Issue N°1 – Apollo 11

I chose to start the observation from July 20, 2019 when the Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano began his period of service aboard the Station, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 mission.

Today's Italian accademic education system lives in a state of continuous stasis, studded by areas of penumbra, alternating with situations of international excellence.

An anarcho-queer collective wanders in the outer space of  Florence, Italy. The outlandish astronauts land on an abandoned planet and decide to squat it – this celestial body is named Urania and the settlers call themselves the Uranesse.

This graphic shows a virtual configuration of the oloid; it is the three-dimensional developable surface that was discovered by Paul Schatz in 1929.

A part of the world we have built in the last fifty years takes our hands full of the imagery of space travel and sci-fi culture. Creating the paradox of seeing devices made that look like those we have already seen in films or, as in reality, almost always happens, we see in science fiction films something that we already use on a daily basis or that is already available on the market, possibly a bit "augmented."

We could say it all started on the 4th October 1957, when the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1.

By Apollo 11, we had a desktop computer, sort of, kind of, called an Olivetti Programma 101. It was kind of a supercalculator. It was probably a foot and a half square, and about maybe eight inches tall.

Starting with the beginning of the Agricultural Revolution 15,000 years ago, mankind has proved to be the first known case of an animal species able to act on the planet that hosts it, instead of solely react to the changes of the ecosystem.

In the era of hyper-production, supported by the falsely meritocratic system fed by the viral consent without content, we want everything at once. We want it technological and connected, but also comfortable and at a low price, possibly with zero impact and without preservatives.

July 20, 1969 was one of the most important days of the twentieth century, by itself able to shape forever the Western imaginary of space conquest. But have you ever seen an African American go to the moon?

Architecture and the space race share a common frame of technological inventions. Apollo 11 and Bigness share the fact of being the products of mankind.

Since the dawn of the XX century space flights have been a significant film subject. At the end of the century, science fiction as a main cinematographic genre was partly replaced by fantasy, space opera and cyberpunk.

In 1969, the ones that had access to it were mesmerized in front of televisions. Thanks to the satellites they were sharing a common memory: the farthest men from Earth, alone on the dark side of the Moon, broadcasted live all around the world.

Architecture and the space race share a common frame of technological inventions. Apollo 11 and Bigness share the fact of being the products of mankind.

The typeface chosen for the Apollo 11 mission was Futura, which soon became one of the most famous and commonly-used fonts in the design field.

Raya is pure design-fiction. It’s a speculative scenario that aims at investigating and critiquing a possible future where the moon would become a New World to be explored, measured and conquered.

Raya is pure design-fiction. It’s a speculative scenario that aims at investigating and critiquing a possible future where the moon would become a New World to be explored, measured and conquered.

Drawing a border could be an affirmation of identity as well as an act of violence. By establishing a border one can circumscribe a sacred soil, defend a territory, understand the nature of a multitude.

Since the very beginning of human history every population on Earth tried to communicate to something, or someone, above them. The Nazca Lines we had in Peru between 500 BC and AD 500, we had the Great Pyramid of Giza during the ancient Egypt period, as well as the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan and the Ziggurat of Ur.

This is a typographic visualization of President J.F. Kennedy’s speeches for the promotion of Apollo 11 mission to the moon: stadium speech (Rice Stadium in Houston, Texas, on September 12, 1962) and congress one (May 25, 1961).