Constellations, the title of the first issue of «AIS / Design. Storia e Ricerche», summarizes the intention of the journal to open our eyes to different strands and themes, even distant from each other, of Design Histories. To give space both to the oldest and most consolidated sectors and to the most recent areas of interest. But openness does not mean getting lost in a nebula whose boundaries are constantly moving, losing sight of the area pertaining to design, expanding its jurisdiction over the territories of others, expanding the time of its birth backwards, as if we were unable to confront ourselves with its historical identity, continually disowning it. Openness means – in the words of Siegfried Giedion (1967) – to be aware that the facts we subject to historical scrutiny are “like the constellations of the stars. The historian cannot trace the course of events like the astronomer. But he has one point in common with him: that new constellations and previously invisible worlds continually emerge. And how the astronomer must remain eternally in his observation post”.

Published: 2013-03-01