La atopicità delle relazioni digitali

Vision: " L'ex abitante della città fabbrica nel suo cottage telematico, in uno squallido condominio di periferia o in una villetta della città diffusa, apre la sua navigazione in un mondo di libertà, di relazioni, emozioni che fanno da contrappeso alla povertà e alla miseria estetica, di relazioni e di vita sociale dello spazio materiale in cui vive” (Magnaghi, 2010, pp.41). The digital evolution and the use of new technologies are increasingly dematerializing and radically changing the rules that control the social and cultural systems. In a context where relationships quickly break up and regroup, where places are totally independent from local traditions and cultural backgrounds, technology is seen as a prosthesis that connects the human being to artificial worlds in a temporary and ambiguous way. According to a dystopian point of view, the digital innovations are changing the way we live, transforming materials, shapes and relations in placeless landscapes: they are becoming “atopical”. Atopy (from Greek ἀτοΠία - placelessness, out of place) is the unique characteristic of these elements to have no connections, in their own design or in their transformation processes, to any social, cultural or local context. They can be generated without spatial constraints or geographical references. The following essay offers a close examination on the real impact of new technologies on topics concerning materials, shapes and relations related to the design culture, taking as a starting point the ‘80s, when the debate about the digitization impact fired up. Now it is possible to reconsider the promises of the "myth of technology". Few years ago these promises let us prefigure the increase of speeds, the reduction of the distances, the lightening of the materials, the respect of earth resources, the expansion of the personal time, the simplification of the life experiences and wide diffusion of the knowledge. The essay points the attention on the controversial results arising from the digital technologies which are producing a growing trend of disaffection to the concept of place. Citing Marc Augè, it is also important to observe that: “A dire la verità, è il contesto a essere cambiato, è il contesto a essere globale” (Augè, 2009).