The four works of art developed for Project Class Collection are finished. The project has been promoted by IIS Piaget Diaz in collaboration with a rich network of partners, including private agencies and non-profit associations, public and social organisations, and professionals in the arts and culture: Fondazione Pastificio Cerere, Fondazione Mondo Digitale, Studio Orizzontale, Laboratorio 53 onlus, Artkademy Officina.
The digital manufacturing lab at the Phyrtual Innovation Gym allowed the students from four branches of IIS Piaget, coordinated by Matteo Viscogliosi, to develop an acoustic bench, a modular furniture, a visual book and a panel. Last week a photographer documented the works to compose a project catalogue.
THE CATALOGUE
“I Pank with You”
Acoustic Bench, 110x60x90 cm., interlocking elements
Via Diana School
Aggregation, interaction, exchange and knowledge are the words that following a period of research helped the students focus on the bench project, an ancient and democratic object. It’s an item of urban furniture that in its simplicity can create communities both in and out of schools. In this case, besides serving as a place to sit, the bench also has an added value. It was developed in a modern shape, with innovative contents and materials. It’s a softly contoured bench that is eco-sustainable and empathic.
Shape – its shape is inspired by music. A musical note is used as a matrix to generate the very shape of the bench that is harmonized and calibrated to the human body for an ergonomic comfort.
Eco-sustainability – based on the concept of recycling, the bench is made of wood and cushioned by a quilt-like arrangement of textiles. This provides a multi-coloured covering that makes the bench comfortable and soft.
Empathy: the bench, which draws inspiration from music, includes a system that reacts when people sit on it: a series of sensors and a biodata system allow the bench to generate music.
RTL
Modular furniture with acoustic plants, 5 pieces (30x60 cm.), interlocking elements
Via Taranto School
Building on the school’s technical orientation, the students used the alphabet of symbols and signs used in the school to represent a code that unites students and teachers. This symbology was transformed into 3 dimensions, as an aesthetic element, bringing form and function together. Conceived to refurbish the school’s less attractive areas, RTL is a modular object that unites nature and technology.
Nature: furniture conceived to host objects and small-medium plants. The idea is to bring entertainment and nature into schools, as both elements are needed, especially in common areas and courtyards.
Technology: Besides the methodology employed to create the furniture (laser cutters), the plants include a biodata system that allows them to emit sounds when someone approaches them. The acoustic aspect provides more value to the environment, making it more pleasing and harmonious.
Felirsità
Book, 40x40 cm., visual poetry
Nobiliori School
Two words - happiness and diversity – are the result of a local analytical research to identify the neighbourhood’s values and characteristics. A careful reflection on the surprising results had led to the creation of a glossary, archetypal images and evocative words that embody the essence of the neighbourhood. The project concept revolves around the graphic representation of words, in shapes and colours, to represent diversity.
Shape: women and men, young and old, animals and objects, stylised figures are all held together by words that give life to the diversity of a unique book, in a unique world made of diversity and happiness.
Colour: which colour corresponds to women? To dogs? Based on these questions, the students developed a new rainbow of colours to associate with different figures.
ConteNudo
Panel, 5 pieces, 70x70 cm., visual poetry
De Chirico School
Contemporary music as a means for reflection. The selected and analysed lyrics of ten songs take over schools. Happiness, melancholy, sadness, joy are sentiments that represent the vortex of emotions that pervades us daily. Thanks to this project, the content of contemporary poetry, music, is laid bare and compared to the poetry of the past. How will future generations interpret this vortex of words? The value of words becomes visually metaphoric, opening the doors to classrooms and suggesting a message that each one of us can interpret and internalise.
A three-phase course:
- Genius loci
- Concept and Design
- Development
“The initial loss for an abstract debate becomes concrete and real in the students’ hands.”
