Home | Feed aggregator | Sources |
Launched in 1995, Core77 serves a devoted global audience of design professionals, corporations, students, enthusiasts and fans.
URL: http://core77.com/home/rss
Updated: 5 hours 49 min ago
Items Invented to Make Eating in a Car Easy
Eating fast food while sitting in your car is kind of sad, but I still do it. When you're in the middle of nowhere and starving, it's often the only option, with ubiquitous burger joints having COVID-closed dining areas and offering drive-thru only.
Unsurprisingly, there's a category of objects designed to ease in-car dining. For starters, this plastic object mates the shape of your cupholder with a French fry container:
This "universal mount" dipping sauce holder attaches to your car's vents, and is designed to hold containers of different shapes from various fast-food chains:
This cupholder-mounted tray ratchets up the sadness by providing a smartphone mount, so you can watch superhero movies while you silently munch saturated fats:
This tray design below seems the most sensible. It plugs into the cupholder while still allowing you to use that space as a cupholder, and offers a second cupholder, and the whole thing pivots so you've got a little more freedom…
…and you can also pretend it's not for eating off of.
I'll put these objects in the category of "I'm sad they exist, but I see why they exist."
Categories: Industrial Design News
The Nasal Ranger: A Tool for Measuring Odors with Precision
My college roommate's dad had an unusual and high-paying job: He was blessed with an extraordinary sense of smell, and worked for a major whiskey manufacturer in quality control. His job was to travel to various plants, and use his nose to confirm that each blend would taste exactly like the same blends made at the other plants.
Because his nose was his moneymaker, each night he'd suck warm salt water from a Dixie cup up each nostril and spit it out of his mouth. (My roommate told me he'd grown up accustomed to the awful "HHHKKKKK" sound of his dad doing this each night.) Because of this daily salt water regimen, he hadn't had a cold in over 20 years!
This invention might've given my roommate's dad a run for his money:
The Nasal Ranger is a portable olfactometer invented by chemical engineer Chuck McGinley and sold through his company, St. Croix Sensory. It looks like a megaphone that connects to your nose, and the device allows you to precisely measure the strength of odors.
The bulk of purchasers are from wastewater management facilities that need a way to verify that they're adhering to odor regulations. Recently, however, a new market has cropped up following the legalization of marijuana in some areas: Marijuana growing operations want to ensure that they, too, are not running afoul of odor laws, which would lead neighbors to complain.
If you're interested in the particulars of smelling science, the Times has got an interview with McGinley here, and Vice caught up with McGinley in the video below:
Tattoos for Cars: Japanese Finishing Expert Develops Metal Paint Engraving Technique
Automotive finishing expert Takahiko Izawa runs Rohan Izawa Art Design, a car customizer with peerless techniques. Izawa spent over ten years perfecting "IZ METAL," a type of metal paint that he can spray onto a car and actually engrave into.
Other finishers can do similar things on small parts of a car, like side mirrors and door handles, that can be chromed and subsequently engraved; however, Izawa eschews this method because it produces a finish that breaks down under UV over time. Izawa's IZ METAL technique, in contrast, not only retains its original finish over time, but allows him to engrave or "tattoo" the entire vehicle, not just parts that can be chromed.
The results are absolutely stunning:
He can also do it in gold:
Prices run from ¥11,000,000 (USD $96,027) to have a small car, like a Mercedes-Benz A-Class, painted and engraved in silver, up to ¥33,000,000 (USD $288,075) for a large car, like a Mercedes-Benz S-Class, painted and engraved in gold.
Local Motors Shuts Down
Local Motors, the company that introduced the radical concept of what they called the "co-creation design" of small-batch automobiles, with royalites paid to the designers, has gone out of business.
Two years before the emergence of Quirky, a product development platform that also championed co-creation design, Local Motors set up shop in 2007 and began building an online community of designers and design fans. Members submitted automotive designs for the community to vote on for development, and by 2008 they'd chosen their first model: The Rally Fighter, designed by Sangho Kim, who was then a student at Art Center.
Startlingly, the off-road minded but street-legal Rally Fighter was successfully developed in just 18 months and at a cost of only $3 million. Built from off-the-shelf components like a Ford axle and a crate motor from GM, and skinned in a fiberglass body of Kim's design, the first Rally Fighter rolled out of Local Motors' microfactory in 2009. An additional 29 were produced over the next seven years, with purchasers invited to the microfactory to help assemble the cars themselves.
Image: markus941, CC BY 2.0
In 2014 Local Motors created a sensation with their electric Strati, by Italian designer and community member Michele Anoé. The dune-buggy-like Strati was largely created with large-scale FDM 3D printers developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, leading Local Motors to call it the world's first 3D-printed electric car.
Despite creating a successful prototype and generating much press, the Strati never made it to batch production.
Image: z22, CC BY-SA 3.0
By 2016 the company had shifted direction; rather than personal cars they unveiled Olli, an autonomous electric shuttle bus designed by Edgar Sarmiento, a Colombian industrial designer just two years out of school. It was Sarmiento's first design that made production, and with startling speed, at that; Local Motors had lined up some 100 partner companies and had built two Ollis within months of the design being green-lit. Two years later, NPR reported that 10 Ollis had been ordered, and that Sarmiento had earned $28,000 in royalties by then.
As of last year, Local Motors had Ollis deployed in 24 cities in the U.S. and around the world, including Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Italy and Saudi Arabia.
As of last month, Local Motors' Facebook page announced they'd be showing up at this month's CES.
Sadly, last week Automotive News reported Local Motors was shutting down, with no formal announcement made by the company nor explanation given. At press time the Local Motors website was still up and running as usual.
It's possible, I'd say likely, that the pandemic killed funding for public transportation vehicles and that Local Motors was a casualty. It's also worth noting that on December 16th of 2021, an Olli shuttle in Toronto crashed into a tree, leaving "the attendant onboard…critically injured," according to Toronto's City News, and it's possible that played a role in the company's decision to shutter.
In any case, Local Motors lasted for nearly 15 years. Quirky closed its doors after just 6 years in business. Co-creation design, at least for now, seems a tough nut to crack.
A Cleverly Designed Tool (That We Shouldn't Need in the First Place)
This has me pretty conflicted. I love a cleverly designed tool, and this one clearly fits the bill, but I am questioning what we are doing as a society that creates the need for this tool.
The HydroFlask Flex Strap Customizer was designed to allow you to easily remove the strap on your HydroFlask and replace it with one of a different color. Here's how it works, and you'll see why I call it clever:
My hat's off to the designer(s). The tool executes its tasks perfectly. It's pure form follows function and as minimal as you could make it. But 1) Why are we now spending money to bling out vessels for carrying water? And 2) Wouldn't it be better to have designed the strap in such a manner that it could be replaced, if need be, using a teaspoon or something we're already likely to own?
So yeah, I'm conflicted. You could argue I'm simply not keeping up with society, but in my eyes the whole point of a permanent water bottle is to use less plastic. It seems a step backwards to me that we have to create new plastic stuff to accessorize our plastic-saving stuff, presumably in the name of fashion.
Tactile Toy: A Touchable Tamagotchi
This strange Japanese amusement device walks the line between innovative and creepy. The Punirines Touchable Digital Pet is, like the original Tamagotchi…
…a digital pet trapped inside an electronic case. But there's a finger-sized hole in the Punirines' case, so you can insert a digit and "pet" your Punirines. An animation of your finger appears on-screen, and you feel a texture—described as "squishy" in the product copy below—on your fingertip.
"The award-winning Punirunes features more than 50 characters that are very squishy and addictive to touch!"
"There are lots of modes and scenarios, including eating, bathing, and cleaning, and there are also several mini games. As you look after your Punirunes, it grows up, gets bigger, and transforms into other characters."
Ways to make it grosser:
- Insert your finger and it's hot: The Punirunes is running a fever.
- Insert your finger and it's wet: The Punirunes is sweaty.
- Insert your finger and it's cold: Well, you didn't feed the thing for two weeks, what did you expect?
Brilliant Design: Tavar, Magnetically-Joined Modular Storage Furniture from Germany
German inventor Michael Linden has designed a storage system that it's impossible to outgrow. Called Tavar, it's an easy-to-assemble modular system of panels and connectors that allows you to build an infinite number of rectilinear configurations, and you can integrate doors and drawers too.
All of the components are based on a 20-cm grid, though units can also be divided in half.
Look at how quickly these units come together:
You can learn more about the Tavar system here.
