Gionata Gatto (1982) is an Italian designer working in The Netherlands. He holds a Bachelor in Industrial Design (IUAV) and a Master from Design Academy Eindhoven. The works of the studio are the results of a participatory approach that winds through the collaboration of different disciplines to breed a transdisciplinary research territory. From the active phase, the studio derives a series of artefacts and installations that perform as perceptual bridges to generate visions on speculative future scenarios. The studio works were shown during events such as Triennale di Milano, Rossana Orlandi, Sotheby’s, just to mention a few.

Abstract

Geomerce, Turning Crops Into Mines. An Enquiry on the Growth of Plants, Agriculture and Finance to Re-Imagine Speculative Future Economies

The 70s and 80s were characterized by a growing exploration of artificiality and the development and use of materials that have increasingly mediated the relationship between man and nature. Artificiality inspired the work of architects and designers, who tried to picture a world with less and less nature, or with an artificialized relationship with it. This talk presents a project that employs plants to retrace the role of nature in the context of current economies. The intention is not only to abandon the artificial in favour of a return to earth, but also elicit a reflection on possible economical, technological and political future evolutions, deviating from the current line of progress. Geomerce suggests a revolution similar to the industrial one, but in reverse, where human de-growth implies the growth of non-human species.