Identity-revealing objects
Objects are a way of revealing identity and a means of individual affirmation and expression. This is the common finding that emerged among the three work groups during the sixth IN Residence workshop, organised by Barbara Brondi and Marco Rainò. The workshop has been run along the same lines for six years running: young international designers with a clearly-focused style are paired up to monitor design course students selected from four schools in Turin. In the DuParc Contemporary Suites, the designers and students work together informally and without any form of hierarchy, using very basic materials such as paper, string and sticky tape. Anton Alvarez and Hilda Hellström invited students to scour the streets for fragments left by people passing through and to use them to build stories out of these traces. The outcome of the two days’ work was a dark scene in which seemingly abstract objects were lit up by the words of the story projected onto them. Jean-Baptiste Fastrez and Jon Stam inspired the students to construct a series of tools that would inspire people to get to know each other. They developed a game consisting of special binoculars for looking into the other person’s eyes and a paper carpet that, depending on its arrangement, reveals different aspects of people. Lastly, inspired by interviews with passers-by, the students entrusted to Guus Kusters and Giorgia Zanellato created objects able to convey the essence of the individual interviewee. A sort of inner mirror of the individual, which greatly moved one of the people involved. The most successful factor of IN Residence is the special alchemy developed between the students and designers, inspiring a free flow of ideas. People, rather than designers, put themselves to the test to overcome design stereotypes and prejudices and to drive the teaching of design towards less codified environments.