Designey Cast Iron Wood Stoves
Alba is a Portugese manufacturer of cast iron wood stoves. Although they offer traditional models, like this Metafire Stove…
They also have two rather radical departures from the form, by designer Francisco Providência:
R2D2 Stove
Remade Stove
Sadly, Alba is one of those old-school European companies with a Spartan website; details about either stove are scarce, save for the name of the designer. It's too bad, as I'd be really curious to learn how well those radiator fins disperse the heat.
Lastly, I think the R2D2 stove actually looks much more like a Minion.
Engineer Figures Out How to Unload a 400-Pound Pallet From Her Vehicle Without a Forklift
Mechanical engineer Amy Qian purchased a cabinet-style SawStop table saw, which was loaded into her Honda Element on a pallet by a forklift at the store. When she got home, she then had to figure out how to get the 400-pound unit safely out of the vehicle—by herself.
Qian's clever solution utilizes the built environment, two elements she fabricated herself, two tools she had lying around, and some 2x4s:
A Sofa That Turns Into a Bed, Designed to Fit in a Honda Element
Carson Terry, a metal fabricator who goes by the handle Hossly, doesn't mind switching to wood for an interesting project. Mechanical engineer Amy Qian of AmyisMakingStuff designed a simple sofa unit that quickly extends into a bed and is designed to fit inside a Honda Element, and Terry built it:
The sofa/bed appears to be a one-off, but Hossly sells his metal wares here.
A Voice-Amplifying, Air Purifying Face Mask for Gamers
Razer has designed an air-purifying face mask aimed at, you guessed it, gamers. The thinking behind the Razer Zephyr Pro is that in-person gaming events will continue, and that team gamers in particular have a need to be heard by their teammates. "Breathe freely and be heard clearly," the company writes.
"Stay safe with its replaceable air filters for daily protection. Stay social with its transparent design, illumination, and voice-amplification for seamless communication. Stay sustainable with its reusable nature for long-term use."
The company points out that it is not an N95 mask, but features two-way air purification filters that offer "greater protection compared to standard disposable/cloth masks, and filters air both inhaled and exhaled to safeguard you and others around you." The company says their filters (for which they sell replacements) offer "95% Particulate Filtration Efficiency (PFE) and 99% Bacterial Filtration Efficiency (BFE) for up to 72 hours in a normal environment." Additionally, the built-in fans have two speed settings to allow the user to tune the airflow.
This being Razer, the mask also features RGB lighting (tuneable via app). The face seal is silicone, transparent, and is treated with an anti-fog coating. "The interior lights allow your expressions to be seen even in dark settings."
The company has not yet announced a release date nor pricing.
The Neon Boneyard: An Outdoor Collection of Las Vegas' Decomissioned Signs
Las Vegas once looked like this:
Over the years, as newer competitors moved in, many of the old-school casinos were decommissioned, their signs torn down.
Thankfully, not all of the signs went into landfill. A variety of individuals and corporations couldn't quite bring themselves to trash the signs, and found places to tuck them away. And in 1996, a nonprofit called the Neon Museum was founded. The organization has tracked down and acquired as many old Las Vegas signs as they could find, and has set them up for display in a multi-part Neon Boneyard. The organization is "dedicated to collecting, preserving, studying and exhibiting iconic Las Vegas signs for educational, historic, arts and cultural enrichment."
"Dedicated individuals from the private sector, as well as corporate and government entities, worked collaboratively to promote the preservation of these national treasures as significant pieces of artistic and historical importance."
"In addition, The Neon Museum collection chronicles changes and trends in sign design and technology through pieces ranging from the 1930s to the present day."
Visitors can tour the collection as well as rent a portion of the Boneyard for events, photo shoots, educational programs and (of course) weddings. You can learn more here.
Brilliant Design for an Always-At-Hand Microwave Anti-Splatter Object
I can't remember the last time I backed something on Kickstarter, but I just backed this one.
The Duo Cover is a collapsible silicone dome with microwave-safe magnets in the top. It clings to your microwave's ceiling, where it "lives." When you want to reheat something and contain the splatter, you simply pull the Duo Cover down over the dish. It's got vents in the top to allow steam to escape, and you can also add water to a depression in the top, so you can nuke items without drying them out. Lastly, you can use it as a potholder for dishes that are too hot to touch.
As someone who is constantly cleaning out the microwave, and doesn't want to waste paper towels or use plastic films, I cannot wait for this item to arrive.
At press time the Duo Cover had $589,612 in pledges on a $5,000 goal, with 21 days left to pledge.
The Surprising UX of Rat Poison
One of the structures on our farm has a rat problem. They're chewing through the plumbing and the results have been disastrous.
The exterminator we hired examined the site and let us know it would be cheaper to solve the problem ourselves, as it requires distributing rat poison in the crawlspaces every week, until all of the rats are dead. I asked him how we would know that we got them all, and he shared this interesting piece of information:
All rat poison is required by the EPA to be dyed in bright, vibrant colors. This is ostensibly for human safety; if a child shows up at the ER with a bright green tongue, the doctors know what to do.
The bright coloring, however, also helps exterminators. As you crawl around under a house inhabited by rats, you'll spot rat droppings, which are naturally dark. But when they eat the poison, their poop turns green (or whatever color the poison is dyed).
Each week as you get under the house, he said, examine all the droppings. When you stop seeing any dark droppings and only see bright green droppings, you'll know you got 'em all. Until then, keep distributing the poison.
Eventually comes the fun part: Finding and disposing of the rotting corpses. #countrylife
Lenovo Unveils Laptop With Second, Smaller Screen Next to Keyboard
Here's another experimental laptop design, not quite as weird as Asus' folding-screen machine. Lenovo has announced the ThinkBook Plus Gen 3, a 17" laptop that has an additional and portrait-oriented 8" screen right next to the keyboard.
The unusual layout means the upper screen has a 21:10 aspect ratio.
The lower screen "supports many productivity apps and phone syncing and content mirroring," the company writes. "It also lets you easily duplicate or extend the primary display."
"The 8" LCD display also has useful time-saving apps, widgets, and an express app launcher. In a Teams meeting, you can jot down your idea on the smaller screen, mirror it to the main display, and share it with others instantly. You can also stream videos on the main screen while editing timelines on the secondary screen. The ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 laptop makes multitasking easy and beats tabbing through applications hands down."
Lenovo says the Gen 3's 70Whr battery is good enough to power both screens long enough for you to "work through the day uninterrupted."
As with Asus's new laptop, pricing and release dates have not yet been announced. Tech specs are here.
Asus Unveils Bizarre Laptop With a Screen That Folds in Half
Asus has unveiled a peculiar object that they're calling the "world's first foldable OLED laptop." While all laptops fold, it's the screen that folds in their Zenbook 17 Fold OLED. Folded, it's the size of a 12.5" laptop. Unfurled, it's a 17.3" screen.
The Bluetooth keyboard can be placed atop one half of the screen for compact use…
…or the screen can be opened to its full width and placed opposite the keyboard.
The company says the versatile device can be used as a laptop, PC, tablet or "book."
Additionally, the lower part of the screen itself can be used as a keyboard…
…or you can use it with the Bluetooth keyboard in this bizarre "Extend" mode.
I'm pretty skeptical of the durability of folding screens. For their part, Asus says they've tested the Zenbook for 30,000 cycles. I also wonder what the bottom of the keyboard is lined with, to ensure it doesn't scratch the screen or pick up crumbs that get sandwiched between the keyboard and screen.
At press time, no price or release date was announced, but the machine's tech specs are here.
Great Product Design Student Work: The Stair Cubby, for Storage on Staircases
Something I saw a lot of in NYC was people using staircases for storage. Landlords and Fire Marshals don't care for the practice, but particularly if you lived on the top story of a walk-up, that last flight of stairs became a de facto free extra closet.
NYC isn't alone in this practice. Bronwen Rees and Bryony Wood, both product design students at the UK's Nottingham Trent University, seized on the stairs as fertile storage territory for a class assignment for Umbra. The brief was to design storage furniture "aimed at young professionals living in small, rented homes." Students were asked to "Consider mass manufacture, packaging and Umbra's style."
Rees and Wood subsequently designed this Stair Cubby:
"An open access cubby that fits over two steps for everyday storage. It can hold up to five pairs of shoes, books or other [knick-knacks] and comes flatpacked."
