DensityDesign | Communication Design & Complexity » Video

The dark side of our work

Donato Ricci — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 12:58:28 +0000

Science Machine from Chad Pugh on Vimeo.

Experience & Imagination

Donato Ricci — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:06:18 +0000

Knowing Complex Systems. The limits of understanding
Due to their non-linear nature, complex systems are incompressible. They are also open systems and cannot be understood without also understanding their environments and their history. To fully know something complex will therefore involve incorporating all the complexity of the system and its environment. This not humanly possible, perhaps not even possible in principle. Thus, our models of complex systems always have to reduce the complexity. Since what is left out also has non-linear effects, we cannot predict the error made in the reduction. The modelling and understanding of complex system thus always involve an element of choice which cannot be justified by pure calculation. There is always a normative element involved.

This is not an argument against calculation, but a justification for why formal models will always have to be supplemented by narratives which make the limits of the model explicit. At the same time, the narrative models are also limited to a certain perspective. It can thus be argued that there is an irreducible ethical component to our understanding of complexity. We have to accept the responsibility for our models although we know they are flawed. When dealing with complexity there are simultaneous roles for the natural and the human sciences, for both mathematics and imagination.

(From Paul Cilliers’ Abstract presented at The first World Knowledge Dialogue Symposium)

Designer & the Elastic Mind: an interview with Paola Antonelli (and the relation between scale and complexity)

Flavio Curella — Sat, 10 May 2008 17:15:09 +0000

Quoting from Paola Antonelli interiew:

What has changed in scale is that is not anymore about the dimension, but rather about the complexity

(via SwissMiss)

Infrastructure System | Spactio

Donato Ricci — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 11:10:13 +0000

Infrastrucute System | Spactio, originally uploaded by densitydesign.

Spactio as presence in territory, such as the need to make their voice heard; as acronym of Society for Action who must undergo decisions taken far away from him.

Spactio is a project of Federconsumatori which aims in involving citizens in decisions concerning the construction of new infrastructure. Instead of being passive part, thanks to Spactio tools, now citizens can create a way to enter to the decision-making table bringing their proposals. To achieve this goal Spactio points to the creation of small local groups particularly sensitive and with a strong link to their own territory. Task of these groups is to collect information and spread it to the rest of people, informing their of the relevance they have about their own territory.

(the scenario)
(the diagram)

Infrastructure System | Fedora

Donato Ricci — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 08:49:07 +0000

Infrastructure System | Fedora, originally uploaded by densitydesign.

“In the center of Fedora, that gray stone metropolis “, there is a multitude of crystal globes. Inside each crystal globe you can find a different figure, a fine model about a conceivable metropolis.
Fedora project means to show thinking diversities, questions, troubles and each possible hypothesis while we plan an infrastructural project. Fedora belongs to our social world: it is sharing information, it is our memory.
Fedora uses net potential and mass media visibility: each single project is “narrated”, described and analyzed by various technical instruments. It makes use of information collected by public administrations, individualities and business directly involved in project planning, financing or management. And, above all, by people that lives there. You can use a web portal to keep track of the mediatic information, of citizens’ voices, of the projectplanners, financiers or managers’ opinions. You can make use of two minutes of project-figure-out in a short local TV program; we also provide a scheduled printed documentation, both as a long detailed informative report and as a regular supplement to local newspaper: graphical representation of the most important facts and rumors about the project.
Fedora will be in every public square of the cities involved in each big infrastructural project. There, a huge transparent globe shall contain wooden models. Pastels, felt-tip pens, ballpoints or tempera colors will be the instrument for writing, drawing and finally spread your own opinions, doodling on many truck paper model.
A map where you can find both the big «gray stone» infrastructure and every little ideas sketched over a white paper sheet.

(the scenario)
(the diagram)

Fashion System | Look at MI

Donato Ricci — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 16:03:56 +0000

Fashion System | Look at MI, originally uploaded by densitydesign.

