When we talk about events such as Milan Design Week, quite a few people instantly think about pieces of furniture and interior design projects, but the word "design" actually indicates a vast universe, as proved by the Dutch contribution to the XXII International Exhibition at La Triennale di Milano (until 1st September 2019).
Entitled "I See That I See What You Don't See" and commissioned by the Het Nieuwe Instituut, this showcase and programme of events taking place in both Milan (at Palazzo dell'Arte) and Rotterdam (later on this year) responds to the Triennale's general theme "Broken Nature: Design Takes on Human Survival".
The Dutch intervention, curated by Angela Rui, design curator and researcher, Marina Otero Verzier and Francien van Westrenen, respectively Director of Research and Head of Agency at Het Nieuwe Instituut, features a group of designers, artists and researchers tackling a series of themes, including dichotomies such as light access and darkness, looking and seeing, and exploring wider themes like Earth, data, technology and energy.
Projects and presentations vary, going from forensic science and biology to cosmology and activism, design is therefore interpreted not as the production of an object, but as a critical practice questioning ways of living, raising awareness and inviting visitors to face new collective challenges.
There's the proverbial something for everybody among the projects: Leanne Wijnsma created three skin fragrances (developed by International Flavors and Fragrances) that act as a carrier for invisible communication and influencing; Pascal van Hulst, following a research by Oscar Peña, was inspired by the 1994 Los Angeles Blackout and by the disruption it caused to the power supply that left residents to encounter the star-filled sky, a phenomenon that sparked fear rather than excitement.
"The Unsleep" is a photographic essay by Danilo Correale suspended between sci-fi and reality, with telecommunications workers as protagonists. As they work following different time-zones from the countries where they are based, these people live in a limbo regulated by the rhythms of production and consumption and in a new labour sphere dominated by a perpetual chrono glitch.
Also "Automated Landscapes" by the Research Department at Het Nieuwe Instituut Automation, focuses on labour, but on the 24-hour, 365-day production cycles of automated labour in the Netherlands, through a research in the data-filled greenhouses and farms where the productivity of the ground is controlled and maximised by automated technologies.
Textile fans will enjoy "Wi-Fi Tapestry" by Richard Vijgen, a wall hanging that renders visible the wireless activity of a space as the tapestry unveils the ever changing landscape of radio frequencies such as mobile phones, printers, and all kinds of smart devices, around us.
When data is transmitted on a channel, the controller sends a current to thermal elements embedded in the tapestry, converting data into heat and activating a thermochromic yarn woven into it. Streams of data transmitted through space appear as visual traces from an invisible dimension that gradually form and dissolve.
Science-fiction artist Lucy McRae continues her utopian/dystopian studies into the future with "Compression Cradle" (co-commissioned by Het Nieuwe Instituut and Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences). This project is McRae's response to the touch crisis: we are all overconnected with technology, but we all lack physical contact, so the artist devised a machine that squeezes the body thanks to a series of aerated membranes that hold it tightly.
The process alters the gene expression of serotonin - the hormone responsible for regulating mood, social behaviour, digestion, and sexual desire - and repairs the broken bonds between ourselves, our emotions and the way we engage with the world.
The cradle's membrane also reveals the silhouette of a stranger sleeping between a squishy wrap, a figure that hints at voyeurism.
Somehow this installation echoes the 1968 one by architect Aldo van Eyck for the Triennale di Milano exhibition, "Greater Number", that has been rediscovered for the "I See That..." event. Van Eyck's focused on concern for the earth and the limits of growth; his installation was pessimistic, but it was also a plea for the restoration of the connection between man and nature through imagination and creativity.
Though pessimistic in its essence, McRae's "Compression Cradle", suspended between performance, pleasure and total enclosure fetishism, tries to restore the power of physical contact through an imaginative reinvention of the human touch.
Rather than providing answers, McRae asks us if we can design something that can repair the broken bonds between humanity. Think you have the answer to McRae's challenge? Then join her at the "Compression Cradle" performance that will take place on 12th April (at 10.45am) at the Palazzo dell'Arte.
Image credits for this post
1. Panorama, I See That I See What You Don’t See, Rudy Guedj, 2019. Photo: Daria Scagliola
2. Leanne Wijnsma, A Wildlife
3. Danilo Correale, excerpt from The Unsleep, 2019, courtesy the Artist
4. Automatic feed pushing robot at a dairy farm in The Netherlands. Lely International
5. Richard Vijgen, Wi-Fi Tapestry, 2017
6. Compression Cradle, Lucy McRae. Photo Scottie Cameron
7. Compression Cradle, Lucy McRae. Photo: Daria Scagliola
8. Compression Cradle, Lucy McRae. Photo: Daria Scagliola
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