The duo designed the unit, which ships flatpacked, to be assembled with no tools. Tabs, slots and pegs are all cut from the same piece of plywood. An adjustable panel on the back slides up and down to accommodate staircases of different dimensions. Taking manufacture into consideration, the unit is designed to have all its pieces cut from 1/3 sheet of 4x8 plywood with minimal waste, so one sheet yields three units.
Rees and Wood also mocked up the packaging…
…as well as experimenting with Umbra's colorways used by retailer John Lewis & Partners:
Ultimately the pair "decided the wood worked best with a simple white."
Nice work, Rees and Wood!
French Product Designer's Experimental Garden Table/Watering Can
In seeking to "Recherche autour des expressions françaises," French product designer Lucas Lorigeon devised this unusual outdoor object:
To explain the application:
I do wonder: Are the cigarette butts meant to be dropped down the spout? That's undoubtedly a fire-safe way to go, but cleaning it out would get pretty gross.
Can't Roll a Joint? The Otto Automatically Grinds, Fills and Rolls Your Favorite Herb
For the unpracticed, rolling cigarettes or joints isn't easy. A device called Otto is designed to ease the latter. It's essentially a push-button automatic grinder that you fill with weed, then place atop a transparent jig with a conical interior. That's where you place your pre-rolled cone, and Otto fills it as precisely as a cigarette, if the video's to be believed:
I like that every bit of weed goes into the cone, and not all over your tray or table.
The Otto is made by a company called Banana Bros. and retails for $150.
Bago: A Hilarious Object Designed to Keep Bags Upright on the Floor of a Car
I don't deny that this object is clever (for what it is), but I'm stunned that people would purchase one for the $22 asking price. Bago seems like a simple thing to rig up. It's basically an adjustable strap and a small A-clamp. You throw one end into the glovebox, then attach the clamp to a bag on the floormat, holding it upright:
This seems like one of those quirky only-in-Japan objects. Instead it was invented--and successfully crowdfunded, on both IndieGogo and Kickstarter--by a guy named Dan Stevenson, who hails from Atlanta. Congrats to Stevenson. To the rest of you, here's proof that if you have the idea for a simple and even narrowly useful object, there's probably a market out there for you.


Can a shirt help me lose weight?
by Laurie L. Dove
Would you wear a smart shirt? It could help you stay in shape.
Kevin Kozicki/Getty Images
There's a pause in the tennis match, and a ball boy scurries onto the court, retrieves a ball and snaps back into a crouch near the line judge. The moment may look like an ordinary scene at the U.S. Open — one of the most well-known tennis competitions in the world — but it's actually showcasing a new generation in wearable technology.
The form-fitting nylon shirts worn by the ball boys are woven with silver-coated thread gathering information about heart rate, stress levels and more — and they're wirelessly transmitting that information to smartphone apps and computer screens. It may seem like a far-fetched scenario reserved for elite athletes, but this technology is available to the masses, too [source: La Ferla].
Just think: This could mean your next shirt might help you reach your weight-loss goals. This new segment of wearable technology includes clothing with integrated sensors that transmit real-time information about the wearer — you. The sensors range from coated threads woven into the fabric to chips sewn into the garments that can monitor everything from your breathing patterns to activity levels. In the future, wearable technology could even potentially monitor your vital signs and automatically transmit information to your doctor as needed [source: Wearable Devices].
But will a high-tech shirt really help you lose weight? Perhaps. By sporting "biometric smartwear," you can rely on the embedded sensors in your shirt to know whether you've met your fitness goals. For example, if you've set a goal of 12,000 steps a day, your shirt will let you know — with a quick glance at the information it's transmitting via Bluetooth to an app on your smartphone — whether you're meeting that goal. If not, you can take steps (see what we did there?) to course-correct and add more activity to your day. What's more, the technology built into your smart shirt can track calories, just like fitness trackers worn on the wrist or waistband [source: Graham].
Tracking calories helps keep you accountable to your weight loss goals. A study of 1,685 overweight or obese people found that when they recorded what they ate for six months and paired that information with regular workouts, they lost weight. And, the more often they recorded their calories, the more weight they lost — about twice as much as participants who tracked their calorie intake less often [source: Hitti].
So it seems a shirt can help you lose weight — as long as it's equipped with smart technology that helps you track your activity levels and calorie intake and motivates you to get up and get moving.
How FitBit Works
5 Future Technology Myths
How Exercise Works
How Wearable Technology Works
Graham, Jefferson. "The Latest in Wearable Tech: Smart Shirts." USA Today. May 8, 2014. (April 4, 2015) http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/2014/05/08/the-latest-in-wearable-tech-smart-shirts/8823483/
Hitti, Miranda. "Keeping Food Diary Helps Lose Weight." WebMD. July 8, 2008. (April 4, 2015) http://www.webmd.com/diet/20080708/keeping-food-diary-helps-lose-weight
La Ferla, Ruth. "Is the Player Nervous? Just Ask His Shirt." The New York Times. Aug. 22, 2014. (April 4, 2015) http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/24/fashion/at-us-open-ralph-lauren-to-introduce-wearable-technology.html
Wearable Devices. "Introduction to Wearable Technology." (April 4, 2015) http://www.wearabledevices.com/what-is-a-wearable-device/
How the Move Tank Top Works
Can technology help me lose weight?


Cancellation of Ferry Service - Jurisdiction Clause - Whether the Federal Court or Provincial Courts have Jurisdiction
Demers v. Marine Atlantic Inc., 2015 QCCQ 1793
In Arbitration/Jurisdiction Clauses in Maritime Law on March 12, 2015 (Updated June 04, 2015 )
Précis: The Quebec Small Claims Court refused to give effect to a jurisdiction clause in passenger ferry ticket in favour of the Federal Court.
Carriage - Federal Court Jurisdiction - Jurisdiction Clause - Practice - Stay of Proceedings
Hitachi Maxco Ltd v. Dolphin Logistics Co., 2010 FC 853
In Arbitration/Jurisdiction Clauses in Maritime Law, Stays of Proceedings on August 27, 2010 (Updated July 18, 2012 )
This was a motion by the defendants for a stay of proceedings. The main issue was whether an admiralty action instituted in Canada in personam by two foreign corporations against four foreign corporations for the loss of cargo shipped from one foreign port and intended for discharge and delivery in another foreign jurisdiction should be stayed in favour of the …
Athens Convention - Carriage of Passengers - Jurisdiction Clause
Nicolazzo v. Princess Cruises, 2009 CanLII 28217
In Carriage of Passengers by Sea on June 2, 2009 (Updated July 10, 2012 )
The plaintiffs in this matter had booked a cruise with the defendant through the plaintiff's travel agent in Hamilton, Ontario. They embarked in Italy and disembarked in England. During the cruise $5,000 was stolen from the safe in the plaintiffs' stateroom. The plaintiffs commenced this action to recover the stolen money. The defendant brought a motion to dismiss the claim …
Carriage of Goods - Jurisdiction Clause - s.46 M.L.A. - Stay of Proceedings
Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd. v. Mazda Canada Inc., 2008 FCA 219, 2008 CanLII 63491
In Admiralty Practice, Stays of Proceedings on June 19, 2008 (Updated July 18, 2012 )
The Cougar Ace took on a list of 60 degrees while en route to Canada and the U.S.A. from Japan. As a consequence, a large number of automobiles destined for Canada and U.S.A. were damaged. All of the automobiles were subject to a contract of carriage that contained a jurisdiction clause in favour of Japan and a choice of law …
Jurisdiction Clause - MLA s.46 - Stay of Proceedings
OT Africa Line Ltd. v. Magic Sportswear Corp., 2006 FCA 284
In Arbitration/Jurisdiction Clauses in Maritime Law on August 23, 2006 (Updated July 18, 2012 )
This was a subrogated action by cargo insurers for damages for the short shipment of goods carried from New York to Liberia under a bill of lading that was issued in Canada. The freight was also payable in Canada and the Defendant carrier, although not a Canadian resident, had offices in Canada. None of the Plaintiffs resided in Canada. The …
Sumisho Reftech Co. Ltd. v. The "Great Pride", 2006 FC 388
In Arbitration/Jurisdiction Clauses in Maritime Law on March 27, 2006 (Updated July 18, 2012 )
