The Italian Way. What Makes Italian Design Unique? |

A presentation by Luca Cottini (PhD). Delivered on June 24, 2022 at the Superyacht Design Festival, organized in Milan by Boat International Media Company.
Industria (industriousness) and cultura (cultivation): the 2 concomitant faces of value creation
Italian #design is not "Made in Italy". What makes on object Italian? What does "Italian" add to it?
The origin of Italy's distinction. From an incomplete industrialization to a unique industrial model
The Italian vs the anglo-salon approach to #innovation
Objects as #storytelling devices: from decoration to personification. The object as a living actor
How can an #object (or a story) achieve eternal freshness? The parallel path to creativity of the writer and the #designer (the models of originality of Dante, Petrarch, Ariosto, Tasso, and Collodi)
Design as a #philosophy of gesture: the empowerment of objects from use to lasting meaning
The boat as a complex #architecture of meaning and a synthesis of functionality and storytelling
Three assembling sites of Italian #yachting: the fabbrica, the court, and theatre
Yachts as #opera houses, combining different "works" in a unique synthesis of industry & culture
Thanks for watching. I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, make sure to leave a comment here below and subscribe to this KZbin channel as a way to enrich this conversation and receive notification of new episodes. Also, don’t forget to visit the official webpage of the show at www.italianinnovators.com for more information about this project.
All rights reserved | © Italian Innovators 2022

[@mahaliagayle2618]

Luca, you are continuing to do beautiful work here on this channel! Grazie mille.

[@ItalianInnovators]

It is thanks to the encouragement of viewers like you that I really draw the energy to continue this path! Grazie davvero!

[@sergpie]

This channel is excellent in explaining and promoting the tangible and intangible culture of Italy viewed through an industrial lens. Thank you.

[@ItalianInnovators]

Thank you, thank you, thank you. It's my greatest pleasure to share these stories with everybody and enjoying them together! Grazie e keep enjoying!

[@SanteMatteo]

Brilliant! Hence, truly illuminating, shedding light not only on the unique quality of Italian design by considering the historical and cultural background that informs it as a craft and an industry but, by using that lens to look back on Italian cultural history, also shedding new light on those aspects of Italian cultural history deployed to account for the success of Italian design: literature, painting, sculpture, architecture, music, etc.: a mutually illuminating process. And all of it, a fruitful and enjoyable journey on a luxurious yacht!

[@ItalianInnovators]

Grazie davvero per il commento. I am truly humbled by your kind words and I hope that this boat ride in Italian culture can be a source of fruitful inspiration for many other colleagues and students of Italian studies in the United States.

[@markopaljusi]

Wonderful lecture Luca! You explained the Italian component / ingredient which is so delicate and so fine that it's easily overlooked

[@ItalianInnovators]

Thank you very much for your comment! Trying to explain the recipe of Italian beauty requires the patience to see it as a whole without falling into the temptation of dissecting it or explaining it (that would be as odd as explaining a joke). Thanks again and I am glad you enjoyed the presentation!

[@markopaljusi]

​@@ItalianInnovators I like your comparison with explaining a joke. I feel wasted when I'm sometimes trying to "explain" the Italian aesthetics to the ones who don't see it and don't get it and I gave up believing that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. That's such a wrong definition. Italians are great in making mess and rearranging until it's perfect and tidy. It's a process with no common logic, only sensibility. Please continue with these great lectures, your Channel is one of my favourite sources.

[@ItalianInnovators]

@@markopaljusi Thank you very much for your appreciation and for sharing your perspective! Keep enjoying and many more novelties are coming up in the Fall!

[@obbligato5198]

Incredible work. Thank you for makng such an in-depth take on what makes Italian design unique. I'm applying to the MSc in Integrated Product Design at the Politecnico di Milano, and this is a breakthrough lecture to make tangible the feeling I've always has about Italian design. You mention Gio and Domus and the Triennale. In layman's terms, how important has Milan been to Italy's reputation? Is Milan still a strong design/industrial hub? Thanks!

[@ItalianInnovators]

Thank you very much for your comment and I am truly grateful for what you wrote. Grazie! I'll continue the conversation on Gio Ponti in an upcoming episode dedicated to him (which will appear on March 1). As for Milan, certainly it was and it is the strongest Italian hub for design. Historically, and this might be astonishing, the real birthplace of Italian design culture was actually Monza, which established ISIA (a pioneering school of design) in 1922 and organized the first Biennale expositions (which then moved to Milan in the early 1930s with the establishment of Triennale). During the economic boom then, after WWII, the need to establish Italian products through a nice design was a winning strategy for many industries in Milan and Turin as well. A presto and keep enjoying the channel!