The project aims at building a new brand image for Milano Moda, Milano fashion week. In order to reach this goal, we have planned some intermediate, micro steps that could lead us to Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (the organization that takes care of Milano Moda image) .
1. First of all we need to contact Triennale Museum, a Milan-based gallery where several cultural events take place.
2. With the help of Triennale we can ask the fashion designers to take part in the project.
They are requested to decorate black and white photos of Milan that will be shown during an exhibition at Triennale Museum. They also have to write their point of view on Milano and its fashion week.

During Milano Moda Donna in september, starts LOOKATMI, an exhibition that features the manipulated photos and a wall on which visitors can put their version of the images. On the same days, the statements fashion designers wrote about Milan are projected on buildings all over the city.
Now that we reached public opinion too, we have enough visibility and strenght to propose CNMI our project: an handbook including the results of our analysis and a rebranding proposal. This project can have a macro effect: by rethinking and rebuilding its image, Milano Moda could be competitive again and balance the quality of clothes with the quality of their package.

(the scenario)
(the diagram)

Fashion System | Nodo

Donato Ricci — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 15:44:12 +0000

Fashion System | Nodo, originally uploaded by densitydesign.

The project aims to give new spaces for young people intresting in fashion. We have underlined a few points in order to reach this goal.
1. Rent at low cost a place where to work.
2. Speak about fashion and share knowledge.
3. Show ideas and project.

Ispired by the nineteen century cafè in France, where ideas were created and spread all over the world, we thought to create a big place divided in different areas:
1. ATELIER where the young designers could rent a studio to work
2. PHOTO SET for fashion shooting
3. EVENT AREA to show the collection, to give lectures and concerts
4. LIBRARY provided with books, magazines, reviews and video to support the fashion culture
5. BAR where people could discuss and chill.

Moreover this place will have its pubblication to spread its own ideas about fashion. The first one is a sort of awards for student and young fashion designer, it will pubblish every year their best projects and the activities of the atelier. The second one is a book series about style theme related to fashion like: cinema, cars, photography, travel,..
There will be also a social network on line where people can share their own scouting experience and news.

The name choosen is NODO, an easy word related to fashion, to express a place where different element combined together can create something stable.

(the scenario)
(the diagram)

Cinematographic system | Movieit

Donato Ricci — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 14:47:07 +0000

Cinematographic system | Movieit, originally uploaded by densitydesign.

The main idea is a “place” (a website) in which the Italian Cultural Ministry (MiBAC) could provide suitable information about the processing of a movie production, from funding approval to shooting‐start, from post‐production to release date, in order to create a sort of beneficent expectation to whom the website users are called to participate as upcoming movie‐goer, uploading many types of contents (photos, videos, news, interviews, opinions, biography and careers editing…).
The whole process is sustained by user‐partecipation. From the first step to the last, we’re going to ask for contribution. Our goal is letting the users to raise consciousness about their role inside the net they are creating. Film students, directors, actors, producers, distributors… all of them become an active node of this network, facing the problems of the system through their direct involvement.

The project consists of three steps:
Action
A pantomime is performing at film academies and communication faculties: he’s trying to mime public funded movies titles. Of course nobody can get the right titles because the distribution of these movies can reach very few people. So people will mix them up with other famous films. At this point the students will receive a promocard from the pantomime, through which they will be redirected to the website of the Let’s Movie It contest. Here brief and rules about the contest will be available.
Beside the pantomime’s performance some rolls of so‐called toilette‐film (a particular toilette paper created on purpose to resamble a real film) will replace the real toilette papers in the school bathrooms. These gadgets have the intention to inform students about the lack of information around the public funding system.

