daniel jones / jean-pierre durand - pirelli · 2013. 7. 8. · production cycle daniel jones /...

P R O D U C T I O N C Y C L E

Daniel Jones / Jean-Pierre Durand

C L I M A T E C Y C L E

Hans-Peter Weikard

L I F E C Y C L E

Gil les Clément / Carlo Ratt i

C R E A T I V E C Y C L E

Vicente Todol í / L iza Donnel ly

W or l dP i r e l l i w o r l d w i d e m a g a z i n e n . 6 4 J u l Y 2 0 1 3

2 – P i r e l l i w o r l d w i d e m a g a z i n e –

Cleaning CeRn deteCtoR, 1969. Researcher cleaning the 1.2-metre bubble chamber at CERN, the European particle physics laboratory, Switzerland.

At CERN, accelerators are used to form beams of high-energy particles and collide them with targets. The collisions create new particles that are detected by devices such as bubble chambers. These use an unstable liquid

that boils into bubbles as the particles pass through. The liquid is usually cold, compressed hydrogen or helium, but this one contained heavier liquids. Particle track images help reveal the fundamental structure of matter.

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Worldn. 64 July 2013

worldwide magazine of the Pirelli group

registrazione tribunale di milano

n. 494 del 24.9.1994

www.pirelli.com

Published by

Pirelli & C. Spa

Editorial Coordinator

maurizio abet

Director

Barbara lightwood

Editor-in-Chief

Simona gelpi

Editorial office

Viale P. e a. Pirelli, 25 - milano

[email protected]

English text editor

william Crerar

Graphics

46xy studio

www.46xy.it

Printing

grafiche Bazzi srl

Cover

photo by Carsten Koall ViSum / ViSum creative / luz

C o N T E N T S

e C o n o m i C C Y C l e

6 When a cycle changes path

A new direction for the global economy?

P r o d u C t i o n C Y C l e

10 A cycle of change:

from mass production to lean production

C l i m a t e C Y C l e

20 A hard rain’s a-gonna fall: forecasting

the next climate cycle… an impossible task, according to Hans-Peter Weikard

l i F e C Y C l e

24 Landscapes in permanent transformation

an interview with Gilles Clément

26 Urban horizons. From the third landscape

to the third industrial revolution

F o o d C Y C l e

30 Keeping it local: The Slow Food story

C r e a t i V e C Y C l e

34 The exhibition cycle of HangarBicocca space

An interview with Vicente Todolí

38 Turning lines into laughs. Liza Donnelly,

cartoonist for the New Yorker, explains her work

Printed on

artic munken Print Cream 15 FSC®

5– N . 6 4 J u L Y 2 0 1 3 –

w e live in a time of profound and rapid

changes, affecting the cultural, manufacturing, organisational, economic and social spheres. Pirelli is once again at the forefront of understanding and confronting these changes, often anticipating them. it’s an ambitious goal that requires the involvement of everyone, at every level. Plus, naturally, the ability to change ourselves. that’s why Pirelli World, the magazine that has reflected the life of the company since 1994, is also changing. Created during a period of great transformation for our company, it has never lost its identity and it has never stopped playing an important part in telling the story of our technological and industrial development, as well as the group’s significant international consolidation.

now, almost 20 years later, Pirelli World is reinventing itself to better reflect the time that has passed and the times we are living in, communicating the impressions and ideas of major personalities from the worlds of economics, culture, industry and the markets. the new editorial line maintains the same sensitivity towards our business, performing the role of window and mirror of the company’s objectives. it is complemented by a major graphic overhaul, designed to give the words greater visual impact.The thread that runs through the first edition is the “Cycle” in all its various forms. this theme brings us to extremely contemporary arguments that are at the core of the industrial and economic world, as well as being relevant to the individual and the environments he or she inhabit, as well as to art and culture.

Pirelli world’s new cycle begins here, giving voice to a company that makes tyres, but one that is also capable of observing and listening to the world.

Happy reading.marco tronchetti provera


i n many parts of the world, especially in the west, the economic crisis has become

the stuff of wagers. according to estimates provided by the Wall Street Journal, 24% of american economists believe that 2013 will be the year of recovery. 17%, on the other hand, fear a new plunge into recession for countries where wealth has already been in steady decline for five years. The remaining 59% express no opinion. Because, they admit with unusual candour, it is simply impossible to know.now, as never before, silence is revolutionary. For the first time since manufacturers, bankers and creditors began to dabble in the economy a couple of centuries ago, there are insufficient grounds to be able to make forecasts, or at least to put faith in any model. Worse still, the theories refined over decades have proven to be inadequate or, at the very least, incomplete. and certainly too optimistic.the decline of global commerce, the 202 million unemployed around the world and the slowdown in the rise of the new powers have pushed back the concept of recovery which, according to the phases of the economic cycle, naturally follows each period of crisis. almost as if interrupting a magic circle which, until now, had supported the predictions of experts and analysts of robust econometric faith. The first cogent description of the economy as a succession of phases, illustrated with circular graphics in 10 steps - confidence, liveliness, overtrading, great apparent prosperity, sudden cessation, paralysis, distrust, panic, bankruptcies, caution – was the work of Mountifort Longfield, the Irish economist who held the first professorship

at trinity College, dublin. it was mapped out in 1840 and subsequently

revised with later additions, plus inevitable modifications and adjustments,

for a century and a half. until the crash of current era.“the reason we didn’t see the crisis coming, in all its enormity, is that it was impossible to calculate that the entire financial system would collapse simultaneously,” explains antonia diaz, economist at the Carlos iii university of madrid and researcher at the european university institute. “we’re talking about a variable that no theory had taken into consideration. it was simply unthinkable.”indeed, the 2008 crash was promptly renamed “the perfect storm”. But in this case there are no guarantees that it will be followed by a rainbow. Quite the contrary.The interruption of the natural flow of the economic phases, each one holding the seeds to the next, as if preparing the ground for it, was a historic rift. one that the less optimistic were quick to call a decline.the word does not appear in economics manuals, but is already an obsession in history books. and they unhesitatingly link this new phenomenon to the end of the colonial era and of dominant positions acquired over decades (or even centuries). In other words, the period whose defining economic feature was the exploitation by the few of resources belonging to others. a mechanism that today helps explain, at least in part, why many countries of the “old world”, including the united States, have slowed to a stop. and why others have taken off.“decline is the result of the erosion of an advantage,” explains Giorgio Questa, economist, finance expert

C y C L E

when a cycle changes patha new direCtion

For tHe gloBal eConomY?

7– N . 6 4 J u L Y 2 0 1 3 –

E C o N o M I C

Sugar industry and culture in Java, Indonesia, the most populous island in the world. In 1933 Java was the biggest sugar producer in the world. Today there is just few factories left. All sugar technology

was brought over from Holland about 300 years ago. The steam machines are still in operation.

