The "Revolution" will begin on May 30, when D'Days Festival opens its many doors to French Design. Themed around constant reinvention, this year's D'Days will look at the shifting, but constantly central, role of design at a time of great technological change.“Design was born with the industrial revolution. The technological progress of the 19th century caused a transition from an agrarian, artisanal world towards an industrial, commercial society. This is how design emerged as a discipline, as a response to a new system of production.” So writes Scott Longfellow, the festival director. “The third industrial revolution, caused by its extension into new realms and the normalization of digital technologies, seems like it will have similarly dramatic effects. Design and designers have a role to play in this transformation: to put these technologies at the service of humanity.”Audi will have a place of prominence at the festival, delivering the Audi Talents Awards to emerging designers; while young talent will also be recognized through the Émile Hermès Prize conferred by the luxury brand Hermès, and the Design Parade which will bring together the winners of the design competition of the Villa Noailles.This year, the country of honor will be Taiwan, with an exhibition of the nation's crafts and industry, focusing on the use of paper, at Musée des Arts Décoratifs, and three exhibitions at Galerie 24b, respectively centred around bamboo jewelry, young designers from Taipei, and technological recycling by designer Henry Hsiao.“The forms of design are evolving, creating new practices that we will discover through our engagement with design houses and our partner associations and foundations,” says René Jacques Mayer, the D'Days President. “They will be imagined and co-constructed through unprecedented collaborative workshops between designers and users, taught in new ways by schools and presented at museums.”Panerai, the official supplier to the Italian Navy, has revolutionized the watch market with its luminescent substances, used to improve nocturnal and underwater readability. An exhibition of Dutch Designer Daan Roosegaarde's work, which uses Panerai's Luminor substance in interactive installations, promises to illuminate light's relationship with humanity.Other special events of note will include a Sound Design Party, collaborative design of a temporary fitness running course along the Canal de l'Ourcq, and a futuristic sci-fi fairytale presented as a design workshop. All to best experience the making of the French savoir faire.D'Days, The Festival of Design 2016 will run from May 30 through June 5, on various locations in Paris.
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