Yes I am a nature’s son and I’m the only one
I do what I want and I want what I see
You know it happens to me
I’m so free, I’m so free

Oh please ain’t your man
I have come this way
Do you remember the shape I was in
I had horns that bent
I’m so free, I’m so free

Do you remember the silver walks
You used to shiver and I used to talk
Then we went down to Time’s Square

And in the center been hangin round there
I’m so free, I’m so free
Yes I am mother nature’s son and I’m the only one
I do what I want and I want what I see
Could only happens to me
I’m so free, I’m so free

Oh, I’m so free oh, I’m so free oh, I’m so free
In the morining I’m so free
In the evening I’m so free
Yeah yeah yeah I’m so free
When I feel good I’m so free
When it’s in the morining I’m so free
When it’s in the evening I’m so free
I’m so free, I’m so free, I’m so free, I’m so free
Feels so good now, I’m so free, oh, I’m so free
Feels so good now, I’m so free, oh, I’m so free,
…

Lou Reed
Transformer (1972)
I’m So Free

OPOS, with its “transformer” exhibition, hopes to steer the research done by designers towards the idea of transformation.
The contemporary world, on every latitude and longitude, now seems to be dominated by change.
Despite an apparent lack of ideologies or any major positive utopias, the material and immaterial environment is ever-changing at the speed of thought, calculation, communication and information. As are people, places, objects and their value.

Our very identities are changing and our existential dimension has been transformed, having become trans-cultural, trans-local, trans-biological, trans-generational, trans-gender, trans-genic and trans-itory.

Likewise, transformations are occurring in the places where we live, the objects that we use, the life forms that we see and the language that we speak.

OPOS aims to strongly emphasise how this change is getting faster and faster and increasingly more widespread, involving people and the way in which they define their own identity, the areas set aside for their social and individual lives and their experiences within today’s world.

Bearing in mind this dominating movement, OPOS has a simple question to ask:
Could a timely, moderate and motivated resistance to change, an attitude of diversity and originality, or a little, exemplary antagonism, be it in the form of an emblematic object or work, contribute to our change?

As OPOS sees it, creating transformation with the right awareness is what’s needed.
Projects which, in their very essence, not only incorporate the idea of change but also resistance to change itself, so that transformation, besides being an unavoidable condition, also becomes a virtually positive dimension of the present that does not forget the past.

OPOS’s commitment towards seeing out and discovering both individuality and emerging energies within Italian and international design circles is still ongoing.
Details of the TRANSFORMER exhibition, published in all the leading trade magazines and webzines, resulted in a vast number of projects being sent in: 248 entries from 31 different countries.
A cosmopolitan array of ideas which were judged by an internal jury: in the end the top 17 best projects were selected and put on display during the 2006 International Furniture Show in Milan.

The event was held in the OPOS Gallery Corso Garibaldi 104.

CLOCK
PHILIPPE NIGRO
This clock marks the passing of time, the “before and after”, leaving a trace, a reminder. The passing of time is printed on a roll of paper that inexorably runs out, giving the possibility to either constantly update – by tearing off the strip of paper – or accumulate, as a reminder of time gone by. The date and time are printed on the roll of paper where every minute is marked by a dash.

WINTER CLOGS
ARIEL LIFSCHITZ
The transformation of a pair of rubber clogs is part of an exploratory study into the material, functional and conceptual potential of useful objects. With a simple modification, variation or hybridisation, “Winter Clogs” takes on a new meaning a/o function: two objects joined together by the spirit of familiar nostalgia.

 

OMNIA MUTANTUR / MAGIC WAND
STUDIO X: OSCAR BRITO AND LARA RETTONDINI
The world is turning at a giddy speed, change has become an obsession.
We no longer accept any limitations, we want everything right now. How often have we thought: “If only I had a magic wand…”. Omnia Mutantur is the materialisation of a universal utopia: ideally, it can transform everything, persuading us that we can achieve the impossible. It steps up our illusion of the unlimited, but it also increases our delusion over limitation.

 

DORIAN / THE MIRROR WHERE YOU CAN SEE YOU OLD
OOOH!DESIGN: GRAZIELLA GIACOBBE AND DIEGO ZANELLA
Dorian is an ironic memento mori, a conceptual object that playfully helps us to “reflect” on our current fears about getting old. The etched wrinkles staring back at us in the mirror look like isobars as proof that ageing is a natural process. It is a form of provocation but also a way of getting us to accept the appearance of our very first wrinkles without it being a drama. After all, there’s always Botox…

CONTEMPORARY VIEW OF ISLAM
ARDA AKKAYA
A scenario based on a notification service provided by a mobile-phone company that lets you know the times of the periodical rituals and the co-ordinates in the direction to Mecca which differ from city to city, plus a prayer kit so that you have everything you need to follow the religion regardless of your day-to-day or travelling requirements.