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Jeffrey AlAn Miron is an american economist. He served as chairman of the department of economics at Boston university from 1992 to 1998 and currently teaches at Harvard university, serving as a Senior lecturer and director of undergraduate Studies in Harvard’s economics department.He was one of the 166 economists to sign a letter to congressional leaders in opposition to the bailout plan put forth by the u.S. federal government in response to the global financial crisis of September–october 2008.

and lecturer at the Cass Business School in london, as well as former Ceo of the investment bank imi international. “in general terms, we might say that countries stop developing when their development potential is absorbed by others. it is no accident that the nations that are first to see signs of recovery are those that have their own resources: hydrocarbons, minerals and arable land,” explains Questa.In simple terms, the paralysis of the first world is undoubtedly linked to the emergence of a new world, the rise of which had never been fully established in economics texts, at least not in the form of models and projections. the new world, however, is not growing at the expense of the old one, but rather independently of it. an implicit signal that the interdependence of economies - a common feature of different versions of the economic cycle - is no longer decisive. the rift between asia with its rapid growth and the stagnation of the european

AntoniA DiAz is an economist at the Carlos iii university of madrid, currently doing research at the department of economics of the european university institute. Her research focuses on the theoretical framework of macroeconomics, from transitional dynamics in wealth distribution to inflation and financial markets.

u n e M p l o y M e n t

G r o s s D o M e s t i c p r o D u c t

(IMF data, variations compared to 2012)

THoSE WHo CAN, Go IT ALoNE, IN A NEW ISoLATIoN THAT IS A LoNG WAy FRoM THE NoTIoN oF A CoMMoN CyCLE

G l o b A l t r A D e

(World Trade organisation estimates)

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9– N . 6 4 J u L Y 2 0 1 3 –

market, or america’s stop-and-go recovery, appears to demonstrate it: those who can, go it alone, in a new isolation that is a long way from the notion of a common cycle.decline, however, can also be considered a phase, albeit one that is new (and, according to the historians, inescapable). and therefore, predictably, surmountable. How and when to bring about the shift to the next phase, nevertheless, is the missing equation: those used to date are insufficient. “We are trying to find new formulae, by adding previously unconsidered elements to the model,” explains the european university institute researcher. “For example, inserting the dynamics of salaries and taxation, the liquidity in the system and the inclination of the banks”, she continues. “ultimately, it’s about calculating how the crisis of 2008-2009, which has still not really ended, has led to structural changes

GiorGio QuestA is a professor and finance expert at the Cass Business School in London. He started his career as an assistant professor of financial economics at the university of rome. He then joined imi (now SanPaoloimi) where he held several senior positions, including Head of research and Ceo of imi international. after leaving banking in 1995, he returned to teaching (at postgraduate level), research and consulting. He has published a number of articles as well as the book Fixed-Income Analysis for the Global Financial Market (1999), John wiley - Frontiers in Finance Series. He has held visiting professorships at Venice international university, george washington university graduate School of Business (washington d.C.) and Fordham graduate School of Business (new York).

A cleaning woman shines the Chinese Character for "Industry" outside of a plastics moulding factory in Dongguan.

in the world’s economies, in order to be able to predict the next move,” she concludes.the timescale is not short. many analysts remember the latin american debt crisis, which built up during the ‘70s and exploded in the ‘80s: getting over it took a decade. “But everything depends on the ability of politics not to make further mistakes,” warns Jeffrey miron, economist and director of undergraduate Studies in Harvard’s economics department. “the crisis is unconventional, but the weapons employed against it so far have been too conventional. We need to blend economic and fiscal policy, while being wary of politics and the excess of regulation that curbs change,” he concludes.not all of his colleagues would agree: many maintain that the start of the recession was caused precisely by the lack of rules. of course, going back to having none would mean returning to the very same point on the cycle.

E C o N o M I C

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in the beginning was Frederick winslow taylor, with his theory of the “trained gorilla”. a brutal and perhaps unintentionally classist expression, especially when reread a century later. But it succeeds in describing an idea: the discovery of rationalised, generalised manufacturing on a large scale and at low cost, achieved through scientific training of the workforce. That is, of workers on the newborn assembly line.it was the start of the 20th century: immense hangars, noise, soot and the first Ford Model T’s hitting the American roads and fulfilling a dream. One that today (almost) no longer exists. not just because society and its desires have changed. But also because those factories, those workers and those warehouses full of stuff (almost) no longer exist.

FACTORIES ON DISPLAY. Clean, tidy and precise. Spaces of limited size, where the eye moves freely and the range of vision is broad. From the ‘80s, and with ever greater impact as the third millennium approached, manufacturing sites took on a new look.“it was not just an industrial operation but rather a sociological one,” explains Jean-Pierre durand, French sociologist and director of the Centre Pierre-naville, one of the most important european institutions for the study of social sciences and industrial sociology. “the changes in the environment were necessary to change workers’ mentality, to really revolutionise manufacturing.”no longer hangars massed in industrial suburbs, factories have become neat, tidy containers, the ideal extension of the areas dedicated to offices and management, with whom the workers in fact have closer contact compared to a few decades ago. “going in search of the old factories today is an error: you can’t find them anymore. From outside they could be mistaken for houses,” explains duran.the architectural minimalism and asceticism of the working environment serves not only to improve general conditions and health, but also to promote a paradigm shift: from mass production to targeted production, where stockpiling does not figure and every process needs to be checkable at a glance.

a CYCle oF CHange: From maSS ProduCtion

to lean ProduCtion

C y C L E

Key dates

The point of v iew of

Daniel Jones and Jean-Pierre Durand

1911 theorisation of taylorism.

Frederick winslow taylor writes The Principles

of Scientific Management

1913Birth of the assembly line

11– N . 6 4 J u L Y 2 0 1 3 –

P R o D U C T I o N

p r o D u c t i o n

“Manufacturing is an organism

with a high level of complexity, in which the individual parts

(nodes, structures and roles) are open systems;

they fulfil specialised functions but operate on the basis

of independent environments.”

vincenzo orsomarso

The Volkswagen factory, Wolfsburg (Germany, Lower Saxony).

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Until the ‘80s, says Daniel Jones, the first to theorise the new concepts of lean production in a book, the mantra was: “the machines must always be switched on.” Today “flexibility and pliancy have become the new rules”.that goes for the physical structure in which work takes place, the technology employed and the skills of the workers.

THE WELL-INFORMED WORKER. the image of the grease-stained, ham-fisted worker should be put to rest along with that of the old-style factory. in the new manufacturing paradigm, the worker is well-informed, well-educated and well-trained. “Knowledge is necessary to use increasingly complex technological tools, but above all to acquire new skills using a scientific approach,” explains Jones.it is now the domain of men, not machines, and they have to know how to decrypt it, utilise it and mould it to their own needs. “we have the paradox of the graduate worker,” points out the sociologist durand ironically, “because these days, without basic skills or qualifications, it’s hard even to work in a factory”. Paradoxical or not, there has been a significant change of direction. Because “Fordist production separated doing from thinking,” adds Jones. everyone was responsible for one task without knowing about the rest, eliminating the cognitive participation of the individual.

