4 WELCOME

6 staff and contributors

9 NEW YORK by meghan dellacrosse SIMONE FORTI: VOICE IN MOVEMENT / VOICING MOVEMENTS

15 MILAN by marco tagliafierro EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

21 TOKYO by ayaki aron hortz MONJAYAKI

28 DASHBOARD by alessandro gori INTO THE WIRES. WIREFRAME AND HIDDEN-LINE

34 RADICAL POINT OF VIEW by guido molinari AN INTERVIEW WITH LAPO BINAZZI, CO-FOUNDER OF UFO

43 EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED by daniela lotta INSPIRED BY NATURE AND ITS “ MYSTERIOUS BEAUTY”

48 WILLIAMSBURG’S LATENT DYNAMISM by giordano pozzi

54 THE HOUSE OF EQUISETUM by lorenzo rebediani ARTIFICIAL PARADISE

62 flashback: 1981

67 STATE OF MIND: FAWN KRIEGER

72 STATE OF MIND: RESIGN

76 MATERIAL CULTURE by anne shlisler-hughes ON THE FASHION DESIGNER KAL RIEMAN

85 REPUBLISHING: NEW OBSERVATIONS N. 8

88 DESIGN FOR SOCIAL CHANGE ACROSS NYC by hala a.malak

94 PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH by matteo pini ABOUT BONES

99 SNAPSHOT n.2 by jacopo grassi 2 international modern and contemporary art fair We thought we’d hit upon a definitive layout with issue 1 of Fruit of the Forest, but we were wrong! We’ve been mixing things up again, and most we importantly, we’ve been letting ourselves be bowled over by cities, events and encounters—designers, artists, and new writers—a whole host of ideas and l unexpected perspectives.

This is a very special issue. It has taken us a long co time to put it together; we’ve seen the winter solstice come and go, and we’ve come and gone across the Atlantic a couple of times, but we’ve mE ended up with a wonderful mix of the two places that contribute to our principal genetic make-up: Italy and the United States.

To give you a bit of the new content: Guido Molinari interviews Lapo Binazzi from the legendary Radical design group UFO; Meghan DellaCrosse takes us on a journey through Simone Forti’s art of words and movement (with an exclusive poem read by the artist); and Anne Shisler-Hughes launches our fashion design column in a meeting with Kal Reiman.

Michela Arfiero

4 Fruit of the Forest is an experimental art and design magazine

Founder and editor-in-chief Michela Arfiero info[at]fruitoftheforestmagazine.com

Founder and managing director Giordano Pozzi

Magazine design Alessandro Gori. Laboratorium mmxi

Graphic design and illustrations Stefano Mandracchia

Copy editing Jeffrey Young

Contributors and writers Hala A.Malak, Ayaki Aron Hortz, meghan dellacrosse, Lyra Kilston, Paola Gallio, Daniela Lotta, Guido Molinari, Matteo Pini, Lorenzo Rebediani, Anne Shisler-Hughes, Marco Tagliafierro, simone tosca

Contributing photographer n.2 jacopo grassi

Translations Victoria Edmenson, Alexander Taylor

Advertising/sponsorship ad[at]fruitoftheforestmagazine.com

Cover Image Fawn Krieger, "FAULT" (prop 5), 2011. (Foam, paint, & caulking) Me Company, desktops, 2003 CA

BACK COVER IMAGE mydee mydee [at] mydee.fr

Copyright © 2012 Fortino Editions LLC. All Rights Reserved

All reasonable efforts have been made to contact the copyright holders of the images used. We apologize to anyone that we have been unable to reach. publisher

8345 NW 66TH ST suite 4367 Miami FL 33166 USA t +1 347 534 3015 www.fortinoeditions.com 5 Hala A.Malak is a design critic Paola Gallio is an art curator. Ayaki Aron Hotrz was born and thinker on the Middle East She is also an advisor, sculptor, in Tokyo. In 1999 he founded and North Africa. She owns her sommelier and an ice-cream Studio Hortz, a consultancy own studio, The Design Critic, maker. office in Japan for food and and currently resides in New fashion. He has been a curator York City. Alessandro Gori takes in Italy for Japan Brand events a cross-disciplinary approach since 2009. Michela Arfiero is the to graphic design. He works editor- in-chief of Fruit of the in Florence and is the founder Daniela Lotta is an art critic Forest design magazine.She of Laboratorium studio. He and curator. She is interested in founded Fortino Editions, teaches at the University of the relation between contem- an independent publishing Bologna. porary art, fashion and design. company specializing in digital She teaches at ISIA/Faenza and publications, applications, and Jacopo Grassi is a the University of Bologna. limited-edition paper books. photographer. He lives and works in Milan among other Meghan DellaCrosse is places, photographing objects a writer living between New and spaces as well as people, York City and Andes, a hamlet making everyday life interesting in the Catskills. Her work with innocent photographs. focuses on performance art rooted in the late 1950s–early 1960s in relation to the Fluxus group, the artist-run Something Else Press, and other related contemporaries. She has performed with Alison Knowles and considers that, and similar experiences, an extension of her research.

6 Stefano Mandracchia is Lorenzo Rebediani is a Marco Tagliafierro is an a painter and a graphic “plants-man” and researcher independent art critic and illustrator. He is into Brutalist of strange plants. He studies curator whose work investigates architecture. environmental architecture at the relationship between art the Politecnico in Milan and and design. He attended the Guido Molinari is an art and works in landscape design. Domus Academy and Fabrica design critic who lives and looking for signs among works between Bologna and Anne Shisler-Hughes has different artistic disciplines. He Venice. He has worked on worked extensively in fine art has curated many shows with the magazine Flash Art since museums in Los Angeles and a focus on the newest 1995, is an exhibition curator, New York and currently lives generation of Italian artists. and teaches the Theory of in New York City. She writes Perception at the Accademia about material culture as we Simone Tosca is a visual artist di Belle Arti in Venice. encounter and employ it for based in Oslo. He is also self-definition and expression— a graphic and set designer, Matteo Pini is a designer and what we wear, eat, use, and a not-yet-retired skater and member of the Dorothy Gray inhabit—as well as the art that noise maker. group. He teaches at ISIA/ moves us. Faenza and lives in Forli, Italy. Jeffrey Young is an editor, writer, and photographer. He Giordano Pozzi is a designer lives in Prague. and artist living between New York City and Verona.

7 SNAPSHOT 8 Feeling uncomfortable in New York’s cityscape, Forti began recording new forms of motion new york Simone Forti: VOICE IN MOVEMENT/ VOICING MOVEMENTS

by meghan dellacrosse

Simone Forti reading transcript from a News Animation performance (Agitprop Gallery, San Diego: May 7, 2011) recorded over the telephone by Meghan DellaCrosse, November 28, 2011

FALLERS scanned from the book SIMONE FORTI : HAND- BOOK IN MOTION, PUBLISHED For over 50 years, dedicating her focus to BY THE PRESS OF THE NOVA SCOTIA COLLEGE OF ART AND movement, Simone Forti has maintained a constant DESIGN, 1974 trajectory, spanning the boundaries of multiple disciplines and continually developing some of the most innovative work of her generation. She is an artist who, unlike most, provokes a sentiment that feels equally familiar as captivating. Beginning in the early 1980s, Forti’s interest in movement led to the development of her logo-motion technique and News Animation improvisation work, mobilizing the relationship between

9 Simone Forti, Danze Costruzioni at L’Attico, Rome, 1968 Courtesy Archivio L’Attico-Fabio Sargentini, Rome movement and spoken language, activating the space between the two over time. Forti’s singularity is marked by her empathetic ease of motion developed through years listening to the movement around her while “keeping track of her own melody.”

During her recent visit to New York this past October, the Roulette theater hosted Forti in downtown Brooklyn for two evening events: a lecture, and “An Evening of Movement, Sound and Spoken Word.” During her lecture, Forti acknowledged the beliefs and influence of her lifelong mentor, Anna Halprin, whose program centers on developing kinesthetic intelligence through improvisational methods. Standing and moving casually new york 10 throughout her talk, Forti (accompanied by patient gestures of hands and body) explained how Halprin taught her to, “See any movement as movement—through a chair, or even taking in how a plant makes you feel.” Then, shrugging with laughter: “If you’re like me, and you move and move and move—you really get to know your instrument!” Throughout her career, Forti’s artistic and conceptual flexibility reveals a continual process, maintaining the handful of things she unravels over time, to practice maintaining the momentum.

Born in Florence, Italy in 1935, Forti’s family emigrated to the US in 1939, settling in Los Angeles, where she was raised. She met her first husband, artist Robert Morris, while briefly attending Reed College in Portland, Oregon. In 1956, the couple dropped out and moved to San Francisco. Sharing a studio with Morris,

ALL IMAGES ARE PHOTOGRAPHED FROM THE BOOK SIMONE FORTI : HANDBOOK IN MOTION, PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS OF THE NOVA SCOTIA COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN, 1974 who was painting at the time, Forti learned how to build her own canvases and began to paint. However, her foray into painting was brief. Owing to the dimensions of her early paintings–– generally six feet high by five feet wide––long-term storage was a sizable inconvenience; the only remains of this early period are Forti’s recollections. new york 11 Enrolling in Anna Halprin’s improvisational dance workshop in 1956 changed everything. Halprin immediately captured Forti’s imagination, teaching her how to understand and learn from her own body by listening to the world around her. Abandoning modern dance in 1955, Halprin began offering workshops on her now legendary open-air deck studio in the hilly woods of Marin County, California. This was an especially fortuitous moment for the original group, as it allowed students to move with their instructor through collaborative discoveries.

Relocating to New York City in the spring of 1959 was an extreme transition for Forti. After studying improvisation in close proximity to nature during her four-year apprenticeship with Halprin, Forti recalls feeling excited and also absolutely shocked to move through a place entirely made by humans. And also: “how refreshing and consoling it was to know that gravity was

Simone Forti, Danze Costruzioni at L’Attico, Rome, 1968 Courtesy Archivio L’Attico-Fabio Sargentini, Rome still gravity.” Feeling uncomfortable in New York’s cityscape, she improvised. Forti began recording new forms of motion, such as up and down buildings and through subways, devising new methods to activate and process the movement around her.

