Hasta La Ideas

We’re now a few years deep into rosé resurgence, and though some may think it’s the perfect fit for every sunny afternoon and moonlight dinner, there are other options in the chilled wine market—including reds. When we recently tried ,…

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News: Italy‘s design manufacturing capability is at risk of disappearing, according to the president of design brand Alessi.

The country’s producers could go the same way as its great designers of the last century and be outsourced abroad, Alberto Alessi told Dezeen.

“The risk is that it disappears,” he said in an interview in Milan last week during the Salone del Mobile. “Maybe Italian production will disappear.”

Alessi said that until the 1970s, Italian design was characterised by Italian designers working for Italian manufacturers.

“Then during the 80s we had some important change,” Alessi said, as Italian industry started to work with foreign designers. “Design expressed through the catalogue of Italian design factories was not any more Italian,” he said.

Today, he said, “maybe the second element, Italian production, will disappear.”

The company, which specialises in kitchen accessories and tableware, was founded in 1921 by Alberto Alessi’s grandfather Giovanni Alessi and today employs around 500 people at its factory in Crusinallo on Lake Orta in northern Italy. Its annual turnover is around €100 million.

One of the best-known of Italy’s design-led manufacturers, Alessi started out as a producer of stainless steel utensils for the catering industry but, like many successful Italian “design factories”, began collaborating with external designers in the fifties and sixties.

Famous Alessi collaborations include the 9090 espresso machine designed by Richard Sapper, the Juicy Salif lemon squeezer by Philippe Starck and the Record watch by Achille Castiglioni.

Foreign competition and Italy’s lingering economic woes are creating problems for Italy’s design houses. In May last year Claudio Luti, president of both the Kartell brand and the Salone del Mobile, said the failure of the country’s small, family run firms to seek investment and explore foreign markets was a “big, big mistake.”

Last September Patrizia Moroso, head of Italian furniture brand Moroso, said Italy was “in crisis” while Milan was “sitting in the past”.

“Italy… is very much in a crisis because it doesn’t want to change, doesn’t want to move and is becoming very old,” she said, adding that the country was “losing the culture behind production.”

Alberto Alessi said his company was committed to maintaining its production base in Italy but said he was “concerned” that Italian manufacturing would go the same way as Italian design, and migrate abroad.

But he added that, even if this happened, the notion of “Italian design” would continue, because of the country’s unique culture of collaboration between designer and manufacturer.

“I think that [Italy] will continue to have Italian design because it has not only to do with the nationality of the designer but it has to do with a culture,” he said. “We are a kind of mediator. The core of our activity is to mediate endlessly between on one side the best creativity in product design from all over the world and on the other side, customers.”

“This culture makes Italian design factories the best labs to offer to designers to make real their designs,” he added. “When they enter the door of Alessi, the designer or architect immediately feels he will meet people who will do their best to help him express what he has inside.”

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says Alberto Alessi appeared first on Dezeen.

In his four years traveling the globe, Charles Darwin filled notebook upon notebook of observations and experiences—enough source material for the scientist to pen “On the Origin of Species.” Now, Florentine artist Leonardo Magnani hopes to…

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Lacking some of the more iconic tourist attractions of neighboring Florence to the south and Milan or Venice to the north, from the outside it might appear as though Bologna has little to offer. However, the quaint and accommodating city is a little-known pocket of real bona fide Italian charm,…

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Visitors to a fashion film exhibition in Milan organised by arts website POSTmatter were able to manipulate imagery on giant displays using movement and gestures (+ movie).

Held in a desanctified Renaissance church at the Accademia di Brera, the POST exhibition fused digital technology with imagery in a series of interactive installations.

POSTmatter curated three fashion films that were displayed on giant screens, each of which could be altered by human touch or movement.

“Some of the most exciting and innovative work taking place today uses code rather than paint, screens instead of canvases – reaching multiple senses and interacting with the audience,” said POSTmatter.

In each film, models wearing haute-couture garments by designers including Iris van Herpen move and dance in slow motion.

When stood in front of the screen that showed a film titled Echo, visitors used simple hand movements to warp the colourful movie into a spinning kaleidoscopic swirl.

A fabric pad was pressed and stroked to blend together two films called Ripple in a cloudy haze.

On another large display, the imagery of models from the Gravity film was shattered into digital geometric patterns that distorted as people walked past then reconfigured once they moved out of range.

More of POSTmatter’s films, including a movie showing Maiko Takeda’s spiky headdresses glowing in the dark, were shown on smaller screens.

The exhibition took place from 13 to 16 March and there are plans to take it to other cities globally.

Here’s the information sent to us by POSTmatter:

About the exhibition

Launching in Milan, but with plans to tour globally, the exhibition combines performance, fashion and digital artistry in a series of interactive works.

The term “digital native” has become one of the defining concepts of our time. It refers to the emerging generation for whom the digital world is no longer an abstraction, but the very conditions of existence. To separate out “digital art” here will no longer be possible, as media distinctions dissolve into a fluid continuum between reality and the virtual world. Artists are responding powerfully to this complex and often conflicting state of transition. Some of the most exciting and innovative work taking place today uses code rather than paint, screens instead of canvases – reaching multiple senses and interacting with the audience.

This new exhibition series builds on POSTmatter’s experience in live events, with previous projects being part of major cultural events including the Venice Biennale, Art Basel Miami Beach and the Lisbon Architecture Triennale.

About POSTmatter

In a new series of interactive installations, POSTmatter moves beyond editorial to curate physical exhibitions, using intuitive interfaces that respond to human movement and touch.

Originally launched in 2010 as a series of independently published editions for the iPad, POSTmatter was designed with the interactive potential of tablet devices in mind. This opened up new possibilities for interactive content, responsive fashion editorials and groundbreaking film work. Having been honoured at numerous industry awards – from the Digital Magazine Awards to the Webbys – 2013 has seen POSTmatter expand its web presence as well as move into events.

The POSTmatter exhibition is the next step in rich media – bringing editorial away from the page, website or tablet to become a physically immersive experience.

About the venue

Founded in 1776, the Accademia di Brera has a rich heritage, having educated figures as diverse as Lucio Fontana, Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo and Bruno Munari.

The on-site Brera Art Gallery houses one of Milan’s most significant art collections, including works by Boccioni, Caravaggio, da Vinci, Picasso, Rubens and many more.

Placing these cutting-edge digital performance pieces in the setting of a desanctified Renaissance church, steeped in European history, speaks volumes about the radical human transformations being brought about in the post-digital age.

The post Interactive fashion films at POST exhibition
respond to movement of gallery visitors appeared first on Dezeen.