This was an application to stay proceedings. The underlying matter concerned a contract for the carriage of goods from China to Japan and the parties to that contract were not Canadian residents. The only basis for bringing the action in Canada was that the Defendant COSCO had a Canadian office and the existence of this Canadian subsidiary gave the court …
Appeal from Prothonotary - Jurisdiction Clause - MLA s.46 - Parallel Proceedings - Standard of Review
Ford Aquitaine Industries SAS et al. v. The "Canmar Pride" et al., 2005 FC 431
In Admiralty Practice, Stays of Proceedings on March 31, 2005 (Updated June 29, 2012 )
This action concerned the loss of or damage to several containers carried from LeHavre to Montreal. The damages were estimated at $6 million. The carriage was pursuant to a transportation services agreement which provided for American law and jurisdiction. The carrier under the transportation services agreement was OOCL but OOCL was expressly permitted to subcontract the carriage, which it did, …
Bill of Lading - Jurisdiction Clause - Stay of Proceedings
Z.I. Pompey Industrie v. ECU-Line N.V., 2003 SCC 27
In Arbitration/Jurisdiction Clauses in Maritime Law on May 1, 2003 (Updated July 18, 2012 )
The Plaintiffs claimed that cargo carried from Belgium to Canada and then on to the US was damaged. The Appellant shipowner sought to rely on an exclusive jurisdiction clause in the bill of lading referring claims to the Courts of Belgium. The matter arose before s.46(1) of the Marine Liability Act came into force. The Prothonotary refused to uphold the …
Bill of Lading - Jurisdiction Clause - MLA s.46
Nestle Canada Inc. v. The "Viljandi" et al., 2003 FCT 28
In Arbitration/Jurisdiction Clauses in Maritime Law on January 14, 2003 (Updated July 18, 2012 )
This was an an application for a stay of proceedings on the basis of a jurisdiction clause contained in a bill of lading. The Court refused the stay on the grounds that the action had been commenced after the Marine Liability Act was proclaimed in force (August 8, 2001) and, therefore, the matter was covered by s. 46(1) of the …
Friesen v. Norwegian Cruise Lines et al., 2003 BCSC 256
In Carriage of Passengers by Sea on January 9, 2003 (Updated July 10, 2012 )
This was an application by the Defendant to stay proceedings commenced in British Columbia on the grounds of a jurisdiction clause contained in the passenger ticket. The Plaintiff, a British Columbia resident, was injured on an Alaskan cruise ship which had departed from the port of Vancouver. The Plaintiff argued that the matter was governed by the Athens Convention; Article …


Accademia di Mimodramma
Info Training
---Corporeal Mime SchoolContemporary Commedia dell'Arte Workshop
Info Productions
NAPLES STUDIO
ROME STUDIO
TEACHING FACILITIES
© 2018 ICRA Project - P.IVA: 07510630630 | Privacy Policy | Obblighi di Trasparenza
MAXIMILIEN DECROUX (1930-2012)
Maximilien Decroux, French actor, mime and choreographer, was born on 26 May 1930 in Paris and died on 30 September 2012. From 1945 to 1947 he studied theatre with Charles Dullin, as well as classical and modern dance. A student, performer, artistic and pedagogical collaborator of Étienne Decroux, Maximilien Decroux worked with his father until 1955.
In 1960, he founded his own school based on collective improvisation and the teaching of an athletic and dynamic mime, based more on actual movements in space than on sur place movements, and taught at his father's school since it reopened in 1963.
From 1969 to 1976, he taught at the Conservatoire national supérieur d'art dramatique in Paris; from 1970 to 1977 at the École nationale supérieure d'architecture; from 1969 to 1976 at the Cité internationale universitaire; from 1978 to 1988 at the École Internationale de Mimodrame de Marcel Marceau.
He created mime-dramas for set designer Jacques Polieri, sculptor Nicolas Schöffer and director Jean-Christophe Averty. He also collaborated with composers such as Iannis Xenakis and Pierre Henry.
ALESSIO SAPIENZA
Alessio Sapienza, actor and mask-maker, studied anthropology of the actor, acting, diction, singing, dance and acrobatics at the Accademia Internazionale del Musical, directed by Enrico Sortino, and graduated from the Scuola Internazionale dell'Attore Comico, directed by Antonio Fava.
He participated in the International Commedia dell'Arte Workshop at the Civica Accademia d'Arte Drammatica Nico Pepe where he followed various workshops with Stefano Perocco di Meduna and Gaia Geri, Claudio de Maglio, Ferruccio Soleri, Michele Monetta, Carlo Boso, Claudia Contin Arlecchino and Marco Sgrosso. He also participated in ICRA Project's Contemporary Commedia dell'Arte Workshop under the direction of Michele Monetta where he carried out an in-depth study on Commedia Improvvisa.
In 2021 he co-founded with Valentina Puccini the performing arts centre DAT dance art theatre based in Rome. He studied the craft of leather mask making with Alberto Ferraro and Stefano Perocco of Meduna. In 2018, he founded the workshop Anonimo Siciliano – leather masks.
RUTHY ALON (1930-2020)
In 1969 Ruthy Alon graduated from the first training course held by Moshe Feldenkrais with whom she formed a close working relationship until his death. She was a Senior trainer of the Feldenkrais Method and taught practitioners and students throughout Europe, America and the Asian Pacific region well into her late eighties.
In 1999, she developed the Movement Intelligence exercises consisting of several programmes, based on Dr Moshe Feldenkrais's approach to somatic learning, such as: Bones for Life, or bone strength and optimal weight-bearing posture; Walk for Life, for health, power management and biological optimism; Chairs, transforming sitting from fixation into an opportunity for mobility; and The 6 Basic Lessons Everyone Needs, investing in personal ecology.
Her programmes were presented in the United States at NASA (Houston, Texas, 2004), at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Aerospace Medical Association (Kansas City, Missouri, 2005), at the National Osteoporosis Foundation Conference (Washington, D.C, 2006) and are taught and practised in over 30 countries by teachers and trainers trained by her worldwide.
In 1970, Ruthy published Mindful Spontaneity, a book of insights on teaching the Feldenkrais Method, which has been translated into seven languages. She also created the Movement Nature Meant video on the Feldenkrais Method. In 2018 the Feldenkrais® Guild of America honoured Ruthy Alon with the Lifetime Achievement award for her contributions to the Method.
DIMITRI (1935-2016)
Dimitri was an internationally acclaimed clown who trained in acting, acrobatics, tightrope walking, ballet and music as well as in pottery and sculpture in Verscio (district of Locarno) and Zurich. In Paris, he studied mime with Etienne Decroux and later with Marcel Marceau; he performed in two of his pantomime company's productions, Les matadors and Le petit cirque. In 1959, in Paris, he made his debut with the famous white clown, Louise Maïss, in the ring of the legendary Cirque Medrano.
In 1971, in Verscio, together with his wife Gunda, he founded the Teatro Dimitri; in 1975, together with Richard Weber, the Scuola Teatro Dimitri, today, Accademia Dimitri; in 1978, the Compagnia Teatro Dimitri for which he wrote his first piece, Il clown è morto – evviva il clown (The clown is dead – long live the clown); and in 2000, together with Harald Szeemann, the Museo Comico.
Dimitri also pursued a career as a painter, sculptor and book illustrator, exhibiting his works in major art galleries. Moreover, he was involved in humanitarian work. In 1996, as Ambassador for UNICEF, he visited and performed in war-torn Sarajevo, and in 2010 he travelled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo with the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), which is engaged in providing a comprehensive system of support and protection for human rights defenders.
In 1995, Dimitri was inducted into the International Clown Hall of Fame.
ROY BOSIER (1931-2006)
Roy Bosier lost almost all of his hearing due to mumps at the age of four. He studied classical dance and fashion design at the then Zurich Arts and Crafts school, today's Zurich University of the Arts. He worked with Sergio Leone, Roman Polanski and Federico Fellini, and with Giorgio Strehler at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan.
In Paris he studied corporeal mime with Étienne Decroux. In 1963, he founded the Istituto Studi dello Spettacolo- Teatro Studio in Rome with Italian state television (RAI) director Claudio Triscoli and the actress Anna Menichetti. In 1970, he founded the I Gesti mime company with some of his students.
In 1984, Roy returned to Zurich, where, in 1987, he accepted a permanent position at the Schauspielhaus Zürich theatre as choreographer, fencing master, movement teacher and, at times, actor. He had been collaborating occasionally with the Schuaspielhaus Zürich theatre since 1954.
