Ventura Future is the latest event by Organisation in Design and will take place during Milan Design Week (17-22 April, 2018) in three locations in the Loreto district in Central Milan, only two metro stops from Ventura Centrale. This first edition of Ventura Future shows its visitors how designers are taking the lead in shaping the future. The fact that our world is changing rapidly, and that we find ourselves facing environmental, social, political and technical challenges, should come as no surprise. We have hit exciting times in design history, wherein the world is increasingly embracing the ability of designers to think outside of conventional structures and produce radical solutions.
Distinctions between the traditional disciplines are becoming less clear, demonstrating that cross-practice between designers, technologists, engineers and analytics is shaping better outcomes. From big data to complex networks, from resource management to health care issues - Ventura Future presents…
Complex networks of data are getting more and more intertwined in our daily lives. We often look at it with a legitimate concern and sense of alienation, but some Ventura Future’s exhibitors are showing the upside of these technological advancements. One such exhibitor unfolding the transition towards a more connected world is the Brooklyn-based design studio UM Project. With their project ‘PATCH’ they are visualizing networks, embracing connectivity and imagining the future of smart homes and smart cities. “Networks are becoming as familiar and friendly as the furniture in our homes - some kind of silent partner, a welcome embrace, a reassuring blanket”, they explain. Their project ‘Conduct’ is an interactive wall-covering product combining conductive wallpaper with functional devices.
'PATCH' by François Chambard/UM project (photo credits: Francis Dzikowski/Otto)
Design Academy alumni Jelle Mastenbroek likes to explore the field of interactive technology with playful installations, which have won him a Milano Design Award in the past. Jelle Mastenbroek and Daniel de Bruinare connected through their engineer Bas Bakx for this year’s Ventura Future exhibition. Together they will create a new interactive experience. The spectator is the centerpiece of the exhibition, and will be kept an eye on. The installation will track and react on your eye movements. Big Brother is still watching you.
With the raim of increasing awareness regarding our day-to-day plastic consumption, Dutch designer Diederik Schneemann and photographer Aldwin van Krimpen will be showcasing a painful representation of the truth. Their ‘WASTED’ series puts the content of our garbage bags entirely on display, resulting in an accumulation of non-biodegradable waste that in everyday life we prefer not to look at. By reshaping the waste into tasteful looking food dishes, WASTED triggers spectators to think critically about waste issues and presents them with a utopian view on a circular food chain.
Studio Plastique’s project ‘Common Sands’ underlines a transition in human behaviour with regards to resources. “Since when have resources become so meaningless to us?”, the Belgian studio wonders. And more importantly, how can we give back meaning, value and visibility to the resources and materials around us? The studio’s collection of tableware is composed of sand, a material viewed as seemingly banal but is used everywhere around us – from our electronic devises, to our lighting systems and in our homes. Exposing the quality of this material is a way of opening our eyes to its significance. Dutch collective The Materialists will show that paper is another material that we take for granted. “Paper carries our news, transfers our knowledge, confirms our identities, helps us write down our laws, whispers our words of love; we even trust it to clean our most intimate parts.” Not only does society nowadays fail to appreciate paper enough, its recycling potential also tends to be overlooked. ‘Paper Extended’ will show experimental ways of reusing paper to its full potential.
'Elder' by Johan Viladrich (photo credits: Johan Viladrich) and 'Sexual Healing' by Nienke Helder (photo credits: Nicole Marnati)
For ‘ HH. A Dutch Design Vision about Health and Happiness’, Ventura Future, with the support of the Dutch Embassy in Italy, selected seven designers that will present projects securing medical progress: Johan Viladrich, Nienke Helder, Gerjanne van Gink, Tamara Hoogeweegen, Alissa Rees, Rebekka Evita Strenk and Aurore Brard. This ranges from practical solutions for patients on a daily base to reflections on health, wellbeing and human life. Noticing a lack in design tailored specificlly to the fastest growing age group – the elderly – Johan Viladrichwent to the drawing table to design pragmatic solutions. A kitchen knife, a shoehorn and a walker are the result of an intense research into ergonomics, form and material. Nienke Helder offers an alternative view on the treatment of trauma-induced female sexual problems. ‘Sexual Healing’ is a set of sensory objects to be used outside the clinical environment.
The FuturDome Prize
Issued by Isisiuf, the international institute of futurism studies, FuturDome and Ventura Projects will organise the first edition of the FuturDome Prize during the 2018 design week. The FuturDome Prize is a worldwide contemporary disciplines prize to discover, recognize and give support to a future generation of creators. The Prize is a contribution to the open participation of younger authors in the dynamic cultural development of societies in global transition and is an open platform for artists, their artworks and society. It is judged by a distinguished jury including: Marie Ange Brayer (chief curator Centre Pompidou Architecture and Design department), Paolo Ulian (designer), Luca Nichetto (designer Nichetto Studio), and Irene Kronenberg and Alon Baranowitz (founders B+K Architecture). More names to be announced. The Prize will be awarded on the 19th of April at the FuturDome building.
