Once upon a time there were garages. Places impregnated with oil and petrol, engines, calendars and dirty hands. Then came the garages where the startups were born (remember that of Steave Jobs). Today it always happens that the starting point is there to rethink the world. It happens in Milan, at the number 10 of Corso Como, once also a garage, today the epicenter of ideas and visions, where IED, the European Design Instituteturns on the spotlight on a creativity that looks to the future, without forgetting their roots.
Creativity as an engine of change
The key lies in the “retro-photurist creativity” that assumes a political value: it is the ability to see in the past a seed to build a more right, more ethical and-yes-even more beautiful tomorrow. With this spirit IED Milan He called four voices that come from worlds only apparently distant – jewelery, publishing, art and catering – but who share a heal vision: innovating means knowing how to imagine, reinterpret, break the patterns.
It is a change that goes from Caiazzo, a small town in the province of Caserta, where Franco Pepe has transformed a popular dish such as pizza into a manifesto of gastronomic innovation and sustainability, with its restaurant Pepper in grains. With him, at 10 of Corso Como, there is also MariaSole Ferragamodesigner and founder of SO-studywhich explores the beauty of recovery, giving new shape to fashion waste through accessories and jewels that tell an ethical and circular aesthetic.
There is Danielle Kwatengdirector of Teen Vogueauthoritative voice in the debate suddenly and diversity in the world of fashion and media, while Anna Scalfi Egontherartist and sociologist, invites to rethink social norms through a work that unites research and poetic provocation.
To lead the conversation the director of IED Milano Danilo Venturiwho orchestrated the meeting. The result is a comparison in which the goal is to bring clearly that creativity is not only synonymous with intuition and vision (for another very true), but also of responsibilities. It is the will to repair what no longer works. It is taking care of the wounds of the planet, economy, human relationships. It is, after all, a way to rewrite the future starting from what we already have – but with new eyes.
Five suggestions on retro-trafficking creativity
It is the director IED Milano, Danilo Venturi who has five suggestions about what retrofuturist creativity means and what his value could be.
1. Smartphone as a techno-premiere object
«The use we make of our mobile phone – probably the object that we would really carry
Everywhere, even in space, if we could choose only one object – it is retro -trafficking. There
projects into other worlds, towards sophisticated functions, but does it through a completely primitive gesture: the
Movement of the finger. Here the retro-phasturism therefore emerges in the paradox between sophisticated interfaces
and instinctive gestures, where design works on “not to perceive” technology, making it
Invisible and natural. Hence a consequential consideration: the cell phone is also techno
primitive”.
2. Archaic communication but hyperconnex
«The second, which is connected to the above – therefore to the techno -premiente – concerns the media and the
communication. If we think about it, today’s company is returning to a transmission of the
knowledge and oral and hieroglyphic information, but on a technological basis: a return
In the archaic past in a hyperconnex version. Let’s think about how we communicate quickly e
Everyone daily: vowels, emojis, memes through messagistic and social systems. Before the massification of WhatsApp we would have at least written, albeit badly, a message, which even before it would have been an email, in turn retro-trafficking evolution of a letter. The risk of this transmission is evident, above all considering that we keep our information mostly in the cloud: in the case of a truly extreme and destructive event, if they get to visit us for example the aliens, they would find intact cell phones and Louis Vuitton bags, but no content: the cloud would be down. So, let’s talk about a fragile back-fashion ».
3. Podcast and videocast: the archeology of the future
«Always on the media front, we still think about podcast or video -chain on YouTube: the old man
radio format is absorbed by digital and enhanced. Because – Paraphrasing an old woman
Song, video Didn’T Kill the Radio Stars – New technologies do not erase the previous ones, but integrate them. Recall that when the TV arrived, the radio became something like MTV. When the Internet arrived, the TV became YouTube. Photography has never deleted painting and Photoshop has not deleted photography. Just as artificial intelligence will not erase anything, but it will strengthen everything. It is an evolutionary and non -revolutionary vision of progress, where each medium turns into something else without disappearing. A conservative futurism: it is not destroyed, it is reworking ».
4. Vintage, fashion, cinema: the archeology of the possible
«A fourth suggestion is on fashion, the accessory, but also cinema and visual arts. Let’s think about the vintage: look to the past, but on it we can build and deconstruct, giving life to something new. We still think of the super innovative design of Margiela: it was inspired by poor art, but it was a luxury brand: destroyed, ruined, incomplete, but at the same time a boutique product full of content. Or even to Virgil Abloh (Off-White) who was a master of cultural remix: he left archetypes such as the trench coat, the sneaker, the sweatshirt, the suitcase and contaminated them with elements taken by industrial design, road signs, conceptual art. His work is a perfect example of urban back-back: what happens if I take the classic and I treat it as an alien object? But this also applies to cinema, the visual arts, just look at a masterpiece like 2001: Odyssey in space: He deals with the future, but with a retro aesthetic, he looks to a potential future that has not happened, however. Let’s think about the design of the costumes in Atri Cult films: it is in fact back-futurist fashion. In Blade Runnerthe 1940s silhouettes reinterpreted in a noir-tech key give a sense of the future past; In dunes, the costumes seem merged between ancient nomadic tribes and advanced military technology. And this is linked to a wider and more profound reflection.
5.Retro-Futurism and creative innovation: speculative design?
«When you have to create, think of new scenarios, something truly innovative, you can only
look at future missed to design new scenarios: look at the past that they do not have
had a real future or – in other words – to the possible future of a certain past, which however is not
never happened. A destructured past. Let’s go back to the vintage: what is incomplete is a future that has not happened, what is ruined (and uses and appreciated as such), is a past that has not had a fair future (and now you are giving them a future). By collecting these considerations, especially regarding the dematerialisation of knowledge and the risk of losing it, as a school and trainers we have a duty to get our students used to, future designers, to create something iconic and material compared to the dematerialized daily life that lead digital natives “.
Source: Vanity Fair
I’m Susan Karen, a professional writer and editor at World Stock Market. I specialize in Entertainment news, writing stories that keep readers informed on all the latest developments in the industry. With over five years of experience in creating engaging content and copywriting for various media outlets, I have grown to become an invaluable asset to any team.
