They say printed magazines are dead. Wired Unplugged is an “how to” proposal I have made to give them a second chance. The idea is that they can be designed to be transformed into something else. In the second issue of WIRED UK there are five different example of simple things you could do with it. You can see some how to videos in the magazine’s website here and here.
In my opinion this would: a) bring the message of the magazine (and its advertising) in places that would never be reached otherwise [example: make a "fish and chips holder" or a "paper wallet" and go to parties with it]; b) Add symbolic a value on the transformable page [more real estate value for the advertising on a D-I-Y piece of art or design to go]; c) Make mag fetishists buy more copies [one to collect, one to destroy]; d) Allow people to re-use the magazine in a different way than tun on a fire after they’ve read it.
Wired unplugged was taken seriously by wired magazine. One page appeared on the second issue of WIRED ITALIA where I have made instructions about how to make bio-vases and now two pages on the second issue of WIRED UK. If you are willing to do it your self with Wired or with other magazine please post it here!
The story I have wrote for the first issue of Beyond magazine is now published on the online edition of the Italian magazine Abitare. You can read the full story here. Hope you enjoy it.
Last November I was invited to discuss about “urban narrative” in Göteborg, Sweden, an event organized by Squid. I have then wrote some notes in form of manifesto in order to clear what I had to say about it in relation to my practice. My “manifesto” was basically conceived as a platform to start a debate. We went through one or two statement, then the conversation took off in a more spontaneous and fun way. The Squid friends (Katja Aglert, Martijn van Berkum, Janna Holmstedt) decided to publish on their site the transcription of our talk as well as my preliminary manifesto which you find in this post and that you can download here as pdf. Enjoy!
URBAN NARRATIVE: A MANIFESTO
00_ FIAT LUX. Narrative in-forms realities. It gives them a form. So that these can be recognised, narrated, historicized, represented. Narrative stands for any form of representation. The urban condition is a tangible reality that takes form with narrative, here understood as any kind of representation, visual or not.
01_ HOW TO: URBANITY. Narrative is a form of symbolic order. It could take any form in which information is organised: Atlas (as collections of maps, diagrams, cartograms), a guide (manuals, recipes, a game, instructions), archives (database, indexes), but also many other forms of narratives, any form that organize information.
02_ EXFORMATION. Narrative is a form-giving process that discards information: the process of transforming “the world into a map”.
03_ 2BR02B. This is the question. Narrative has an ontological power. It has the power to define what “exists” and what does not. Therefore narrative is a weapon for the affirmation of reality: the urban realm.
04_ CONCRETE. So narrative is not a naïve practice. Narrative is not the “copy”, the transcription, of the urban as a form of reality. On the contrary, the urban is the transcription of a narrative. The physical reality, the urban condition, is the fragmented construction of narratives.
05_ REFLECTIVE DESIGN. Narrative is not just a representation of the urban, but rather an idea of it. An idea about what urban is and how it functions/operates.
06_ SYMBOLIC VIOLENCE. Narrative is a subversive practice. It has the power to imagine and to actually represent, therefore construct, the urban reality according to different kinds of symbolic orders. It is a tool of signification of reality. It could be progressive or reactionary. The urban condition is a storytelling battlefield.
07_ PALIMPSEST. The never ending editing. The only rule in narrative is the inner, self-referential, coherency. There is no truth, but only ideas about “truth”. Narrative is about what we believe is truth, or what we want others to believe as such. The urban condition as narrative battlefield could be therefore contradictory, or tell different “stories” at the same time.
08_ MAPPING AROUND. Narrative shifts symbolic values and shapes information. It gives information a form that could follow poetic or symbolic principles and therefore create a new form of objectivity, new forms of “urbanities”.
09_ PROGRAM. If the urban is the “copy” of a narrative then, if we change the narrative, we are willing to change the latter, exploring and representing new forms of urbanities.
