“Design Lessons”: a manifestoTo know and promote the history of design in order to understand the contemporary period and design the future The manifesto is a political statement
Our aim is to promote design culture. In a historical moment when the references have been lost, the concept of identity tends to wither and the history of the skills is not sufficiently remembered (whether in the context of production or design), we think a reflection is unavoidable.
Courses on the history of design are disappearing from the design schools; museums and institutions do not have the necessary strength, and perhaps the vision, to produce critical contents and exchanges of ideas, magazines are no longer a place for debate and our companies are disorientated, among new forms of communication, the unpredictable dynamics of social media and the search for new markets.
Every period of crisis is followed by one of rebirth, often associated with the revelation of a new awareness. The revival must therefore involve a training process at all levels, from the primary school to the governing class. To plan the present we need to look at what good has been done in the past, reaffirming the role of the districts, of craft knowledge and business capability.
Brera Design district and the Italian Association of Design Historians, producing culture, doing continuous research, creating connections between the companies and the players in this environment, in a path aiming at the promotion of a new way of communicating design, produce and share a manifesto: in search of a new awareness.
Manifesto : 10 points not to be forgottenThere is not one history but many
Studying history means Making criticism
Innovation does not exclude tradition, between craft making and industrial thinking
Research is an open, interactive, not self-referential, work of reflection
History reinforces itself in the promotion of a multi-disciplinary process
The history of design is an autonomous discipline in an educational process
Acquaintance with the historical sources helps to produce innovative, original curatorial projects
Relating “micro-histories” through personalities, events and iconic products is fundamental for understanding the present
Investing in training and in the web forms of communication
Recording and sharing knowledge
We are the “astronomers of history”, said Siegfried Giedion; “the historian cannot trace the course of events like the astronomer. But the two have a point in common: the continual emergence of new constellations and previously invisible worlds. And, like the astronomer, the historian must remain permanently at his observation point”.
A/I/S Design
Brera Design District
