JULY 2024
We define our work as hovering between art and design.
Beyond the aspect of the singularity of the artwork, which tends to be in opposition to the programmatic seriality expressed by design, art presents clear antinomies to design.
INTENTION
Design
The term design usually defines the work of a designer who integrates both a creative moment and a moment of analysis and technical definition aimed at serial production.
All the aspects that contribute to the definition of the work are confronted with constraints external to the work itself, since the design proposes to solve a functional need, existing or proposed by the design itself, usually with a commercial objective that is realised in the purchase of the product by the customer.
The primary objective of a functional order supports the commercial finalisation: design seeks to satisfy the needs of the individual or social group to which it is addressed, including ethical (see, for example, sustainable design) and aesthetic sensibilities.
On the other hand, the ability to interact with the emotional sphere is not a primary objective.
Art
The term art usually defines the work of an artist, in which the creative moment and the moment of realisation form an inseparable unity, defined by the limits imposed by the artist himself in its most free forms, or also in the light of the limits imposed by the commissioner in the case of commissioned art.
Art does not have a functional objective (although this may be attributed to it by its users), but operates in the sphere of self-expression, starting from the psychic dimension of the artist.
It does not have primarily commercial aims. In fact, art can be considered a necessity for the artist and as such does not have profit as its primary objective, since it is not necessary for the work to be bought.
THE METHOD
Design
The aim of design is to communicate a message that can be interpreted by the widest possible audience in a simple, clear and unambiguous way, which makes the identification of the target audience essential, also because of the commercial purpose.
Design is an expression of the mental categories of the era in which it participates, and tends to represent its most advanced aspects.
As a cultural expression of its time, it seeks the characteristics of beauty as they are generally recognised in that particular time (fashion and taste).
Design expresses a secular adherence to the secular reality of its time.
Art
Art offers the freedom to be interpreted in different ways.
There is no reference audience: the artist creates his work without worrying about who the users will be, whether they will appreciate the work or what their interpretation will be.
The attribution of meaning is done by individual users, possibly with the help of critics, although the interpretation of the aesthetic quality of the work tends to remain subjective, especially in contemporary art (whereas classical art induces interpretations that tend towards points of objectivity). It is therefore a priority that the artist's feelings and points of view reach the spectator, provoking emotional and rational reactions capable of modifying the same spectator's point of view.
The artist expresses the mental categories of his own era, interpreting its most advanced aspects, but tending to anticipate those of the future.
In an extreme synthesis, we could say that art does not necessarily pursue aesthetic beauty (even if the work of art expresses situations of aesthetic quality and in classical art there is a yearning for the objectivity of beauty); if anything, it expresses a metaphorical beauty.
Art conveys, even unconsciously, ethical values that are intrinsic to the work and independent of the idea of 'beauty' or 'ugliness' that art seeks.
Art always expresses, if not always explicitly, a desire to suggest and welcome a higher, sacred and spiritual dimension.
In the antinomies described above, articulated in the infinite nuances that define the transition from design to art, lurk the insidious contours of a conceptual, ideational, creative and executive challenge.