Tools For After is a new six-week festival that celebrates Italian ingenuity and asks the question: what are the tools we will need to face the future? With the world currently experiencing some of the worst global warming related catastrophes in history, there has never been a better time for this exhibit.
Tools For After is a cultural project that was the winner of a grant made available by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and successfully exhibited by the Italian Cultural Institute of Melbourne. Tools For After is a laboratory of ideas, solutions, projects, tools, and ways of dealing with the daily practices of today and tomorrow.
With a focus on exploring innovative solutions to the critical challenges due to the significant impact of human activities on the Earth’s ecosystems and geology, categories of the festival include design, architecture, cinema, science, literature and even food.
The exhibit is taking place at the beautiful Fitzroy Town Hall and showcases a collection of design objects as well as short films explaining some of the scientific and architectural concepts that were curated into the exhibit.
The common theme amongst the work is asking a question about sustainability, and providing a possible solution. What will the design and architecture of tomorrow look like? What does design need to do in the Anthropocene age? Tools for After Design offers concrete solutions to prevent―or to confront―the scenarios that the Anthropocene has in store for us. That is why they asked designers, visionaries in their own right, who have the task of imagining the future.
Imagining is planning, and planning is what architects and designers do.
Tools for After does more than just ask what we can do as a society to make long-lasting positive change, but also provides answers and tools to some core sustainability issues facing out world. With a wide range of creative output on show, it’s a gentle reminder that it’s not going to take just one innovation to fix our planet.
Be sure to check out the exhibit, particularly the film program in the stunning RMIT Capitol Theatre and the festival hub exhibition in the beautiful Fitzroy Town Hall. When fixing our planet feels hopeless, it’s nice to know that creative practitioners are out there working on the tools for a better future.
– The Plus Ones
