Design inferno: Distopia e alterità di spazi sociali, artefatti e pratiche future

Abstract

Dystopia proliferates through control, manipulation and uniformity, because, in order to
radicalize and impose itself, it needs not only Foucauldian «useful and docile» bodies, but

also aesthetically and ideologically similar individuals. To achieve its goal, the authority ex-
ploits psychophysical submission to shape its social body and rigidly organizes communication,

fashion, design, architecture and space, perfect expressions of its grandeur, its benefits and its
nightmares, also facilitating the recognition, the limitation and the eradication of otherness.
How do places and objects reflect dystopia? How will dystopian theories and trends affect
everyday life? This contribution intends to investigate the phenomenology oriented towards the
pre-visualization of possible futures, using in an interdisciplinary way dystopia and the design
culture as tools for representing, narrating and deciphering the relationships between humans
and objects, also considering the posthuman implications. The article also intends to reflect
on the influence of technology and on the men-artifacts relationship, highlighting its possible
evolutions and the changes that the experience of material (and non-material) space has on
relationships, lifestyles and human and social values. Considering some significant works of
the genre, such as Orwell’s 1984, Moore and Lloyd’s V for Vendetta, Atwood’s The Handmaid’s
Tale, and Wimmer’s Equilibrium, and comparing the dystopian realities examined with some

historical, design and cultural trends of the 20th century and of the 21st century, the contri-
bution intends to analyse the material construction and ideal representation of dystopia; the

relationship between space, authority and population; the relationship between man, otherness
and artifacts; the relationship between design, science and technology.