Reality is invaded by elements that have lost their identity because they are inflated, distorted or camouflaged, mutated. Gillo Dorfles has coined a term to define these new “deviated” facts: factoid. The factoid indicates a transversal and daily alteration that everyone is confronted with. An object that has a double qualification and this involves times and ways, foods and information: jet lag puts us in front of a clock that runs faster or slower than that of our body; foods are altered, “innovated” or even enriched with flavors and contents that do not belong to them. In short, there is no area of everyday life that is not now involved in this process that offers positive aspects – for example the increased possibilities of information and knowledge – but also negative ones. Prompted by the questions and interventions of Aldo Colonetti, Gillo Dorfles, in all respects a true dean of thought in Italy, addresses this new frontier of contemporaneity between cultural and sociological reflections and casts a glance at the future hoping for a return to creativity and innovative drive that can only come from the individual and interculturality.
Aldo Colonetti is a philosopher, historian and theoretician of graphics, journalist, teacher - he taught Aesthetics at the University of Milan - and today he is the director of the IED, the European Institute of Design.
Gillo Dorfles was born in Trieste in 1910, he is a philosopher, critic and painter. In addition to having been a professor of aesthetics in Milan, Trieste and Cagliari, he has written many essays such as Il divenire delle arti, Simbolo, comunicazione, Consumo, Nuovi riti, nuove miti. He was among the promoters of the ADI, of the Mac, but above all he is one of the few thinkers capable of interpreting and casting a competent glance on the present and future of contemporary society and culture.
