We have the pleasure of interviewing Sara Ricciardi, author of “Mechanical caresses”. The project represents the component reserved to the sense of touch during the exhibition Fenoména – Milan design week 2017.
Describe the design process that you have applyed for this project.
Mechanical caresses is a project which has started from a collective fascination.
Following the word “sensation” that have inspired the Fenomena exhibition, where the body was the focus of a total experience, I have investigated the value of epidermal stimulation. The result is a mixture of fascination and research. Desks full of moodboards and sketches.
I knew the tool to guide my message was the feather, for its elegance and gentleness, a timeless and slow element.
From there I started to draw machines and gears. Then everything realizes in movements and brushes elaborated in a couple of months, also thanks to discussions with my colleagues over dinners, refining more and more symbolism and object.
Every project teaches us something, what have you learnt during the elaboration of this one?
Every project implies a complex and valuable process. The path is full of epic personalities, discussions, discoveries, breath-taking runs, night thought, and laughs at the bar.
This project like the others has a fond backstage of craftsmen and professionals who has become friends, and stories of consideration and concentration. Mechanical caresses, ironic, challenging and erotic, invites to stimulate the body and take care of itself but also it’s a focus on the importance of the bodies of the others. This project confirms me that although our digital sentiments we are all starving for physical contact (o we are all affected by strong desires of contact). To go on in this way, research about motion and connection will be the challenge for me.
Pictures of the object shooting (green background) _ Fulvio De Filippi
Pictures of the installation shooting _ Sirio Vannelli