Speaking about this period during her lecture in New York, Forti demonstrated an object-placement game she remembers new york 12 playing in the loft she shared with Morris just after moving to New York. Moving across the stage at Roulette with an object she had on hand, she explained how everyday objects like a roll of toilet paper and a milk carton could be used as pawns, observing decisions in space like a board game, activating relationships in space over time. Forti allied her shifting perceptions with Robert Dunn through a composition class at the Merce Cunningham Studio. Introducing her to the scores of John Cage and the concept of indeterminacy, Dunn’s class helped Forti discover new means to compose work and connected her with the people who went on to form the Judson Dance Theater.

Perhaps what is so familiar about Forti rests in the fact that movement, the thing she has committed her life to, is so much a part of her presence; movement infiltrates even her sentences, imbuing her voice with a delicate mobility that accepts the importance of timing as a means to unfold expression, activity, and even proximity. Forti’s movement practice maintains momentum, consistently transforming a network of profundities into a more spacious range of melodies.

The drawing on the cover of Handbook in Motion is an appropriated diagram Forti discovered in a book of Egyptian measuring devices soon after emerging from 1960s drug culture with an interest in harmonic vibrations. Beginning this series in the early 1970s, these drawings foreshadow Forti’s holography series, Angel, which used image material from earlier pieces such as Huddle, incorporated into holographic forms. The significance of the simple line drawings is the network of three elements: waving motion of water becomes a catalyst, moving a mirror (represented by a 90-degree angle) to reflect sunlight onto a reflective surface, projecting a cycle of motion.

The logo-motion and later News Animation series Forti began soon after. We can see the network of elements synthesized in a new form, activating movement over time. The audio sample accompanying this text operates in a similar way: a table new york 13 SEE-SAW scanned from the book SIMONE FORTI : HANDBOOK IN MOTION, PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS OF THE NOVA SCOTIA COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN, 1974

Simone Forti, Danze Costruzioni at L’Attico, Rome, 1968 Courtesy Archivio L’Attico-Fabio Sargentini, Rome representing physical space is activated by touching; a radio interview vocalizes a familiarity of experience—empathy to a particular situation—bringing the more abstract notion of space and scale into view by wondering if the light outside her door is a star/a planet. Bringing all components together, Forti’s voice articulating each component seamlessly, seemingly without boundary between one thought to the next. In this form, punctuation is activated in the space of time, voice in motion like a body through space—“it just made it so like touching the legs of this little table that are so gracefully tapered to hear his voice…” later followed by “she turns a somersault” become invisible boundaries in time, plucking the ear, catalyzing movement.

new york 14 Thanks to a series of extraordinary coincidences Lambrate has become a new hotspot for art and design

MILANEmotional INTELLIGENCE by marco tagliaf i erro

The flatlands between Novara and Vercelli (two cities very close to Milan) produced several discourses that have proven to be particularly VIA VENTURA significant to the Movimento PHOTO: giulia azzini per l’Arte Concreta (MAC). Among the members of this art movement, which was officially founded in Milan in 1948 by A. Soldati, B. Munari, G. Dorfles and G. Monnet, were fascinating

15 abstractionists of diverse backgrounds and poetics. I refer above all to Nino di Salvatore, the theorist, designer and painter. As Movimento Arte Concreta at Salto bookshop, Milan, 1951 photomontage Gianni Monnet early as 1950 he wrote in Milan: “The conclusion of the creative process of space indicates to the observer the rhythm, order and climate in which their imagination and meditation can be channeled, without ever forcing them into a banal association of ideas...”

Also active on the scene was Roberto Sambonet (b. Vercelli, 1924–d. Milan, 1995), an artist and designer who immortalized aspects of this landscape on paper: branches and leaves, plants, and everyday objects. During a stay in Brazil, Sambonet met the Roberto Sambonet, psychiatrist Edu Machado Gomes and the patients of the Jaquerí RSt Set, 1975-76 psychiatric unit, five kilometers from Sao Paulo. Sambonet conducted a personal study of the landscape of mental illness in the hospital’s wards. The faces he drew in the Jaquerí asylum are a voyage of human participation, a faithful, accurate measurement of the distance that sometimes separates us from ourselves. Sambonet came back from Brazil transformed: he left as a young painter and returned an artist, planner, and designer,

Roberto Sambonet, Pesciera, Sambonet S.p.a., 1957

MILAN 16 accompanied with an equally systematic and experimental method, a different way of seeing and organizing his view.

The personalities of Nino di Salvatore and Roberto Sambonet left a very peculiar imprint on the Scuola Politecnica di Design (SPD), which di Salvatore himself founded in Novara in 1954 and which was later moved to Milan to become the first research and training center for industrial design and visual communications in Italy. Over the past fifty-plus years, it has trained thousands of industrial and visual designers from 40 countries. At the SPD,

where innovative subject matter continues to be taught and put into practice, the link with the world of art, culture, and research attracts first-class designers with diverse experiences and has hosted lectures by the likes of Giò Ponti, Rodolfo Bonetto, Achille Castiglioni, Gillo Dorfles, Mario Bellini, Augusto Morello, Giulio Castelli, Aldo Cibic, Donald Norman, and many more.

The SPD is now located at 15 Via Ventura, in the Lambrate district of Milan, at the heart of a post-industrial zone that houses art and design galleries. Thanks to a series of extraordinary coincidences among the galleries’ programs, Lambrate has become a new hotspot for design, one that is animated each year by the youthful energy of Milan’s Salone del Mobile furniture show. MILAN 17 Mammafotogramma, PANCduCOC, Via Ventura/Lambrate, 2011 Copyright Mammafotogramma.

Mammafotogramma, pancaMOBILE, Via Ventura/Lambrate, 2011 Copyright Mammafotogramma.

The Mammafotogramma Design Circus is one such project. During the last edition of the Salone it gave rise to a series of unique pieces created for Luna Caffè, an experimental bar that dominated the scene during design week. The Mammafotogramma studio produced a banister, a bench, chairs and tables (first for work, later for cocktails), a staircase, and a solid wall made of stacked planks—a series of elements arranged episodically inside the spaces to create a linguistic and material path for the visitor’s eyes and feet. Mammafotogramma has a nomadic background and is made up of five young people under 30 and two very young designers, Giulio Masotti and Gianluca lo Presti.

MILAN 18 Also in Lambrate is the bubbling Plus design gallery, a genuine breeding ground of talent with its own special editions signed by artists and Porcelain collection , Courtesy Massimo De Carlo designers from Installation shot from ‘The Collectors’ at The Danish & Nordic Pavilions, 2009 53rd International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia Photo: Anders Sune Berg Italy and around Copyright The Danish & Nordic Pavilions and the artists, 2009 the world. Autumn 2011 was marked by its collaboration with Fabrica, the visual workshop financed by the Benetton Group. This partnership led to an exhibition organized by the international team of young designers at Fabrica under the leadership of Sam Baron, with objects expressing design more as an anthropological or cultural gesture than a rationalistic or technological one.

There is also an historic precedent I would like to refer to, one of many that we could consider relevant. This is an admirable collection of ceramics produced in Germany in the early 1930s (the years of the Weimar Republic!), courtesy of Massimo De Carlo,a well-known gallery owner who established his Italian branch on Via Ventura.

MILAN 19 SNAPSHOT 20 tokyo is a city best seen through the lens of its contradictions and contrasts

TOKYo MONJAYAKI

There are few places better than Tokyo to experience what we have come to imagine as the “artificial city.” This Kenzo Tange, Yamanashi is, no doubt, because Culture Hall, 1966 Photo: Shinkenchiku-sha aspects of Tokyo fit our general idea of artificiality, including Courtesy: DAAS a perception of the future as aseptic, linked, if we can define it as such, to a kind of “plastic” feeling.

21 But perhaps our perception is even more acute because of films that have contributed to our collective image of the city of the future? For example, in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, the artificial city apparently lives as a distant yet integral part of the more “human” world of its “lower levels”—just like Tokyo, which has developed and exists vertically. (While it is true that in recent decades more and more cities have grown skywards, I do not believe that the inhabitants of any other city have acclimated themselves to living vertically with such ease. It is perhaps no coincidence that the people of Tokyo pay such close attention to the comfort of their lifts.)

“Metabolism, the City of the Future: Dreams and Visions of Reconstruction in Postwar and Present-Day Japan” Installation view: Mori Art Museum Photo: Watanabe Osamu In some parts of Tokyo, it is not unusual to feel as if you have Courtesy: Mori Art Museum stepped into a scene from Blade Runner. As in the world of the film, one can pass through a residential neighborhood of narrow streets and alleyways filled with the smell of cooking food to the artificial side of the city, with its sterile skyscrapers, apartments, and offices.

This futuristic aspect of the city definitely includes Odaiba, a district built on a series of artificial islands in Tokyo Bay. Originally created for military purposes in the mid-19th century (daiba is Japanese for cannon batteries), in the 1990s the islands were completely transformed into a lively urban district, with

TOKYO 22 Fritz Lang, Metropolis, 1927

new residential neighborhoods, large shopping centers, and entertainment venues. Like every self-respecting “city of the future,” Odaiba is connected by monorail, which you can see in the attached video: a virtual tour of what we could call Neo- Tokyo.

Odaiba is also home to the distinctive Fuji Television building, designed by Kenzo Tange. In fact, already by the end of the 1960s, Tange and other architects of the Metabolism group had envisioned numerous projects for Odaiba and Tokyo’s seaward urban development. You can learn more about this at the impressive exhibition now on at the Mori Museum (on the 53rd

TOKYO 23 floor of the Mori Tower): “Metabolism – The City of the Future: Dreams and Visions of Reconstruction in Postwar and Present- Day Japan,” which is also the first retrospective exhibition charting this movement.

Traveling around Tokyo looking for the buildings that Metabolism architects dreamt up and developed also means rediscovering such gems as the Nakagin Capsule Tower, which allow us to reflect once again on the idea of the city of the future and artificial spaces.

