Today we are entering a subsequent phase in which objects are animated not only in a symbolic way, but also literally, functionally, through digital technologies that enable them to talk with us, to know where we are, to give us directions and suggestions. More generally, the digital has launched a process of secularization of the object, through which what was a symbolic quality in the ancient world becomes effective performance; what was metaphor in the field of art is now a real ability of the object to independently act and ‘sense.’
Starting with awareness of the ‘digital secularization’ of the object, the young designer Federico Pazienza – who previously worked with Gijs Bakker, founder of Droog Design – arrived at the Salone Satellite with the collection Material Spirits, composed of a few surprising ceramic vases with an intentionally ‘antique’ appearance.