A voyage into “Italy of the Future” lands in the Bay Area

As the traveling exhibition “Italy of The Future” makes its round of the world’s major cultural capitals, the innovative international tour is now arriving in the City by the Bay.

 

After its debut in Tokyo last April, 2013, cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Budapest will soon have an opportunity to meet the best of recent Italian technological and scientific innovations, and familiarize themselves with a country on that is on the move again.

 

Promoted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and created by the CNR (Italian National Research Council) in collaboration with IIT (Italian Institute of Technology), the INFN (Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics,) and BioRobotics Institute of the Sant’Anna School of Advanced studies, “Italy of the Future” is an exploration of Italy’s most recent scientific discoveries. It includes 20 interactive exhibits that are selected and hosted by the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco.

 

The exhibition aims to highlight an image of Italy as a country where science and technology are the cornerstones of development, by emphasizing Italian scientific advancements in all those areas of development traditionally defined as “Made in Italy,” and particularly in the field of robotics, particle physics, medicine, transportation, archaeology, and preservation of cultural heritage.            

 

The exhibit layout, developed on a concept by Manuela Arata, has been designed by the Collaboration Development Promotion Office (CNR-PSC) . The section ‘A new Made in Italy’ displays technologies developed by the CNR, including ‘no-wash fabric’ (ISTEC-CNR), electronic sensors for detecting carbon dioxide in wine bottles (CNR-IFN), and third-generation photo-voltaic devices(CNR Nano and IIT).

INSEAN-CNR has contributed hulls for speedboats and warships used for hydrodynamic testing, which are exhibited in the ‘Transport’ section; while the ‘Medicine’ area includes, inter alia, state-of-the-art ‘Bone Aid’ bone implants(ISTEC-CNR) and limb rehabilitation systems developed by IIT, ArBot and WristBot. The Milan Polytechnic offers a highly original collection of titanium jewels and figurative art.

 

“This exhibition is a representative cross section of Italian scientific excellence,” declares CNR President Luigi Nicolais, “It demonstrates, engagingly, and creatively how important, and useful research can be for growth and for raising any country’s standard of living. It invites us to support investment in every field of knowledge, even during a global crisis.”

 

The ‘Robotics’ section is curated by the Italian Institute of Technology and the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies. “Robotics is technology’s answer to real needs, to an aging population, to the need for ever more sustainable and intelligently planned systems,” says Paolo Dario, director of the BioRobotics Institute of the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, “our participation aims to display tools which can propel us towards progress.”

 

In the ‘Archaeology and cultural heritage’ section, CNR presents the virtual reconstruction of the Regolini-Galassi Etruscan tomb (ITABC-CNR) and the portal to the Virtual Museum of Iraq (IBAM-CNR), as well as an interactive terminal dedicated to archaeological expeditions outside Italy carried out by the Italian Foreign Ministry. Finally,the Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) has endowed the ‘Particle physics’ area with a virtual workstation allowing users to visit the Gran Sasso National Laboratory, as well as a number of the photographic film and lead ‘bricks’ used in the OPERA experiment for detecting tau neutrinos, and an interactive exhibit which reproduces particle collision.

 

The exhibition ‘Italy of the Future’  will display Italy’s cutting-edge contributions to international cultural, scientific and technological development. It comprises various thematic areas dedicated to: Robotics; Transportation; Nuclear physics; Medicine and diagnostics; ‘The Big Four’ (Apparel and fashion; Automation and mechanics; Furnishing and design; Agriculture and food); Research and entrepreneurship; Aerospace research; and Cultural heritage and restoration. Through dedicated terminals displaying examples (objects, images, video and so on) of the technologies represented in each thematic area, participants will have a ‘hands-on’ experience and the chance to develop a multi-faceted understanding of Italy’s most recent contributions these fields.

 

The exhibition ‘Italy ofthe Future’ is part of the ‘Year of Italian Culture in the USA 2013’, it will be on view at the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco from the July 12 to August 23, followed by Los Angeles (13 September – 10 October) and, in its final stop for 2013, Budapest (26 November – 18 December). Minor editions of the exhibition, with video contributions and totem touch screens, are planned for Sofia, Algiers, Toronto, Vancouver and Baghdad.

 

Save the date:

“Italy ofthe Future” exhibition.

Italian Cultural Institute, 814 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, CA 94133.

12 July – 23 August 2013.