Si possono immaginare forme di schiavitù peggiori delle nostre, perché più insidiose: sia che si riesca a trasformare gli uomini in macchine stupide e appagate, che si credono libere mentre sono asservite, sia che si imprima in loro una passione forsennata per il lavoro, divorante quanto quella della guerra presso le razze barbare, tale da escludere gli svaghi, i piaceri umani.Memorie di Adriano, Marguerite Yourcenar
Qualunque cosa avvenga, la condizione orribile che mette l’uomo alla mercè d’un altro uomo esige un’attenta regolamentazione giuridica.
My thesis materials at the exhibition organized for the Lucky Strike Talented Design Award. Picture by the Raymond Loewy Foundation Italy
![The material I prepared and shipped for my participation at the Lucky Strike Design Award 2011: my thesis [the book], three different tables summarizing it, and a comment.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m27zi4dij91qiwkvho1_500.jpg)
The material I prepared and shipped for my participation at the Lucky Strike Design Award 2011: my thesis [the book], three different tables summarizing it, and a comment.
![The thesis comment I sent for my participation at the Lucky Strike Design Award 2011. [click on the image to see it in bigger size]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m27zalvw4d1qiwkvho1_1280.jpg)
The thesis comment I sent for my participation at the Lucky Strike Design Award 2011. [click on the image to see it in bigger size]
Good news: my MA thesis Oltre la Gabbia / Beyond the Grid has received an honorable mention at the Lucky Strike Design Award 2011, a design competition promoted by the Raymond Loewy Association Italy (see here). A one-week exhibition with all the finalist projects is now open in Napoli, Italy.
[…]
“Let me give you an even more radical example of it: something called the Results Only Work Environment, the ROWE, created by two American consultants […].
In a ROWE people don’t have schedules. They show up when they want. They don’t have to be in the office at a certain time, or any time. They just have to get their work done. How they do it, when they do it, where they do it, is totally up to them. Meetings in these kinds of environments are optional.
What happens? Almost across the board, productivity goes up, worker engagement goes up, worker satisfaction goes up, turnover goes down. Autonomy, mastery and purpose, These are the building blocks of a new way of doing things.
[…]
There is a mismatch between what science knows and what business does.
And here is what science knows. One: Those 20th century rewards, those motivators we think are a natural part of business, do work, but only in a surprisingly narrow band of circumstances. Two: Those if-then rewards often destroy creativity. Three: The secret to high performance isn’t rewards and punishments, but that unseen intrinsic drive — the drive to do things for their own sake. The drive to do things cause they matter.”
(Fonte: ted.com)
My MA thesis Oltre la Gabbia has been selected among the 10 finalists of the design competition Lucky Strike Talented Designer Award, promoted by the Raymond Loewy Foundation, Italy.
The award ceremony will take place on the 29th of March, 2012, in Napoli (Italy).
See you there!
Today I packaged some materials to be sent to the contest promoted by the Raymond Loewy Foundation Italy and devoted to the italian design thesis projects discussed in 2011, of any design topic or field. I prepared three layouts to show my work, together with some other materials. It took me a great effort to summarize my research into three sheets of paper only, anyway some nice results came out from it.
I do not really expect to win - as the contest seems to be focused especially on ‘practical’ design projects, rather than theoretical or research ones… -, anyway, good luck to me!
La Triennale di Milano ospita fino all’8 Gennaio 2012 la mostra O’Clock: time design, design time, a cura di Silvana Annicchiarico e Jam van Rossem, con un allestimento di Patricia Urquiola.
Stando a quanto si legge sul sito, la mostra non sembra entrare nel merito di come il fattore tempo si collochi o sia interpretato nella contemporaneità, tuttavia lancia alcuni spunti interessanti: “Un’ampia selezione di opere site-specific, installazioni, oggetti di design, opere d’arte, video di artisti e designer internazionali cercano di rispondere a domande come: “In che modo misurare il tempo?”, “Come mostrare il tempo che passa?”, “Come vivere in modo esperienziale il tempo?”. Tutti i lavori esposti affrontano temi come il passare del tempo, il tempo in divenire, la deperibilità, in modo talvolta divertente, talvolta poetico, talvolta meditativo e critico.”
