Ventura
Lambrate: Royal College of Art – Paradise. The Paradise exhibition was part of
the Royal College of Art’s 175th anniversary celebrations that showed the
breadth of creativity coming from the world’s most influential postgraduate
university of art and design. Paradise contemplates the discovery of
something or somewhere wondrous. Rallied by the desire for change and compelled
by dissatisfaction with the present, RCA students authored their own atlases
of paradise, landscaped by different paths in the quest for a better future. The work exhibited addressed three
subjects: the exploration of personal dreams and desires; questioning the
fabric of the everyday; and speculation on the direction of our future. Product
and furniture design were evident as well as conceptual pieces in a variety
of media. The exhibition content was been selected by Professor Tord Boontje,
head of Design Products at the RCA and curated by designer and RCA tutor Onkar
Kular.
Above: Yuen by Hideki Yoshimoto in collaboration with Moto
Takabatake. Yuen is an installation composed of several pieces of floor lamps,
each of which has light sensors and muscle-like actuators. Each lamp moves its head, seeking the darkest
direction around it. One lamp’s movement
affects another’s by changing the light and shadow field in the environment,
which results in indirectly connecting all lamps and creating a system within
space. People who enter the environment
can also be involved in the system by introducing their shadow.
RCA. Lasso by
Gaspard Tine-Beres. “These slippers are
constructed from a single piece of natural wool felt, their 3D form being
created by complex 2D geometry of pattern.
The shapes are die-cut from sheets of five millimeters thick felt with
minimal, simple and affordable tooling, making this product very suitable for
small scale, local production. I am
producing a range in ten standard sizes and selling them directly via the dedicated Lasso website.”
RCA. Fan
Table by Mauricio Affonso. Fan Table
explores the role of tables as the infrastructure for social interaction. Created from over four hundred slats, the
table can be quickly transformed into an array of different shapes and sizes to
suit its context or use. The surface can
freely expand, contract and revolve in an effortless fan like movement of the
hand.
RCA. A Dreams of Taxonomy by Lina Patsiou. “I wished I could fulfill my dreams simply by
means of grasping them. I imagined a
world where dreams are real and live around us like every other natural, or, in
fact, supernatural creature. I went on
to study dream creatures, to imagine what they are like, how they live, and why
it is that they make us name them after our deepest wishes, ambitions,
aspirations and for that matter; fantasies.
A Dreams Taxonomy is based on rigorous study, bibliographic research and
ample improvisation on the field of supernatural beings in general and fabulous
dreams in particular.”
RCA.
Skywalk by Marjan van Aubel.
“Wearing these mirror glasses is a weird sensation; your field of vision
is completely directed towards the sky.
You can see nothing but clouds; it almost re-creates the disorientating
experience of flying! You are literally
with your head in the clouds but your feet are still on the ground.”