On the 26th October 2012 at the “Sustainable Elegant Solutions” event at the Fiera di Vicenza, ENESSERE will be honoured with the prize for interpreting the spirit of Movimento Energitismo. We are pleased to publish below the manifesto of the movement.
Manifesto of Energytism
Why must an energy technology be without a face, identity and dignity? Why are most renewable energy generation plants unsightly? Why are they treated like the parasites which infest our homes?
Anonymous technologies designed by technocrats with lazy inventiveness. Why are renewable technologies relegated to the sole task of producing energy while buildings can be appreciated as works of art – though they are just as utilitarian?
We believe in a movement that expresses a new philosophy of technology, which overcomes the dichotomy between technology and beauty. We want to break down prejudices which prevent a full understanding of the nature of the technology. We do not want to hide those technologies that are part of our identity. We do not want renewable energy implants but energetic jewels on our houses.
Man “anthropizes”, creates and orders space, matter and reality to meet his biological needs of safety, security and shelter. He combines them with the aesthetic needs to tell who he is and what he wants. Each urban artefact is the result of three qualities: structural, functional and aesthetic. All three are of vital importance and equal dignity.
Human beings need to build houses to protect themselves from bad weather and to store their goods, to raise places of worship to meet their spiritual needs, to build bridges to reach new cultures, to raise skyscrapers to prove their greatness. Man has designed, built and invented the world as we see it, and has never been ashamed of exposing his needs.
Man needs energy, energy is an inherent element of man, we are energy-intensive machines, great creators and transformers of energy. We need to coexist with the technologies that create energy without shame hanging over us, and we have to give these technologies dignity by making them beautiful or seeing the beauty in them – “Tecnophilia”. We want to admire the condensation of technology because it is an expression of human intelligence and is a daughter of our evolution; we want to enhance the charm of renewable technologies attributing to them social, aesthetic and symbolic values.
Every city that “lives” is the result of a dynamic process of invention, production, manipulation and subtraction of different ages. It has sets of sedimentation with time and contagion of styles where each culture has continued to chart its way proudly. A city is the story of the changing of its identity, its actors and its relations. A contemporary city has to be able to capture the signals of the future, encouraging renewal and announcing transformation. We live in the era of technological diversity, able to change and structure the architectural, urban and social elements.
We believe in challenges, in alternative thought and know the enormous potential that resides in renewable technologies. We believe in art as the highest form of energy that creates energy.
Creative energy! Art and energy, so necessary to humanity are two things that you cannot decide which to save and which to throw off the tower. Art creates the visual identity of energy technologies, and gives the face, the soul and the flesh of this revolution. Artistic technology touches the strings of our emotions. What is the form of greatest respect for one thing, but to make it a work of art?
Architects, designers, artists, planners, scientists, engineers, technicians – artistic and technological leadership come together to jointly work on a technology that becomes art.