Artificiality, or the future on display No discussion about things artificial in Japan can exclude robots (Metropolis and Blade Runner yet again!). The latest generation of robots could recently be seen at IREX 2011, the International Robot Exhibition in Tokyo. Among the most interesting prototypes on display were the latest versions of the HRP-4C, created by the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, and Honda’s ASIMO robot. Also of interest, and the most likely candidate for immediate use, is the Robina

AWAZU KIYOSHI, Poster for The Works of Kurokawa Kisho, 1970 Collection: Kisho Kurokawa Architect & Associates

Kenzo Tange, Hiroshima Peace Center Complex, 1953 Photo: Ishimoto Yasuhiro

TOKYO 24 Panasonic LDAHV4L27CG light bulb medical assistance model developed by Toyota.

Two other notable and “futuristic” Japanese products won Good Design awards in 2011. These are Toshiba’s Heavy Ion Irradiation System, for use in the treatment of cancer, and the “artificial roots” system developed by Nippon Steel, which enables the stabilization of slopes without the need to cut down trees.

Tokyo Design Week is also a good place to check in with the future. Among the objects that won awards, I was particularly attracted to Panasonic’s LDAHV4L27CG light bulb, which recreates the light and design of the old-style, incandescent bulb although it uses a low-watt LED light source, and to the Sphiano bath by INAX, which promises never-before-felt sensations when you dip into its lotion-like foam.

Transformation as space for reflection Tokyo is a city best seen through the lens of its contradictions and contrasts. It is perhaps no coincidence that in his documentary film Tokyo-Ga (shot in 1983), Wim Wenders juxtaposes imagery of the transformation of Tokyo in the 1980s with black and white scenes from the films of Yasujiro Ozu (as part of his tribute to the Japanese filmmaker), which depict everyday life in postwar Tokyo.

TOKYO 25 Among the symbols that Wenders uses to portray contemporary (1980s) Tokyo are the wax replicas of food that restaurants display at their entrances (today these are mostly made in plastic). Entire meals from the menu are reproduced in workshops in the area around Kappabashi-dori. These impressive fake food displays continue to fascinate tourists, who cannot resist a photo opportunity in front of them. Perhaps this an another example of “feeding” our innate attraction to that which appears artificial? We are always attracted to the next meme.

To bring this short “tour” of artificiality in Tokyo to an end, I offer a series of images showing these fake-food window displays— before they are replaced by touch screens or 3D images, as has already happened with the new automatic drink dispensers. Fake (plastic) food being replaced by fake (virtual) food creates yet another new space to reflect on the various degrees of possible artificiality.

TOKYO 26 SNAPSHOT 27 INTO THE WIRES. WIREFRAME and HIDDEN-LINE ELEMENTs first notes DASH- BOARD by alessandro gori

1 2 3

4 5 6 7

8 9 10 11 12

13 14 15 16 28 17 18 19 20 21 22

23 24 25 26 27

28 29 30 31 32

33 34 35 36

37 38 39 40 41

42 43 44 45

46 47 48 49 50 dashboard 29 51 52 53 54

55 56 57 58 59

60 61 62 63

64 65 66 67 68 69

70 71 72 73

74 75 76 77 78

79 80 81 82 dashboard 30 83 84 85 86 87

88 89 90 91

92 93 94 95

96 97 98 99 100

101 102 103 104

105 106 107

1-3 Mieke Meijer, by kraftwerk. drawing as a FW 2011/2012 TRIANGLE DISPLAY, 12-15 kraftwerk, images texture in all his 28-29 carlo trevisani, Depot Basel 2011 from the video and productions Buc, 2010 4-7 Björk, Hidden cover (19-20) of 16-18 SS 2007; 19-20 FW Place video by musique non stop, by 2009; 21 Gareth Pugh M/M Paris,Inez van Rebecca Allen, 1983- for MAC Cosmetics; Lamsweerde and 86 22-23 FW 2009; 24 SS Vinoodh Matadin, 2001 16-27 fashion designer 2010; 25 FW 2009; 26 8-11 Raf simons, FW 1998/99 Gareth Pugh has Gareth Pugh STORE with Make up inspired used the wireframe in HONG KOng, 2011; 27 dashboard 31 30 carlo trevisani, 83-84 Bashko Trybek, Geo, 2011 antistress, chair, 2010 31-32 studio beton, 2009 85 Atelier Takagi, 96 lanzavecchia+wai, 33-34 Alba Prat, scaffold wide, 2011 leone series 1, table The Digitalized 86 PAOLO GONZATo, IT’S lamp, 2011 Collection, 2011 NOT RIGHT, 2009 97 Scholten & Baijings, 35 beton, lithium system, 87 PAOLO GONZATO, OUT COLOUR WOOD, 2009 2010 OF STOCK, 2009 98-100 Scholten & Baijings, 36 Luca Trevisani, 88-89 bernhard willhelm, PAPER PORCELAIN, 2010 Buondaries are FW 2003/2004 101 Mike kelly, Hanging boneless, 2008 90 Martino Gamper, stuffed animals and 37-40 Carolina Reis, WEAR Hexagone Table, deodorizers, 1991 OUT, 2010 2001/2007 102 Carstern Holler, 41 Fischerspooner, 91 Martino Gamper, Mirror carousel, emerge, 2009 ARNOLD CIRCUS STOOL, 2005 42-43 COLUMBIAS UNIVERSITY 2006 103 Diesel with (samuel grenader, 92-95 Dik Scheepers, Foscarini, pett lamp, karen bechara Pieces of Pi, 2010 mitri, jay sikes Porcelain, 2010 104 stefano CALLIGARO, and heath west), Indie, 2004 parametric lace 105-106 albertine van shelf SYstems, 2009 iterson, lineament 44 Yuya Ushida , XXXX_ light, 2011 Sofa, 201145 Adrien Fainsilber and Gérard Chamayou, La Géode, parc de la Villette, Paris, 1985 46-47 Fine de Graaf, jewels, 2011 48-50 Elisa Strozyk, wooden textiles, 2009. Produced by BÖwer 51 YVES SAINT LAURENT, SS 2009 52-53 Konstantin Grcic, Chair One, 2004. Produced by Magis 54 Atelier Takagi, MARKET RESEARCH table, 2011 56-57 Linn Kandel, PYLÖN, 2011 58 Linn Kandel, net, 2011 59 Ding 3000, 2d, led lamp, 2011. Produced by skitsch 60-62 me company, desktops, 2003 ca 63 Sterling Ruby, Prison (detail), Collage and pencil on paper, 2004 64-65 Bertjan Pot and Marcel Wanders, Carbon Chair, 2004. Produced by moooi 66-67 Conrad Shawcross, Binary Star, 2006 68-69 Koby sibony, ahsan, storages, 2011 70-71 PATRICIA urquiola, spirogria and wire citrus basket, 2011. Produced by alessi 72 ophir zak, between the lines, stool, 2011 73 Peter Böckel, Phalanx table, 2011 74-76 Hussein Chalayan, SS 2008 (readings) 77-78 Tal Gur, The daily chair, 2011 79-81 Max Lipsey, Concentration Chair, Depot Basel 2011 82 Store muu, Deltable, 2009

dashboard 32 SNAPSHOT 33 RADICAL mangrovia POINT OF

VIEW Lapo Binazzi was born in Florence, An interview with Italy in 1943. In 1967—together with Lapo Binazzi, co- Ricarrdo Foresi, Titti Maschietto, founder of UFO Carlo Bachi and Patrizia Cammeo—he by guido molinari founded UFO, a group that entered the Radical architecture scene and in 1973 set up the experimental architecture workshop, Global Tools. Following his experience with UFO, he has continued his work as an architect-artist-designer, approaching design as a pure communication phenomenon and attempting to make the artistic experience coincide with experimentation in design. He Guido Molinari: What exactly has taken part in many exhibitions 1 made you choose A.N.A.S. houses as including Alchimia in Florence (1981) a subject matter for your work? and Documenta 8 in Kassel (1987).

A ll images courtesy Lapo Binazzi / UFO

Lapo Binazzi: We were on a bus we had rented to take part in the Rieti Karnoval in January 1969. We had built a 1:1 scale inflatable Roman aqueduct that we were unable to assemble because of a snowstorm. I was sitting in a window seat jotting down ideas for the event when the bus stopped at

a level crossing. I looked out of the UFO at the venice biennale, 1978

34 many others, right up to the 1978 Venice Biennale (the year in which UFO officially split up), which we took part in with a giant poster of the A.N.A.S. house, transforming the boat into an arch and the lagoon into a paved road.

In the book Radical Architecture by P. Navone and B. Orlandoni, the

UFO, Magazzino A.N.A.S., 1970 authors refer to the A.N.A.S. house by UFO as “architecture of bureaucracy.” window and found myself facing an A.N.A.S. house that seemed, simply, to be staring at me. I had a kind of illumination or epiphany and started to fantasize about it. It had recently been renovated. They were always closed. To me, they represented the archetype of Italian architecture in three colors. I began to have the desire to get to know them better, to go inside and explore their contents, even to research their various typologies.

On our return to Florence, we constructed a six-meter-high inflatable UFO Giro d’Italia, Florence, 1970 A.N.A.S. house in the courtyard of the Faculty of Architecture and started our From the very beginning, our work cataloguing. The connection to the was focused on the processes of local landscape was instantly apparent, “tertiarization” in a post-industrial so we undertook further research on society like Italy, and the renovation conceptual town planning, such as of A.N.A.S. houses, which were built the 1972 Giro d’Italia. The Centrodì during the two decades of Fascism, catalogue in 1974 was followed by only served to highlight this.

GM: The idea of incorporating stereotypes into a design object, such ufo 35 as the effigy of a dollar or the Metro- Goldwyn-Mayer logo, automatically connects you to the Pop Movement. What distinguished the Radical movement from that kind of research in the visual arts?

LB:The UFO group was founded in October 1967, on the wave of Superarchitettura by Archizoom and Superstudio in 1966. Pop Art first appeared at the Venice Biennale in 1964. And it was like a punch in the stomach to Mittel-European culture and art. Visual culture was suddenly preposterously in the spotlight. [Umberto] Eco taught semiology of visual communication at the Faculty of Architecture in Florence from 1965 to 1970, when he moved to Bologna and joined DAMS.2 UFO organized the Ristorante Sherwood installation in 1969.

