Salone del Mobile 2012 has come to an end. From 17 till 22 April Design Academy Eindhoven had an inspiring and overwhelming week in Milan. Besides our own exhibition 50, we organized three Milan Breakfasts in cooperation with Premsela and Capital D. The three breakfasts resulted in interesting discussions between critic designers, developers, researchers and professionals. The audience could participate in these discussions by raising their hand or using the social medium Twitter with a specific hashtag: DAEmilan. Each breakfast is filmed and a lot of images are stored in our Galleries at our website. You can watch all the interesting discussions and surprising answers below in the filmed recordings.
THE REAL DEAL
The first Milan Breakfast was about ‘The Real Deal’, moderated by Saskia van Stein. The speakers Koert van Mensvoort, Jan Boelen, Maya Ben David and Ravi Naido (announced by Saskia van Stein as a man with big ideas) evaluated and discussed the subject. Jan Boelen started the Milan Breakfast by introducing an exhibition about The Machine, where designers designed a new industrial revolution. Every designer built their own machine, which could be an alternative for mass production. Systems for distribution use, developed like an alternative for mass productions. In addition, Maya Ben David told one of her secrets and explained her love and dependence of digital technology. She basically had to deal with everything on an emotional level online, because her family lives in Israel, while she studied in Eindhoven.
STRATEGIC CREATIVITY
Increasingly often, designers operate in social, cultural and economic domains in which they must work with different disciplinary areas and stakeholders. If every element in a multidisciplinary team is deployed in an effective manner, the mixture of visions, qualities and talents can lead to innovative outcomes. Yet this is not a simple process. The previously described cooperation in multidisciplinary teams has been spoken during this second Milan Breakfast, titled Strategic Creativity. Speakers were Sissel Tolaas, Bas Raijmakers, Mike Thompson, Johan Kramer, Elena Pacenti and was moderated by Danielle Arets. After a short introduction by Johan Kramer, Danielle Arets started with the question if someone could give a fresh example of a really successful collaborative project, where designers teamed up with the industry or with scientific institutes. The guests gave some examples they recently worked on by themselves. The discussion was ended with the final question about future perspectives. Moderator Danielle asked each speaker: “If we take the Salone del Mobile in 2020, what will we see and what can we expect?” Answers to this question and other fresh examples given by the speakers, you can watch in the video below.
ACTIVATE THE FUTURE!
What can designers do with their idealism in these days of crises? Moderator Tim Vermeulen talked to some tastemakers about the contemporary face of design engagement and how they should activate design’s new future. Zuzanna Skalska, Tamar Shafir and Pete Collard were special guests during this final Milan Breakfast. The economic troubles that began in 2008 are still making their effects felt. Tamar Shafir started with an introduction about the future in which she is interested in and engaged in. Later during this Breakfast, Zuzanna Skalska emphasized that there is no end user. Also she highlighted the point of view that people have to unlearn things. Whereupon moderator Tim Vermeulen said: “The future of design is actually unlearning design.” Finally, this last Milan Breakfast ended up with the last question by Tim: “If we have to activate the future of design and you have to give one ingredient, what would it be?”
We’ll hope to see you all again during the third edition of the Milan Breakfasts next year!