Come si legge anche dal comunicato, il design nel corso della sua storia si è concentrato in particolare su alcuni specifici aspetti del tempo - della sua rappresentazione/misurazione in particolare, o del fattore esperienziale (basti pensare al lavoro dei vari gruppi di arte programmata).
Credo sarebbe interessante se il design come disciplina riuscisse anche a innescare un dibattito, e a indagare - attraverso i propri molteplici linguaggi - non solo come il tempo possa essere effettivamente “rappresentato”, e attraverso la rappresentazione misurato; ma anche cercare di capirne il significato o perlomeno cercare di fornirne una interpretazione originale.
Abbiamo davvero bisogno di continui redesign di orologi? O forse c’è maggior esigenza di una rivalutazione e di una indagine del concetto tempo, di una sua comprensione piena, di una esplorazione dello stesso concetto in ambienti e culture diverse dalla nostra…? I temi sarebbero molteplici, le potenzialità anche.
http://www.triennale.org/index.php?idq=1499
http://www.artribune.com/2011/11/design-a-tempo/
![I do not really like the term “creativity” when it is intended to stress a sort of difference between creative/not creative people. In my thesis I included a short chapter about this indeed.
Nevertheless, the following seems to be a serious inquiry about how do ‘creative’ people behave, their psychology and approach to work.
The author of the study, the creativity scholar and PhD Mihaly Csikszentmilhalyi, developed a generic description of the creative personality, included in his book Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. The study is dated 1996, yet I think it is still valid today.
The first crucial point is: “If there is one word that makes creative people different from others, it is the word complexity. Instead of being an individual, they are a multitude. Like the color white that includes all colors, they tend to bring together the entire range of human possibilities within themselves. Creativity allows for paradox, light, shadow, inconsistency, even chaos – and creative people experience both extremes with equal intensity.”
Csikszentmilhalyi develops also 10 characteristics of the creative personality:
1. A great deal of physical energy alternating with a great need for quiet and rest.2. Highly sexual, yet often celibate, especially when working. 3. Both extravagant and spartan. 4. Smart and naïve at the same time. A mix of wisdom and childishness. Emotional immaturity along with the deepest insights. 5. Convergent (rational, left brain, sound judgment) and divergent (intuitive, right brain, visionary) thinking. Divergence is the ability to generate a great quantity of ideas, to switch from one perspective to another, and to pick unusual associations of ideas. Convergence involves evaluation and choice. Creative people have the capacity to think both ways. 6. Both extroverted and introverted, needing people and solitude equally. 7. Humble and proud, both painfully self-doubting and wildly self-confident. 8. May defy gender stereotypes, and are likely to have not only the strengths of their own gender but those of the other as well. A kind of psychic androgyny. 9. Can be rebellious and independent on one hand, and traditional and conservative on the other. 10. A natural openness and sensitivity that often exposes them to extreme suffering and pain, yet also to a great deal of enjoyment. Despair alternates with bliss, despair when they aren’t working, and bliss when they are.
What it is particularly interesting to me - in relation to time and work, considering my thesis - are some things I read on the article, such as:
“They work long hours, with great concentration, while projecting an aura of freshness and enthusiasm […] The important thing is that they control their energy; it’s not ruled by the calendar, the dock, an external schedule”.
“Despite the carefree air that many creative people affect, most of them work late into the night and persist when less driven individuals would not. “
“Most creative people are very passionate about their work, yet they can be extremely objective about it as well.”
“Perhaps the most difficult thing for creative individuals to bear is the sense of loss and emptiness they experience when, for some reason, they cannot work. This is especially painful when a person feels his or her creativity drying out.[…] Yet when a person is working in the area of his of her expertise, worries and cares fall away, replaced by a sense of bliss.”
Read the complete article here.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lu6i49q6rN1qiwkvho1_500.jpg)
I do not really like the term “creativity” when it is intended to stress a sort of difference between creative/not creative people. In my thesis I included a short chapter about this indeed.
Nevertheless, the following seems to be a serious inquiry about how do ‘creative’ people behave, their psychology and approach to work.