C y C L E

The Next Mirs, a production process in the Pirelli robotised system for the manufacture of tyres.

1930 the principles of taylorism are enshrined in Fordism:

the Ford model t is the modern embodiment of rationalised manufacturing

13– N . 6 4 J u L Y 2 0 1 3 –

“today the paradigm has been turned on its head: learning and the ability to make the effort to overcome problems, through hands-on experience, are fundamental values in the selection and appraisal of personnel,” notes the lean production theorist.

WORKING GROUPS (THE NEW SOCIABILITY). in the new spaces occupied by new workers, interpersonal relations are different too.a manufacturing process that is no longer dictated by the constant clatter of the assembly line has given rise to the era of working groups, with all the social and interpersonal changes they bring with them.First of all, a reassessment of the capacity to communicate and relate, which have become crucial in rethinking the industrial process: indeed, information sharing and horizontal information flows are the drivers of manufacturing progress.the idea of the alienated worker, absorbed in endless identical actions, has been gradually replaced by that of working groups, where closely connected people are engaged in resolving the critical challenges of specific aspects of production.“roles within the factory are changing too,” argues Jones. “the factory boss is increasingly becoming the head of a team who motivates his group in the search for solutions.”

P R o D U C T I o N

Pirelli factory at Voronezh, Russia.

1970 - onWards decline of mass production in favour

of flexibility of production. Discovery of Toyotism (toyota Production Systems):

pull technology, which can be activated on demand and does not require

machines to be constantly in operation

1991 Birth of lean production,

the term coined by James P. womack and daniel Jones in the book

The Machine that Changed the World


C y C L E

the corollary of this new organisational feature is the general reduction of noise in plants, where people shout less and move more. Professor durand, however, warns against excessive optimism: “Those who still work on assembly lines do not enjoy the benefits of this climate. in fact, they are increasingly isolated, because fewer and fewer workers are assigned to that role.”

THE CUSTOMER AT THE CENTRE. if the symbol of Fordism was large-scale, rationalised manufacturing, with the objective of creating savings for shareholders, then the new generation of factories and manufacturing models shift the focus onto the customer. “the aim is no longer and not only to produce at lower cost, but rather to adapt rapidly and effortlessly to the demands of the market,” explains daniel Jones.the elimination of stock and waste, the central point of lean production theory, is thus not only an essential variable in the profit and loss account, but the consequence of the versatility required to sense changes in society and adapt without delay.Hence the establishment of “knowledge capitalism”, as it has been renamed by industrial historians. that is, a manufacturing system based on understanding of markets and the demands of customers.

DAniel Jones is co-inventor, together with James P. womack, of the term “lean production”. He was european director of mit’s Future of the automobile and international motor Vehicle Programmes. He is also the founder of the lean enterprise research Centre at Cardiff university Business School. Jones was a member of the uK government’s rethinking Construction, manufacturing Futures, automotive innovation and growth and Skills for Sustainable Communities task forces.

The tread carvers.

15– N . 6 4 J u L Y 2 0 1 3 –

Jean-Pierre durand, as a critical observer, adds a further consideration: “We must not forget the dominant role of finance in manufacturing rationales. it is often more decisive than any other internal element in determining choices and processes.”

THE EAST/WEST - NORTH/SOUTH DIVIDE. are modern factories the same throughout the world? not yet. or at least not entirely.in theory “the principles of lean production can be assimilated even in countries that have only recently begun their industrial journey, because they can help them adapt to the rapidly changing market, especially when dealing with high-quality output,” explains Jones.nevertheless, empirically, the differences between east/west and north/South in the world are still numerous, although not always obvious. “Sometimes, from the outside, factories in developing countries look the same as those in long industrialised nations,” points out Jean-Pierre durand, who has conducted extended studies in the field. “The layout and the level of cleanliness might be similar. But the principles of valuing and educating the worker have not yet been assimilated. and the low cost of manpower offers no incentive to revolutionise manufacturing models.”

JeAn-pierre DurAnD is professor of industrial sociology at university of evry in France and director of the Centre Pierre-naville, a research centre for social and human sciences focusing on industries and human behavior. He is a permanent member of gerPiSa, a permanent research group on the automotive industry. durand has travelled throughout Japan, the uSa, Korea and most european countries to study factories and human labour in the post-Fordism era.

P R o D U C T I o N

Pirelli factory at Izmit in Turkey.


C y C L E

A study by the University of Wageningen has predicted the birth of a new climate cycle starting in 2020 in the Mediterranean region, with a change in the distribution of the seasons over the year.

In the next climate cycle, it will be necessary to introduce drought-resistant plants in order to preserve agriculture and the industrial output linked to it.

Our artistic heritage will suffer the effects of variations in the water cycle, which will contribute to the degradation of monuments and archeological sites.

The gradual reduction in foggy days will impact positively on the production of solar energy.

17– N . 6 4 J u L Y 2 0 1 3 –

the delicate balance between atmosphere, water and land formed the foundation for the evolution of all living things. For 3 million years, species adapted to natural climatic variations on the earth that caused alternating glacial and interglacial periods, with changes in average global temperature of a few degrees. adaptation was natural and spontaneous. at least until the industrial revolution.in the last 200 years, climate cycles have also been influenced by human activity. Coal fuelled the factories until the advent of oil, with its cargo of toxic pollutants that have filled the atmosphere. the forests have been plundered in search of fossil fuels. the concentration of carbon dioxide and other gases has generated the greenhouse effect. and the global warming that resulted from it is influencing the climate to the point of changing the timing, duration and shape of the cycles of existence: the natural cycle, that of plants and other living organisms. even the cycle of industrial production.“the risk is an even more violent change in the next 3 years, with a marked increase in drought,” explains Hans Peter weikard, environmental economist at the university of wageningen in the netherlands. “rainfall will be concentrated in very short periods, followed by very long dry phases, with serious repercussions on agricultural production.”one study by the dutch university has postulated,

for example, a probable new climate cycle (starting in 2020) in the mediterranean region, with a change in the distribution of the seasons over the year: “we’re talking about a forward shift that would alter the harvest cycle, raising the risk of extinction for some plant species. we may be forced to put increasing faith in recent achievements in biotechnology, which allow us to produce a variety of drought-resistant plants.”Variations in the natural water cycle, as confirmed by the iPCC (intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the un agency for evaluating changes in the climate) are among the clearest demonstrations of the change underway in the climate system.the scarcity of “blue gold”, in timescales and ways that are increasingly unpredictable, creates political and economic conflict, not just to guarantee the needs of agricultural irrigation, but also for the proper functioning of industry.“the mining, chemical and iron and steel industries require large quantities of water (needed for cleaning, transportation and cooling) and in the long term, the changes to the water cycle could impact on costs, on timescales and also on the geography of production worldwide,” explains weikard.

