Project Leader │ Setsu Ito
Project Assistant │ Fabio Menella

Imagine you are in a white and empty space. Suppose it is a Hotel room in a big city, and you come from very far away. As soon as you enter this room, your mobile phone connects to it and your familiar environment is recreated: it becomes your home on a tropical island.

The images in your heart are projected on the wall. The air-conditioning system conveys air, warm wind and the smell of flowers; you hear your mother and sister’s voices chatting while cooking dinner. Wrapped in this warm air, I put on my T-shirt. This “White Space” is a neutral space, the concept of an ordinary space in a big city.

Draw by Setsu Ito

Against fixed, structural walls – which are typical of the Western functional concept of space – we propose the concept of “empty” and “flexible” space (Sukiya) typical of Eastern traditions. It is important that this “empty space” can be arranged according to all needs. By transforming it the “space” of the action is created, but also the “time”, i.e. the moment of the action, in line with Eastern cultural rites.

Nowadays, mobile phones are designed for personal use, even though their key function is to connect us to the others in a social dimension. The “White Space & Black Box” project integrates the concept of physically sharing space with others, by using for instance a bigger object, like a mobile or an interface integrated into it.

The goal of the seminar is not just designing a space with services connected to it (Space design o Service design); the main goal is rather that of designing a tangible product – hence the “Black Box” in the title, a black box of your own life, beside the “White Space”, an empty space to be filled with your own identity.

“AroundMobile / “White Space & Black Box” product areas include:

Personal devices (prostheses connected to the person), objects-devices, space devices (elements connected to space like a wall or a door)

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