The author of the study, the creativity scholar and PhD Mihaly Csikszentmilhalyi, developed a generic description of the creative personality, included in his book Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. The study is dated 1996, yet I think it is still valid today.
The first crucial point is: “If there is one word that makes creative people different from others, it is the word complexity. Instead of being an individual, they are a multitude. Like the color white that includes all colors, they tend to bring together the entire range of human possibilities within themselves. Creativity allows for paradox, light, shadow, inconsistency, even chaos – and creative people experience both extremes with equal intensity.”
Csikszentmilhalyi develops also 10 characteristics of the creative personality:
1. A great deal of physical energy alternating with a great need for quiet and rest.
2. Highly sexual, yet often celibate, especially when working.
3. Both extravagant and spartan.
4. Smart and naïve at the same time. A mix of wisdom and childishness. Emotional immaturity along with the deepest insights.
5. Convergent (rational, left brain, sound judgment) and divergent (intuitive, right brain, visionary) thinking. Divergence is the ability to generate a great quantity of ideas, to switch from one perspective to another, and to pick unusual associations of ideas. Convergence involves evaluation and choice. Creative people have the capacity to think both ways.
6. Both extroverted and introverted, needing people and solitude equally.
7. Humble and proud, both painfully self-doubting and wildly self-confident.
8. May defy gender stereotypes, and are likely to have not only the strengths of their own gender but those of the other as well. A kind of psychic androgyny.
9. Can be rebellious and independent on one hand, and traditional and conservative on the other.
10. A natural openness and sensitivity that often exposes them to extreme suffering and pain, yet also to a great deal of enjoyment. Despair alternates with bliss, despair when they aren’t working, and bliss when they are.
What it is particularly interesting to me - in relation to time and work, considering my thesis - are some things I read on the article, such as:
“They work long hours, with great concentration, while projecting an aura of freshness and enthusiasm […] The important thing is that they control their energy; it’s not ruled by the calendar, the dock, an external schedule”.
“Despite the carefree air that many creative people affect, most of them work late into the night and persist when less driven individuals would not. “
“Most creative people are very passionate about their work, yet they can be extremely objective about it as well.”
“Perhaps the most difficult thing for creative individuals to bear is the sense of loss and emptiness they experience when, for some reason, they cannot work. This is especially painful when a person feels his or her creativity drying out.
[…] Yet when a person is working in the area of his of her expertise, worries and cares fall away, replaced by a sense of bliss.”
Read the complete article here.
I recently realized a small compendium to the thesis, which is supposed to work as an introduction to the topic and my work on it. The dossier includes a presentation of the thesis, the first introductive chapter and the list of the people interviewed, with some quotations from each of them.
The dossier is available both in Italian and English. Have a look on it!
See also here.
Enrico Baj, Tempo Libero e Tecnica, Studio
It is still unbelievable to me, but, while working at ArtVerona, I found in a library the original catalogue of the 13 Triennale (1964) - on the topic of “spare time”. The catalogue is curated, among the others, by Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, and designed by Bob Noorda. Of course, I immediately bought it.
My history Professor Carlo Vinti talked to me about this catalogue while I was working on the thesis, as it is a great point of reference about the topic of time.
This little book is a marvellous source of essays, images and thoughts about time. A true mix of different things about the same topic, and it really reminds me about my thesis, which has a similar structure.
The book includes a huge number of drawings and illustrations about time and space from many designers. I am going to publish something here, every now and then.
So happy about this!
«La premessa alla tesi di Robinson è molto semplice: la scuola di oggi è una scuola antica, concepita “nel clima culturale e intellettuale dell’Illuminismo e nelle circostanze economiche della prima rivoluzione industriale”. La prova è che le scuole sono ancora organizzate sul modello della linea di produzione, come in una fabbrica. “Ci sono le campanelle, delle strutture separate, gli alunni si specializzano in materie diverse. Educhiamo ancora i bambini per annate: li inseriamo nel sistema raggruppandoli per età”. La scuola, quindi, è come una catena di montaggio da cui possono uscire solo due tipi di prodotti: studiosi e svogliati.»
Leggi l’intero articolo su Wired.it
