Zero thought and one hundred action: a chat with Hamlet Picerno Ceraso


To understand the evolving trend of the world of work and the market, it is necessary to ask the right questions and find those answers that can serve those entering this microcosm to chart a path of achievement and contribute to the betterment of the working class.

Hamlet Picerno Ceraso provided the right guidance to accompany future innovators from the experiences and successes he has been a part of throughout his career.

An architect, he is a lecturer in Computational Design at the Faculty of Architecture, Federico II University of Naples. It has co-founded Medaarch, a design, consulting, training and research company specializing in digital fabrication technologies. Working with technological innovation to create a positive impact on manufacturing, education, jobs and the future of cities. In 2018, with Medaarch, he launched and coordinated the first Italian-born Center for Digital Craftsmanship.

With associated firm wins architectural competitions. His works are awarded as innovative projects internationally, some were presented at the SMART CITY WORLD CONGRESS EXPO 2012 in Barcelona.

Author of Paper presented at FAB10 Barcelona 2014 Resilient productive city. He has been a lecturer for the course on Data Management and Manipulation for Architectural Design and Digital Fabrication for the Emerging Technologies Master’s Program of the National Institute of Architecture.

Ceo of the webzine
www.aramplus.com
which has been offering articles and making videos investigating the making of contemporary architecture since 2004. Patent holder for “Communicative architectural facades”

In the course of our meeting, Professor Ceraso showed. What are the thinking points that should accompany anyone who wants to delve into the world of entrepreneurship, first and foremost by having an action-ready spirit, capable of transforming every notion learned over the course of one’s existence into useful tools for tackling this field and succeeding in the best possible way.

 

Face to face with Hamlet Picerno Ceraso

 

In Italy it is seen as heresy to want to open a P. IVA, preferring a corporate job to the safe “fixed job.” How do you consider this statement?

The data affirm that, as cliché as this is, we are coming out of a period of mass resignation. In Italy, why do those with the famous “fixed job” resign? Two million people quitting is not a figure to be ignored; it is necessary to reflect on the causes that triggered these resignations.

In a nutshell, from my point of view: the previous model has jammed […] people are wondering what they are doing with their lives. Awareness of one’s own existence and time is taking more and more edge. Freelancing gives you better results, better management of your time, and a more than positive economic aspect.

What and how much have your informal studies and cultural outlook influenced your work, for example, the Center for Digital Crafts?

Everything! I met people, saw movies, read books and listened to music. I have met people who at some point in my life have helped me chart a path to investigate-I have not come to any conclusion, I know there is a path to beat.

We have to dismantle everything we have thought of as culture […]. The conception of the university that it should be all content and not emotional: nothing moves if there is no emotional motive; nothing is left for you of plumbing construction if there is no emotional motive.

Very often the academic imprint is very much focused on getting to a particular goal, following a set path, without imagining an alternative way to get there.

The truth they teach in universities is inescapable, it is important and fundamental, we will mount nothingness without them.

My biggest regret is that I don’t have enough time and energy to study, but I spend entire days doing nothing or scrolling with my cell phone. The narrative around us is wrong […] There is nothing wrong with being unproductive, it matters what you will do the moment you get up. The system we are dropped into harnesses us because it has to sell. And this stuff they have to sell has great repercussions for ourselves. The narrative depends on ourselves and the interpretation we give to experiences.

Tip: Turn your thinking into action, that is, think less and act more; zero thought and one hundred action. Experiences such as reading a book or listening to music can offer important teaching for our lives. With direct experience, in the field, we would understand things that we would not have understood by studying them in books.

In the case of crafts, how did you create this transition between “old” and “new” modes?

It is a somewhat peculiar approach, that is, you cannot innovate on something new, it would be strange to innovate something new. To innovate is to ask the essential questions, that is, to rethink that thing from a new perspective. We need to get away from those preconceptions that limit our thinking and can undermine innovation.

It has been noted how information technology, artificial intelligence, is taking over all other types of work. From here on, in your work, with the implementation of these new technologies, can we get to a point where human tasks and creativity are exceeded?

Machine performance will improve more and more, but our knowledge and quality on the job will also increase. The question will be: how can we transfer to technologies something that technologies do not have? So a kind of sensitivity or thinking? This is one thing we still can’t do.

Something that still allows us not to let technologies take over our work.

Our mind, our subconscious, is structured as a complex system. In turn, a complex system can also analyze something that is not necessarily human. The question I leave you with is: what is the line between natural and artificial?

 

Edited by:

Matteo Cicalese – Sebastiano De Stefano – Vincenzo Iannuzzi – Francesco Palumbo – Marta Rosa Pierri – Lorenzo Raso