Call for ideas
Partecipating students can send their works to the contest website. Their spots should make people aware of the system weakness and meanwhile promote the website itself. Everyone can watch these videos on the website and make comments on them. At the of the contest, a choice of the best spots will be shown in some selected cinemas.
Awareness and promotion
Through the selected cinema network the spots made by the students can gain the attention of a wider audience. Users can now get involved in the community of the wiki, by adding new contents or just getting information about the operation and the returns of the public cinema funding. A special toolbox will grant the users to analyze and observe the current situation of the entire system rather then a specific element of the net.

(the scenario)
(the diagram)
(the site)
(the wiki)
(the net)

Cinematographic sytem | Cinecrazìe

Donato Ricci — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 14:14:34 +0000

Cinematographic sytem | Cinecrazìe, originally uploaded by densitydesign.

Italian Cinema System is afflicted with problems and unsatisfied needs. These cause the movies to reach a really small audience, to be screened just as a technical issue or to be unable to find a distributor. Creating a new alternative distribution channel could help these movies in changing their status from “non-dead”, giving producers and directors the chance to reach a larger amount of audience. Problems slowing the distribution process are usually economic ones. Therefore, it is really important to figure out a way to cut expenses.
The printing of the film is a fixed cost for all distribution companies and it’s so high to it results in just a few films being in a few theatres around the country.
Promotion is another expense that’s usually difficult to manage for a small distribution company without funds from others.
It’s so obvious to consider digital media as the perfect answer to these distribution problems.
Converting movies in a digital format is a fast and cheap alternative, which allows an unlimited distribution in time and spaces, thanks to Internet.
The Web will be the new distribution channel, allowing all users to download movies which are now esclusively property of the Government. With the approval of conductors, producers and the Minister of Culture, movie files can be downloaded from different sources and reproduced across different players, suiting the appropriate format.

Cinecrazìe
In order to push the Government to applying the strategy, this new possibility for funded movies has to find a large resonance.
We can argue without doubts that if a movie is pubblically funded so it is a movie of the community and everybody is its owner.So why isn’t it possible to see it? Cinecrazìe want to satisfy this claim: projecting movies all around Italy for free, without an advanced notice in areas in suburbs, where cultural events are sledom promoted and where citizens are abandoned by institutions. Bringing Cinema of everybody to everybody, especially to people who will difficulty have other cultural possibilities, is the mission of the initiative.
This will make of the projections a temporary channel and an alterative to the traditional theatres, waiting for its place to be taken, or at least helped, by the new digital distribution model.
Replacing the Dêmos (people) of Democracy with Cinema, Cinecrazìa (Cinecracy) makes them synonyms: where the people is there is cinema of people and for the people.
The movement is designed to allow easy imitability and virality along the national territory.
Each single Cinecrazìa group has an autonome life, but is linked to other ones throught a web of blogs affiliated to the central one, supplying them instruments supporting their organisation and communication.

Who? What?
The many subjects involved in the Cinema System build up a pretty simple network.
Production, director and movie together mold a triangle. The movie links up to the Distributor.
With activities diffused all along the country, the local Cinecracies may temporary replace traditional distribution companies. Cinecracies can effectively broad the audience for minor movies, forgotten production and unreviewed directors. Cinecracies should establish relationships with directors, in order to obtain the leave to screen the movie, approving and some legal coverage.
The director, by allowing the local screening, raises his and his movie’s popularity. Media can no more ignore the movement once achieved the necessary critical mass. They will make possible confrontation between Cinecrazìe and the istitutions. The ’screenings volounteers’ will be the audience’s spokespeople and representative of Italian cinema’s issues. Directors inside the the protest legitimate it and amplify its reach.

(the scenario)
(the diagram)

Fashion System | Scenario | The centre of creative periphery

Donato Ricci — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 15:58:43 +0000

Investigation about creativity as driving force of the entire fashion system, analized as MICRO and MACRO creativity.
Prediction of the future of the city of Milan which is actually enforcing a macro-creativity policy, totally desregarding micro-creativity, risking to implode on itself and gradually loose its role of fashion capital.