MindStyleMagazine

Square
&
Share

Intro

Future Concept Lab

• Intro
• MemorAbles and ...
• The art of the Occasion

The driving force behind sharing collective experiences, which continues to find expression in the rediscovery of plazas and cafès, or the collective rites that re-vitalise an emotional heritage that we are unwilling to path with, or a relationship with the territory that shows surprising strenght in comparison to the virtual world, is leaving its mark on the beginning of the new millennium, that has opened under the banner of Square & Share. The indication appears decisive in the light of the new vital and mental balances for the millennium. The hypothesis of a society in which individuals find themselves ever more deprived of human contact and in the throws of isolated and isolating desires, in permanent touch only with computers terminals, capable only of conversing with a screen which becomes their own mirror, seems to be on the vane. Man continues to manifest himself as a social animal.
1. Personal experiences become a new attractor and give rise to behaviour phenomena and success stories.
2. Development of the need to define one’s own identity by recognising oneself as a part of a community with traditions and shared past.
3. The other face of cross culture: emergence of the need to search out and conserve one’s roots to recognize oneself as a part of a community with unique history.
4. Rediscovery of traditions, dialects, costumes and cooking recipes of a past which, though almost forgotten, becomes a process of reconstruction of an identity which links those who share it and enriches interpersonal relations.
5. Consolidation of multiplayer communities: groups of people who meet to play either really on the computer or virtually on the Net.
6. Dimension in which the Internet, an optimum place of exchange and communication, is acquiring more importance.
7. Growth in the number and volume of virtual communities which acquire political, social and economic power, thanks to an efficient grapevine.
8. Socialization process transformed into a catalyzing code of experiences and energies which renews a relationship with a territory which shows an unexpected solidity, with respect to the virtual dimension.
9. Rediscovery of game playing as fun and entertainment and above all as a social and sharing occasion: the search for a relationship which has nothing to do with history or shared interests, but which is instead based upon a freely chosen and shared code, often deep and long lasting.
10. Gradually the concept of gaming is distancing itself fron the videogame and becoming a daily experience of challenge and sharing, as shown by the growth of gambling.

» from MindStyles Program 2002, by Future Concept Lab