ONE SHOT
ALESSANDRA PASETTI
Would you be more careful if you only had one more photo left to take?
As a child, I asked my Granddad if I could take his photo. He nodded kindly in agreement and spent a lot of time carefully combing the little hair he had left and he even put on his best shirt…
As if something really important was about to happen…
As if something really important was going to be captured…
Something unique, meaningful and valuable.
Do we still have the same respect today for every second of our lives?

SEED CITY
A4ADESIGN WITH ANNA CASIRAGHI
Nature keeps trying to claw back the land it has lost, mainly from the city, especially in abandoned, decrepit or forgotten about areas.
SEED CITY is a one-dose packet of seeds to be sown in cracks that appear around the city so as bring a little bit of beauty back by getting little flowers to grow.

EXACT
ERNEST PERERA
Can you gauge chaos?
It would be so simple if it was divided up into little, comprehensible fractions.
Does accuracy have a particular geometry?
Why not create a measuring device that has an irregular shape?
“Exact” is a precision tool used for measuring fluids in the kitchen that is not restricted by a regular or definite shape.
It is, in fact, an exact de-formation.

 

TODAY CALENDAR
TOMMASO MAGGIO
A different TODAY for a better tomorrow.
The TODAY calendar does not contain any numbers, days or months. Today is not today, it’s not yesterday and it’s not tomorrow. The word ‘TODAY’ is written in 61 different fonts so that you can choose the one that ‘colours’ your day to best suit your mood. The utopia of the object lies in educating and forcing the user to notice what he hadn’t seen before, so upping his understanding of details and differences, beyond the font and towards everyday life.

 

ABC KEYBOARD
JOEVELLUTO WITH EDDY ANTONELLO
ABC KEYBOARD is a set of keys (from A to Z) that replace those on a standard PC keyboard and which help to teach (not only) kids how to “rediscover” the lost art of handwriting…
The ABC KEYBOARD keys can be fitted and removed just like any normal PC keyboard key.

PIMP MY (IKEA) CHAIR
JOEVELLUTO WITH EDDY ANTONELLO
Transform, personalise, distinguish, differentiate, disguise…, “pimp”!
PIMP MY (IKEA) CHAIR is a set of components (2 front legs, 1 foot-rest bar, 2 small back feet, 1 little flag and some stickers), that can be used to “pimp” any normal IKEA chair, in this case the “Ivar” chair, and turn it into the perfect “low-rider” style chair.

CLOTH BAGS
LUISA LORENZA CORNA
“Cloth bags” is a small collection of bags made out of floor cloths. This is not a sophisticated or long-lasting product, the material itself suggests their transitory nature and inevitable wear. Tearing the bag, as it says on the label, is seen as something positive: the end of an object, by transforming its use, is the start of a new phase. The bag goes back to being a floor cloth and, through change, reclaims its past.

 

TRANSIGNS
MASSIMO GATTEL
A paper disk (the world) with a perforated surface. A thread, joining up the perforations (from above, we are all points, all equal), can create any kind of figure or symbol. The world, the people and the symbols that unite them. Religious, political and abstract symbols, as a reminder that every design is just one of a number of possibilities. Every symbol has the potential to include all the others, so underlining equality and not an abuse of power.

ITALIAN.RELIGIO.NEON.SYSTEM
ARCHIROOM: SCODELLER, TUMIATI, VOLTAN
A tool that makes it possible to transform a mono-cultural environment (school, court, public space) into a multicultural one.

ICO – DIFFUSORE PER LAMPADE
GIANMARIA SFORZA

Everything can be fragile and staff.
In suspense there is beauty.
The beautiful and not last in time always the same,
and be open to transformation in time.

A lamp that has the geometry of a Platonic solid with twenty faces that gradually becomes corrupted as they push into the shapes drilled,
freeing the light indoors and decorating the surface.
The shapes removed, protruding from below, may eventually be recovered and recycled, returned to the manufacturer. The final design is based on user’s decisions and irreversible.

CINTÀMETRO
GIORGIO ACCONCIA
Your habits change in line with new necessities, trends, needs or your opinions.
Your body starts to show the first signs.
Your body belongs to you. Look after it…

DIETBELT
MARCO CIMATTI
Every day we bear witness to our own physical transformation.
Society dictates that we look slim and healthy, resulting in many people feeling they have to hide their true weight for fear of being ridiculed.
Dietbelt measures this physical transformation and can be used in two ways.
If worn with the centimetres hidden, the belt is a secret reminder.
If worn with the centimetres on show, then Dietbelt can be a public statement.