2022-2023 ~ Factory 2.0: RADICAL PEDAGOGIES - Global Tools as a case study in Salina

MAY 17, 2023

Led by Francesca Pionati & Federica Nicastro

When: 14:25 - 17:00

Location: TBA

Since we will be all in Salina with DAI, we thought of reflecting together on the experience of Global Tools as one of the most interesting and relevant experiments of radical pedagogy in Italy, by relating to the local landscape and territorial resources through the guidance of Tanino Cincotta — a local artist and artisan who works with wooden found objects from the island of Salina to produce everyday tools and sculptures. We will wander in search of raw material to engage with by sharing a base of tools and techniques for common purposes, with special attention to the concept emerged in the context of the experiments from Global Tools - namely that of “humble techniques”, to ask ourselves what does technological advancement mean?

The idea of a“system of workshops in Florence for the propagation of the use of natural techniques and materials, and related behaviors,” known under the name of Global Tools, emerged from a 1972-73 initiative of the most advanced area of Radical Architecture in Italy (Superstudio, Ugo La Pietra, Ettore Sottsass Jr., Archizoom, Gaetano Pesce, among others).

The group constituted around the magazine Casabella, which announced its foundation in January 1973 (issue No. 377) shortly thereafter beginning to periodically and informally publish its working documents and research, that would call for “life as permanent global education”.

Andrea Branzi of Archizoom wrote on Casabella: “From the school as from the prison, nothing good will ever be obtained: all those who believe that one day a school can exist that will teach how to make a revolution do not understand this truth. The same can be said of the city that functionally formalizes society at the point of its social transformation, immediately presenting itself as an autonomous, non-transformable cultural and figurative legacy: history has taught us that the city can never be a revolutionary instrument if not through its own failure (barricades).”

The workshop in Salina will be inspired by the four main themes that were addressed by the experience of Global Tools by different groups of people:

Construction

The body

Communication

Survival

+ Theory

The Construction Group suggested tracking down the emotional charge connected with the force of material not yet organized, and provoking all the cognitive value of the improper use of that material. The workshops of this group called for all those constructive activities connected with humble and traditional technologies: woodworking, carpentry, leather, ceramics, paper, glass, plastic, papier maché, weaving, and spinning. The Construction Group left behind nothing “constructed,” but just the memory of a failed attempt to build a raft out of polystyrene, which was eventually launched on the Ticino River.

You can download a copy of the original document listing the complete guiding principles of Global Tools here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ahdMv03H7Y5VXTuJ5-izd7XzT1S08uK0/view?usp=sharing

*All texts and info from “Silvia Franceschini and Valerio Borgonuovo, Global Tools 1973-1975 (SALT Research and Programs İstanbul, 2015)” which can be fully downloaded here https://saltonline.org/en/1195/global-tools-1973-1975

*Tanino Cincotta has a laboratory and exhibition space in Malfa (Northern part of the Island) called L’Occhio di Salina https://www.instagram.com/locchiodisalina/