Transcriber: Cristina Ventrella Reviewer: Elisabeth Buffard
So we are here in Palermo in this beautiful art work
and we are discussing for TED
what is the idea of cultural DNA.
So, I'm teaching in the Domus Academy
that is a school of design in Milano,
so for me, DNA is not only biology,
it is not only technology,
but it is the sentiment of beauty.
So I think this is relevant also for science
because you cannot have beauty without science
and science without beauty.
So, we started many years ago
considering that the key point for us
in the Italian way of life was the design.
With this incredible idea of beauty
that the great master of design
started introducing in the economy
in the way of living after the Second World War,
such as Mendini, Castiglioni...
Now, they are really well known all around the world.
They started in the '60s to introduce this idea
to let the life beauty
to let the life be beauty
using the design
for the ordinary things.
In the past the beauty was only related to monumental
only related to the priviledge of luxury.
In the 60s after WWII in Italy,
they started to figure out the idea that beauty
can be a part of everyday life
So we said that there can be
a reality in Italy because we have in the past
this great history of Renaissance
the idea of Michelangelo, Raffaello, Brunelleschi...
So the idea that you have to introduce the beauty
not only in paintings but also in the ordinary life,
in the objects of everyday life.
And the great masters of design did this.
So, they started to change the everyday life of Italian citizens
after the Second World war
starting what we call an "economic miracle",
bringing Italy into the industrial power,
into the industrial economy
starting from a very low level of industrialization
and a very low level of social life.
We had so this great change using aesthetic to reshape
the ordinary thing. I think that this is a kind of miracle.
I think they brought aesthetic using the history of Italy,
using the way of doing of the Renaissance lab,
the Renaissance laboratories of art and craftmanship.
They use this kind of root to bring beauty into the industrial system
and into everyday life.
So really in a different way from the U.S.
They started to invent, let me say, the mass-market of goods.
In Italy, we have the industrialization of the problem
but with great attention to the quality, to excellence, to the idea of identity.
So, in Italy, it is this kind of miracle that happens,
that objects start to speak, and they speak in an aesthetic level
they speak considering new frames, new elements of identity
and so this is the reason why we started from the Renaissance
looking to design. We are challenging the new crisis
that the economy has joined and we try to change really
the consideration, the way of doing in many other sectors.
So, in the early beginning when we started
with Francesco and many others in this association,
Renaissance League, it's to say, if we were so brave,
if we were so able to bring aesthetic in the daily life of our houses
why not in the cities, why not in the agriculture,
why not in many other fields that need absolutely
to adopt this lesson of beauty
design was able to introduce in society,
in life and in industrialization of projects
So, this is the idea. The idea of Renaissance League is to have
a great relation with aesthetics
and to bring it in many other fields of production, of research,
so why not Internet, why no science, everything we say is to relate with beauty.
Beauty is absolutely the contact that can change the world
and can also help people to stay better in the place where they are.