even art, according to the climatologists’ forecasts for the future, will suffer the effects of variations

a Hard rain’S a- gonna Fall: ForeCaSting

tHe next Climate C YCle…

An impossible task, according to Hans-Peter Weikard

C L I M A T E


CyCLE #1 CyCLE #2 CyCLE #3

CyCLE #6 CyCLE #7 CyCLE #8

CyCLE #4

CyCLE #10CyCLE #9 CyCLE #12CyCLE #11

CyCLE #13 CyCLE #14 CyCLE #15 CyCLE #16

CyCLE #5

19– N . 6 4 J u L Y 2 0 1 3 –

in the water cycle, which will contribute to the degradation of monuments and archeological sites.Recent verification of forecasts made by UNESCO in 2007 (‘the impact of climate change on world heritage properties’) has confirmed, among other things, an increase in the loss of marble and limestone material through rainfall, a development of the phenomenon of crystallisation of salts - damaging to porous materials like sandstone and bricks - and an increasingly strong impact of the sun’s rays on marble archeological sites in the mediterranean basin.the higher concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will also impact on air transport, affecting the cost of flights as well as safety policies. “a study by the journal nature demonstrated that the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the increase of the jet stream (the air currents behind the turbulence that affects aeroplanes, ed.) are closely linked. according to the research, they could increase by between 10% and 40%. aeroplanes, which are among the main originators of pollutant emissions, are now suffering the effects of the very damage they helped to cause. this too is a cycle.”another case is that of the agricultural and food industry, which is experiencing the effects of changing climate cycles - mainly through drought and soil erosion - while it is the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases such as nitrous oxide and methane (18%), second only to energy production (21%).it is impossible to predict which equilibria will form the basis of future climate cycles, but global warming also promises a few surprises.among the experts, for example, there are those

HAns-peter WeikArD has been an associate professor at the environmental economics and natural resources group of wageningen university since march 2000. He gained a diploma in agricultural economics from the university of göttingen, germany, and a Phd in economics from the university of witten/Herdecke, germany.His main research interests are natural resource economics, climate change economics, risk management and game theory applied to environmental problems. this includes issues of fair intertemporal distribution, environment and development, and the link between resource poverty and hunger. He has recently been appointed to the editorial board of environment and development economics.

CYCLE # 1 Coal miners, from: Edwin J. Houston, The Elements of Physical Geography, for the use of Schools, Academies, and Colleges, Eldredge & Brother, 1891 • # 2 Colosseum, Roma, 1870 • # 3 Inuit men fishing seahorses. 19th century, Engraving © Engraving / LUZ • # 4 Le Quai des brumes, Marcel Carné, 1938 • # 5 Plants, Animals, and the Air, Plate from: Edward Livingston Youmans, Chemical Atlas, or The Chemistry of Familiar Objects', 1855 • # 6 James Graham Ballard, The Drowned World, 1962, novel • # 7 North Polar Regions, 1895 • # 8 Angkor Wat. View of the West Way and all of the great temple. Engraving taken from Louis Delaporte, Monuments of Cambodia, 1873. © Paris. National Library / LUZ • # 9 Fog rolling over Brooklyn bridge © Image Source / LUZ • # 10 Tomás Saraceno, Sonsbeek 2008: Grandeur, 2008, Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Arnhem. Saraceno has also exhibited in HangarBicocca with the installation On Space Time Foam • # 11 Nairobi. Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI). As part of a program to improve food security in Kenya, the Insect Resistant Maize for Africa (IRMA) project is testing BT Maize in a Bio Safety Level 2 Greenhouse complex at the National Agricultural Research Laboratory (NARL). The BT Maize is a genetically modified (GM) maize. Transgenic seeds. © Didier Ruef / LUZ • # 12 NGA Fog sculpture by Fujiko Nakaya, 2007 © Bertie Mabootoo • # 13 Rubus fruticosus, from: Dioscoride, De materia medica, 512 d.C. circa. Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek • # 14 Decomposition of Light. Structure of the solar rays, Plate from: Edward Livingston Youmans, Chemical Atlas, or The Chemistry of Familiar Objects', 1855 • # 15 La Danta triadic Complex in El Mirador, the largest in the world. Drawing by T. W. Rutledge • # 16 Augustin Mouchot’s Solar Concentrator, 1869.

who speculate that the gradual reduction of foggy days - in areas with an oceanic or humid temperate climate - will have a positive impact on the production of solar energy.in greenland, the higher temperatures recorded during 2012 permitted the growth of plants never previously seen there like thyme, tomatoes and peppers, while inuit hunters found the reindeer fatter than usual thanks to the increased availability of grass in the pastures.“we need to change our political approach to climate changes,” concludes weikard. “the data available to us demonstrates the urgency of adopting measures to alleviate the impacts with the greatest risks for man and ecosystems, as well as strategies for adapting to the new cycles. Climate change sets us a challenge that should be seen as an opportunity for economic and social progress, including the development of safe, non-polluting technologies.”

C L I M A T E


u ltimately, in the wretched haste of the new millennium that burns out cities and people, we always return

to nature. to things and spaces that regain their natural dimension. to the art of leaving everything the way it is (or was), but adorning everything with new meaning. an intellectual operation and an artistic model of rediscovery which, in the century of cement, was transformed into a (revolutionary) philosophy of urban planning. For a kind of landscape design that is not only aesthetic but also value-driven. and for an environment of the future that is futuristic, in the sense of sustainable, ecological and economical.the master of the new model is gilles Clément. A green-fingered starchitect, Clément is also a gardener, entomologist, university professor, agronomist and theoretician of the planetary garden and the garden in movement. Concepts that have revolutionised how we “make landscapes” in the postmodern city. Starting with a recurring idea: letting everything flow, in order to return to the place you started.

How do we eliminate the superfluous and return to nature?Quite simply, by re-creating it. By re-activating a natural cycle that is capable of surviving and evolving autonomously, according to its own rules. this is the concept of the “garden in movement”: a landscape in a permanent state of transformation, which demands to be interpreted, obliging us to

listen to and accept nature, something we are no longer used to doing. landscape cannot be recycled: it follows recurring laws, in its course of continuous regeneration.

So nature becomes an aesthetic standard?all the gardens i have designed share a cyclic nature. the cycle of the seasons, and that of the single day. in nature, everything comes around, always. within the cycles dictated by biological laws, it’s the little variations that make the difference. no day is the same as another, just as no lawn or garden is the same as another: the architect-gardener must accept that.

Architect and gardener: the modeller and the harvester. Can they be one and the same?Creating a “garden in movement” means a lot of things. one starts with respect: for the natural conformation of a place, for authentic cultivation, for the habitat and for its pre-urban biodiversity. all this is necessary, but then inevitably comes the “movement”. the garden lives, grows, changes, and the architect-gardener must take account of each change and respect it.