GERARDO GUCCINI
Gerardo Guccini teaches Dramaturgy and Theories and Techniques of Dramatic Composition at the University of Bologna. Since 2018 he has been Scientific Director of the Centro Teatrale La Soffitta, associated with the Department of Arts of the University of Bologna. From 2002 to 2015 he was Scientific Director of the Centro di Musica e Spettacolo (centre for music and performing arts) of the University of Bologna.
In 1995, together with Claudio Meldolesi, he founded the semiannual Prove di Drammaturgia. Rivista di indagini teatrali. In 2012, he co-founded with Matteo Casari the online series, Arti della performance: orizzonti e culture (AMS Acta). He has collaborated as a playwright with Marco Paolini, Marco Martinelli, Elena Bucci and Marco Sgrosso.
His primary areas of research include: 18th-century theatre, the dramatic aspects of opera, narrative theatre and contemporary dramaturgy focusing on the textual element.
ALBERTO BERTELLI
Raised in Toronto, Alberto Bertelli is trilingual, graduated in Translation at the University of Montreal and translates from French and Italian into English. He trained in corporeal mime with Étienne Decroux in Paris. He completed his training with Jean Asselin and Denise Boulanger at the École de mime corporel de Montreal. He participated in corporeal mime and theatre workshops with Naomi Tyrrell, Toronto; Daniel Stein, Paris; Thomas Leabhart, New York; Gilles Maheu, Eugenio Barba and Zygmunt Molik, Montreal; and Giorgio Barberio-Corsetti, Rome.
He co-founded and co-directed the corporeal mime theatre company, Mime Expresso, specialised in the creation and performance of corporal mime shows for café-théâtres throughout Québec. He created and performed with eleven other mimes the corporal mime show, Beaumonde, directed by Jean Asselin, Omnibus le corps du théâtre.
He conducted research on Oskar Schlemmer and the theatre of the Bauhaus, which inspired the creation and performance of the corporeal mime piece, Gattine. He was a member of the multi-media theatre company, L'Écran Humain, directed by Paul Saint-Jean. He has worked as an actor for the theatre, film and television. He participated in several international festivals in Canada and Europe.
ANTONELLO PALIOTTI
A graduate of the Salerno State Conservatoire Giuseppe Martucci, Antonello Paliotti is a composer, guitar teacher and guitarist. Since 1986, he has been collaborating with Maestro Roberto De Simone as composer and conductor on works such as Carmina Vivianea, Populorum Progressio, Opera dei centosedici as well as on Li Turchi viaggiano, which was featured on the 2003 album of the same name.
In 1995 he wrote for saxophonist Michael Brecker, Canto della possibilità di sopravvivere with orchestra. In 1997 he wrote Messa per il tempo di guerra, which was performed at the Conservatorio di Musica San Pietro a Majella, Naples. Between 1999 and 2001 he wrote a number of compositions for the soloists of Naples's Teatro di San Carlo, which were included on the 2006 album Musica Obliqua. In 2011 he wrote the Concert du Printemps, for two mandolins and large orchestra, performed by Hamilton de Holanda and Mike Marshall.
He has also collaborated on records by other musicians, including Daniele Sepe, Zezi, Elena Ledda, Gianni Lamagna, Brunella Selo, Lino Cannavacciuolo as well as with directors Pappi Corsicato, Mariano Rigillo, Mico Galdieri, Moni Ovadia, Michele Monetta, Pasquale De Cristofaro, Georg Brintrup and Maurizio Scaparro.
ANTONIO SINAGRA
Composer and conductor, Antonio Sinagra completed his musical studies at the Conservatorio di Musica San Pietro a Majella, Naples. He taught Orchestral exercises at the following conservatories of music: Conservatorio di Musica Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa, Potenza, Conservatorio di Musica Giuseppe Martucci, Salerno, Conservatorio di Musica Domenico Cimarosa, Avellino and at the Conservatorio di Musica Umberto Giordano, Foggia.
From 1980 to 1984 he worked with Eduardo De Filippo, writing incidental music for all his theatre productions. He also worked with authors, singers and musicians such as: Vincenzo Cerami, Peppino di Capri, Edoardo Bennato, and Pino Daniele. He wrote music for musical comedies, including: L'Opera de' muort'e famma, directed by Armando Pugliese, Partitura, directed by Toni Servillo, Penziere mieje, directed by Luca De Filippo, L'avventura più spericolata di Don Quijote , written and directed by Lina Wertmüller, and Amore di tango (II ladro e la milonga), directed by Lindsay Kemp. He also wrote incidental music for the theatre, including: Menecmi, and L'ultimo scugnizzo, directed by Tato Russo, and Indians, and Summer and Smoke directed by Armando Pugliese.
In 1989 he wrote the opera-concert Sona Sona based on the text by Giuseppe Rocca and in 1995 he wrote the music for the opera Delizie & Misteri Napoletani, based on the text he wrote together with Raffaele Esposito. He has conducted in various theatres in Italy and abroad, including: Teatro Regio di Parma; Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Florence, Teatro Comunale di Bologna opera house, Teatro Comunale Luciano Pavarotti, Modena; Teatro Morlacchi,i Perugia; Teatro Filarmonico, Verona; Schauspiel, Frankfurt; and the Teatro Colòn, Buenos Aires.
LINA SALVATORE
Actress, teacher and student of Marise Flach, Monika Pagneux and Vera Bertinetti, Lina Salvatore teaches the Feldenkrais Method, corporeal mime, and theatre pedagogy as part of the professional development courses at the National Academy of Dramatic Art Silvio d'Amico, Rome and vocal and corporeal education, Feldenkrais Method, at the actor's school of the Teatro Stabile di Napoli, Naples.
In Paris, she studied corporeal mime, Decroux technique, with Steve Wasson and Corinne Soum at the École de Mime Corporel Dramatique. In Milan, she studied Decroux's corporeal mime technique and repertory pieces with Marise Flach. She attended intensive master classes with Rena Mirecka, Grotowski technique; Vera Bertinetti, Orazio Costa's mimetic method of acting; Barbara Sparti, Renaissance dance; and Eugenio Barba, Eurasian theatre. In Prato and Naples she completed the Bones for Life and Chairs programmes, a series of movement processes created by Ruthy Alon, senior trainer in the Feldenkrais Method.
In Paris, she obtained the Theatre Pedagogy diploma with Monica Pagneux and in Milan, the Feldenkrais Method Teaching diploma – recognized by the International Feldenkrais Guild, Europe and USA – with Mark Reese. She is a researcher and student of Bharata Natyam Indian sacred dance and G. I. Gurdjieff's Movements. Since 1999 she is co founder and co-director of the International Centre for Research on the Actor. She has also toured extensively, performing at numerous national and international festivals in Italy, France, Greece, Indonesia, Malaysia and Hungary.
MARCO DE MARINIS
Marco De Marinis, former Full Professor of Theatre Arts at the Department of Arts (visual and performing arts) of the University of Bologna, teaches the History of Theatre module of the BA in Drama, Art and Music Studies (DAMS), and the Theories and Cultures of Performance module of the master's degree in Performing Arts at the same university.
His primary areas of research include: theory of the theatre; 20th-century theatrical experience, focusing on leading directors, corporeal mime and on the second post-war period's 'new theatre'; and stage space and theatrical iconography. He is also PhD supervisor of the Visual Arts, Film, Music and Theatre programme.
MARIELLA CAPOBIANCO
Mariella Capobianco, who graduated in Law at Sapienza University in Rome, is the author of songs and poems for the music collective Klippa Kloppa. In 2011 she obtained her diploma as Opera and Concert Mime Actress at ICRA Project's School of Corporeal Mime. A freelance journalist and copywriter, she manages communications for various institutions and companies.
TADEUSZ LEWICKI
Tadeusz Lewicki is Adjunct Professor of General Semiotics, Theatre History, and Theory and Technique of Theatrical Language at the Faculty of Social Communication Studies at the Salesian Pontifical University in Rome.
Consultant for theatre in education groups, and theatre/drama centres in Italy and Poland; Visiting Lecturer at the University of Malta, and Distinguished Scholar at the Diederich College of Communication of Marquette University (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA).
Roberto Danese is Full Professor of Classical Philology at Carlo Bo University of Urbino, where he also teaches Literature and Film and is Director of the one-year master's programme in Redattori per l'Informazione Culturale nei Media (Editors for Cultural Information in the Media); he is professor at the Doctoral School in History, Archaeology and Anthropology of the Ancient World at the University of Siena.
