Albanian Universe: Design Between Vacuum and Energy
- Submitting institution
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University of Portsmouth
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 26770991
- Type
- T - Other
- DOI
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- Location
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- Brief description of type
- A multi-component output consisting of an exhibition, its catalogue and the pavilion design, supported by contextual information.
- Open access status
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- Month
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- Year
- 2020
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
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- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This MULTI-COMPONENT output consists of an exhibition, its catalogue and the pavilion design, supported by contextual information. It is submitted via USB, available by request from the REF archive.
The exhibition Albanian Universe: Design Between Vacuum and Energy (2016) was the first ever Albanian Pavilion in the near hundred-year history of the Triennale Milano International Exhibition of Art and Design. Co-curated by Antonino Di Raimo and Besnik Aliaj (Polis University, Tirana), the exhibition showed how university-based design research and education can respond constructively to the special challenges of the Albanian politico-economic situation. The project demonstrated the potential for culturally sensitive developmental design methods, informed by historical understanding and social engagement.
The exhibition pavilion, designed by Di Raimo, comprised a display wall with four screens, intended to be a central artefact. The screens played video documentaries that addressed pejorative cultural stereotypes and challenges facing Albanian society: Informality, Criminality, Extralegality and Hypocrisy, respectively counterposed by themes of opportunity and change: Integration, Education, Envisioning,
and Innovation. The videos explored the innovative and latent potential of the Albanian context with respect to these challenges through the work of public facing departments based at Polis University: Co-Plan Institute for Habitat and Development, MetroPolis Architecture Studio, International PhD
Programme, and the Innovation Factory, the latter of which realised street installations and computer-assisted design experiments. One example was the assembly of a Buckminster Fuller-style geodesic dome: a potentially radical informal and politically significant technology in a society that under
the previous regime until 1997 officially regarded Western design as decadent. The exhibition included commissioned artwork (Un)fortunate Dichotomies: Toward an economy of crisis and solutions by art critic and historian Gëzim Qëndro. The exhibition catalogue, co-led by Di Raimo, presented details of the narratives. The exhibition and its research were disseminated via TV, media and academic publications.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
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- English abstract
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