How do you react to these metamorphoses?without prejudice, without insisting that everything stays the same as the initial design. the enlightened landscape designer must learn to interpret change, try to understand it, and only then intervene. Sometimes, he may decide not to intervene at all. the architect-gardener supports metamorphoses. He works with, not against, nature.

an interv iew with

Gi l les Clément

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tHe natural C YCle

landSCaPeSin permanent transformation

21– N . 6 4 J u L Y 2 0 1 3 –

L I F E

t H e A r c H i t e c t - G A r D e n e r

supports metamorphoses.

He works with, not against, nature.

Art does not have to be artificial.


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23– n . 6 4 J u l Y 2 0 1 3 –

L I F E


The leftovers of urbanisation

often become a haven for urban biodiversity.

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This and previous pages: Gilles Clément’s drawings representing the relationship between man and landscape

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So he’s more an observer than a gardener.First and foremost he’s a naturalist, an expert on the mechanisms of nature, who is always well-informed. But also an artist, who directly constructs the aesthetic of the garden using living material. art does not have to be artificial.

You invented the “planetary garden”.it’s the planet seen as a garden. a concept that I exemplified in the Domaine du Rayol park, which unites mediterranean, Californian, australian, Chilean, South-african and new zealand varieties of garden. the entire world is a jumble of different species, just like the modern garden, where it’s common to find plants originating from all kinds of latitudes.

So nature is globalised, but also very anthropised.man is a central element: he’s everywhere. But the planet is not infinite, it has enclosures and boundaries, just like a private garden. and they need to be respected. they are spatial and biological limits, as ecology teaches us. unfortunately, however, men are not always good gardeners.

What are the traits of a good gardener?i call him “symbiotic man”: a man who, as an inhabitant of the planet and a consumer, in symbiosis with nature, builds an economy of compulsory recycling. an economy that avoids waste, where every product is designed to be recycled and reused. like in nature.

How does this apply to urban planning?through what i call the “third landscape”. an example is the park of the École normale of lyon,

which I made on a former landfill site. “third landscapes” are those abandoned spaces, leftovers from urbanisation, that often become a haven for urban biodiversity. they are treasures to nurture and redevelop, because that is where the regeneration and ecological rebirth of our cities is possible, in a time of economic crisis.

Does the economic crisis influence the relationship between man and nature?the crisis sets a limit on the excessive exploitation of the landscape. it obliges us to look for new ways of running the economy, and thus to find a new relationship with nature. it is encouraging the creation of a local, horizontal, automated economy, which is far better integrated with the landscape than the previous vertical, centralised one. the garden can be our refuge from the crisis.

Does that include the garden at home, a personal space for the individual?the private garden is enormously important. not only as a physical space but also as a psychological one, with a huge therapeutic value as a provider of balance. it’s also a mental space of hope: from the ground we expect something for tomorrow, for the future. Finally, it’s a tangible opportunity for semi-subsistence: the domestic vegetable garden supplies us with free produce.

Can the therapeutic value of nature change the city?It needs to be reflected in the design of urban spaces. From the centre to the suburbs, gardens are gradually being reintegrated into our cities and will soon take on a crucial role. a very new and very interesting challenge for urban planning.

Gilles cléMent (argenton-sur-Creuse, 1943) is one of Europe’s best known and most influential landscape designers. an entomologist, architect, agronomist and philosopher, he has taught at the École nationale Supérieure du Paysage in Versailles since 1980 and at the Collège de France since 2011. He was a renowned designer of private gardens in the ‘70s, and since 1977 has dedicated himself exclusively to the “public space”, founding the atelier acanthe (1985). Since 2000 he has worked as an artist with various landscape studios, in particular Coloco in Paris.

in 1986, with the creation of the andré Citroën Park on the banks of the Seine, he developed the concept of the “garden in movement” (jardin en mouvement), the basis of over twenty projects in the following years. in 1998 he won the “grand Prix du Paysage”.His works include the andré Citroën Park in Paris, the domaine du rayol in rayol-Canadel-sur-mer, the gardens of the arche de la défense in Paris, the Valloires gardens in argoules, the matisse Park in lille, the garden of the Quai Branly museum in Paris and the vault of the military submarine base at Saint nazaire (Jardin du tiers-Paysage).

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urBan HorizonS From tHe tHird landSCaPe

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WE HEAr A Lot of tALk About tHE tHirD inDuStriAL rEvoLution. if You HAD to DESCribE it briEfLY AnD iLLuStrAtE it in tHrEE imAgES, WHAt WouLD You SAY AnD HoW WouLD You DEpiCt it?the basis of these systems is easy to describe: their foundation is the so-called file-to-factory process, which creates a direct connection between the digital world (an ordinary PC) and the physical world - almost always comprising a mechanised system of movement based on simple translations or rotations. at the extremity of this mechanism one generally finds a tool, which makes it possible to carry out various kinds of process, such as removing material (for example, in the case of a milling machine or laser cutter) or adding it. this latter function is the purpose of some of the most interesting machines around today: three-dimensional printers which, by depositing drops of material one on top of another, make it possible to print not a sheet of paper but an object of any shape. there is a shift from the world of “pixels” - the coloured dots that form the basis of normal printing processes - to the world of “voxels”, little three-dimensional cubes, similar to minuscule lego bricks, which can be used to construct any object.

Just to be clear, today we are not yet able to ‘print’ a food processor or a computer from scratch.

nonetheless we can already print complex pieces from one or more materials. The first three-dimensional printers developed at mit over ten years ago created very primitive objects: models made of powder held together by resins which, at best, succeeded in suggesting the shape of an object in three dimensions. in the years that followed, we moved on to printers with extremely tough resins, producing usable prototypes. today we are entering a third phase, where genuine finished objects can be created, perhaps even made of metal. general electric, for example, is starting to produce jet engines - which are very hard to make with traditional techniques - using three-dimensional printing systems.

if i had to choose three images to illustrate the changes that are underway i would take them from our project makr Shakr, presented at the milan Furniture Fair. while only a game, it attempts to cover the entire “design - make - enjoy” chain. using a simple tablet, people have the opportunity to invent recipes for their own drinks, which are then produced by robotic arms and digitally controlled machines. after a few seconds, we can taste the fruits of our labour (and that of the robot), alone or with friends - with whom we can share our impressions and our comments.

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Design: visualization showing the data processing in Makr Shakr by Super Uber


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The MIT Senseable City Laboratory aims to investigate and anticipate how digital technologies are changing the way people live and their implications at the urban scale. Director Carlo Ratti founded the Senseable City Lab in 2004 within

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MIT Senseable City Lab / carlorattiassociati | Walter Nicolino & Carlo RattiMakr Shakr: what could you make with the power of three robots in your pocket?