In this piece, which was probably the most successful in the context of interior architecture, UFO experimented with polysemy, semantic fission, provocative connotations, and the association of ideas. All this in an n-dimensional space, no longer definable in Euclidean geometry or with the perspective of the Renaissance. In the first room, which alludes to the courtyard of a Medieval castle represented by a stone wall created in Sanderson wallpaper, one UFO, nuotata ufo 36 comes across suggestions of the Santa Croce choirs and of Bedouin tents with their caravanserai, within which lies a half-circle table with a Mackintosh tartan-design plastic tablecloth. On the table, surrounded by wooden thrones with ironic micro-stories painted on the backrests, are a series of distinctive

“dollar” lamps. It is an almost didactic UFO, ristorante Sherwood, 1969 example of the relationship between denotation and connotation, between which is preserved by FRAC in meaning and meaningful. Orlèans, as are the original UFO drawings which were then channeled As far as the “Paramount,” “MGM,” into the UFO thesis of 1971—was not or the “20th Century Fox” lamps are exactly conceived for that purpose, concerned, these represent a trilogy on the re-appropriation of collective imagination represented by the dreams that the major film production companies were at that time dispensing. UFO always moved in a borderline temporal and epochal territory between Pop and Conceptual. The group introduced “Discontinuity” as an additional founding category of its creative being, managing to keep the balance between these two worlds and drawing vitality from a seemingly contradictory approach. UFO, lampada Paramount, 1969 GM: Some of your work seems to precede modern solutions. In the case but for restoring a barn. The idea of Pensatoio architecture, what links of substituting solids with voids, of the shape to the function that was placing the pigeon-house rooms— assigned to it? four rooms and two bathrooms—on the outside of the glass structure, of LB: The Pensatoio project—a model of creating a large sitting room ufo 37 with a fireplace and a large open- a union of consciousness. plan kitchen on the ground floor, effectively anticipates the concept It was the same year, 1972, that the of “disjunction” by B. Tschumi. In cover-photo for issue no. 376 of any case, it creates an n-dimensional Casabella magazine was taken, in which space in which the 360° fruition of the UFO is gathered under an electricity space itself prevails over the laws of pylon, making Chinese-style faces. perspective. As in Ristorante Sherwood, Inspiration for this came from the the architectural space is “narrated” in magazine Illustrated China, which a story in which the spatial coordinates I received on a regular basis, in which are semiotic and go on to comprise the pictures of electricity pylons, or other activities and performances of UFO as, state constructions, were portrayed in the words of A. Branzi, “autonomous as examples of modern ideology. Our actions.” architect and folk singer friend Antonio Infantino was an exceptional presence GM: Some of your work has been in these projects. characterized by a clear conceptual approach, almost drawing on irony. GM: The Pinocchio book, or the Why were you swimming in sync or memorable Servizio del Dott. Caligaris, climbing trees? lead to the definition of new shapes to challenge familiar, everyday objects. LB: Nuotata in Castel Ruggero In this sense, did “Second Futurism” [Florence] in 1972 consisted of UFO provide you with a reference point? members swimming in line, back to back, spread out like a flying bird, LB: Pinocchio Triangolare is an artist’s etc., giving a variable geometry both sketchbook project that I undertook to the surrounding nature and to the alone in 1991 and which has since performance, which was, in itself, become a cult collector’s piece found a form of architecture. It was a parody in a number of libraries, including of Mao Tse-tung swimming in the the National Library in London and Yangtze River. The project, preserved the National Library in Florence. It through a series of photos, is the was inspired by a proposal made by conceptual proposal of a correctly Fabrizio Gori to create a catalogue of implemented action of vitality. The the work of five artists on Pinocchio. My same applies to the Arrampicata contribution consisted of a conceptual project. The choral and collective and computerized reinterpretation of a action stimulates group creativity in Futurist Pinocchio. This is because I ufo 38 UFO, Arrampicata, 1972

ufo 39 have always considered Pinocchio both In fact, my 1997 artist’s sketchbook a predecessor of Futurism and is called“The Radical Reconstruction a symbol of the end of the 19th century. of the Universe,” which later became both the name and the content of my Servizio del Dott. Caligaris is a work website. I carried out in 1989 following my participation in the 1987 “Un’idea per GM: Bicycles and your hat are recurrent le Murate” architectural competition, images in your work. Are these created for the restoration and autobiographical references? reclaiming of the former prison in Florence. I counted on the valuable LB: UFO used bicycles for its actions. collaboration of C. Vannicola and his In 1971, its first Giro d’Italia was held partner P. Palma, two young architects at 9999’s Space Electronic in Florence who later became excellent and well- during the Festival of Conceptual known designers. It consisted of Architecture. Many international groups a silver tea set made by the Florentine took part, as well as artists who were company Pamploni, with whom, in close to our Radical research, such as fact, I still work today. It was another G. Chiari and R. Ranaldi. UFO wore the example of work that expressed an t-shirts of Italian cycling champions, attempt to create expressionistic created specially by the stylist Chiara shapes and inclined surfaces and Boni and also sold in her shop “You spaces, which, although less reassuring, Tarzan Me Jane” in Florence, together were also less boring and banal than with t-shirts of football teams. The everyday objects. point was to create a kind of imposing paraphrase on clothing asa provocative Considering that more than twenty alternative to the status-symbol years had passed between the first garments of the fashion system. Radical architecture revolution and the period in which these objects were Giro d’Italia became a telling element created, and also considering that from of a territorial recognition, which 1975 the UFO “new crafts” workshop offered itself as an urban concept and set out to renew the suffocating, performance and as an alternative to repetitive and consolatory offerings the Superarchitettura of Archizoom and of traditionalcrafts, I think it is fair to Superstudio. Other Giri d’Italia speak of a Second Futurism, especially followed, the next in 1972 in Chianti, of as I was involved directly, as I had been which a video was made and copies in the previous Radical avant-garde. are preserved at ASAC 3 in Venice and in ufo 40 the Art Tapes 22 collection in Florence. of design, which until then had seemed A UFO performance in 1974 for the exclusively linked to the specific Contemporary Exhibition in Rome concept of “industrial Italy” and which, involved an attempt to unearth by the mid-1960s, was beginning to wear out. Visual arts were challenged, opening up new possibilities and attracting international designers such as Stark, Arad, Coates, and an infinite number of others to work with Italian companies.

GM: In those years, what was the relationship between the requirements of the client, when there was one, and your creative freedom?

LB: Radical design has always moved in

UFO, cover of Casabella magazine, 1973 an autonomous way in the attempt to give visibility to objects derived from suburban, fenced-off, concealed and new behavior, such as the Superonda secret environments, such as Sette by Archizoom for Poltronova, the electricity pylons, greenhouses, etc. Zucca by Superstudio for Giovanetti, Anyway, racing bikes do have an and the objects created from UFO autobiographical element in them. installations such as the Lampada As does the fisherman’s hat, which I use Dollaro. To these I would like to add as a symbol of my personal style and to Dreambeds by Archizoom, which were protect my head. never put into production, Camel-sofas by UFO for Bambaissa, and countless GM: In retrospect, how would you say others that still today would be worthy that the Radical movement influenced of being put into production, perhaps the outcome of design? more as visual objects than elements of design. LB: Undoubtedly, Radical design has greatly influenced Italian and And this is where utopia lies. Like international design. The power of its imagination, it manages to produce sometimes even extreme research has and create very daring elements. contributed to changing the perception Without being commissioned as such, ufo 41 acceptable and widespread, together with E. Ambasz, T. Trini, Gillo Dorfles and many others, one has to wait until the end of the second millennium for the acceptance of Radical architecture and design in international museums like MoMA, Centre Pompidou, Centro Pecci, Maxxi, etc.

I don’t believe we have reached a theoretical equality between design

UFO, Contemporanea Roma-Raggi, 1974 and visual arts, but we are getting there, even in terms of prices. And these pieces set off a mechanism of in the end, that was the aim of our desire that is typically urban and with unstoppable desire to go beyond the philosophical libertinism of the the disciplinary boundaries, to create Enlightenment. It is not therefore a truly free approach. At times the true that one is a follower of the gratuitousness of art has acted as an Enlightenment movement only within exceptional stimulus for the freedom the boundaries defined by perspective, of visual research, but at other times by rationality, and by tendency. In Radical design has demonstrated that conclusion, one could say that the it is on the same level, or higher, in principal commissioner must be the terms of coherence of its theoretical artist or designer himself. intention, even in the presence of solutions tied to function. GM: How has the world of contemporary art been able to November 2011 understand and channel the innovative suggestions you made during those years?

LB: The relationship between Radical design and visual arts is quite complex. 1 Azienda Nazionale Autonoma delle Strade [National Even if critics like A.B. Oliva, G. Celant, Autonomous Roads Corporation], the state-owned manager of the Italian motorway and road network. L.V. Masini and E. Pedrini took on, from 2 Discipline delle arti, della musica e dello spettacolo the very beginning, the task of making [Disiplines of Performing Arts and Music]. 3 Archivio Storico delle Arti Contemporanee the theory of Radical architecture [Historical Archives of Contemporary Arts].

ufo 42 EVERYTHING IS

IInsLLpired Uby MnaturINATe and its “EmystDerious beauty,” Olafur Eliasson and Tokujin Yoshioka use technology to explore and research its principles and to reproduce its phenomena in the form of emotionally charged, intangible presentations of the environment by daniela lotta

Olafur Eliasson, The waterfall series, 1996, Arthur and Carol Goldberg collection photo: Jens Ziehe © 2007 Olafur Eliasson

Despite working in different the artificial transposition of natural fields, Olafur Eliasson and phenomena. Both create stunning Tokujin Yoshioka, both born in installations that push the boundaries 1967, share a common interest in between disciplines, creating

43 a synthesis between art, design and of the Turbine Hall with yellow light, architecture. As well as representing offering over two million visitors the the magic of ephemeral natural experience of a real sunset. phenomena, their environmental installations also remind the observer Eliasson develops simple, technical of his or her own personal experiences. devices that can reproduce ephemeral meteorological events, such as the Modern art favors lightness. Not appearance of the colors of a rainbow shapes but processes, not objects in Beauty (1993), pounding rain in Your but concepts. Visual and tactile strange certainty still kept (1996), experiences, such as The Weather Project, a large installation made by Olafur Eliasson for the Tate Modern in

Olafur Eliasson, Beauty, 1993 Installation view; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles © 2007 Olafur Eliasson