Intervention at Lusso Essenziale: convention/exhibition/concert at MACRO Future, Rome, may 21-22-23, around Low Cost culture. An event organized by Lowcoster.
Starting May 21st, in the spaces of Macro Future in Rome, luxury cultures will meet low cost concepts and mutate towards new, more ethical, sustainable and essential ways of living.
“The Essential Luxury” will showcase a three-day event organized around panel discussions and workshops with world renown designers, sociologists, artists and architects, but most importantly with the human beings behind those titles.
Three days to reflect on the development of everyday life-styles that can be at the same time luxurious and sustainable, affordable as well as socially responsible. A moment of confrontation and dialogue to communicate a new way of luxury: different, yet identical in quality, technology, research, creativity, curiosity and expertise. A chance to understand and experience a new culture of luxury which makes us aware of our conscious side, and puts it in charge.
Participants:
Paola Antonelli, Nello Barile, Davide Bocelli, Mario Cucinella, Brando Crespi, Umberto Croppi, Fabio D’Angelantonio, Orsola De Castro, Dickson Despommier, Maurizio Di Puolo, Paolo Ferrarini, Adriano Franchi, Silvia Gavina, Stephane Hugon, Daniele Kihlgren, Filippo La Mantia, Leonardo Lotti, Michel Maffesoli, Antonio Martino, Mara Memo, Matthew Morozzo, Cristina Morozzi, Sergio Pappalettera, Filippo Ricci, Domenico Sturabotti, Antonio Scarponi, Vincent Susca, Ilaria Venturini Fendi and artists: Aquilanti Andrea, Maurizio Cannavacciuolo Mario Council, Eliseo Mattiacci, Sergio Pappalettera, Julie Polidoro, Andrea Salvino Moderate: Antonio Mancinelli – Piero Negri
I have contributed to the first issue of “Beyond” with a short urban science fiction story called “the last market”.
Series
‘Beyond no.1 – Scenarios and Speculations’ is the first volume of a book series dedicated to new, experimental forms of architectural and urban writing, a bookazine in which, amidst other goodies, an extended network of young and upcoming writers are given the freedom to survey the outline of themes and things to come.
Fresh take on destinations
Arriving at a time in which architects and urbanists tackle fascinating issues while their reports fail to attract a wider audience, the first issue of Beyond offers a fresh take on destinations and urban scenarios of the near future.
Scenarios and Speculations
Beyond the academic circle and the spectacle of images, Scenarios and Speculations proposes stories that near fiction’s ability to prompt a deep, appealing reflection about our current concerns: urban conflict, social interaction, ecological resources, mobility and tourism, the evolution of cities.
Contributing authors:
Gilles Delalex, Michelle Provoost, Knut Birkholz, Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss, Boris Jensen, Silvia Banchini, Luis Falcón, Antonio Scarponi, Bruce Sterling, Lara Schrijver, Kobas Laksa, Shumon Basar, Wes Jones, Superstudio, Aaron Betsky
Editor-in-Chief: Pedro Gadanho
EXFORMATION. This is a term coined by the Danish Physics Tor Nørretranders in his book the User Illusion, meaning explicitly discarded information. Originally spelt eksformation in Danish, the word first appeared in English in an article Nørretranders wrote in 1992.
From Wikipedia: “Effective communication depends on a shared body of knowledge between the persons communicating. In using words, sounds and gestures the speaker has deliberately thrown away a huge body of information, though it remains implied. This shared context is called exformation.” The concept of exformation will be used in the course as a design issue. The process of design is a process of in-formation, of form giving. Exformation is everything deliberately discarded by the “designer” in the form giving process. The course will be thus focused on the “discarded information”. Students will have to explore this concept and develop a project with it. More…
Intensive course at NABA, Milano, italy. The course will be about the design of a souvenir for the city of Trieste which claims not to have one yet. Course blog: www.sovveniretrieste.blogspot.com
