Media and design in the preservation of regional culture

Considering theoretical content from Gilles Lipovetsky and Jean Serroy (2001), Peter Burke (2006), Maurice Halbwachs (2004), Nestor Garcia Canclini (2013) and Mario Vargas Llosa (2012), the research topic covers studies on memory, culture, globalization and cultural hybridity, in order to debate whether the media and design can contribute to the preservation of an intangible heritage of a regional culture, specifically the "redendê" embroidery technique. The research is based on the "Fusions and Insertions" project, developed by the Institute for Research in Technology and Innovation (IPTI) in 2014, which invited designers Fernando and Humberto Campana to interact with embroiderers from Entremontes (Alagoas), who preserve their centuries-old "redendê" embroidery technique. The Campana brothers' design proposal was to innovate the "redendê" embroidery and create a new functionality for the final product. They then created lamps that they called "Illuminated Portraits", because the faces of the embroiderers themselves were embroidered on them. These lamps were exhibited in Rio de Janeiro during the 2016 Olympics, and in Milan during the world's largest furniture fair, Salone dei Mobile, in 2017.