Forward to the Primitive. New Sustainable Design Processes Characterized by Primitive Aesthetic

Abstract

What will Design become if the object disappears, sublimating itself into the most sustain-able expression of form, that is its absence? As part of a wider theoretical research on new models of effective product design, we want to emphasize how the growing integration of ethical and environmental sensibilities leads to an often-primitive approach to design that is capable of catalyzing concrete actions and triggering a new accessible aesthetic for the public. What emerges is a process of progressive disappearance of the object in user practices, replaced by more intangible qualities and value components (ethical, cultural, ideological dimensions of the project), which are also investigated and enjoyed through new unexpected media supports such as videos, films, ambient happenings. This process sees the center of content production shift toward the market or the public and its “peripheries,” where a more natural instinctive and direct approach is often expressed in an essential, primitive language.