His main research interests include: Plautus, Terence and archaic Latin theatre, textual criticism of classical texts, ancient didactics, anthropology of the ancient world, classical metrics and computer tools for the study of humanities.
NICOLA DE MATTEO
At the age of 21, Nicola De Matteo was already a teacher at ICRA Project corporeal mime school. At the age of 23 he earned the highest qualification for teaching at the Italian Fencing Federation, graduating with the thesis: La scherma nella metodologia di insegnamento dell'attore (Fencing in the teaching methodology of the actor), which combines an ancient tradition with a new method.
He works with children and youth of all ages at the best fencing clubs in Campania, competing in European and World Championships. Engaged in social work, he participates in numerous recovery projects. His curiosity leads him to travel the world.
He becomes passionate about juggling, tightrope walking and music and bridges these disciplines with fencing. Perceiving things as a whole, leads him to develop a horizontal pedagogy where the peculiarities of the individual, expressed through the respect and strength of the group, are highlighted to achieve collective growth. He currently teaches at the Sala d'Armi Trinacria in Palermo.
MICHELE MONETTA
Theatre director, actor, teacher and student of mime master Etienne Decroux, Michele Monetta teaches mask and corporeal mime at the Italian National Academy of Dramatic Art Silvio d'Amico, Rome, acting and commedia dell'arte at Maurice Béjart's École-Atelier Rudra dance school, Lausanne, and dramatic movement education at the actor's school of the Teatro Nazionale di Napoli, Naples.
In Paris, he trained in corporeal mime with Steve Wasson and Corinne Soum at the École de Mime Corporel Dramatique de Paris, in dance, balancing and clowning at the École National du Cirque Fratellini and in theatre pedagogy with Monika Pagneux.
Since 1991 he has been collaborating with Prof. Marco De Marinis and the Department of Arts, Music and Performing Arts (DAMS) of the University of Bologna to lead seminars, workshops, video and discussion sessions and conferences. Since 1999, he is co-founder and co-artistic director of the International Centre for Research on the Actor. He has also led corporeal mime workshops in Eugenio Barba's Eurasian Theatre study sessions.
He has worked as director, actor and teacher in Italy, France, Switzerland, Hungary Poland, Russia, Greece, Spain, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Belgium, Indonesia and Malaysia.
MARGHERITA CERRAI
A restorer of paintings, mask and stage props maker, Margherita Cerrai studied drawing and painting in Florence at the American Florence Academy of Art headed by Daniel Graves. In Florence, she also earned a degree in Restoration of Paintings at the International School of Art which, at the time, was headed by Umberto Baldini, renowned art historian and restoration theorist.
She took her first steps into the mysterious plastic art world of masks at the Accademia Nico Pepe in Udine, where she studied under Stefano Perocco di Meduna. In Rome, she furthered her research in Commedia dell'Arte at Michele Monetta's Contemporary Commedia dell'Arte Workshop. She creates leather and papier-mâché masks for the performances of the students of the National Academy of Dramatic Art Silvio D'Amico in Rome.
LORENZO SALVETI
Lorenzo Salveti is the former Director of the National Academy of Dramatic Art Silvio D'Amico in Rome (2007–2015) where he has been teaching acting and directing since 1976. He taught acting at the Experimental Cinematography Centre in Rome, Bologna's Theatre School; European School for the Art of the Actor of the Teatro di Pisa Foundation, San Miniato (Pisa); and in various European and Latin American schools. He was chair of Directing Institutions at the University of Siena and the University of Rome "Tor Vergata".
He has written and adapted many theatre plays and directed several opera and theatre productions. He has directed many comedy television shows and worked as radio producer for several years. He won the Prix Italia for Radio Drama twice (1979, 1981). He was appointed a Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.
JURIJ KRASOVSKIJ
Yuri Krasovsky, theatre director, dean and professor at the Faculty of Acting and Directing of the Russian Institute of Performing Arts, formerly the Leningrad State Institute of Theatre, Music and Cinematography, from where he graduated in 1970, has been teaching acting and directing since 1977. He has also headed the master's degree programme, Methods of Stage Directing, for international students since 2017.
Yuri Krasovsky's theatre pedagogy is based on a comprehensive approach that consists in teaching acting and directing with the collaboration of like-minded professionals from various theatre disciplines such as stage movement, theatre speech, musical education and theoretical theatre. He also conducts masterclasses in Russia and abroad (Austria, Mexico, Italy, Poland and France).
He holds a PhD in History of Art; his thesis was entitled, From the experience of Meyerhold's theatre pedagogy, 1905-1919. He is the author of The Problems of Studio Pedagogy: Meyerhold in the Studio on Borodinskaya Street, and The Origins of the Professional Theatre School: The School of Acting Skills and Courses on Stage Performance Skills.
GLAUCO MAURI
Glauco Mauri is an actor, voice actor and stage director. He trained at the Italian National Academy of Dramatic Art Silvio D'Amico with Orazio Costa, Sergio Tofano, Wanda Capodaglio and Mario Pelosini. He made his professional debut in 1953 in Shakespeare's Macbeth, directed by Orazio Costa. In the same year he enjoyed great personal success in the role of Smerdjakov in Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, directed by André Barsaq.
In 1981, he founded the Mauri-Sturno Company with Roberto Sturno, offering a vast repertoire of classical playwrights such as, Sophocles, Shakespeare, Molière, Goethe, Chekhov, Pirandello, Brecht and contemporary ones, including Beckett, Muller, Mamet, Schmitt and Shaffer.
Glauco Mauri is Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic and has received the Special Prize of the President of the Jury of the 2016 Le Maschere del Teatro Italiano (Italian theatre awards).
GIUSEPPE ROCCA
Giuseppe Rocca earned a degree in modern literature from the University of Lecce and graduated in directing at the National Academy of Dramatic Art Silvio D'Amico in Rome where he was Chair of the History of Performing Arts. He also taught History and Technique of Directing at the Fine Arts Academy of Naples and Screenwriting at the Nuova Università del Cinema e della Televisione (New University of Film and Television) in Rome.
Screenwriter, director, theatre and radio playwright, Rocca has won the following screenwriting awards: Premio Solinas twice, 1988 and 1991 (Una lingua tagliata and Il bambino che impazzì d'amore), Le Manuscrit de Vercorin (Swiss), 1993 (L'harmonie de cristal), Moravia, 1993 (Il diavolo va e viene), Premio Flaiano, 2005 and Premio Bufalino, 2006 (Il resto di niente). He co-wrote with Michele Monetta the corporeal mime and modern commedia dell'arte handbook,
Mimo e Maschere, tecnica e pedagogia teatrale tra Mimo Corporeo e Commedia dell'Arte (Audino, 2016).
GIOVANNI GRECO
Author, translator, actor and theatre director, earned a PhD in classical literature at Sapienza University of Rome and graduated in directing at the National Academy of Dramatic Art Silvio D'Amico in Rome where he teaches Acting in Verse. He also specialised in directing at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.
He won the Italo Calvino Award for his first novel, Malacrianza, (Nutrimenti, 2012), translated a selection of poems by Tony Harrison, Vuoti, (Einaudi, 2008) and Antigone by Sophocles (Feltrinelli, 2013), wrote Teatri di pace in Palestina (manifestolibri, 2005) and edited with A.M. Belardinelli the volume, Antigone e le Antigoni. Storia, forme, fortuna di un mito (Le Monnier, 2010).
GIANNI GARRERA
Gianni Garrera, philologist and translator, edited the Italian translations of Søren Kierkegaard's aesthetic works, The Seducer's Diary and Don Giovanni, published in BUR's Classici del Pensiero series and, together with Anna Giannatiempo Quinzio, he edited the new Italian edition of Kierkegaard's Diaries, published by Morcellana. He also edited the Italian translations of Fables, The Art of Telling Stories to Children and Divine Revelation and Genius, all also published by Morcellana.
His works include: Indagini sulla musica dei cani e dei topi (Investigations into the Music of Dogs and Mice), La scienza dei fischi e degli urli (The Science of Whistles and Screams), Musicalità dell'Intelligenza demoniaca (Musicality of Demonic Intelligence), Apocalisse di Giovanni – Saggio sulla musica della fine del mondo (Apocalypse of John – An Essay on the Music of the End of the World), Esercizi di spiritualità demoniaca (Exercises of Demonic Spirituality) and Cerimonie dell'Amen e pienezza dei morti (Ceremonies of the Amen and the Fullness of the Dead).
