Design on trial.

There is no slogan better known than the famous work by Adolf Loos: Ornament and crime. But the ornament is not the only crime attributed to the object since the advent of the industrial revolution.
Too many, cold, pointless, inert, ephemeral, indigestible, mute: anonymous objects as the result of the uncontrolled replication of machines; kitsch or consumerist objects; indigestible to the ecosystem insofar as they are unable to biodegrade; ephemeral because they are disposable; mute because they are lacking in any meaning or interactiveness. The ideal trial to be conducted on the industrial object puts, sometimes randomly, a steel handle or plastic vase, a decorated chair, packaging or a neon bulb in the docks... deeming them to be severe indications of a crime against art or the soul, against ecology or civilisation, taste or imagination.
Starting out from this critique, at times somewhat harsh, focused on the industrial product, the essay highlights crucial turning points in the design culture that, in particular as from the 1960s, looks to be busy rethinking its very object to transform it profoundly. A new scientific imaginary, the influence of art, the environmental issues and technological evolution come together throughout the twentieth century to mobilise the traditional concept of "things", seting them out along the material/immaterial binomial. In this context, the discipline of design plays a major role, becoming the interpreter of the metamorphosis of the object that took place with the post-industrial age. Through twelve key words that encompass the response to a charge brought against the object, the book identifies a series of influential phenomenon that today characterise design and, finally, discovers the only true crime that design can commit.

Francesca La Rocca, an architect, is an associate professor of industrial design at the Second University of Naples, where she lectures on "Methods and critique of contemporary design". She has authored books and articles as well as reports for national and international congresses on matters concerning the relationship between contemporary project, scientific culture, technological innovation and aesthetics. In this series, she has published: Il tempo opaco degli oggetti. Forme evolutive del design contemporaneo (2006), chosen for the XXII Compasso d'Oro award on the ADI Index 2007; Scritti presocratici. Andrea Branzi, Visioni del progetto di design (2010). Recent works include: Innovazione e utopia nel design italiano (Rdesignpress 2015, jointly with S. Lucibello); Alvar Aalto, series entitled "I Maestri del design" (Ed. Il Sole 24 Ore 2011). In collaboration with Italo Rota, the book Cosmologia Portatile. Scritti, disegni, mappe, visioni (Quodlibet 2012).