Wasting Safety

The exhibition, which was inaugurated virtually on 25 April 2020 through the creation of a dedicated website, was later self-produced and held from 25 to 27 June 2021 at the Laboratorio Aperto di Ferrara, Ex Teatro Verdi, with the support of the Municipality of Ferrara, the Province of Ferrara, the Emilia-Romagna Region, CGIL Ferrara and the University of Ferrara, and in partnership with NID - National Institute of Design, India and Paryavaran Mitra.
The exhibition was born from the need to raise awareness and disseminate the concept of conscious, measured and "de-westernised" design. It's no coincidence that the exhibition structure narrates the context, the data collected and the entire design process, from A to Z, of a field study conducted as a designer in one of India's largest metropolises, characterised by particular social and cultural needs.

Abstract
Wasting Safety, literally 'wasting safety', immediately introduces the issues it seeks to highlight through a play on words. The main theme is the worker, with a focus on his safety and protection during work activities. Particular emphasis is placed on the often overlooked issue of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
PPE sold in Europe must carry a mark certifying compliance with essential health and safety requirements. However, aesthetics and social impact are not always considered, and when they are, the Western model dominates.
But what if, in addition to the health and safety parameters that apply to everyone, the socio-cultural variable of the geographical location where the PPE is to be used were also taken into account?
Existing PPE is designed for standard contexts, but does not take into account the traditions, customs and values of non-Western cultures. As a result, some equipment may not meet the real needs of the workers who use it. To explore new aspects of human behaviour at work, the exhibition focuses on a complex and little-known occupation in an extraordinary cultural context: Indian women who collect and sort waste. These women, ashamed of their work in close contact with garbage, sometimes choose not to wear equipment that might highlight their status. As designers, our contribution is to propose an inclusive approach on both social and cultural levels. The exhibition features various prototypes, studio photographs, graphic diagrams and design drawings.
WS sheds light on a context that seems extreme to us, but at the same time questions and reflects on much closer working environments and the real safety, social and cultural needs of workers.

The Virtual Exhibition
During the Covid-19 pandemic and the national lockdown, Plam created a website and virtual tour to allow remote access to the exhibition’s content. The entire iconographic, graphic, and experiential components were developed, in collaboration with a sound designer for the audio environment.
( https://wastingsafety.altervista.org/ )

Exhibition Setup
The physical exhibition took place in the Scenic Tower of the Ex Teatro Verdi in Ferrara, a large hall adjacent to the main auditorium. A central table displayed a stylised model of the city of Ahmedabad, contextualising the situation in which the project was born. Robots moving along a mapped path traced the typical route of a female worker from the open-air dump to the waste sorting centre. The other three tables displayed samples of materials collected during the design phase, project sketches, models and prototypes. In the background, photos taken during the study months were displayed as a large wall-mounted mood board, enriched with notes, reflections and QR codes with more in-depth thematic information. One area of the room was set up with two VR stations where visitors could immerse themselves in a virtual landfill. In the adjacent room, the documentary film 'Pyrana', curated by Nainisha Dedhia, was projected, depicting the daily routine inside the largest open-air landfill in Ahmedabad.
The entire installation was designed as an exploratory journey to guide visitors through the discovery of the project. All content remains available online via the dedicated website: https://wastingsafety.altervista.org/