EDUARDO BELLINGERI
Eduardo Bellingeri is Full Professor of History of the Theatre and Performing Arts at the Faculty of Literature and Philosophy and former head of the Department of Cultural Heritage, Music and Performing Arts at Tor Vergata University of Rome.
He is Head of Research at the G. D'Annunzio University of Chieti and Pescara for the project Iconografia dei modelli teatrali (Iconography of theatre models) aimed at classifying documents related to the various types of stage spaces and sets, from the Greek theatre to the 20th century.
CHIARA MENCHISE
Chiara Menchise holds a master's degree in Architecture and Urban Planning from the University of Naples Federico II where she is Adjunct Professor of Space Theories. In 2008, she graduated in Corporeal Mime, Mask and Movement at ICRA Project where she teaches Space Dramaturgy at the Expressive Skills & Dramatic Arts Lab of the 2nd Cycle Professional Development programme. She is also an urban planning specialist at the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction in Brussels.
Her primary areas of research include sacred and profane spatiality and the development of biopolitics. She is particularly interested in the field of superfluous spatial theories, ikebana and miniature art, focusing on the evolution of the diorama language.
She has had several exhibitions on the concept of memory and space. In 2017, at the 24th edition of Artissima contemporary art fair in Turin, the Viasaterna gallery of Milan exhibited one of her works entitled Doppelgänger, a miniature reflection on the literary and philosophical concept of 'double', for which she received the fair's Carioca Kids award.
ANTONIA LEZZA
Antonia Lezza is Associate Professor of Italian Literature and Italian Theatre Literature and is also a member of the Faculty Board for the Literature, Language and History doctoral degree programme at the University of Salerno. She is also member of the Faculty Board of the Italian Studies doctoral programme at the L'Orientale University of Naples.
She is the author of several theatre literature essays including on: Carlo Goldoni, Raffaele Viviani, Totò, and Eduardo and Peppino De Filippo. Her scientific interests also include emigration theatre and the Risorgimento theatre. She has created and maintains a website on Neapolitan theatre (www.teatro.unisa.it), a web archive of Neapolitan theatre authors that includes bio-bibliographic information, reviews, audiovisual material, online published and unpublished works from the nineteenth to the twentieth century.
ANNAMARIA SAPIENZA
Annamaria Sapienza graduated in modern literature at the University of Naples "L'Orientale" with a thesis in History of Theatre and Performing Arts, she obtained a PhD in history of modern and contemporary theatre.
She taught History of Italian Theatre at the University of Naples "L'Orientale", and History of Theatre and Performing Arts, and Animation Theatre at the University of Salerno. She currently teaches Theories and Models of Contemporary Theatre at the Faculty of Humanities and Education of the University of Salerno.
ALDO CUOMO
Over the years, fencing master and teacher Aldo Cuomo has acquired considerable interpersonal and organizational skills. In fencing clubs and at the Italian Fencing Federation, he has been responsible for managing and organising competitions, planning courses, and preparing exams to assess the skills and competences of candidates and students.
He has been teaching at the Italian Association of Fencing Masters since 1992, and at the Faculty of Physical and Sports Sciences of the University of Campobasso since 2013. He has also been a teacher as well as member of the exam committee of the Italian Fencing Federation's training school since 1998.
He is an instructor of historical and artistic fencing at the Italian Fencing Federation and at the National Fencing Academy. For several years, he has been teaching theatre and artistic fencing in theatre and corporeal mime schools, including at the Capitol Theatre School in Salerno and ICRA Project in Naples.
Moreover, Aldo Cuomo is Deputy Chair of the Campania Regional Committee of the Italian Fencing Federation and federal representative for southern Italy for the supervision of fencing educational activities in sports-oriented secondary schools.
ROBERTO STURNO
Roberto Sturno is a stage actor. Self-taught, as a young man he worked in various technical roles before devoting himself entirely to acting. He made his debut in 1971 with a small role in Shakespeare's Macbeth, followed by a number of roles, mostly as supporting actor, with various companies during the 1970s.
In 1981, he founded the Mauri-Sturno Company with Glauco Mauri, offering a vast repertoire of classical authors such as, Sophocles, Shakespeare, Moliere, Goethe, Chekhov, Pirandello, Brecht and contemporary authors, including Beckett, Muller, Mamet, Schmitt, Shaffer.
In over thirty years of his career, he has brought to life a vast gallery of Shakespearean characters: Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, Malcolm in Macbeth, the Fool in King Lear, Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Richard in Richard II, and Caliban in The Tempest. He also showed great versatility in approaching different characters and authors: Prince Myshkin in The Idiot, by Dostoyevsky; Oedipus, in Oedipus Rex and in Oedipus at Colonus by Sophocles, Berenger in Rhinoceros, by Eugène Ionesco, and many others.
Peter Clough, former director and actor of the Royal Shakespeare Company, is recognized as one of the leading Shakespearean experts of the moment; he is a poetic and pragmatic guide in the vast and rich world of the great English Bard. He has organized and conducted masterclasses and seminars for both students and professionals in Europe, Canada and the United States.
He has worked with some of the UK's leading theatre companies. In 1989, in San Miniato, he was one of the founders of Prima del Teatro, European School for the Art of Actor, and has conducted workshops in almost all its editions. From 1996 to 2003 he was Head of the Drama Department of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.
Today, he continues his work as teacher and director, as well as consultant in theatres, universities, academies, schools and professional acting institutions in various European countries. In Italy, for many years, he has been collaborating with the Accademia dei Filodrammatici in Milan and taught at the acting school, L'Oltrarno, Scuola di formazione del mestiere dell'attore, directed by Pierfrancesco Favino.
NOEMI MASSARI
Noemi Massari is an Adjunct Professor of Theatre and Dance Production and Organisation at Sapienza University of Rome, where she graduated in Performing Arts and Sciences and in Theatre, Film and Digital Performing Arts and Techniques.
She holds a PhD in Digital Technologies and Methodologies for Performing Arts Research from Sapienza University of Rome. Since 2014 she has been a lecturer in History of Theatre and Dance at the same university and is also responsible for historical research and the organization of the filing and digitization of the video archive of the Il Coreografo Elettronico festival (The Electronic Choreographer).
She publishes articles in books and magazines on the history of dance and its protagonists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries such as Salvatore Viganò, Gaetano Gioia, Carolina Pochini, Enrico Cecchetti, Serge Lifar and Leonide Massine.
BARBARA URY SPARTI (1932-2013)
Barbara Sparti was a dance historian, dancer, researcher, and scholar who dedicated a lifetime to the study of fifteenth- to seventeenth-century Italian dance. She trained in music and modern dance in New York City before moving to Italy in 1955. She also trained in the Orff-Schulwerk pedagogy and in Dalcroze Eurhythmics in Salzburg and Geneva, which led her to teach music and movement to adults and children for over forty years.
From 1975 to 1988 she was founder and artistic director of the Gruppo di Danza Rinascimentale that reconstructed and performed Renaissance dance choreographies throughout Italy and in major European cities. She choreographed operas and plays for the stage and television.
Sparti was a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, (1990), and guest lecturer-choreographer at the University of Tel Aviv, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rubin Academy of Music and Dance, Jerusalem (1997), at the University of California, Santa Cruz, (2000), and in residence at Princeton University (2002).
She edited and translated Guglielmo Ebreo's 1463 dance treatise, De pratica seu arte tripudii (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1993) and edited and wrote the detailed introduction to the facsimile edition of Ercole Santucci's 1614 manuscript dance treatise, Mastro da ballo (Georg Verlag Olms, 2004) She has also published various articles on Italian Renaissance and Baroque dance in specialized journals).
MARK REESE (1951-2006)
Mark Reese was one of the world's foremost authorities on the work of Moshe Feldenkrais. He studied with Moshe Feldenkrais from 1975 until his death in 1984. Before meeting Feldenkrais, Reese was involved in music and experimental theatre in the San Francisco Bay Area; in 1976, he graduated in psychology and philosophy from Sonoma State University, California.
He was among the first American teachers chosen by Moshe Feldenkrais to train new Feldenkrais Practitioners. Reese was pivotal in introducing and disseminating the Feldenkrais Method in the United States and has also trained Feldenkrais Practitioners in Europe and Australia.
Reese contributed numerous articles on the Feldenkrais Method to diverse publications. He wrote the foreword to the 2002 edition of Feldenkrais's The Potent Self, co-authored Relaxercise with David Zemach¬–Bersin and Kaethe Zemach¬–Bersin, and recorded numerous audio programmes on the Feldenkrais Method.