Olafur Eliasson, 360° room for all colours, 2002 Installation view at Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Germany, 2004, Courtesy Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York photo: Alexander Krauss © 2007 Olafur Eliasson London in 2003 (and for which the artist or exceptional natural phenomenon, gained international recognition)—an such as the imposing waterfall that immense artificial sun made with 20 was created artificially in 2008 between huge, single-frequency lights, which Manhattan and Brooklyn in conjunction inundated the monumental space with his large retrospective held at

EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED 44 MoMA in New York and SFMoMA in dematerializes architecture into an San Francisco. intangible lunar landscape, expanding sensations beyond the physical The nature evoked by Japanese boundaries of the body. designer Tokujin Yoshioka is also immaterial. His is an inorganic and Sensitized spaces and flows of energy abstract nature, achromatic, devoid of caracterize Yoshiko's work, as in any color and distilled into its deepest Clouds, an installation shown at the essence—a white that characterizes Second Nature exhibition in 2008, his furniture and in particular his curated environments, which, however, are not cold and distant but sensitive and intriguing; a white that fills the eyes, as

Tokujin Yoshioka, sketch for the Moon chair Image courtesy of Moroso

Tokujin Yoshioka, Snow, 2010 (1997-) Installation view at Mori Art Museum, Tokyo in Twilight, a scenographic installation made for the 2011 Milan Furniture by the artist in the 21_21 gallery in Fair, at which he presented his Moon Tokyo. It consisted of thousands of fine, Chair, designed for the Italian company transparent synthetic yarns hanging Moroso, and in which he literally from the ceiling at different

EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED 45 lengths to form a misty aura around the objects on display. For this occasion, Yoshioka also designed the Venus chair (2008), which suggests a poetic reconsideration of the relationship between the natural and the artificial. Under the marveling gaze of the public, the chair takes shape in an aquarium containing an active solution in which a slow chemical process occurs, causing natural crystals to form around a spongy polyester frame.

Tokujin Yoshioka, Venus, installation view at Second Nature, 2008 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT, Tokyo Photo: Masaya Yoshimura

EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED 46 SNAPSHOT 47 Wil- liamsburg’s Latent

Dynamisby giordanom pozzi

48 Towards the middle of September every year a triangular section of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, bordered by the BQE, Flushing Ave and Broadway, starts a remarkable architectural transformation. This section of Brooklyn is made up of aesthetically challenged, low-rise, low-cost brick apartment buildings and two-family houses built mostly by working-class immigrant families in the late 1800s. Over the last century, the neighborhood has been largely settled by Hasidic Jews and now represents a unique enclave in New York’s myriad urban landscape. williamsburg’s sukkot 49 As the holiday of Sukkot approaches in September, or the Hebrew calendar dates of 15-21 Tishrei, the neighborhood is transformed by the construction of thousands of sukkot, temporary structures built with all manner of materials in the street, on terraces, and in yards. These structures mutate the architecture of the neighborhood, turning a bland urban area into a dynamic architectural cacophony. They exemplify a transformation that Lebbeous Woods describes as “the phenomena of change in material and spatial terms. They work within already strong sites in order to expose these sites’ latent dynamism and the forces hidden within their stability, leading to inevitable transformation.” williamsburg’s sukkot 50 williamsburg’s sukkot 51 Sukkot—also known as the Feast of Tabernacles— is a harvest celebration, and the temporary structures are meant to recall the booths built by ancient Israelites alongside their fields during the period of the harvest. They also serve as a memory of the temporary shelters erected by the Israelites during the Exodus from Egypt. Religious doctrine dictates that observant Jews spend the eight-day holiday in a sukkah in remembrance, but modern practice often reduces this to the partaking of meals and blessings.

williamsburg’s sukkot 52 williamsburg’s sukkot 53 the house of equisartifieciatul paradisme

by lorenzo rebediani

The search for Paradise Lost can interpretations. It is not inaccurate be understood as an extension of our to define the garden as an “Artificial individual search for our own personal Paradise,” despite widespread Eden—a response to nature perceived attempts by landscape architects to as eternally insufficient. The idea of the correct this phenomenon. Before garden is born from this urge and is arriving at the extreme synthesis something inescapably artificial. of design and nature known as the garden (the very concept is human), we Since the fashionable ars topiaria stumble through border areas that defy of 19th-century landscaping, simple classification, where nature and artificiality has been a characteristic artifice do not appear to be such polar trait of gardens, albeit with different opposites.

54 Forest of Beech trees (Fagus sylvatica)

55 Woods and forests, for example, are it was only after the abandoning of an interesting case. Is there anything settlements by human populations we consider more “natural” and that the long-living beech (Fagus “uncontaminated” than a forest sylvatica) became the predominant flourishing far from man-made species of the forests, over time developments? Probably not, and it creating pure formations (agglomerates is no coincidence that the deep, dark of one species only). Prior to the woods are a breeding ground for establishment of the first villages there human fears, fables and mysteries. was another, more diversely populated Even the most unexpected places kind of forest with a prevalence of elm, can teach us about our history. oak and hazelnut trees, which have Archaeologists have shown that in become rarer and rarer, as proven by prehistoric times, dwellings were analyses of pollen found in the soil. abandoned a few decades after they were built to be rebuilt elsewhere, The lifestyle of prehistoric peoples a fate shared by the crops that had therefore gave an advantage to the been planted to feed the inhabitants. beech in central Europe, the hornbeam When a previously cultivated area of in central-eastern Europe, and the red land was abandoned, the forest that pine in sub-alpine areas. These forests, had been felled to make way for the archetypes of the untouched and settlement took over the earth once impenetrable, are, in fact, the result of more. interaction in which the role of human beings is anything but insignificant. The tendency of the forest to re- establish itself ties in with the belief Of all the interaction between that by leaving things to their own man and nature, the most ambiguous devices and letting flora grow without example has involved flowers. any conscious intervention, it can reach a state of “potential natural vegetation”—in other words, a return to the state it was in before human settlement occurred. The typical forests of central Europe are predominantly made up of beech trees. This woodland composition is considered “natural” ars topiaria and is used as a model in programs to safeguard and restore forests. But

56 separate styles

corolla stamens

pistils

ovules

peduncle ovary

section of a five-petal rose

57 A B

A “male” flower is chosen to The preparation stage: the petals provide the pollen needed for and stamen are removed from fertilization; a “female” flower is a bud. used to produce the seeds.

C D

The fertilization stage: a brush is The protection stage: a hood is used to apply the pollen to the placed over the flower to prevent styles, which transfer it to the any contamination by unknown ovule. pollen.

The age-old technique of hybridization illustrations: lorenzo rebediani

58 Thousands of years before genetically of life and transcendence. The human modified organisms had been desire to give form to these metaphors developed, man had already shown has become a natural role of the flower. the desire to influence the formation of Over the millennia, we have asked plants, and flowers in particular, using plants, and in particular their flowers, alternative yet powerful means such to assume the most varied geometric as patience, constancy, and perhaps shapes in order to formalize our own genuine obsession. dreams. We have played with their genes through cross-breeding and Our love of flowers is almost universal, patient selection, experimenting inside being common to nearly every culture monasteries, villas and stately gardens, in the world. Along with bees, we are transferring genetic material from one probably the species that they attract side of the globe to the other. the most. This passion of ours has been explained by neuroscientist Steven Along with other iconic and instantly Pinker in his book How the Mind Works: recognizable flowers, such as the peony primitive men who could recognize and the tulip, the Rosa genus boasts flowers and remember their location one of the most intense instances of were at an advantage in the activity human cultivation and hybridization. of gathering berries and fruit. In fact, Perhaps no other plant genus has those who were most skilled in this area proven to be so suited to incarnating could classify the plants by associating the changing human ideals of beauty each one with its flowering and fruiting down the centuries, taking on the most periods. Recognizing the flower before varied forms and colors and arriving the fruit, then memorizing its position, at the ability to flower throughout the enabled them to beat their rivals when year. This perpetual flowering— it was time to gather the fruit. a feature that is now associated with this “queen of flowers”—in fact did So our sensitivity towards flowers not exist before the discovery of has been fine-tuned by evolution, Rosa chinensis in around 1890 (a very leading us to permanently associate recent discovery for a plant that has them with sensuous pleasure and been cultivated since Sumerian times). utility, for the production of fruit and Through targeted crossbreeding, which seeds, but above all to view them as still continues, the re-flowering genes the representation, metaphor and have been fixed and today belong to sometimes the very idea of beauty, the the vast majority of the roses we grow fleeting nature of time, the meaning in our gardens.

59 botanical roses

hybrid roses

60 But earlier still there were corollas, and restores a semantic unity as well which gradually grew more and more as a miraculous association between petals, in double and even more layers, “instinct” and “idea.” ruffled at first, but slowly becoming more organized, until they took on the swirling look which is now the iconic image of the rose. Not only has the flower changed, but so has the whole bush: from the soft pruning of botanical roses, tangled bushes with pliable branches, to the modern tea hybrids with stiff, straight branches, developed to be cut back and to support the considerable weight of the corollas. “Artificial Selection” was the term used by Darwin, in contrast to the natural kind, to define the process that has enabled the introduction of these new roses. As Michael Pollan explains in The Botany of Desire, this distinction appears superfluous and reveals, in any case, a human-centric vision. The plants with qualities that are most highly appreciated, by men or bees, have ensured themselves a wider line of descent and, in a certain sense, have exploited our desire in order to reproduce themselves.

