Made in Italy, new areas for reflection

With the arrival of September talk turns once again to Made in Italy.

In the article recently published by the famous current affairs magazine, Wired, Leandro Agrò, an innovator in the Internet field, provided completely new food for thought about the subject “Made In” and suggested interesting new topics for debate.

The following is the entire text of the article that appeared in September’s Wired:

“Tomorrow an object could be associated with Made in Italy, not for aesthetical reasons but because of its ability to be connected and social.
By 2050, I imagine that the “Internet of things” will be a reality. A wider and more profound Internet than web 2.0 on a global scale, capable of becoming Gaia, the Earth, and to include both humans and their “machines” in social networks. This third wave of the Internet is NOT just an aspect of the future. On the contrary, it is rooted in the past: in 2010 it has already entered people’s homes and accelerated the process of the systematic reinvention of things. Just like the advent of plastic, the rethinking of everyday things to reshape them and make them suitable for the future in which we want to live: this is the opportunity that Italy – more than any other systems or countries – is cut out to take. A strategic opportunity, not only to prevent its disappearance, but to enter a neo-Renaissance where it will once again be the protagonist.
Everyday objects are our archaeological history and mirror. But why and how should they be reinvented today? Every object must have a history. The story of its past (materials, production locations, instructions) and its future (differentiation, disassembly, recycling). It should actively know something about itself (it must be cognizant or at least have an idea of the time and place of its use), it must be connected and social, belong to humans, “live” in our digital and social network. In this third wave of the Internet, technology is still a fundamental pillar and interdisciplinary teams must work together to make sensible products.
This has been happening for years in schools of design. It is now time to take these approaches to companies and use them as the country’s engine. Designing must be as important as the artisan know-how that has distinguished the most noble Italian products to date. The artisan sector and software engineering must work together.
We can imagine that in the next 40 years Made in Italy will have a technological content and evolve from style to interaction. Therefore, tomorrow, a social thing could be associated with Italy not just for aesthetical reasons but, first and foremost, because of its level of “sociability”. In a country of inventors (and also engineers, interaction designers and creative people of all kinds), time always works in favor of the future.”