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cArlo rAtti an architect and engineer by training, Carlo ratti practices in italy and teaches at the massachusetts institute of technology, where he directs the Senseable City lab.Co-authore over 200 publications. His work has been exhibited worldwide at venues such as the Venice Biennale, the design museum Barcelona, the Science museum in london, gaFta in San Francisco

and the museum of modern art in new York. His digital water Pavilion at the 2008 world expo was hailed by Time Magazine as one of the ‘Best inventions of the Year’. ratti was recently a presenter at ted 2011 and is serving as a member of the world economic Forum global agenda Council for urban management. He is also a program director at the Strelka institute for media,

architecture and design in moscow and a curator of the 2012 Bmw guggenheim Pavilion in Berlin. He is currently serving as a curator for the Future Food district Pavilion for expo 2015 in milan, which will explore a future in which food and people are reconnected through a network of information, exchange and social interaction.

indeed, perhaps the most interesting aspect of the third industrial revolution is its impact on the design process. Systems of digital manufacturing make it possible to unleash the creativity of the individual and rethink the chain that links design, production and consumption. in a certain sense, each of us can have more freedom to create the objects he or she needs and then produce them in an automated way. in a way, it feels a bit like a revisiting of Constant’s old situationist utopia: “Homo ludens, freed from the necessity of labour thanks to automation, will no longer need to create works of art because his life itself will be a work of art…”.

At tHE mit in boSton You CrEAtED tHE SEnSEAbLE CitY LAborAtorY. WHAt iS tHE CitY of tHE SEnSES AnD HoW DoES it rEvoLutioniSE our WAY of rELAting to it?the smart city - or rather Senseable City, a name we like more because it puts the emphasis on the citizens and not on the technology - is a city that talks to us and, through networks, constantly supplies us with data to process and cross-reference. the potential applications are infinite: from energy consumption to traffic to refuse collection and disposal. in other words, all the aspects and dimensions of the city that are radically transformed thanks to this increased understanding. the theme of the intelligent city is one that is being talked about in many countries around the world.

we might say that today we are witnessing the birth of a hybrid dimension, between the digital and material worlds, which is transforming our way of living. take, for example, Formula 1 races: twenty years ago to win you needed a good engine and a good driver; now you need a telemetric system that gathers data from thousands of sensors on the car and processes them in real time. the same thing is happening

in our cities; they are being transformed into veritable open-air computers….

HoW iS tHE ConStruCtion of CitiES AnD urbAn pLAnning CHAnging to ADApt to tHE tHirD inDuStriAL rEvoLution AnD nEW mAnufACturing moDELS?The first phenomenon we are starting to see is the return of factories to areas previously hit by delocalisation: if i manufacture an object using automated, digitally controlled processes, it reduces the competitive advantage of companies with low labour costs, like China and other areas in South-east asia. moreover, on the urban scale you can begin to glimpse the return of industry to our cities - think of the example of the Brooklyn lofts which are now home to productive facilities characterised by this kind of technology - for the first time contrasting with the widespread process of deindustrialisation that his hit the major cities of the western world: factories abandoned and, in the best cases, rehabilitated and put to new uses or, in the worst cases, as often happened in turin or milan, razed to the ground and replaced with pointless three-room apartments.

However it would be wrong to start imagining futuristic cities à la Metropolis, Fritz Lang’s 1927 film. At first glance, the cities of tomorrow will not look very different from those of today. like the romans of 2000 years ago, we still need flat surfaces to move on and windows to protect us from the elements. what will change most tomorrow will be the way we inhabit our environment, thanks to new forms of sharing information, the key to it all. For designers and planners, new horizons are opening up, where architecture is responsible not only for the “shells” constructed, but also for creating a dialogue between it and social sciences.

the City Design and Development group at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, as well as in collaboration with the MIT Media Lab. The Lab's mission states that it seeks to creatively intervene and investigate the interface between people, technologies and the city.


KEEPING IT LOCAL: THE SLOW FOOD STORY

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“The biggest problem is the loss of the symbolic value of foods. They have become commodities, soulless consumer goods.” carlo petrini, founder of slowfood

the links between different species living in the same ecosystem are the foundation of the food cycle that makes existence possible. and the intermingling of different food cycles creates a food network, which hosts a living, constantly changing flow of energy. which in turn, literally, nourishes us. From plants, to animals, to man. the disappearance of a single link in the chain can send the entire system out of whack. Just as we learned from our school books as children. and just as we are hearing through the growing number of news stories revealing bitter surprises about the food we put on our tables. Culture, pleasure and resistance. these are the cornerstones of the manifesto for a different approach to eating, linked to concepts which, historically, have had little to do with food. the fact they have been endowed with new meaning, at the heart of an alternative food cycle, is down to Slow Food, the italian association founded in 1986 in the hills of le langhe, in Piedmont, which inspired the world before branching out across the globe.the idea of Carlo Petrini, founder of this group which now is now present in 150 countries, is captured perfectly in the chosen name: in the face of fast food and the standardisation of taste, which has established itself across the world at the expense of the riches of local and regional cuisine, a return to slow food must be promoted. Because, as Petrini (born in 1959) himself has often declared: “the biggest problem is the loss of the symbolic value of foods. they have become commodities, soulless consumer goods.” So slow is not only a nutritional revolution opposed to fast, but has also become above all a revolution in production. one that respects ecosystems and the environment, values the identities of specific

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of where one lives. “local eating has a high economic and social value: it safeguards biodiversity, entails care and development of the territory and provides various guarantees to both producers and consumers” points out Burdese.

THE RETURN OF SEASONALITY the shortening of the chain cannot by itself guarantee a healthy alimentary model that respects the environment, but it is an important part of the solution. other key points are avoiding the use of foods produced with fertilizers, reducing waste and respecting the seasonality of foods. only if applied together can these factors open the way to a new alimentary model. “we have forgotten the enormous significance the seasons have always had in human history. they are linked to some of our physiological functions,” adds the Slow Food italia president. as an example, Burdese mentions the case of asparagus, which has a detoxifying effect, and it is no accident that it grows in spring, when the body needs to work off the fat accumulated during the winter. Similarly chestnuts, which for centuries provided a staple winter food in rural communities, grow in autumn, when the body needs to prepare for the winter: they are rich in calories and contain vegetable protein, potassium and minerals. the cyclical rhythm of the seasons contributes to a healthy way of life.

THE FOOD CHAIN AFFECTS THE ECOSYSTEM eating seasonal foods has a major impact on

the planet. agribusiness (from agriculture to the conversion of foods, transportation and consumption) is, in fact, one of the industries which most affects climate change. Because there are 7 billion people on earth, and we eat at least once a day. But for 1 billion malnourished people, there are 1.6 billion

obese people: the majority of the population does not produce its own food but buys it from industrial output. altering the ecosystem has a social and economic cost. it is estimated that for every 1 degree increase in average temperature, biodiversity reacts by “seeking” the environmental conditions for the growth of a given plant 150 kilometres further north or 150 metres higher up. Between now and 2100, the temperature is forecast to increase by 4 degrees. So, if it’s getting hotter, that also depends on the things we eat every day.

communities, encapsulates a complex historical and cultural heritage and pushes for economic systems based on the economy of proximity. debunking the myths of organic and niche production aimed only at the wealthy: “goodness does not generate famine. we produce enough on the earth to feed 12 billion people, but we waste half of it. Because of terrible distribution.” the use of and respect for resources is, therefore, at the heart of Slow Food, whose motto is: “good, clean and fair”. three characteristics that food should have, as should the production model that puts them on the table.