As with countless other species, there is an ancient pact between humans and roses, with arguable results, moving in directions that must be controlled. But it is certainly part of the genetic code and has been for a long time. It Bibliography: Pinker, Steven. How the Mind Works. New York: W.W. Norton & overcomes the contradictions between Co., 1997. Pollan, Michael. The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the the terms “artificial” and “natural” World. New York: Random House, 2001

61 flashback

1 January Greece becomes the tenth country to join the European Economic Community. 5 January BBC 2 begins airing its adaptation of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. 198110 January The conflict in El Salvador escalates to civil war after the left-wing rebel group

62 FMLN launches its first major offensive against the US-backed military government. 12 January “Dynasty” with Joan Collins premieres on ABC-TV. 20 January Iran releases 52 US hostages after 444 days of captivity, minutes after Ronald Reagan is sworn in as the 40th president of the United States. 21 January The first DeLorean sports car is produced

Peter Fischli and David Weiss, Der Geringste Widerstand (The Least Resistance), 29 min in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland. 22 January Annie Leibowitz's iconic photograph of John Lennon and Yoko Ono appears on the cover of Rolling Stone. The magazine features the last interview with Lennon, conducted just days before he was shot dead outside his home in New York Cityon 8 December, 1980. 7 February “Celebration” by Kool and the Gang

Batuka system manufactured by Porro, Italy becomes the number one US single. 13 February Australian newspaper magnate Rupert Murdoch buys The Times of London. 19 February Ford Motor Co. reports its first annual loss since 1946, of $1.54 billion. 23 February Leonid Brezhnev gives what will be his last major address as General Secretary prior to his death in 1982, opening the 26th Congress of the Communist Party with a five-hours speech. 1 March Bobby Sands, an MP in the UK 1981 63 parliament from Northern Ireland, begins a hunger strike while in prison. He died after 66 days at the age of 27. 6 March Walter Cronkite delivers his final CBSE vening News broadcast. 29 March The first London Marathon is held. 30 March Ronald Reagan is shot outside a Washington, D.C. hotel. His press secretary, James Brady, and two police officers

Robert Mapplethorpe, self-portrait are also wounded. 31 March The 53rd Academy Awards take place in Los Angeles. Best Film: Chariots of Fire; Best Actor: Robert De Niro, for his performance as Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull; Best Actress: Sissy Spacek, for her performance as Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner's Daughter. Cult classic An American Werewolf in London wins the oscar for Outstanding

Kristall by Michele De Lucchi, Memphis MilanoCollection. End table in plastic laminate, lacquered wood and metal

Achievement in Makeup. 11 April The Brixton riots break out in South London. 12 April Space Shuttle Columbia blasts off for its maiden flight, becoming the first manned, reusable spacecraft to return to Earth after completing 36 orbits during a 54.5-hour flight. 11 May Bob Marley dies, age 36. 13 May Pope John Paul II is shot in St. Peter’s Square. 21 May Francois Mitterand becomes president of France. 27 May Man of Iron (Człowiek 1981 64 želaza), directed by Andrzej Wajda, receives the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. 5 June The first cases of what later will be called AIDS are reported. 24 June The first apparition of the Virgin Mary is reported at Medjugorje in Bosnia-Hercegovina, today the third most-visited religious site in Europe with over one million visitors a year.

Super by Martine Bedin, Memphis Milano Collection. Table or floor lamp in fiberglass 29 July Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer are wed. Over 700 million people worldwide watch the event live on TV. 1 August MTV is launched. “Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Buggles is the first music video played. 12 August The original IBM PC, model 5150, is introduced. 25 September Sandra Day O’Connor becomes first female

Keith Haring, Untitled justice on the US Supreme Court. 26 September Boeing’s 767 jet airliner makes its first flight. 27 September The first TGV high-speed rail line in France is opened between Paris and Lyon. 6 October Egyptian president Anwar Sadat is assassinated. Hosni Mubarak is elected president one week later. 18 October West Germany wins the FIFA World Cup, defeating Qatar 4–0. 13 December Martial law is declared in Poland. 1981 65 SNAPSHOT 66 state of mind a questionnaire by Fruit of the Forest

fawn krie- ger

DATE OF BIRTH: 1975 NATIONALITY: USA WEBSITE: fawnkrieger.com

Fawn Krieger at Montessori School, 1979

Who is Fawn Krieger and what does ways that surprise, inspire, and sustain she do? me, and hopefully others, too. I am Fawn Krieger. I like to build, explore, and to be around people. But When did you start to design really, for me, it’s about imagining other objects? ways of looking at things, defining I have always made objects. As a child, myself, and participating in the world in I would often make fantasy houses,

67 and I thought endlessly about how sorrow, frustration, curiosity, to construct interior spaces and what recognition, gratitude. those spaces would look like from the outside. I made things with whatever What is the defining character of I had available—chunks of wood or your work? Styrofoam, paper towels, rocks, etc. A proposition; model and stage as My “pretend” often involved scenarios an object of becoming; a merging of that required props and exchange, so building and body. instead of acting, I would spend my time leading up to or preparing for What kind of relationship do you “make-believe.” have with the materials you use? Haptic and ontological. In a way, I think this is still what is more interesting to me than object-hood—

Fawn Krieger, Architectural Organs, 2010 Installation view at Soloway Gallery, Brooklyn, NY Ceramic (clay) painted with vinyl paint, concrete, plaster. Fawn Krieger, Dramas, 2007-2009, Video Platform built from ruins of a wooden Quaker Meeting House from Milton, NY the possibility that objects become Describe one of your works and enacted upon, that they become explain why you have chosen it? subjects, or in a sense catalysts or I’ve been working on a series called talismans, markers of something to FAULTS, which are a collection of come or something that has passed. momentary material impacts and fissures enacted through intimate, Describe your typical working day... tactile encounters and gestures, and Possibility, doubt, remorse, ecstasy, filmed with a Super 8 camera. The small contemplation, procrastination, doubt, events are captured up close so that divergence, inspiration, exuberance, the materials become state of mind 68 a landscape, traversing a geography of touch, building, and destruction, and proposing that faults are foundations to build from and on.

The piece I have chosen to share is my most recent FAULT, for which I invited a few friends to lend their hands. In the three-plus-minute film, four sets of Fawn Krieger, COMPANY (TV dinner), 2007-2008 Wood, plastic, concrete, plaster, foam, fabric, felt, hands negotiate similar objects through metal, clay, paper, cardboard, paint, video, glue, hardware. different gestures of creation and undoing—squishing, cutting, gluing, pulling. I imagine the film as a kind of compressed holiday dinner table

Fawn Krieger, FAULTS, 2011 Super 8 film, transferred to digital video scene becoming landscape, a place Fawn Krieger, COMPANY (Poster), 2007-2008 of gathering, and also of dispersion, disassociation, and extreme, almost space within the home). With all of my remote autonomy. This work has FAULTS, and this one especially, I like challenged me to consider how how visceral the sensation of making interaction and performance become and watching it is, but simultaneously, an element of creation for a work, as how much its form becomes entirely opposed to a subsequent experience immaterial, composed simply of of it. I feel drawn to the collision the choreographed light. I feel that there is piece proposes between different some shared territory here with Fruit of definitions of interior space (from the Forest, which looks for expression personal space we hold within us, to within physical form and matter, and state of mind 69 shares it through digital media, a kind like Taylor Mac’s five-hour The Lily’s of immaterial materiality. Revenge performance, and Sleep No More at the McKittrick Hotel by Punch- Looking at art history, what would drunk. I’m interested in artists who you like to have made? are architects, like Teddy Cruz and his Engravings and paintings at the firm estudio, and the work of Lebbeus Paleolithic Grotto of Gargas in the Woods, Yona Friedman, and Patricia French Pyrenees, especially the cave Johanson. pressed with red pigment. Maybe also Helio Oiticica’s Tropicália (1967); And Cretto (1981) by Alberto Burri; Pieter Breugel’s The Harvesters (1565); Valie Export’s Körperkonfiguration (Body Configurations) photographs from the 1970s and early 1980s; Kurt Schwitters’ Merzbau (1923-1943); A Light-Space Modulator (1930) by László Moholy- Nagy; and Francis Picabia’s late work.

Looking at the contemporary world, Fawn Krieger, National Park (drawing), 2009 what do you like? I am interested in physical expression that has a proximity to real failure, not that appears trashy or intending to fail, but that really comes microscopically close to failure, so that the work itself is a document of its own construction (and deconstruction). I’m drawn to work that creates an immersive world to step into, literally or metaphorically, where the possibility of real interaction is melded into fantasy, and where fantasy can become enfolded into daily, lived experience. I love dancers like Sarah Michelson, Yvonne Rainer, robbinschilds, and Miguel Gutierrez. And immersive theatrical performances Fawn Krieger, National Park (process), 2009 state of mind 70 I love my friends’ work, like Brandon Koch’s courageous paintings, Sacha Yanow’s explorative and candid performances as The Prince, Christine Hill’s comprehensive and constantly evolving enterprise Volksboutique, and Khaela Maricich’s band and performance as The Blow. I’m interested in work that explores thresholds between art, research, and pedagogy, explored through artists like Pablo Helguera, Mark Dion & J. Morgan Puett’s Mildred’s Lane, and Fritz Haeg’s former Sundown Salons. I am inspired by all-encompassing projects that build within their production sustainability, collaboration, and a kind of inclusive irreverence, like Jon Rubin’s Conflict Kitchen, Swoon’s Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea, and Hans Schabus’ an exhibition, it’s life changing. The Last Land. I love the touch of Huma Bhabha, Manfred Pernice, Who is the person that inspires you Dorothea Rockburne, and Fischli & the most? Weiss. I saw a great exhibition on the I am the person responsible for photography of architectural models inspiring myself. But I carry many this past summer at The Canadian people inside of me, from artists like Center for Architecture in Montreal, Eva Hesse, to activists like Mahatma a fabulous show of Matthew Ronay’s Gandhi, to my partner, my teacher, and work at Andrea Rosen Gallery in NYC, my best friend. a wonderful exhibition last year at the Fabric Workshop in Philadelphia of What’s the best advice anyone ever Joan Jonas’ Reading Dante III, and an gave you? incredible retrospective this summer of Get comfortable being uncomfortable. Gió Ponti’s work at the Design Museum in Milan. I like when a whole life shows through a work—when that becomes state of mind 71 state of mind a questionnaire by Fruit of the Forest resign/ an- drea magna-

ni Bottega 2.0 - Workshop 2.0 Copyright resign

DATE OF BIRTH: 8 October 1983 NATIONALITY: Italian WEBSITE: resign.it/magnaniandrea.com

Who are Resign and what do they Zoeli Rota Galindez, and myself. We do? operate with different media without Resign is an art collective currently a clear finality but with the specific goal composed of Giovanni Delvecchio, of opening holes in everyday life to Antonello Fusè, Anita Righi, Pietro reveal “possibility.” Chiera, Elisabetta Amatori, Hyemin Ro, Matteo Zamboni, Francesco Maestri,

72 Andrea Magnani, COLABRODO Andrea Magnani , ANTI-BREUER

When did you start to design objects? I really started to design objects when I understood that they could be used as a Trojan horse for concepts or processes that go well beyond their shape. Processes can produce an object, or material, and from that material come other processes, concepts, and stories. What remains Andrea Magnani, Giovanni Delvecchio of an object if you take away its & Elisabetta Amatori, di corte “material?” I am interested in these kinds of questions. it breaks you can breathe in fresh air, let in the “new.” Then the “new” Describe your typical working day... will become routine until you break I try not to have a typical working it again, and so on... This is history, day, but it has a routine. The routine, perhaps. however, is meant to be broken. When state of mind 73 What is your approach to a design attempt to remove the artist from art. project? A sort of upside down ready-made, I’m interested in investigating the where the museum moves out of itself mechanisms that give value to things, and into “reality.” The works no longer and in focusing on the creation of need to be placed into a museum or a story through a combination of a gallery in order to become art, but designing and planning an event instead the Reality Curator looks at the / performance / ritual. The work is designed by the ritual or intended to create a future narration.

