More than Ephemeral: Phenomenology of the Icon / Oltre l'effimero: fenomenologie delle icone

An iconic product, to be truly deserving of the name, has to be able to last beyond the time of the passing fads arising from more ephemeral trends, and must impose itself by opening new, heretofore unexplored perspectives. It is not an easy feat, because such products have to overcome many obstacles in order to make their way in the world, the first of which is a general mistrust of anything that appears radically new and thus incomprehensible to the majority. The acceptance of any novelty, above all when it concerns a collective dimension, is like the social approval necessary for both architecture and industrial production, in that it tends to expose any originality to ferocious criticism, even derision. Ironically, the more negative the reaction to the appearance of a product, regardless of its function or of the historical period in which it appears, the more it differs from what the populations considers normal, the likelier it is to become an icon.