The workshop of innovation

edited by Elisa Guidi and Marco Migliari

“The changes in today’s society have led the public, people and all of us to want artistic enjoyment at every moment in our daily lives. In this sense, we are convinced that design is one of the most typical artistic forms of our era, and that the ‘Factories of Italian Design’ are an example of how an artisanal paradigm has rapidly developed into a true industry, but without losing its ties to its origins.” Introduced by the essays of Elisa Guidi (‘Paths of Innovation in Tuscany’), Marco Migliari (‘Innovation: A Big Little Undertaking’) and Alberto Alessi (‘Between Craftsmanship and Industry: An Italian Case’), the book is the result of a project that involved the Alessi company, students from the ISIA institute in Rome and several crafts businesses in Tuscany. The initiative was established to reflect on the complex and sometimes contradictory relationship between craftsmanship and industry, with theme seminars, workshops and events stages during the 68th ART – International Crafts Show (2004). Turning to materials that are not generally used for Alessi’s production standards, the students created objects with innovative lines and the prototypes were made by crafts companies: a true ‘laboratory’ of innovation in which the arenas of design, industry and craftsmanship converged in a constant technical and cultural exchange.