In my work the medium is simply a consequence: video, sculpture, installation, public art, photography, music, design and graphics are just tools. I am interested in creating works that are like onions. Every single Andrea Magnani, one divided by two idea must have multiple levels of interpretation, layers of depth that drag one into the other, from aesthetics to deep mystery. Like a star-gate designed to attract the viewer into the work, into a small world of evolution or involution in which the moment of exposure is just a frame of its transformation.

What kind of relationship do you have with the materials you use? I see materials as the consequence or the inspiration of a concept. My relationship to them is dynamic. I think all materials have a language. What do the veins of marble say?

Describe one of your works and explain why you have chosen it?

The Reality Curator is an absurd Hyemin Ro & Mi Dong, Do not throw state of mind 74 world as if it were a huge studio and What’s the best advice anyone ever selects the best works of art by simply gave you? affixing a “museum style” identification One night in a club a girl that I didn’t tag nearby. On our website you can know came up to me and whispered, check out a map where works are “Don’t trust anyone who loves cats.” marked as in a huge open-air gallery.

Looking at design history, what object would you like to have designed or invented? Yes, I know the history of design, but truly there is no object in particular that I wish I would have designed or invented. Instead, I prefer to study the objects and architecture of great ancient civilizations. I would have loved to have designed an Egyptian pharaoh’s tomb or to have invented crop circles.

Looking at the contemporary world, what do you like? I love complex works that contain different levels of interpretation. This is my personal yardstick for the quality of a work of art. There are not many artists who are able to build a multi- level narration. For contemporary art I want to mention two exhibitions: “In Search of ...” by Matthew Day Jackson at the Mambo in Bologna and “Soma” by Carsten Höller at the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin.

Who is the person that inspires you the most? Daniele Coletti (Resign Academy 2009 in Verona) , My cat. INTO THE WILD state of mind 75 on the fashion designer KAL RIEMAN material culture

by anne shlisler-hughes

Kal Rieman is a line designed by Cally Rieman that is astonishingly bold in its simplicity. Now in its third retail season, Kal Rieman is designed for the woman who is already confident in her style, unfettered by the opinions of others, wants comfortable, high-quality pieces to complement the life she’s living, and is not afraid to wear clothing that is at once unique and recognizable as no-nonsense. This woman, whether she’s a media executive or a sous chef, an elected official or a stay-at-home mom, is, because of her capacity to follow her own path, a leader.

76 Cally Rieman, in addition to being a disciplined and confident designer, is a thinker who is conceptually influenced by many genres of culture. She is noticeably attracted to quality over mere image, citing as creative heroes artists with depth and back-story such as Tricky, Thom Yorke, and Antony of Antony and the Johnsons.

Jean-Michel Basquiat, photographed KAL RIEMAN, FW2011 Herringbone Vest by James VanDerZee, gelatin silver print, 1982 Neckclothitania was published in 1818. It showed some of the most popular Cravat Knots style of this time.

It may at first seem contradictory that her primary aesthetic inspiration is the 19th-century English gentleman dandy, who, although not titled, lived a way of life that eschewed the values of the emerging, crass bourgeoisie (how unsettling was the French Revolution!) in favor of the more refined values of gentlemanly conduct: an elegant, understated manner of dress, attention to quality details and materials, personal grooming, and the pursuit of higher intellectual ideas—art, music, design, philosophy. The idea, first made popular by self-made George Bryan “Beau” Brummell, was not to appear to be trying, but rather to affect unfettered elegance as a matter of course, to pull back from excess and pomposity. material culture 77 This basic look originated in the Regency period of the early 1800s—think of Colin Firth in his high crisp collars in Pride and Prejudice, tortured that he cannot rid his mind of Elizabeth Bennett, leaving a strenuous fencing bout (in a fabulous flowing white shirt) to plunge himself hotly in a nearby pond. (Tom Ford certainly did not forget that white shirt when he styled Firth for A Single Man.) When you compare the look of the 19th-century dandy, dressed in dark blue or black and white color scheme, to that of the 18th-century gentleman—with his stuffy wigs, powdered face and satin, brocaded waistcoats—it was a quantum leap in the right direction. John S. Sargent, Lord Ribblesdale oil on canvas, 1902. National Gallery of Art, London Concentrate your considerable time and resources on achieving and patronizing beauty for the sake of beauty—both intellectually and materially an idea that ultimately culminated in the Victorian Aesthetic Movement—and you get beauty. Somber-hued suits made from fine wools and silks tailored

Diane Keaton in Annie Hall Le Smoking tuxedo suit, Cally Rieman, 2011 (1977) directed by Woody Allen Yves Saint Laurent 1966 material culture 78 perfectly to fit the man. Linen shirts pressed and starched daily, tied at the neck with a stately neckcloth. Refined and simple elegance.

In today’s parlance, the term “dandy” does not carry such a complicated connotation about a socio-economic subculture; rather, it merely refers to a person’s attention and commitment to personal style, and usually that style is atypical and artistic and conveys pride in one’s vision and a courage to be different, not to look disinterested. Quentin Crisp, author and provocateur, who lived from the turn of the 19th century almost into the 21st, and whose book, The Naked Civil Servant, with its biting wit and exuberant style, made him a gay icon in the 1970s, particularly inspires Rieman. Rieman also cites artist Jean-Michel Basquiat as a dandy of another ilk: cultivating a look of an exotic and other-worldly intellectual with his dreadlocks and bare feet, he was a positively elegant individual, and his style, as organic as it probably was, served to tell his story as an artist in the context of art history with a distinctly unique perspective.

So, let’s bring this all back to women’s fashion because both sides of the dandy story make sense in the context of the Kal Rieman aesthetic. The simplicity and restraint of the 19th-century dandy is lovingly translated into the austerity of Kal Rieman designs, but also, for a woman, the act of wearing a tailored, masculine suit is a statement of independence and courage, fitting the definition of the modern-age dandy. A dynamic woman dressed in men’s attire is always arresting when it’s done with authenticity—think of Marlene Dietrich, Diane Keaton in Annie Hall, or Janelle Monáe, all of whom have, in different ways, created memorable images of female strength and purpose. Rieman, in fact, on her blog quotes Dietrich: “I dress for myself. Not for image, not for fashion, not for the public, not for men.” Again and again, Rieman returns to the tailoring and profile of Yves Saint Laurent’s iconic le smoking tuxedo suit circa 1966, not just for the lines, but because what it meant in the 1960s for a woman to wear a man’s suit—“I’m an equal being”—still rings material culture 79 Marlene Dietrich in Morocco (1930), directed by Josef von Sternberg

true today. Rieman’s goal is to “open up the world of the suit” for women and allow them to move forward effortlessly in self- reliance.

The first full collection of Kal Rieman, presented for Fall/Winter 2010, was built on the sartorial components of the historic dandy, referencing the leisurely and sporting lifestyle, presenting rich tuxedo suits, leather fencing-inspired vests and pleated skirts, draping slacks, cool white shirts and silken tunics.

Start with the white statement shirt, which is angular and structured or curved and billowy, either way, generous and abundant in fabric. The collars, whether tied up in a bow or resting on layers of wrapping or fashioned in a vertical double collar, are multi-dimensional, giving the feeling of bounty and, material culture 80 to a certain degree, protection. Now you neatly cinch all that in with a smart, fitted, tux-back vest that makes you feel ready for battle. Since the blouses are cut long, they can be worn over tight leggings or with a heavily tailored but elegantly draping suit, and the silken tunics are ready-made for the delicious woolen, coat-weight vests. I have just described what the Rieman team calls the “starter kit,” and that basic, sensible set—as easy to access and use as a man’s wardrobe—continues in all her subsequent lines.

So, where did Cally Rieman come from? She was raised in Ohio, the youngest of five children. Her father worked as a machinist and her mother was, among other things, a cop. It was from her

self-driven, make-it-happen mother that she got her inner drive, her capacity to reinvent herself and keep moving forward.

KAL RIEMAN, FW2011 Smoking Jacket In fact, she didn’t start out as a designer. She majored in East Asian Studies and Political Science at Dennison University with the intention of pursuing international finance—a good, solid track. But, during an extended stay in Taiwan she taught English to the owner of a textile company and fell in love with Asian culture. She studied fashion design at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where, inspired by the avant-garde work of Comme de Garçons and Ann Demeulemeester, she explored concepts of muscle form and tension, won the William Molihan Award for Design in her first year, and as a student began selling material culture 81 pieces at the ultra-chic Chicago boutique, P45.

Rieman interned with Jean Charles de Castelbajac in Paris, a designer deeply entrenched in the actively overlapping art, music and fashion scenes of 1980s New York City, who introduced Rieman to the concept of the contemporary dandy. Castelbajac was designing for his ideal of the female dandy, fearless and creative, and this idea stuck with Rieman. Her first real job was designing women’s wear for Rubin Chapelle, after which she moved on to join the team at Tommy Hilfiger men’s line, H, an experience that honed her skills in tailored men’s clothing—designing suiting, separates, outerwear, denim and leather accessories—and where she helped develop the details

KAL RIEMAN, KRFW11’s collection that make up the Hilfiger signature look. From here she ventured out on her own.

