Since this solidity is no longer an intrinsic quality of things, it must be the result of a deliberate endeavour to define what must endure so that everything else can change without losing meaning and without destroying the planet. If it takes that course, design will belong to its time, and the meaning it acquires will help to shape the future.* I’m not fond of quotes; it’s a practice that doesn’t belong to me: the act of quoting is like collecting inanimate finds that lost their narrative charge. Nevertheless, I decided to make use of a ‘stolen sentence’ to start this text, because of an emotional anecdote. My very first approach to a notion of ‘immateriality’, unlinked to any spiritual connotation, happened many years ago: an article of Ezio Manzini about the ‘geology of the artificial world’, published on a great Italian magazine, Alfabeta - that unfortunately doesn’t exist anymore. Manzini was one of the first Italian thinkers to consider the emergence, driven by technology, of a new objectual world towards immateriality, from physical objects made with recognizable materials to the performances of a new generation of objects. Alok Nandi and I searched for a hybrid title, suggesting flows of meanings, expressing fluidity and solidity at the time. Tangible and intangible, singular and plural visions, In.tangible.scape.s is a performance as well. A collective, participative project, according to Addict style, but increased in intensity by collecting together a number of platforms and not only individuals. The aim is to co-building contents and meanings, hypothesis and scenarios around an open issue: emerging technologies, successful applications, liable solutions, sustainable promises and risks in bridging science (the future) and creative domains (the Erlebnis, the experience). Imke Debecker, Outreach Communications Coordinator at IMEC and I went through all possible resources, assembled a list of names and launched a call for participation to organisations, research centres, academia and creative people. Addictlab members database did the rest. Scientist, designers, artists, art and design curators replied and were requested to use a number of pages as they wanted.
This issue #29 is the result. In.tangible.scape.s is a joint initiative Addictlab and IMEC. It all started more than a year ago. IMEC, Europe's leading independent nanoelectronics and nanotechnology research centre is driven by a dream: opening up the horizon of emerging technologies research, not only by widening the fields of scientific studies, but involving and informing as many people as possible. Science is for all, not only from an educational point of view, but also as a mean of increasing creativity and creating a true dialogue on science, technology, possible applications and implications. By crossing the borders between science and technology and art and design, industry, research institutes, academia, education partners and policy leaders can enter into a dialogue with the broad public. In this aim, IMEC came to Addict Creative Lab for a first project that resulted in a publication: #27 Nanotechnology. This Inspiration Book generated workshops and exhibitions during 2007, and it’s still adopted at IMEC as a communication tool to explain both youngsters and scientists that science and creativity have no limits. The present project is to be considered a step further: emerging technologies are becoming important media in art and design. Even if still delimited to a niche category (e.g. digital or bio-art, interactive- or experience design) we all believe that in an optic of sustainable development, this might lead to a responsible, appropriate technological evolution.
Addict and I warmly thank our main supporters and collaborators: Imke Debecker, Jo De Wachter of IMEC and Jo Decuyper, RVO-Society. The Labresearchers Carl De Smet - Noumenon, the Belgian artist Frederik De Wilde and Alok Nandi – Architempo to having increased the reflection and enlarged the research field. We are grateful to all the Labmembers, to having reminded us, once again, that our input is always secondary to what already happens in reality and that creativity is a bottom-up experience. Last but not least, our deepest gratitude to all the ‘sharing economy’ contributors: Marie O’ Mahony and all her designers/fashion designers/artists together with the Science Gallery, Dublin; Paola Antonelli and Patricia Juncosa of MoMA and all the selected ‘elastic-minded’ designers; the designer Mathieu Lehanneur, Anthony van den Bossche of Duende Studio, Basile Gueorguievsky, and David Edwards of Le Laboratoire; Maria Grazia Mazzocchi, Claudio Moderini and Renzo Giusti of Domus Academy; François Jégou, Sara Girardi Colelli, Giulia Durante and Paola Paleari of Strategic Design Scenarios; Jan Boelen and Liesbeth Huybrechts of Z33; Koen Snoeckx of the Holst Centre; Yixiu Wu, Siwei Fang and Patrick Chia Seow Leng of Design Incubation Centre, National University of Singapore; Clive van Heerden, Senior Director Design Innovation and Jane Hardjono of Philips Design; Kathy High, Daniela Kostova and Rich Pell of Arts Department Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; and Michel van Dartel of V2_, Institute for the Unstable Media. A special thanks to the designer Leah Heiss for her enthusiastic response, and to James King, Cynthia Pannucci of Art & Science Collaborations (ASCI), Hiroshi ISHII of Media Arts and Sciences MIT Media Laboratory for their networking contribution. Marike Hechter, Addict South Africa labmember, deserves our particular recognition for her great artistic direction of #29, together with Elisa Longobardi for her re-editing support. Giovanna Massoni
Issue #29 is a sort of portal connecting platforms and individuals and creating new networks. Exhibition curators, as well as major companies research departments, schools and universities, organisations together with designers and artists filled the bi-dimensional space to hopefully create a fourth dimension of debate and solutions.
* Ezio Manzini "20th century AD". UNESCO Courier. Dec 1996. FindArticles.com. 14 Jul. 2008. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1310/is_1996_Dec/ai_19090926
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