MOSHE FELDENKRAIS (1904-1984)
Moshe Feldenkrais was an engineer, physicist, inventor, martial artist and student of human development. An old knee injury and uncertain prospects for surgery, led him to embark on a lifelong exploration of the relationship between movement and consciousness, which would constitute the basis of the Feldenkrais Method.
In developing his Method, Moshe Feldenkrais studied, inter alia, anatomy, physiology, child development, movement science, evolution, psychology, and a number of Eastern awareness practices and other somatic approaches.
Feldenkrais taught in Israel and in Europe through the 1960s and 1970s and in North America through the 1970s and 1980s. For several years, he taught at Peter Brook's Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord.
RENA MIRECKA (1934)
Rena Mirecka was one of the founding members of Jerzy Grotowski's Laboratory Theatre from 1959 until its dissolution in 1984. She led the company's plastiques exercises, which she developed with Grotowski and formed an essential part of the company's training.
She performed the leading female roles in all the company's performances, including Akropolys by Wyspiański (1962), The Constant Prince, by Calderón and adapted by Słowacki (1965), and Apocalypsis cum Figuris, (1968).
Since 1982 she has pursued theatre and paratheatrical research. In 1993, together with Ewa Benesz, she founded the International Centre of Work Prema Sãyi in Sardinia, Italy, where she continued her paratheatrical research for several years. Since 2000, she has been holding paratheatre and theatre workshops at the Grotowski Institute in Wroclaw.
JULIE GOELL (1951-2016)
Julie Goell, actress, clown, comedienne, director, mime, musician, puppeteer, and singer, was born in New York and moved to Rome, Italy, in 1964.
In 1970, she returned to the United States to study theatre at Emerson College in Boston and founded the Pocket Mime Theater company. After graduating in 1974, she returned to Rome where, in 1981, she completed teacher training for physical theatre at the Istituto studi dello spettacolo – Teatro Studio. The same year she moved back to New York and in 1986, she settled in Maine. In 2002, she graduated from the University of Southern Maine School of Music with a degree in string bass, studying voice with Margaret Yauger.
In Rome, in the mid-70s, she worked as a singer and actress in theatre, film, and television. She toured with the I Gesti mime company and taught physical comedy with Roy Bosier at Teatro Studio. She also worked in Geneva with Mummenschanz, the famous Swiss mime-mask theatre company and toured with the Swiss circus Schaubude. She toured Switzerland with her jazz trio, Impromptu and toured Italy for three summers singing with the big band, La Grande Orchestra da Ballo di Testaccio.
In New York in the 80s, she acted in the Broadway production, Ghetto and directed several theatre productions. She taught acting and directing at the University of Southern Maine, the University of Maine and at Colby College, Maine. She taught the Eccentric Performing professional development workshops for actors and clowns with her husband, Avner Eisenberg, at the Celebration Barn Theater in South Paris, Maine. In a career spanning over five decades, she has performed and taught throughout Asia, Europe, South America, and the United States.
MICHELE MANCINI (1947-2005)
Michele Mancini, film critic and essayist, earned a degree in philosophy and one in sociology at Sapienza University of Rome, with theses on film language.
From 1979 to 1989, he was Director of the film laboratory at the Faculty of Literature and Philosophy of the University of Palermo. From 1969 to 1976, he was a member of the editorial staff and board of directors of Filmcritica magazine. From 1977 to 1981, together with Giuseppe Perrella, Alessandro Cappabianca, Ellis Donda and Renato Tommasino, he founded and directed the quarterly magazine, Fiction – Cinema e pratiche dell'immaginario. He has also curated several multimedia exhibitions.
In addition to numerous essays and articles published in various magazines, he published several books, including Max Ophuls (La Nuova Italia, 1978) and Erich Rohmer (La Nuova Italia, 1982). He edited with Giuseppe Perrella, Pier Paolo Pasolini. Corpi e luoghi (Theorema, 1981) and Michelangelo Antonioni. Architetture della visione (Coneditor, 1986), consisting in two volumes of 598 pages illustrated with over 5,000 photographs, drawings, graphics and other visual elements.
In 1983, Michele Mancini and Enrico Ghezzi convinced Michelangelo Antonioni to return to Lisca Bianca, the small Sicilian island that, 23 years earlier, served as the location for L'Avventura in order to shoot a 9-minute insert for the programme, Falsi ritorni, per un'archeologia del set, which they created for Rai television, but was never completed. The short film entitled, Ritorno a Lisca Bianca (Return to Lisca Bianca), was presented for the first time at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival.
VERA BERTINETTI (1933-2013)
Vera Bertinetti obtained a degree in literature at the University of Turin while graduating from the National Academy of Dramatic Art Silvio d'Amico in Rome. She was Orazio Costa's student and later became his assistant. She studied acting with Sergio Tofano and Vanda Capodoglio.
In addition to her dance and piano studies, she studied mime at the École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris. For several years, she taught acting in verse and directing at the National Academy of Dramatic Art Silvio d'Amico in Rome and theatre arts at the F. Morlacchi Conservatory of Music in Perugia. In the course of her career, she directed over 300 theatre, opera, vaudeville and operetta productions and radio plays.
MONIKA PAGNEUX (1927)
Monika Pagneux studied modern dance at the Mary Wigman School in Berlin and became a member of her company. In Paris, she studied classical dance with Atty Chadinoff and Nora Kies and corporeal mime with Etienne Decroux. She studied the neutral and expressive masks, commedia dell'arte, mime and movement with Jacques Lecoq at his École Internationale de Théâtre where she taught from 1963 to 1980.
During the 1970s she focused her work on the body with the Feldenkreis Method and Alexander Technique. She collaborated with Peter Brook at the International Centre for Theatre Research (CIRT) and at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord.
In 1980, in Paris, she founded l'École de Formation Théâtrale with Philippe Gaulier where she taught until 1987. Since 1988, she has been teaching workshops for actors, dancers and singers in Europe, North America, Australia and Japan.
Peter Brook noted that: "Monika's work is original, it is all her own. She has built it up carefully over many, many years and has inspired countless students and professionals all over the world. It is concrete, it is precise but it is not technical. It is about life, it is for life and can only be brought into the field of theatre when theatre is truly searching for moments of truth."
MARISE FLACH (1927-2016)
Marise Flach attended the Education par le Jeu Dramatique (EPJD) drama school in Paris, directed by Jean-Louis Barrault. In 1949, she joined Etienne Decroux's company and performed in various shows in France and abroad.
In Milan, from 1953 to 2016, initially as Decroux's assistant and then leading her own classes, she taught mime at the School of Dramatic Arts of Milan, which became the Piccolo Teatro School. She has taught mime and movement to numerous actors, mime artists and directors who today are renowned and appreciated in the field of theatre, film, and television.
As mime artist and choreographer she has collaborated on numerous theatre productions, in particular, on the acclaimed productions directed by Giorgio Strehler and Orazio Costa at the Piccolo Teatro of Milan. She also collaborated on opera productions at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, including Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, Prokofiev's Love for Three Oranges and Berg's Woyzeck, and, in Salzburg, on Mozart's The Magic Flute. She has created and performed various mime pieces together with Angelo Corti for the theatre and television.
ETIENNE DECROUX (1898-1991)
Etienne Decroux, one of the masters of 20th-century theatre and known as the father of modern mime, began his career in 1923 at the École du Vieux-Colombier directed by Jacques Copeau. He worked as an actor in Louis Jouvet's and Gaston Baty's theatre companies, at Charles Dullin's Théâtre de l'Atelier, and in Jacques and Pierre Prévert's films, the most famous of which Les Enfants du Paradis, by Marcel Carné.
The exercises with the neutral mask that he saw at the École du Vieux-Colombier in June of 1924, led Decroux, for over 60 years, to deepen his artistic and pedagogic research towards the development and continuous evolution of a highly codified physical theatre genre that he named corporeal mime. He studied the coordinated harmonious play of the trunk and limbs, thought and form, choosing attitude over gesture, defining movement as a succession of attitudes.
In 1940 he opened his school of corporeal mime in Paris where he taught until a few years before his death in 1991. He also taught at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan, and at the Actor's Studio in New York. Some of his most famous students were: Jean Louis Barrault, Gerard Depardieu, Raymond Devos, Marise Flach, Jessica Lange, Marcel Marceau, Marilyn Monroe and Michel Serrault.