17 April 2015
What will be the needs of the future? And what does the future need? Two crucial questions to bring into focus the role of design in rewriting and redrawing our requirements. Around these questions turns NEED—When Design Empowers Human Potential, a project promoted by Logotel, a service design company that offers guidance to businesses, helping them to move in innovative directions. From April 14 to 19, the Spazio Logotel at Via Ventura 15 is putting on an exploratory program linked to the theme of necessity. NEED presents the work of nineteen Italian and foreign designers at grips with the reinterpretation of a number of categories linked to the theme: individual and collective, on a micro and macro scale, human or artificial, material and immaterial, present and future. The basic objective is to probe the range of possibilities for transforming and improving the life of the individual, society and the environment. Johns Hopkins University’s Ebola Protective Suit, for instance, is a prototype of clothing designed to provide greater protection to health workers in the areas struck by the outbreak of Ebola. Critter Bitters by Julia Plevin and Lucy Knops is a series of aromatic mixtures for cocktails prepared from insects. Francesco Faccin’s Re-Fire Kit is a system for lighting fires by hand. The exhibition is curated by Cristina Favini, a strategist at Logotel, while expert advice is provided by Susanna Legrenzi, teacher and curator in the fields of design and communication, and Stefano Maffei, associate professor at the School of Design of Milan Polytechnic.
Bioplastic Fantastic di/by Johanna Schmeer.
Reporter di/by Nicholas Felton.
Ebola Protective Suit di/by Jhpiego, Harshad Sanghvi Jhpieg, Matthew J. Petney, Brandon Craft e/and Jill Andrews.
Mazí Mas di/by Niki Kopcke.
Éntomo di/by Lara Hanlon.
Autistic Languages di/by Lynn Schammel.
Critter Bitters di/by Julia Plevin e/and Lucy Knops.
Critter Bitters di/by Julia Plevin e/and Lucy Knops.
Living Pavement di/by Bennie Meek.
NASCO/STO di/by Maurizio Montalti.
Re-Fire Kit di/by Francesco Faccin.