FOCUS TOPIC
THE LEMON PARADIGM
Giuseppe Perrone Local Group Calabria
Anna Laura Orrico Undersecretary at the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities of Italy
Italy is one of the countries that suffered the
The hashtag “#iorestoacasa”, “I stay at home”,
most from the outbreak of COVID-19, being seen
created by the Ministry of Health has also been a
as the “worst-case scenario” in the eyes of many
simple way to discover how we can use this forced
countries while preparing for what’s to come; but
confinement for our own cultural enrichment, as
is this the only thing worth looking up about Italy
it has been used by various cultural institutions to
in times of a global pandemic?
promote their newly discovered ways of connecting to a locked-down audience. For museums, parks,
Leaving aside widespread heartwarming moments
and galleries that usually work with visitors on-
of hope, like the practice of singing from the
site, the need for a paradigm shift helped to
balconies, Italy has undergone an incredible digital
develop new ways of connecting to their audience,
transformation. As an example, smart working in
creating new settings that go from virtual visits
the public sector has risen from 10% to 80% up
to online concerts. The great success of those
until August, making us realise that not only it is a
initiatives also sparked new ideas to maintain this
possibility, but also that it can prove itself to be a
remoteness as an available option for the future,
better solution in most cases; resistance to change
when Covid will only be a bad memory. Supporting
has been put aside, leaving us with the chance of
this, the government decided to invest millions of
giving a shot to new technologies and methods
euros in the development of a digital portal to
that, in a normal situation, we were too scared to
close the gap between art institutions and those
experiment.
who cannot physically visit the premises.
We discovered the power of the “Open Innovation”
“La necessità aguzza l’ingegno” - Necessity sharpens
concept, with companies coming together by
ingenuity, says an Italian proverb; this outbreak
sharing their patents to create, in record time,
made us reconsider our priorities, jump years
new tools for the fight against the virus. A
ahead in terms of adopting technology and
famous example of cooperation has been the
reminded us what to do when life gives you
one demonstrated by Isinnova - an Italian start-
lemons... Keep squeezing.
up who designed respirator valves to be installed on Decathlon’s scuba diving masks, and made their patent available for free - and Decathlon, who gifted 10,000 of those masks to the country’s healthcare system. Given its ease of production, this patent is now used in many foreign countries. Necessity also brought many forms of innovation to the cultural and educational sectors. Schools and universities, as one of the environments with the strongest resistance to change, who have always been reluctant to the use of remote tools, have been forced to move out of their usual comfort zone, and are now starting to discover that such tools are not that bad after all, and that although some concepts can never be transposed to a remote setting, the understanding that some can is a valuable realisation.
10 ESTIEM Magazine | 59th issue - Innovation in a Crisis: Adapting and Advancing