The Fall/Winter 2011 collection, available now, is an evolution from the inaugural, historically based 2010 Fall/Winter collection in that it retains the basic components of an elegant man’s wardrobe, but scales back the styling and softens the palette to include steel blue silk, grey mélange knit, and oatmeal outerwear—an approach by the sensible color scheme of Diane Keaton’s wardrobe for Annie Hall. By contrast, accents of bright blue and red are nods to Quentin Crisp’s ensembles, which were always strategically accented with bright color in wide collars, scarves, and pocket squares. Oversize coats and wide leg trousers are combined with tailored shirts, vests, and blazers, material culture 82 and from these heavily tailored pieces peek out flowing silks, reminding us that it’s a woman under there—a woman who is an effortlessly sophisticated dresser.

The Spring/Summer 2012 collection is designed to move seamlessly and intermix easily with the Fall/Winter 2011 pieces, as the weather slowly gets warmer. Rieman tells me the upcoming collection is informed by the male figures in art and music that continually stand out to her—James Brown, Prince, Basquiat—who are, in their own ways and on their own terms, free spirits. Again, there is a juxtaposition between hard and soft tailoring—structured knits are detailed with ruffles—but with a return to stark contrasts in color, as befits summertime attire. Tomato red is accented under ecru suiting and bright summer blue is shown against ivory silk.

quentin crisp material culture 83 SNAPSHOT 84 the ma- gazine as al- ter- native space (for art)

85 86 New Observations is an historic artist-run journal born of the pugnacious and provoking spirit of the early 1980s in Downtown New York City. www.newobs.org

87 Design for social change across New York city

by hala a.malak

Design for social change is the underway, but as yet there is no set new hot thing. More designers doctrine for the field. Change is want to make a difference and are needed at all levels, but before trying becoming interested in projects to to cure world hunger, designers should better the world. Numerous successful start in their own backyards. (and less successful) initiatives are

88 One good start is “Impact! Design for The process can be summarized in Social Change," a six-week intensive four steps: course at the School of Visual Art (SVA) 1. Understand the problem. in New York. Participants are divided 2. Analyze the situation. into teams and paired up with non- 3. Take into consideration the barriers profits from all over New York City. and constraints. The head of the program, Mark Randall 4. Propose solutions and frameworks. of Worldstudio, has introduced a novel approach: to let the designers Each team works closely with their choose the area they wish to tackle, respective organizations, with support and then apply the design process from the SVA faculty, the New York City to come up with solutions—all the Department of Small Business Services, while working closely with the clients and desigNYC to develop the projects. themselves. The designers are not A recent course produced some answering a traditional creative brief outstanding contributions. What but instead collaborate directly with follows are not just concepts, but actual the non-profits on all aspects of the projects that are being implemented. project, from choosing the area of This is social change, one small step focus to developing relevant concepts at a time. Just imagine what bigger to plans for execution. As Mark Randall changes could be made if this simple eloquently explains: small acts of yet effective framework is replicated change inspire big ideas. on a larger scale. Change is actually not just about great ideas, but tangible results that come from a rooted understanding of those we want to help.

social design 89 DayLife – LES is more The idea is to step away from a typical than nightlife street fair, with one white tent after Non-profit: Lower East Side (LES) another, and to develop a truly unique Business Improvement District (BID), concept that can be rolled out monthly Manhattan. and yearly. Each of the four Sundays Team: Hala A.Malak, Zennie had a theme highlighting the unique McLoughlin & Jacky Minkler. characteristics of the Lower East Side. Context: The Lower East Side has 1st Sunday: Food – LES is more than developed a reputable nightlife and Pickles; 2nd Sunday: Art – LES is more a “happening” restaurant and bar than Graffiti; 3rd Sunday: Dating – LES scene but foot traffic during daytime is more than Harry meets Sally; 4th is still weak. Sunday: Nightlife – LES is more Goal: Drive more foot traffic during than DJs. the day and revive Orchard Street on Deliverables: DayLive presentation, Sundays. postcards and posters that Proposed Solution: Concept for demonstrate the concept, identity a proprietary event to involve retailers and branding plus implementation from all over the Lower East Side. guidelines for the event design. Concept: DayLife is a series of events on four Sundays on Orchard Street. social design 90 without losing its core identity. Goal: To bring in more people during the day to Red Hook. Concept: “Ride the Hook” is a program that establishes Red Hook as a biking destination through collaborative efforts by the local community. The initiative intends to increase economic activity by 25% in the first year. The primary audience is residents, Ride the Hook particularly bikers, from neighboring Non-profit: Southwest Brooklyn communities in Brooklyn. Industrial Development Corporation, Phase I: Signage, blog, and bike map. Red Hook, Brooklyn. Phase II: Social networks, creative Team: Jen Odegaard, Liz Cook & Payal pitch, and launch event. Introduction of Patel. collaborations and partnerships. Context: Red Hook is a distinctive Phase III: Bike stations, web place but quite hard to get to (there are applications, and swag! no easy public transportation options). Deliverables: Detailed program, As a community, it holds a certain guidebook, and brand identity. special cachet but there is a need to draw in foot traffic for local retailers social design 91 communities, communication barriers, lack of neighborhood pride, and security issues. Goal: Highlight social concerns by improving the cleanliness and safety of the commercial district, enhancing the sense of community and pride and encouraging social interaction. ¡Revive! Concept: ¡Revive! is a community Non-profit: Northfield Community program to cleanup storefronts and Local Development Corporation (LDC), enhance cleanliness. By choosing Port Richmond, Staten Island. one store as an example to develop Team: Nathalia Nogueira, Ana Pérez Gil a model for revitalization, a day of & Bess McLaughlin. cleanup was set in motion. Context: What was once a main Deliverables: Actual cleanup day, destination in Staten Island, Port video and “how to” guideline Richmond, today harbors segregated brochure.

social design 92 This area houses the largest public housing development in the country with many residents living below the poverty line. ERDA has a Youth Media Program for underprivileged young people that has very low awareness and participation. Goal: Rebrand and re-launch the Youth Media Project by enhancing visibility, credibility, and outreach to recruit new participants and help push the program to its fullest potential. Concept: A program that creatively engages young people living in public housing neighborhoods, Reelizations: equipping them with real- Stories start in our world video production neighborhoods skills to develop their own personal Non-profit: East River Development narratives around the issues faced by Alliance (ERDA), Queens. their communities. Team: Tania Jimenez, Chris Seabrooks, Deliverables: Brand book that covers Mollie Ruskin & Etienne Pham. everything from financing strategy Context: ERDA is a non-profit to recruitment to curriculum to all organization in west Queens working branding material. The project also to transform and improve New York proposes a Reel Eyes Film Festival City’s public housing neighborhoods to showcase the work of selected by providing residents with the tools participants. and opportunities necessary for self- sufficiency and economic mobility. social design 93 With the designer/biochemist combination, project development boundaries can now be expanded

PLEASE DO NOTby matteo pini TOUCH

To create the Bone Chair, designer Joris Laarman started with a solid volume. Having identified the ideal position and shape for the seat and backrest, and using 3D software developed by General Motors to optimize the mechanical components of cars, he proceeded with the process of removing material, leaving only what was essential for the ideal weight distribution while maintaining a light, reticular construction.

The resulting seat, created in die-cast

94 aluminum, has an intricate yet light organic structure. The most interesting aspect of this project is that, by exploiting the mechanical and functional concepts of bone formation, the end result does in fact have a stylistic resemblance to an artificial bone structure.

In the Italian town of Faenza, well known for its longstanding ceramic tradition, interesting research is taking place in the field of biomedicine at CNR-ISTEC (the Institute of Science and Technology of Ceramic Materials), where new materials are being synthesized in order to reproduce the structure of bones. The results are not limited to external characteristics but also extend to the actual inner structure of bones, with joris laarman, paper bone chair (prototype, 2006) at rijksmuseum, amsterdam the aim of developing actual bone products—an artificial process to create what can effectively be defined as natural bone.

Current procedures for serious injuries or degenerative illnesses that affect long pieces of bone involve a metal or biocompatible ceramic prosthesis, which ensures the correct functioning but which is subject to wear and thus needs to be replaced after a certain period of time.

The development of a genuine and definitive prosthesis is very complex, as please do not touch 95 there are particular biomechanical and chemical characteristics to be matched, and the internal structure of human bones is very difficult to reproduce artificially.

Since 2006, a team at CNR-ISTEC, coordinated by Dr. Anna Tampieri, has fig. 1 - Section of rattan wood. been researching bio-ceramics and bio-hybrid components with a focus on developing materials for the substitution and regeneration of long bones, such as the femur, which are fig. 2 - Sections of different phases of ceramization subjected to considerable mechanical stress. The team of researchers has noted interesting analogies between the complex structure of bone and that of wood—red oak and rattan in particular—and has developed a procedure which, by means of “rapid artificial fossilization,” generates a substance that is similar to bone. It maintains its original wooden structure but is characterized by a porosity very similar to the spongy texture of bone.

The procedure consists of subjecting the wood to high temperatures and high pressure in ordinary ovens and autoclaves. Raw material is cheap and environmentally friendly, and the entire process produces no contaminating waste.

With a considerable reduction in costs expected once the process is put into full-scale production, it is easy to please do not touch 96 imagine that the possible applications of the technology will extend to producing a whole range of new materials (if the current experiments go as expected, it will be possible to implant artificial bones into humans by 2016).

Current applications include filters fig. 3 - Sections of different phases of ceramization and materials for soundproofing, but the possibility to synthesize ad hoc variations on the basis of specific project requirements, adjusting both the raw material (there are nearly infinite varieties of wood, each with its own specific characteristics) and the process, means that potential applications are limitless. The process of ceramization implies different production phases, which can be interrupted in order to create materials at a range of different price-points with more, or less, sophisticated fig. 4 - Section of rattan wood transformed into bone material. performance characteristics.

Over the last few years, designers have increasingly worked with engineers to find solutions for the most enterprising and challenging of projects. With the designer/biochemist combination, project development boundaries can now be expanded to include the most intricate aspects of research and the application of materials science.

please do not touch 97 SNAPSHOT 98 snapSHOT n.2 a story of people, things, and places

photographed by jacopo grassi

page 8 page 20

page 47

page 33

page 98

SNAPSHOT 99 page 27

page 66

page 84

SNAPSHOT 100