This book is issued from Andrea Branzi’s interest for the relationship between genetics and design, between serial production and the infinite variants of mankind.
Starting from genetic evolution, Andrea Branzi’s research deals with the idea of human infinite: in other words, it explains how crowds take shape starting from the couple. At the same time, the project carried out the realization of a collection of twenty thousand vases for Alessi, decorated one by one with a different face.
The rules that govern the diffusion of men and objects are here implicitly approached: the possibility of multiplying things to infinity – which is a dimension that technically stands outside the market – belongs just to a mindset. Modern production culture stopped at the idea of series, but infinite can be an actual dimension by just unveiling its possibility (a fragment of an unlimited dimension).
Nevertheless, for men as well as for objects, in the infinite the individual keeps his/her/its identity, that makes him/her/it become unique.
This book is a collection of some of the photographs used and all of the drawings made during the project. As a result, it is an illustrated atlas of genetics, divided into the following chapters: Couples, Families, Family Trees, Groups, Crowds, Exceptions, General Catalog. It can be used to classify strangers or to identify friends. Originally published by Alessi, this book is now available at Corraini Edizioni.
Andrea Branzi, architect, designer and author of many books and essays, has played an important role in the cultural debate that followed the development and success of Italian design. As a designer he has collaborated with the leading furniture industries in the field. He is founder of Domus Academy and professor at the Politecnico University in Milan. He has held many personal exhibitions, both in Italy and abroad.
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