THE PRODUCTION CHAIN IS AN OPEN NETWORK the food production chain and its management have changed in the modern economy. From a situation of closed ecosystems, the production chain has become a web that is at times unsustainable. “it’s the longest in the modern economy,” explains roberto Burdese, president of Slow Food italia, the association which has made the return to nature and naturalness a cultural and economic struggle. “Both in terms of the number of parties involved in the various steps and in terms of distance: today a product, to travel from the field to the table, covers an average of 1,000 kilometres”, he says. too many. it is no accident that industries in every sector have for some time taken the route of local production in order to be closer to consumers, in every sense.

LOCAL PRODUCTION ENCOURAGES AWARENESS ultimately, long distances are becoming less and less popular, and this is even truer when considering the food industry. the reason, according to Burdese, is that often producers are underpaid. “the freshness of food is compromised by transportation,” says Burdese. “and, naturally, the end consumer could spend the same amount on a product whose quality is guaranteed.” in such a long chain, where no member knows all the players and all the steps in the process, people end up buying an ingredient to include

in a product, without having any information on what it really is. this sick system has already produced an antibody: namely “local eating”, a better definition than the misleading concept of “zero food miles”. in other words, the consumption of food produced within 40km

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a winning model of local production, especially for a global market, is that of the manufacturing

district in Providence in america’s north-east corridor, home to 60 million people. it was described in a 1991

paper in the American Economic Review by the 60-year-old economist Paul Krugman,

professor of international economics at the university of Princeton and winner of the nobel prize

for economics in 2008. in the words of Krugman, the american

manufacturing system, which took shape half way through the last century, is very simple and is based on

the interaction of three elements: transport, cost and demand.

Krugman was the first to point out the disadvantages of globalisation, demonstrating how

consumers’ preference for the widest variety of products contrasted with the economies

of scale of mass production.according to the economist, who has proposed

a new theoretical basis for the importance of international trade, specialisation is determined

by the preferences of consumers and by the economies of localisation, from transport costs to the opening

of migratory flows. Krugman has been able to demonstrate that in such conditions, the variety of products ends up increasing, and at lower cost,

but with the effect of inducing a flattening of tastes, reflected in the disappearance of (local) producers

who do not satisfy international taste and for whom mass production is not possible.

EnErgY-SAving AgriCuLturE in oSAkA

agriculture as a formula for energy saving. that is what is happening in osaka, a region in central Japan where a “local production for local consumption” (lPlC) movement has been active for some time. the idea was demonstrated by four researchers from the department of environmental Systems of wakayama university, who carried out a multi-scale analysis of the production of vegetables and the energy consumption associated with the consumption of the same vegetables. the result was that local production covers around 70% of the annual requirement of the region within an area of at least 80 kilometres from the urban centre of osaka. But that’s not all. the researchers demonstrated that if all the region’s agricultural areas were converted to this purpose, production would rise to 75% of the requirement, saving around 100 million barrels of oil.

tHE fAir trADE ComputEr for kiDS

it was the dream of nicholas negroponte (70), american computer expert and founder of media lab, the technology workshop created within the massachusetts institute of technology (mit) in Boston. a low-cost computer for all the world’s children, produced where children need it most, in the so-called third world (argentina, Brazil, libya, nigeria, rwanda, thailand and uruguay). the project is called olPC, an acronym for one laptop per Child. The laptop is a bona fide design object, already exhibited in some modern art museums. it’s called Xo, and in five years two million of them have been distributed, with uruguay heading the list of countries where it is produced. But it is struggling to make real inroads, not least because the computer costs twice as much as the hundred dollars initially envisaged by negroponte. now the media lab founder’s dream is about to be demolished, at least on the price front: in fact, a personal computer costing just 25 dollars is on the way. it’s called raspberry Pi and its designer is the english video game superstar, david Braben (49), who in 1984 created the mythological elite, the space trading game to which he owes his success. it was followed by zarch, a game in which aliens invade the earth, then Virus, where aliens (again) infect the world, and then Frontier, the sequel to elite, which is soon to be followed by elite dangerous, the third chapter in the saga.

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From artwork to exhibition: the production cycle of art as described in an interview with Vicente todolí, artistic advisor of HangarBicocca which, at 15 thousand square metres, is one of the largest exhibition spaces in europe. Supported and managed by Pirelli, it is a unique venue for cultural experimentation. today, following a project to renovate its spaces and relaunch its activities in april 2012, HangarBicocca is simultaneously an international workshop for contemporary art, a venue with its doors open to the city of milan and to all kinds of audiences, and a meeting place for different visions and languages. in the course of a year, HangarBicocca - which offers, free of charge, an intense calendar of international exhibitions, activities for families and schools, events and initiatives for the local area - has attracted over 200,000 visitors from italy and the rest of the world.

in the role of artistic director, Vicente todolí, who has experience at the highest level as ex-director of london's tate modern, will design the HangarBicocca programme for the next four years. the scheduled exhibitions, curated by todolì himself and andrea Lissoni, will include historically important figures like the Swiss dieter roth (1930-1998), big names on the international scene like the Brazilian Cildo meireles and internationally recognised young artists like the italian micol assaël, with original and surprising installations which create a dialogue with HangarBicocca’s immense industrial spaces.

What is the starting point for an exhibition? First of all, it’s worth saying that an exhibition is never created in isolation, but rather exists within a programme. the programme, in turn, is not simply made up of a series of exhibitions: it’s like a spider’s web and should be constructed bearing in mind that the exhibitions communicate with each other. it’s like a poetry anthology where the poems are chosen coherently, for a reason. like in a spider’s web, the main threads are then connected to each other by smaller events.

What are the selection criteria that determine your choices? You have to have something new to say. there’s no point doing an exhibition that’s already been done just because it’s popular. we must present the work of an artist, or artists, in a new and different light.

What are the key elements to take into consideration? above all, time. to create an exhibition from the moment of selection up to its physical realisation takes two years. For historic exhibitions that require a lot of research activity, as much as three or four years may be necessary.

Which are the most import phases of production? First and foremost, research, which leads to the choice of artworks. after that comes the requests for loans, for which many museums expect you to wait at least a year. then there’s the design

tHe exHiBition CYCle oF HangarBiCoCCa SPaCe

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of the exhibition installation, which must be homogeneous and consistent: an exhibition is never just a line of works one next to another, it’s a dialogue that creates invisible relationships between the works within the exhibition space. that’s why the way the works are installed, with the direct involvement of the curator and the artist, must be designed with great care: if the exhibition also works from a spatial perspective, the whole is greater than the individual parts it comprises. the creation of the catalogue is also very important. when the exhibition is over, it disappears forever and all that remains is the catalogue, which is the exhibition minus the spatial element, the exhibition in free form, for future generations or those who were not able to see it. Finally there’s the logistics: the shipping of crates, the arrival of the artworks and so on. not forgetting the communication and educational aspects, which are an integral part of the exhibition. that’s why i am keen to stress that creating an exhibition is always a team effort.

in this team effort, what is the curator’s role? the curator is the person who has the idea and makes the choice. after the choice is made,

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there is the whole design of the exhibition and that depends a lot on the artists. there are artists who leave it to the curator and his vision of the work and there are more interventionist artists who prefer an ongoing dialogue with the curator. the curator is also involved first hand in installing the exhibition, which as i said is key to the success of the project.

