interviews from Area 51 scientists assigned to analyse propulsion systems and materials previously unknown to man. Can all these people who talk so matter of fact, all be part of some broader conspiracy to act it all out? The mystery remains as a discourse between imagination and reality, people divided and derided on a subject that could be so profound and life changing for the whole of humanity if one day there will be a clear visitation to experience in the clear light of day the wonders that we are being slowly primed for.”
The recipient of numerous awards and collaborator with many different brands - you may remember his work in the '80s for Frog Design in West Germany on projects such as walkmans for Sony, computers for Apple, and later on as a consultant to companies such as Cacharel, Louis Vuitton, Hermès and Dupont - Lovegrove is well known for his works merging design, art, architecture and advanced technology.
Fascinated by organic and natural shapes recreated using high-tech materials, Lovegrove has designed throughout his career minimalist furniture as well as a variety of products from water bottles to airplane seats, all influenced by natural aesthetics and futuristic forms.
Lovegrove's U.F.O. isn't the only project focused on mobility and the future recently developed by the designer: for the 23rd edition of the Biennale Interieur in Kortrijk, Belgium, entitled "Future Primitives" (20-28 October 2012), Lovegrove has conceived a video to present an advanced car concept made in collaboration with an Italian engineer laboratory that consults with NASA.
In the video the car shape, the air, space around it, and its light reflections are so unified that they become indistinguishable for human beings. In the words of the designer: “Future Primitivism/Instinctive Overide represents a soft slow silent walk to view an object through the evolutionary spirit of mankind and its knowledge passed down through intuition and factors that seem more religious than mathematical.”
To discover further Ross Lovegrove's work, check out the volume "Supernatural" (Phaidon), including texts by Lovegrove and Paola Antonelli.
Image credit: Images 2, 3 and 4 in this post by Simona Cupoli
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