ELOGICA

DESIGNEAR - the sound of design
by Giuseppe Avesani

Copper, brass, aluminium, we recycle scraps of all kinds, this is the recycling car…”

All the boys of my neighbourhood heard this refrain that came from the speakers of an old, aquamarine coloured Fiat truck a few times a week. It was the 1970s and before the era of the high-flier with the unforgettable hits, the soundtrack of that preadolescent period was defined by the sounds of nature that changed according to the seasons, the creaking of ice and the crackling of fire in the winter, the croaking of frogs and the surf of the ocean in the summer, the whooshing of dry leaves under our feet and the beating of the rain in the autumn, the bells of bicycles and the shouts of farmers in the fields in the spring. Each of us has a symphony made of sounds and noises that has accompanied us during our life; I am not talking about songs but of dissonance, heavy beats and pauses, of ticks of clocks alternated with the scratching of bicycle chains. I personally think about the sounds of marbles in the pockets of my shorts that would rub together as I would jump, with both feet, the last three steps of each staircase of the old building where I lived until I was nine years old or the flat and overbearing sound of the elevator of that same building, that we could clearly hear even when we were in the apartments; it was clear enough that we knew what floor it would stop on, or even the deafening rumble of the earthquake of 1976 and the sound of the first aid helicopters that would land on the lawns near the hospital, or the caster wheels of my skateboard on the rough asphalt of that same neighbourhood. These are all sounds that remain indelible and detailed in our memory because they come from primitive experiences and throughout the years they can assume the physiognomy and noble characteristics of a sound.

But, what sound does Sustainability make? On impulse, I would say the sounds and noises of nature, then thinking about it a bit, I think we are more likely to imagine something more intimate, a loud silence in which we can occasionally hear a buzz, an undefined shouting.
In these past three years, the ELOGICO project has tried to give voice to this silence by disseminating the excellence of the sustainable “Made in Italy” on an International level, from Chicago to Venice, from New York to Milan.
During the week of the 2010 edition of the Exhibition, ELOGICO will address the theme of communication as a formula by which to demonstrate and narrate how companies are approaching sustainability. This is a creative path where innovation, research and the productive process of each product will be singularly narrated through a new “formula” that contemplates the various facets of canonical communication but that starts from a completely new view point, the sound that products make.

The DESIGN”EAR” project comes from a meeting between two versatile and innovative artists like Renato Geraci and Valerio Vicentini, the latter is already an artistic director, stylist and designer and the second is a refined contemporary composer and music producer. The project is based on the principle that every single object emits a particular and unique sound if struck, rubbed, or even blown. Each product gives a harmonic or percussive sound and when all these sounds are mixed together according to a real “composition” and arrangement, we get an amazing result. In the case of DESIGNEAR, this is a real orchestra of 15 elements that will play a tune for the visitors of the Fuorisalone at the Magna Pars in via Tortona, when they are joined together by harmonic glue such as the sound of a piano. So, we have unveiled the objective of publishing this ELOGICA Sustainability periodical. We want to give voice to sounds and noises, to sustainable ideas and projects by gathering the story of international experts, well-known designers, bio architects, visionary entrepreneurs, and bands.