Changing the subject to the creation of artworks, how is artistic production different from one hundred years ago? the means of artistic expression have completely changed. a hundred years ago there was painting, sculpture, drawing, graphic art and photography. then starting with the dadaists and surrealists, art began to broaden its scope to include cinema, a new format, and from the the ‘70s also video, which is far simpler and more immediate. the introduction of video led to a burgeoning of installations comprising various audio and visual elements. in this sense, production has become very important and the role of the curator has changed too.

What is your approach to producing exhibitions? nowadays exhibitions are often produced from

Wilfredo Prieto, "Equilibrando la curva", 2012, installation view, HangarBicocca.

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scratch, but the risk of a newly created exhibition not working is high. artists don’t have a magic wand and sometimes their creations don’t work: a failure that is necessary to find new directions. that’s why i prefer to look behind me and around me, in other words to work with art that has already been produced, maybe combining it with one or two new works, but no more than that. i believe the role of producing new artworks should be fulfilled above all by the galleries, not by the museums, as happens increasingly often.

How does the production of an exhibition differ from that of industrial products? The main difference is that in an exhibition the final decision is down to the artist, in other words one individual. From start to finish it’s the artist who decides, whereas in industrial production it’s a team headed by a leader, with everyone sharing a clear objective. in the case of art, it’s the artist who has a clear objective, and sometimes it’s not actually so clear, because art is not a precise science: you know where to start but not where you’ll end up. and art is often very immaterial while industry is physical.

Vicente toDolÍ Born in Valencia, Spain, in 1958, from 1989 to 1996 he was artistic director of the iVam (istituto Valenciano de arte moderno) before running the museu Serralves of Porto from 1996 to 2003. in 2003 he was nominated director of the tate modern, a position he held until 2010. over the course of his career Vicente todolí has curated dozens of exhibitions, including a section of the Venice Biennial of 1997 (directed by germano Celant) and the personal exhibitions of gary Hill, James lee Byars, Franz west, mario merz, Pedro Cabrita reis, roni Horn, Hamish Fulton, richard Hamilton, Fischli & weiss, Cildo meireles, Sigmar Polke, robert Frank and many others.

Does industrial design and production have features in common with artistic production? the key common feature is the necessity to innovate, to always have a new point of view and new ideas.

What is unique about the exhibitions in Hangarbicocca? They are exhibitions designed for this specific space. Generally in museums the exhibition is chosen first then the space is adapted to the exhibition. Here it’s the exhibition that must adapt to the space. that’s why the programme is unique and very different from any other museum.

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Where do you get your inspiration? Where does an idea come from?i get my inspiration from observing people in real life, or in films, social media and the news. The ideas come from when i sit at my desk and listen to myself think about what i have read or observed. i jot words, images down on a large piece of white paper until i realize i have something that can be expressed in a simple cartoon. Something that is funny or of meaning to me and that i think might make others laugh, smile or think.

How do you get from the idea to the draft?once i have a seed of an idea, i begin to visualize the cartoon in my mind. where is it set, who are the people involved in the cartoon? what kind of environment will add or subtract from the idea i am wanting to convey? what age are the people, who are they? what are they wearing, what season is it? what are their facial expressions, how do they relate to one another? as i begin to sketch, it may take a few drafts to get the right combination of elements. the caption (if there is one) is usually

turning lineS into laugHS

LizA DonnELLY , CartooniSt For tHe new YorKer,

exPlainS Her worK

finalized last, although in some cases it is complete before i even start drawing the sketch. what i am doing, i suppose, is taking an idea that is in my mind and actualizing it on the paper by performing a dance between the images, characters and words.

Does the idea need time to bloom or is it always immediate?Sometimes it is immediate, sometimes it takes time to bloom. i have conceived of and drawn cartoons in a few minutes, and those are fun. Sometimes, the period of time that it needs to fully realize is just the few hours it takes to draw the image. And finally, there could be the seed of an idea that will sit for a few days on my sketchpad until i discover what direction it should go in to become a full fledged idea. It is also not uncommon for that seed to be not used at all!

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How important is the relationship with other people and society for your creativity?Cartooning by definition is an artform that relies on a relationship with its readers. Cartoonists have to be able to communicate with them, otherwise our work is not successful. we have to either create an idea that makes the viewer think, smile, laugh or perhaps even get angry. So i have to know my audience, but not totally cater to them. in terms of my personal creativity, i enjoy getting feedback from my readers. it gives me fuel to continue, it is encouraging for me. in that way, each time i publish a cartoon, it is the same feeling as i got

when i was a child and found i could make my mother smile with my cartoons.

besides having a specific talent, do you think it’s possible to “train” one’s creativity, to improve it by doing exercises?the more you execute your art, the more you will understand what it is you do—at least for a period, and then it may shift again. But it is possible to get into a creative rut, and to begin using your process without thinking; consequently your art gets stale and seems lifeless. So it’s important to practice, but not to get too comfortable. as far as “exercises” are concerned: drawing all the time, reading all the time, observing all the time are the best exercises. Finally, it is important to try new approaches from time to time, as if beginning anew as a child.

When did you realize that cartoons were the right way to express your creativity?at a very early age, i was a shy child, and found drawing a good way to express myself. when i discovered cartoons in the work of James thurber and Charles Schultz at age eight, i began to create my own characters based on what i saw.

my family and friends expressed such joy when i shared the drawings with them, i was hooked.

a little bit later in my youth, i realized that i wanted to be a political cartoonist and express my strong feelings through a simple pen line. as i was when i was a young child, cartooning is still my close friend, my way of speaking.

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lizA Donnelly is a staff cartoonist with The New Yorker Magazine and a weekly columnist for Forbes.com. donnelly’s cartoons and commentary can be seen on various websites: CNN.com; huffingtonpost.com; salon.com; dailybeast.com; womensEnews.org; narrativemagazine.com. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, etc..Donnelly is the author/editor of fifteen books (the most recent one is When Do They Serve The Wine? Published in 2010) and for World Ink, a site of international cartoons from contributors around the globe on dscriber.com. She is a charter member of an international project, Cartooning for Peace, helping to promote understanding around the world through humor. She also created 11 cartoons for 2012 edition of Pirelli’s Annual Report.


From Pirelli’s Historical Archives, Bob Noorda, cover advertising booklet, 1961

daniel jones / jean-pierre durand - pirelli · 2013. 7. 8. · production cycle daniel jones /...

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